# BritDopers: In hindsight, what do you think of Thatcher's legacy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 9, 2007, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-in-hindsight-what-do-you-think-of-thatchers-legacy/395281 "2007-03-09T17:54:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![tirial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac91a4/32.png) [@tirial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tirial)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-in-hindsight-what-do-you-think-of-thatchers-legacy/395281/41 "2007-03-14T06:51:21Z")
[QUOTE=glee] Firstly, as BunnyTVS showed, Thatcher was elected not only by a minority of those who voted, but was not at all popular considering how many of the electorate didn’t even vote. [/QUOTE] To be fair, you can say the same about Labour at the next two elections: (from the same site). [1997](http://www.election.demon.co.uk/ge1997.html) [2001](http://www.election.demon.co.uk/ge2001.html) [QUOTE=glee] But he will be remembered for Iraq. [/QUOTE] Hopefully, since the alternative is he is remembered for cash-for-honours. [Guardian 13th March 2007 “Silence from Number 10”](http://politics.guardian.co.uk/funding/story/0,,2032485,00.html). Also **Tagos** , I’m a Guardian reader, and if you look further through the ESRC site (remember ESRC is government funded) you will find that even government funded organisations think there is a debt problem: [ESRC Society today “Britains face a lifetime of debt”](http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/about/CI/CP/Our_Society_Today/News_Articles_2006/debt.aspx?data=%2fFrXHTl993pJUOYVBXDW5mQdboUt1hoMoNFmlHxmA4TKJF9KwSlx3JTGDnEblJsYwJR2aQnaEyIYn5y3uRQVxY4GjhXxRZnG6izswZqjy7FBdqWPyZBiPVciPFRhwv0%2fCBtzKZ9MDuZWaJkgRKtcz3jNHJbZ2OD9Y4qCai%2bhyMTfKHkcIWowK1%2ba5rlOoKoNcJFZp5uAUkX0xCDRgXWPJ9hs0bjdrfyTlNrVVGAHGCTZl56KCtGILl4YYhzCGFWCGIbAaB4NA%2f5dYHxwYGwZfHiZlYyXtz%2b3&xu=&isAwardHolder=&isProfiled=&LikeMinds=&AwardHolderID=&Sector=) And relevant to numbers of civil servants: [“Public Sector Employment 1 in 5 of all workers” Government Statistics](http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1292) [“Public Sector Employment review” Reform](http://www.reform.co.uk/website/economy/publicsectoremployment.aspx) > [@](#): > > For every one “head office” civil service job cut, another four new public sector employees will be recruited, of which just one will be a doctor, nurse, teacher or police officer. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-in-hindsight-what-do-you-think-of-thatchers-legacy/395281/42 "2007-03-14T12:01:47Z")
[QUOTE=tirial] To be fair, you can say the same about Labour at the next two elections: (from the same site). [1997](http://www.election.demon.co.uk/ge1997.html) [2001](http://www.election.demon.co.uk/ge2001.html) Hopefully, since the alternative is he is remembered for cash-for-honours. [Guardian 13th March 2007 “Silence from Number 10”](http://politics.guardian.co.uk/funding/story/0,,2032485,00.html). Also **Tagos** , I’m a Guardian reader, and if you look further through the ESRC site (remember ESRC is government funded) you will find that even government funded organisations think there is a debt problem: [ESRC Society today “Britains face a lifetime of debt”](http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/about/CI/CP/Our_Society_Today/News_Articles_2006/debt.aspx?data=%2fFrXHTl993pJUOYVBXDW5mQdboUt1hoMoNFmlHxmA4TKJF9KwSlx3JTGDnEblJsYwJR2aQnaEyIYn5y3uRQVxY4GjhXxRZnG6izswZqjy7FBdqWPyZBiPVciPFRhwv0%2fCBtzKZ9MDuZWaJkgRKtcz3jNHJbZ2OD9Y4qCai%2bhyMTfKHkcIWowK1%2ba5rlOoKoNcJFZp5uAUkX0xCDRgXWPJ9hs0bjdrfyTlNrVVGAHGCTZl56KCtGILl4YYhzCGFWCGIbAaB4NA%2f5dYHxwYGwZfHiZlYyXtz%2b3&xu=&isAwardHolder=&isProfiled=&LikeMinds=&AwardHolderID=&Sector=) And relevant to numbers of civil servants: [“Public Sector Employment 1 in 5 of all workers” Government Statistics](http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1292) [“Public Sector Employment review” Reform](http://www.reform.co.uk/website/economy/publicsectoremployment.aspx) [/QUOTE] I have no problem with public sector workers. We need more of them - like on the railroads - as they’ll do a better job. And I don’t see how personal debt of CAB clients is either relevant (as the comment was about the National Debt) - or the responsibility of the government. No one forces these idiots to use high-interest credit and store cards. And that report is purely a survey of Citizen’s Advice debt clients not the UK. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2007, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-in-hindsight-what-do-you-think-of-thatchers-legacy/395281/43 "2007-03-14T12:23:00Z")
[QUOTE=tirial] To be fair, you can say the same about Labour at the next two elections: (from the same site). [1997](http://www.election.demon.co.uk/ge1997.html) [2001](http://www.election.demon.co.uk/ge2001.html) [/quote] Oh indeed. When is a politician lying? When he opens his mouth. :rolleyes: But I was responding to the question about dancing on her grave: ‘Presumably these are a different set of people than those that voted her in three times, then?’ ---
**Author:** ![BunnyTVS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BunnyTVS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BunnyTVS)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-in-hindsight-what-do-you-think-of-thatchers-legacy/395281/44 "2007-03-16T19:39:52Z")
I’d just like to make it clear that I wasn’t trying to say that _only_ Thatcher was elected by a minority, but that due to our electoral system the winner of almost every General Election for more than a hundred years has been. I think Thatcher became a victim of her own success. She did make some very hard decisions at the start of her PMship. Some right / some wrong. The problem was that even the right choices she took too far. E.G. the rampant privatisation of transport and energy supply. Yes the old systems were lazy cash sinks, but the current situation where it is shareholders first, OAP popsicles… somewhere down that end, is just as bad. (And yes I know I’m hyperbolluxing for effect here.) My personal take on British (and to a certain extent most democratic) government for the past 15-20 years, is that it is political \*parties \* that cause the most damage. I don’t however want to highjack this thread with that rotten carcass. ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-in-hindsight-what-do-you-think-of-thatchers-legacy/395281/45 "2007-03-17T12:53:55Z")
[QUOTE=BunnyTVS] Some right / some wrong. The problem was that even the right choices she took too far. E.G. the rampant privatisation of transport and energy supply. [/QUOTE] Privatization of transport ? I remember a trucking company called National Carriers, they should not really have been government owned - we used them, they were Ok, M&S also used them - and they were millions of times larger than us. Thatch encouraged road transport over the railways, I can see why, but she certainly did not privatize the railways. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-in-hindsight-what-do-you-think-of-thatchers-legacy/395281.md?page=2)