Do you agree with the idea of the way things were in the UK before Thatcher?

Question

such as having unions , etc??

was there less unemployment before then?

how about now?

Thanks for your answers!

Answer 1

I have socialist views. I voted Labour in the seventies. I went on marches for socialist ideals.

I have to be honest. The country got into the most awful mess. Life was fairly gloomy , in hindsight. The economy was a mess. Trade unions were out of control a lot of the time, more political and less for protecting their members. Life seemed to get so complicated, and complex. People didn;t seem to know what to do - other than complain.

When Thatcher arrived, I thought things would get worse. But I found the opposite. The country felt more optimistic. Things seemed much simpler. Life was more clear, and more straightforward.

She stripped away the fluff, and exposed the bare bones of what life was about. You could see the future. I suppose her style was that of 'minimal government.'

Things seem to be returning to the 1970's again to me. I think that might be the Gordon Brown effect.

I still hold socialist views, but I don't favour the complicated government that Labour seems to construct. Simple is better. You know where you stand. You get the basics - the rest you do or organise yourself.

Answer 2

God lord no!  A three day working week, 3 million people unemployed, power cuts every five minutes, and the unions with too much control.  No, Thatcher turned this country around and bought us out of the dark ages.  Some of her decisions weren't the best but a lof of them were.

Answer 3

Instead your question. What would the world be like if great britain kept its empire?

Answer 4

I was too young, i left college in 1979 and didn't get politicised till the 80's. The 70's was a gloomy time sometimes, is all i can recall.

Answer 5

A good answer would be very long, but I'm not good at typing.

I am old enough to remember the 60s and 70s before Baroness Thatcher came to power.

After WW2, Prime Minister McMillan started to get somewhat miffed with the UK people - he said "You've never had it so good."

The problem was that just like in the USA, Consumer Marketing had started to take off and people had high expectations for their quality of life. Also, folks were coming out of austerity (rationing continued into the early 50s) and they believed that they deserved some kind of reward for being on the winning side during WW2 - "Who won the war anyway?" was a common refrain.

Unfortunately, whereas in the USA President FDR had done a wonderful job of growing the economy and creating near zero unemployment, in the UK, the war had virtually bankrupted the country. Also, the pre-1939 trade routes to the Commonwealth countries had been broken for six years, and these countries had found new trading partners.

So in the UK, we had high expectations for personal wealth, but our trading partnerships - what created our wealth - had gone.

Old industries that had grown based on these trading partnerships were now uneconomical to run, yet unionized closed shops still expected high wages. Successive governments were unwilling to let these industries collapse, because these governments would lose the next election if unemployment rates increased.

Therefore for several decades, the taxpayers paid for uneconomic industries to continue in business. This in turn devalued the pound, because we were an uneconomic nation. That is, if wages are not reduced to economic levels internally, then the World free market economy makes the correction by devaluing the currency to FORCE down real wages.

This is the environment that Margaret Thatcher inherited. In effect she believed that the UK must move partially away from Socialism and more towards a free market economy (a mixed economy). nb. for US readers, in this context Socialism does not mean Communism, but does mean larger central government.

What was going on before Thatcher was simply not sustainable. The UK growth was stunted or reversing - dropping from the number two economy in the world down to the 12th and still dropping. Thatcher had to break the strength of the unions (who had previously won hard earned human rights during the first half of the 20th Century) in order to end nationalization - the ownership of business by the Government. She also needed to reduce expectations - not every family could own a large detached house and a Jaguar car, because the Gross National Product (GNP or GDP) was not big enough.

Thatcher succeeded and in due course the UK went back up to position 4 in the world. It is now position 5 after China.

So my answer to you is no - what was happening before Thatcher was not sustainable and without her policies, the UK would have become a small and unimportant economy/country by now.

Answer 6

There was certainly more freedom of opportunity.

Answer 7

That mad old trout? Isn't she dead yet? : )

Answer 8

no.

Answer 9

Margaret Thatcher F****D UP so much in this Country ! Look at what happened to the BRITISH Coal Industry, the BRITISH Steel Industry, the BRITISH Automotive Industry, Sale of Council Houses & the Local Authorities NOT ALLOWED to REPLACE those SOLD with NEW Housing Stock ! Those PEOPLE on the Housing Ladder had a MUCH L-O-N-G-E-R WAIT for the DEPLETED AMONT of Housing Stock that was left ! Local Authorities had to keep the MONEY they EARNED from Council Housing Stock Sales in their Coffers & they were NOT ALLOWED to REINVEST the MONEY !

Answer 10

It discusts me when everyone talks about ladt thatcher like she was sooooooooo special

Answer 11

Before Thatcher (the evil one) the unions thought that they had a say in the running of the country, instead of just fighting for their members pay and conditions.

Thatcher (the evil one) along with her cronies stripped ordinary working class people of which many were members of a Union of their hard won right to withhold their Labour, which for many made being in and joining a Union pointless.

To-day thing are no different this so-called Labour government has done little if anything to help the lowest paid in Britain to-day.

The very first person that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown invited to Number ten was Thatcher (the evil one).

This for me was and still is a kick in the teeth from the very people who you would hope and expect would follow the Labour parties traditions and values of helping the poorest in society.

Answer 12

No, but the problem is she fixed things that weren't broke! There was a malaise in the country, that needed a bold new approach, but she went way too far and undermined much of the infrastructure of the establishment. People still don't realise how radical she was.