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Re: In Memorian: Margaret Thatcher
Jun 15, 2009, 12:33
Merrick wrote:
I agree with many of the things you decry Blair for. But he was just following a pattern long established, and which Thatcher was a very vicious version of.

geoffrey_prime wrote:
Home Office, which clearly have let the Police get out of control.


Who brought in the riot cops? Who ordered them in to the miners as a political paramilitary force? Who ordered them in at Wapping, Greenham Common, the Battle of the Beanfield to beat and maim pickets, protesters and hippies with impunity?

geoffrey_prime wrote:
the war criminal, Blair


Whilst I'm tempted to give this a one word answer - Belgrano - I think US cruise missiles on our soil, allowing our bases to be used for war crimes like the bombing of Tripoli, and the purchase of Trident should also be read out to a court in The Hague.

geoffrey_prime wrote:
the appearance on the UK mainland of suicide bombers


Not quite sure how Blair did that.

But in Thatcher's day there were bombers we could meet an negotiate with. Thatcher, though, refused and in doing so condemned the people of Northern Ireland (and selected GB targets) to terror, maiming and death.

Credit where it's due, within weeks of taking over John Major opened dialogue with those engaged in the war in Ireland. Blair's lot get the credit for the Good Friday Agreement - and they do deserve a lot - but much of the groundwork was laid by the Major administration.

The Blair government must be remembered for its war crimes above all. Not just in Iraq, but in Belgrade and Afghanistan too.

However, domestically they reversed, or at least slowed, the Thatcherite war on the poor. Blair reinstated the minimum wage. He brought in Tax Credits to end the poverty trap. He stopped the slashing of benefits, health care and education. for all their iniquity and cosying to money, Labour would never give us the fucking poll tax.

Also worth mentioning is the Tories attacks on queers. Labour equalised the age of consent and gave us civil partnerships. Now that's in large part to do with shifts in wider society rather than government taking the lead. But there's no way the party that gave us Section 28 would have done that stuff so readily.

I'd have a little jig on Blair's grave, but Thatcher's gets the full on ceilidh followed by loud and abundant defecation.


I agree with everything you've said except for one point - the Blair administration did introduce a new points system for means-testing incapacity benefit claims that led to a lot of people with mental health problems to be forced back onto JSA and being fotced to prove that they were actively seeking work.

This may not have been a negative development in every case - some borderline-functional IB/DLA claimants did become wrongly insitutionalised under the Tories, mostly as a means of ensuring that they weren't included in official unemployment figures. However, it did create a very difficult Catch 22 situation for claimants with conditions such as dyspraxia or Asperger's Syndrome who needed access to specialist services to help them cope with negotiating the benefits system, behaving appropriately in interviews and dealing with prejudice in the workplace once they'd found a job.

As far as the gay rights issue is concerned, it's also worth mentioning that Labour finally removed Section 28 from the statute books in 2006, and I doubt that that pareticular piece of legislation will ever be making a comeback, even under any future Tory administration.
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Re: In Memorian: Margaret Thatcher (Merrick)
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