can one of the Brits lay out bullet points or just a short list of why Thatcher is so universally hated by the uk?
I really only know the memes and I’m finally curious about the substance.
thank you.
She (similar to Reagan in the US) enacted a massive shift in government/society from a more social-democratic focus to a more (economocally) liberal one. Her big goals were to privatize and financialize as much as possible.
This ended up leading to (as it always does) massive increases in inequality, with particularly rural/industrial regions suffering heavily while the services/financial sector in London boomed.
So she is EXTREMELY polarizing. Many conservatives or big-business types worship her, while for many/most others she’s seen as the worst thing to happen to the UK.
The big thing she’s remembered for is closing down the mining industry. Whole communities throughout the north of England and Wales were left penniless. They were towns where everyone worked as a miner or in some way related to the mine. Nothing was done to give any alternatives.
Of course there was a huge industrial dispute - The miners strike. Massive, initially peaceful, demonstrations that turned violent as police would attack and stir up the conflict. People died, communities were shatteredd, yet through it all Thatcher was unmoving. Just using the police as her own civilian army.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQh4n8rRLw8
She viewed as a uncaring authoritarian tyrant by many.
wow, that’s crazy. thanks for the video, i just watched it.
if thatchers goal was to close the mines, wouldn’t miners voluntarily not working play into that?
or does strike in this context mean general protest rather than specifically not working?
The purpose of the strike was to raise awareness and make the issue one of public note more than anything else. It didn’t really work in the long run. The pits closed. The communities suffered and they’re still feeling the effects today 40 years later.
The mines needed to go IMHO. The country needed to move on, but the way it was done with absolutely no support was callous and heartless.
We repeatedly face the same problem with industry still running from the Victorian era. This week it’s 2,700 steel-workers at blast furnaces in Scunthorpe. The government are stepping in “to save British steel”, but as part of it they want to modernise. A modern arc furnace only needs about a fifth of the workers (based on Port Talbot having 2,500 job losses when they closed their blast furnaces, but only needing 500 for the new furnace when it opens), so whilst they are “saving steel worker jobs” they’re also planning to let most of them go. The key question is what do those people do instead. Hopefully something less hazardous, but it has to be something.
thank you I was wondering about the public reaction to the mines closing, since it does seem like a good thing on its face, no you’re absolutely right that a problem doesn’t need to be handled the hardest way.
interesting to hear about the cycle coming around again with steel workers now.
that was a great write up and an appreciated explanation, have a good one!
I remember when she took my milk
Thatcher the milk snatcher.
It’s incredible how she is almost universally hated in the UK.
It’s far from universal, the impression probably comes from the general left leaning bias of online Brits and the fact that people that don’t like her tend to really fucking hate her due to her policies leading to the complete devastation of entire communities.
Yeah, the American analogue is Reagan. SO MANY people jack themselves off about being a “Reagan Republican” here, and whenever I hear someone say that, I just think “oh, ok, so you’re a racist imperialist hyper capitalist without a shred of empathy, but you don’t like to say it out loud, gotcha”
Yep I was in one of those mining communities just too young to understand what was going on till the mid to late 90s when I tried to get my 1st job only to realise there was nothing
