God, I am sick of thesun newspaper

[-:Undertaker:-]

Derek Hatton is a convicted criminal - what he has now is due to crime. You said he and Scargill were champagne socialists. Apart from that there is nothing wrong with Champagne Socialists as you call them. Do you think all socialists should wear cloth caps and keep ferrets? Neil Kinnock started the road to progress to New Labour with this speech:

You may me laugh when I say manufacturing industry you always think I mean 'coal' just because I now live in Wales. During the thatcher years the only people that prospered were financiers and bankers. The popular view of the 80s is the decade of greed, its symbol being the City trader driving a Porsche and doing business on a brick sized mobile. The 80s was also time of rising prosperity and rising house prices . However, that prosperity was not shared by all and the 80s was also a decade of deep social divisions and the North-South divide. Britain suffered a severe recession in the early 80s. Many businesses failed and unemployment reached record levels. Mrs Thatcher's strict monetarist doctrines initially made the problems worse and violent riots broke out in Toxteth in Liverpool, Brixton in London and Moss Side in Manchester. It seemed that the country was falling apart. The Specials record 'Ghost Town' (1981), about the economic ills facing Coventry, summed up the mood of the nation. Not exactly as described by you and it was all downhill from there.

I am sorry but how can Prescott, Blair, Kinnock and Hatton be 'socialist' when they have done everything which is the opposite to socialism(?). As for socialists, I may not agree with the idealogy but I think they should have some morales and stand by what they believe in and full credit to the likes of George Galloway and Tony Benn senior who I may disagree with, but stand fully by their beliefs and for that I respect them. I do not respect the champagne socialists.

The second point; no I do not mean coal solely - I mean manufacturing in general. Rosie if you look at the world in 2010 (because we are no longer in the 1800s) you will see that Asia can produce products faster, cheaper and at a profit whereas Britain and the West cannot. It is economically impossible for us to manufacture again, and the same will occur in Asia once it also develops as manufacturing will most likely then shift to Africa and the same will be said in Asia - infact as the model of modernisation speeds up over time, it could very well occur in our lifetime where the heavy industry shifts to Africa from Asia. Now i'm sorry but on the business side, that is utter rubbish - the only businesses that failed were those who relied on government subsidies, in other words; they were already failing.

The prosperity was not shared by all you are right, however living standards and economic prosperity improved for the vast majority. How can you have everyone prosper? - the answer is that you cannot and will never be able to do so. The point on Liverpool - it was not Thatcher who ruined the city, it was the militant unions with the likes of Derek Hatton in. I am sad to say, but some of the scum here did take to the streets and waged a class war in support of the socialist unions - its just rather interesting that you are siding with the thugs, layabouts and the general 'rent-a-mob' that astounds me. The final part, the country did face ills and theres no doubt about that;- mass job losses which effect any family, a total switch in economics for the country and a upheavel that we had not seen since the Industrial Revolution - however yes things did get better whether you like to believe it or not, because as I said earlier on;- the Labour Party became the opposite of what it was.

Now i'd like to ask a question involved with the manufacturing side of things which you keep harping on about, how can the United Kingdom manufacture goods to a profit when Asia can do the same at a fraction of the price?

[alexxxxx]

the sun is a comedy/sport newspaper with some exposed breasts added in for the party. have you ever read dear deardrie (sp?) - gotta be made up.

[jam666]

Sorry but do some pople in this thread just jump on the left wing socialist band wagon?. You cant keep going on about Thatcher when it is a FACT that she changed this country into the financial centre of the world.

You keep pointing out manufacturing, but at the end of the day you will have to open your eyes and see that the switch from manufacturing to service based jobs was inevitable and that just happened to commence when Margaret Thatcher was in power. Therefore she dealt with the situation correctly and let this country prosper.

Mining and relevant industrys were in DECLINE and NOT making a profit and as a result were feeding off the governemnt which ultimately wasted money so therefore it was a good thing the mines closed (initially jobs were lost but more were created due to a higher skilled workforce).

I relate back to my first point because you can hate Margaret Thatcher all you want but if it wasnt for her, this country would be a complete wreck and we would be similar to the likes of east germany / soviet union.

[Bun]

the sun likes to think it's so special it can decide who wins the election, so it always goes with the party that looks certain to win. might have made a big balls up this year though, hopefully.

[Black_Apalachi]

The Sun is ******** long before you even bring politics into the equation.