Random Poll of Ten Days Ago! (899)

[KangarooGirl]

One and she's in office right now. Unless you meant Malaysia where I highly doubt a female would be elected in the next 50 years :x

[miyano_shiho]

Two.

[xAyumuendless]

0 here in Sweden.

[mangaluva]

1, and she's severely buggered it up for the rest of us >: (

[Stopwatch]

1, and she's severely buggered it up for the rest of us >: (

Seriously, why does everyone but me think that Margaret Thatcher is like marmite? o.O

[Callid]

Seriously, why does everyone but me think that Margaret Thatcher is like marmite? o.O

You either love her or hate her?

[mangaluva]

1, and she's severely buggered it up for the rest of us >: (

Seriously, why does everyone but me think that Margaret Thatcher is like marmite? o.O

This is true. I know some people (predominantly from military families) who think she was wonderful for the country. And she probably was... for England. I'll let Frankie Boyle speak for Scotland.

"For the amount they're setting aside for her state funeral, you could buy every man, woman and child in Scotland a shovel, and we'll dig  a tunnel to Hell and hand her over to Satan personally! It'll be the first funeral where the 21-gun salute fires at the coffin! You'll have to queue to spit, piss or dance on that harridan's grave!"

(Seriously, I have yet to find a single person north of the border who benefited from Thatcher that's worth less than £100K a year)

[Stopwatch]

@Callid: Exactly.

1, and she's severely buggered it up for the rest of us >: (

Seriously, why does everyone but me think that Margaret Thatcher is like marmite? o.O

This is true. I know some people (predominantly from military families) who think she was wonderful for the country. And she probably was... for England. I'll let Frankie Boyle speak for Scotland.

"For the amount they're setting aside for her state funeral, you could buy every man, woman and child in Scotland a shovel, and we'll dig  a tunnel to Hell and hand her over to Satan personally! It'll be the first funeral where the 21-gun salute fires at the coffin! You'll have to queue to spit, piss or dance on that harridan's grave!"

(Seriously, I have yet to find a single person north of the border who benefited from Thatcher that's worth less than £100K a year)

I may be English, but I'm still a northerner . From what I hear she caused quite a lot of trouble where I live with stuff about mining...? And the fact she didn't seem to care so much for unemployment rates. Still, while I disagree with some of her policies, they apparently did help the economy. Oh, and (according to wikipedia here ) she voted for legal abortion and gay marriage which gives her some extra points.
Basically, my opinion of her is that she did some things right (she had to have done to have gotten elected three times) and at other things she just... failed epically (like the mining thing and her lack of compromise in many areas) :X. So, why people have to either love her or hate her instead of just being more meh over it is a bit frustrating to me. But I guess that happens.

[mangaluva]

@Callid: Exactly.

1, and she's severely buggered it up for the rest of us >: (

Seriously, why does everyone but me think that Margaret Thatcher is like marmite? o.O

This is true. I know some people (predominantly from military families) who think she was wonderful for the country. And she probably was... for England. I'll let Frankie Boyle speak for Scotland.

"For the amount they're setting aside for her state funeral, you could buy every man, woman and child in Scotland a shovel, and we'll dig  a tunnel to Hell and hand her over to Satan personally! It'll be the first funeral where the 21-gun salute fires at the coffin! You'll have to queue to spit, piss or dance on that harridan's grave!"

(Seriously, I have yet to find a single person north of the border who benefited from Thatcher that's worth less than £100K a year)

I may be English, but I'm still a northerner . From what I hear she caused quite a lot of trouble where I live with stuff about mining...? And the fact she didn't seem to care so much for unemployment rates. Still, while I disagree with some of her policies, they apparently did help the economy. Oh, and (according to wikipedia here ) she voted for legal abortion and gay marriage which gives her some extra points.
Basically, my opinion of her is that she did some things right (she had to have done to have gotten elected three times) and at other things she just... failed epically (like the mining thing and her lack of compromise in many areas) :X. So, why people have to either love her or hate her instead of just being more meh over it is a bit frustrating to me. But I guess that happens.

The thing is that her policies either helped people immensely or destroyed entire communities. She did prevent inflation going out of control, it's true, but in the process unemployment reached record levels, education spending was slashed, the mining industry was wiped out (the industry was slowing, it's true, but she didn't just close unprofitable mines; plenty of healthy mines were cut down too, with the job losses numbering in the hundreds of thousands), she launched a dedicated effort to destroy trade unions, and she taxed 90% on North Sea Oil, the money from which could've otherwise been a boon to Scotland's failing economy. All this while spending a tremendous amount on acquiring Trident, which has always been so popular[/sarcasm]. She also brought back the poll tax, which has never been popular anywhere ever, first trying it out in Scotland and utterly ignoring the mass protests there and only caring when the English rioted. Actually, for the most part, she was pretty openly racist against Scotland and Ireland both. The clumsy handling of a number of IRA prisoners in 1981 led to nine prisoners starving to death on hunger strikes and increased IRA violence, which is never good for anyone. She refused to support the sanctions against South Africa that were intended as a protest against apartheid as well.

Basically, all of her political actions were so extreme that really you either benefited hugely or suffered immensely from her, and it's hard to be a bit meh about someone that's caused that.

[monsi]

2.

[Callid]

Basically, all of her political actions were so extreme that really you either benefited hugely or suffered immensely from her, and it's hard to be a bit meh about someone that's caused that.

What about not living in Britain?

[mangaluva]

Basically, all of her political actions were so extreme that really you either benefited hugely or suffered immensely from her, and it's hard to be a bit meh about someone that's caused that.

What about not living in Britain?

...What about it?

[Callid]

Basically, all of her political actions were so extreme that really you either benefited hugely or suffered immensely from her, and it's hard to be a bit meh about someone that's caused that.

What about not living in Britain?

...What about it?

Wouldn't that make it possible/likely that you neither "benefited hugely or suffered immensely from her", and therefore be able to be "meh" about her?

[mangaluva]

Basically, all of her political actions were so extreme that really you either benefited hugely or suffered immensely from her, and it's hard to be a bit meh about someone that's caused that.

What about not living in Britain?

...What about it?

Wouldn't that make it possible/likely that you neither "benefited hugely or suffered immensely from her", and therefore be able to be "meh" about her?

Stop and I are discussing as citizens of the UK. Outside the UK, aside from Ireland and the Falklands, yeah, you can be forgiven for not caring, unless you have a personal vendetta against all that is evil in this world.

[Stopwatch]

Hmm... well, given the marmite-ness of her (:P), like I stated before. I'd probably rather try to find more sources and decide myself my opinion on her rather than being biased from the start and just finding reasons for that. After all, if I choose to pick a side then it's useful to know what the opposition says...?
Basically, I don't feel I know enough about her yet from unbiased sources so at some later date I'll probably look into her some more. I get the feeling I'd probably end up against even more of her policies once I know more about them
, but I want to know the whole picture so~
(So far the main sources I've used so far (apart from a few websites I can't even remember the names for now :x) are my dad, Wikipedia and TV Tropes.
My dad = probably biased, Wikipedia = Wikipedia and TV Tropes probably isn't the most reliable source around (though it can be useful sometimes :x))

One thing you can say about her though is that she definitely made a name for herself. She left power in something like 1990 and even now is a household name :x.