OMG!
> don't see why I should subsidize miners working a pointless job. Still, 30 years later, they're still on the news >moaning about how Thatcher ruined their lives
We're subsidising the banks. We're going to be subsidising them for a lot longer than 30 years to keep those fat cats.
The mines kep a very healthy mining tools industry going -- an industry that exported all ovet the world because British Coal (as was) spent bundles and bundles on R&D, all of which eventually led to exports of mining machinery, techniques and expertise.
>Get a new job, start a business, move towns, do something productive, but stop whinging about the only >PM who had the balls to stand up to you.
What world do you live in? Start what kind of buisness? There's been no real nvestment in training and education for decades. F.E. colleges no longer teach anything that isn't government approved -- funding is dependeant on the teaching being government approved; H.E. is just about in the same boat. Innovative and creative thinking isn't something you create from a spreadsheet mentality.
Start a business? How? Credit and investment has been cut off due to the need to recapitalise the banks; all that so-called quantative easing wasn't to make investment easier, it was to stop the banks from defaulting on their own debts.
Thatcher didn't stand up to the unions [on the picket lines] it was the ordinary bobbies [taken from off their beats]. An ironic collorary would be that the Police Federation is arguably the strongest union in the UK and there is no politician strong enough to take it on.
As for:
1. Fought to liberate the Falklands.
It was a war brought about by her government's stupidity. Goodness knows what the future is going to bring now that her political descendants have neutered this country's armed forces. Oh, btw, I am an ex-squaddy, so I think I might be better qualified than most commentards on this issue.
2. Crushed the unions, who were really asking for a whooping throughout the 70s.
Really? So the owners and management of companies of that era are entirely without any balme or fault?
Sheesh!