Maggie Thatcher

[Kittwazzer]

Read in today's paper that her £6m house is held by a BVI registered company which will avoid £2.4m IHT. Yet we are picking up the £10m tab for her funeral!

[Kittwazzer]

Nice of Millwall fans to pay their respects in the time honoured way.

Its what she would have wanted!

[medlocke]

A woman who did more good than she did bad for this country, a sad sad loss, P.S. i wonder how many on here and elsewhere who have been slagging her off live in former council houses that they were able to buy thanks to the late great maggie

What good did Thatcher do to Cumberland?

She was a very good friend to Barrow and Sellafield, she was a champion for Nuclear energy and Trident Subs unlike the awful Labour administration that came before her :exc:

[cow yeds]

Read yesterday that Harold Wilson closed 290 pits Thatcher 162.

[Kittwazzer]

Read yesterday that Harold Wilson closed 290 pits Thatcher 162.

There were a lot more working pits when Wilson entered office in 1964!

[cow yeds]

Read yesterday that Harold Wilson closed 290 pits Thatcher 162.

There were a lot more working pits when Wilson entered office in 1964!

Doesn't alter the fact that he shut 290 :conf:

[cpwigan]

Read yesterday that Harold Wilson closed 290 pits Thatcher 162.

There were a lot more working pits when Wilson entered office in 1964!

Doesn't alter the fact that he shut 290 :conf:

Coal is a finite energy resource. Mines came and went in even greater number as/when supplies were exhausted. It was accepted and understood which is why those before Thatcher never met the same reaction.

Thatcher unfortunately approached coal mining as her personal crusade against trade unions without any consideration of the people/villages/towns that would be affected. No planning or contingency to redevelop those villages/towns was ever put in place to mitigate inevitable closures that she actually sped up. Thatchers only concern was winning a personal war with the equally stupid and belligerent Scargill.

Coal mining still had a future in Britain. A limited one but one where time/effort/money could have been devoted to ensuring people/villages/towns did not suffer to the extent they did.

Thatcher did not care a jot about the impact of anything she ever did. Hence, she was reviled by many, many people.

A funeral or a 'war crimes' tribunal :doz:

[BriH]

Spot on CPWigan.
If my memory is right, it was phased shut down of old, unproductive Pits with NUM involvement - one Pit in Whitehaven my birthplace, William Pit, was sunk in 1810 or there abouts !!! The coal industry was a lot more competitive afterwards.
Thatcher was intent on smashing the NUM, then the rest of the TU's would be no threat.
Scargill was right about that: they butchered an industry that had served the UK well through two World Wars.
And, the cost in lives was immense.
Wellington Pit 137 men and boys
William Pit 103 men
Haig Pit 73 men I could go on. And this from a town of 25,000.

[Kittwazzer]

Bloody Hell Bri, you Cumbrian pitmen were a patriotic lot. And I love 'William Pit'! Who'd o thowt they had a sense of humour like that in 1810!

[BriH]

Bloody Hell Bri, you Cumbrian pitmen were a patriotic lot. And I love 'William Pit'! Who'd o thowt they had a sense of humour like that in 1810!

Might have been named after 'William the Conqueror' - I don't know!
We also had a 'Haig Pit' sunk during or after WW1.
I'm sure the Wigan Lads were just as patriotic.
I remember the William Pit explosion very well. It happened in August 1947 and we were on school hols. I think we were the last people to see our neighbour, Billy Murray, alive. He was on his way to the Pit for afternoon shift. We were off to the beach.
Thatcher hadn't a clue what it meant to be part of a mining community and all the loyalty that went with it.
It's still there, thank God - she ain't.