In terms of the right or wrong with what other countries are doing with their labour costs.....Well, we have no power in a democracy to force companies to buy our coal, to use our shipping industry...She did what she had to....The left fought and fought against reality....Like they did with Callaghan....Thatcher got the job done.

In terms of privatisations I'm neutral....I don't know enough about the balance of benefits to costs....Energy bills are certainly a problem for a significant proportion of the country...I suspect that some privatisations were better than others....Though I do regard the rail one as poor...But Major did that and reportedly Thatcher didn't support it.

I agree with you about older people in those industries being left to sit on benefits with an unlikely chance of getting a job.....I'm one of those Tories who think she was wrong not to reinvest more on Heseltine's plan for northern regeneration.

Still, she was right to close down the pits, just as Wilson was.....Those older men were going to lose their jobs regardless.

Those that could moved to where the work was, those that couldn't or wouldn't didn't....I'm not sure how much Thatcher can be blamed for that,. No one has a god given right to a job and good living....It's always been a battle and we are one of the richest country's in the world.

just caught some brief highlights of the funeral. Pleased and relieved that it all went off with the dignity and decency it deserved.

Showed a very good side to the British and well appreciated and admired in the bit of 'abroad' I am in.

And provisonally backed by initial findings into a study of generational unemployment.

That said, Thatcher oversaw the disolution of the industrial age, and the initial growth of consumerism in the UK. I wouldn't blame her entirely, that would be unfair, but the restructuring of social values began with her administration. With the death of industry, large scale unemployment occured in the areas dependent on industry employment and the damage to the unions, as well as the nature of post-industrial consumer society values, resulted in a big shift in what constituted identity and self worth.

If you look at the 50s through to the end of the 80s, people self identitifed along distinct class lines, and defined themselves by what they did. Now social division and identity is along lines of income (most notably disposable income) and how you consume.

Fame is more important than achievement, hard work is considered a fools errand, pride in what you do is secondary to how much it costs, personal situation trumps group benefit, and the self is the 'primary source of morality'. Having money is the new morality.

I think its no suprise that the decrease in the influence of Unions, led in part, to the decline of 'workers pride'. Its all about the money now.