Phil King wrote:
we still follow her economic plan today don't we.
On one level yes- but there's a view that the events of the past few months signify the overdue death of that economic model - with what are effectively massive nationalisations in the financial sector and the rebirth of regulation to try to sort of the mess that has been made.
One of the reasons people get so angry is I think precisely because we mostly fell a bit complicit (or at least guilty for not successfully fighting) in the shift towards venal self-interest that she set as the underlying principle - one that Labour felt they had to acknowledge and play up to a bit in order to take and keep power. Probably rightly. But that doesn't make it Right. Things have changed for the better though - now the Tories at least feel that they have to at least
look like they give a fuck about equality if they think they're going to get in.
It was never a police state and it still isn't,. It didn't
need to be to get people feeling brow-beaten. By allowing and arguably exacerbating the economic gaps, that waws enough towear people down. (NB not all of what was done was subtle, things like section 28 got through in that time.)
I think the best of the 80s music came about precisely because there was something that needed kicking against and there was misery. Bad times=good music is too simplistic an equation, but there's a truth in it.
I've worked with people who worked closely with Thatcher in the 70s - they said that on a personal level she was very nice and very loyal and supportive of her staff. That's not the sort of thing that gets you state funerals though and I don't think she deserves one.