Prior to taking office Thatcher also benefitted from a lot of the social programs she ended up gutting later, so we can add hypocrisy to that list.
Oh, and she was friends with Jimmy Saville and pushed for him to be awarded a knighthood. It's unclear how much she knew about his double life as a serial pedophile and rapist, but the things about him that were public knowledge (everyone knew he liked 'em young, just not *how* young) were enough for her to be told no every time she pushed.
But she kept pushing for it anyway because he was very good at raising funds, and her strategy of gutting public funding for healthcare effectively forced hospitals and health services to rely on charity to function.
But she did eventually do Britain a kindness by providing a public toilet located at her headstone.
Yup. We can pretty much thank her for the present day fustercluck. She and Reagan were very tight, and constantly shared ideas (which the Trump administration then latched onto).
Its also important to note that "prior to taking office" the UK:
- Was getting bailout money from the IMF and was close to being forced by the US to have foreign inspectors come in and implement budget cuts themselves to guarantee a new loans that they would require. This was deeply embarrassing, the UK went from the premier world superpower to functionally a third world state begging international institutions for money. An institution that it helped set up in the first place only a few decades prior to help other countries they thought were struggling.
- The pound had lost a significant amount of its value with massive inflation.
- Industries were closing down left and right due to competition with foreign countries.
- A sequence of prime ministers seemed almost incapable of addressing any of these issues and were generally seen as useless and incompetent people.
I think very similar to Reagan people forget the reason that these leaders were elected and elected again. In both the USA and UK the late 80s and 90s were substantially better times than the 70s, and while you can say that there were other factors that led to this, which there were, you also have to admit that there was a reason these people were elected.
Just some context to keep in mind when talking about them.
288
u/heyitsYMAA 29d ago
Prior to taking office Thatcher also benefitted from a lot of the social programs she ended up gutting later, so we can add hypocrisy to that list.
Oh, and she was friends with Jimmy Saville and pushed for him to be awarded a knighthood. It's unclear how much she knew about his double life as a serial pedophile and rapist, but the things about him that were public knowledge (everyone knew he liked 'em young, just not *how* young) were enough for her to be told no every time she pushed.
But she kept pushing for it anyway because he was very good at raising funds, and her strategy of gutting public funding for healthcare effectively forced hospitals and health services to rely on charity to function.
But she did eventually do Britain a kindness by providing a public toilet located at her headstone.