What's that I can hear creaking?

Frank the tank

Oh, it's my mate Maggie.

Fingers crossed. I don't normally wish ill on anyone but I'm quite happy to make an exception in her case.

Stuey01

Classy.

Garry H

Frank the tank wrote:

Oh, it's my mate Maggie.

Fingers crossed. I don't normally wish ill on anyone but I'm quite happy to make an exception in her case.

+1 Classy or not

Frank the tank

Get in the net, A mere sixteen minutes.

I'm not usually very good at this "trolling" mallarky.

Chip \'oyler

Frank the tank wrote:

Oh, it's my mate Maggie.

Fingers crossed. I don't normally wish ill on anyone but I'm quite happy to make an exception in her case.

Mate of mine from our pit village has been storing away booze every year in anticipation of 'celebrating' her demise. Looks like he'll be cracking it open soon

Cleat Eastwood

Chip \'oyler wrote:

Frank the tank wrote:

Oh, it's my mate Maggie.

Fingers crossed. I don't normally wish ill on anyone but I'm quite happy to make an exception in her case.

Mate of mine from our pit village has been storing away booze every year in anticipation of 'celebrating' her demise. Looks like he'll be cracking it open soon

dont forget to send us an invite.

Pross

It's strange how much hate someone can generate and yet be the longest serving PM we've had. No-one will give a good word for her now and yet she managed to win 3 elections so surely the electorate who voted for her 3 times are equally to blame? Same goes for the second longest serving PM who is now villified. I didn't vote for either so I've got a clear conscience Still, wishing ill on an elderly woman for following through the principles that she was elected on is a bit OTT - I could see the case if she hadn't publicised her intentions before being elected but surely, even if conned in 79, the electorate knew what they would be getting by 87? Crap policies or not, she at least had the courage to follow through her convictions and back her ideology unlike politicians today and that's all you can ask from a politician in my view - you vote for the one who offers you what you want and if enough people are of the same opinion you expect them to deliver. So let's have some confessions from those who voted for her or will we be in a position where no-one admits to it (I was too young to vote before she lost power but have voted for various parties since).

I can guess by Frank's location the likely reason for his hatred and coming from South Wales I can certainly see why he feels that way but ultimately not enough of the British public were prepared to support the miners over her at the ballot box.

Stick8267

Problem is neither of them ever had a mandate based on the views of the majority of the electorate.

They took society, whether rightly or wrongly, in dramatic directions with the support of the minority, given power by an outdated electoral system.

oscarbudgie

Fair point Pross but but by that rationale we should stop vilifying Hitler - an (originally at least) elected leader who followed his principles....

oops mentioned the Nazis

Pross

Stick8267 wrote:

Problem is neither of them ever had a mandate based on the views of the majority of the electorate.

They took society, whether rightly or wrongly, in dramatic directions with the support of the minority, given power by an outdated electoral system.

They were elected under the system in place, any other argument is irrelevant. It's like the people in Wales who argue that the majority don't support the Welsh Assembly on the basis that less that 50% bothered to vote and only 51% of those voted for it.

Fair point Pross but but by that rationale we should stop vilifying Hitler - an (originally at least) elected leader who followed his principles....

I knew someone would argue this point. Fair enough if they continued to vote with no undue influence to keep them in power and that's the huge difference (other than the obvious fact that for all her faults Thatcher never ordered wholescale murder of people she didn't like).

OffTheBackAdam

Frank's location being Hucknall, Notts coalfield, so miners there, like my home town of Mansfield voted against a strike and Scargill's politics, like the majority of miners did nationwide, so would have got flying pickets from Yorkshire for their troubles.
One of my miner friends had a collection tin rattled under his nose by a striker's wife. He bent down & spat into it, pointing out that that was all he got from them!

markos1963

I could never hate anyone enough to wish their death but I certainly won't be shedding a tear over Maggie when she goes.

Pross

OffTheBackAdam wrote:

Frank's location being Hucknall, Notts coalfield, so miners there, like my home town of Mansfield voted against a strike and Scargill's politics, like the majority of miners did nationwide, so would have got flying pickets from Yorkshire for their troubles.
One of my miner friends had a collection tin rattled under his nose by a striker's wife. He bent down & spat into it, pointing out that that was all he got from them!

And they then got royally shafted at the end of it and the pits closed in any case (I designed the new link road that runs through the old Hucknall colliery). Hence, I can understand Frank's dislike but celebrating a death (not that it is likely soon from what the doc said this morning) is too far IMHO.

Cleat Eastwood

OffTheBackAdam wrote:

.
One of my miner friends had a collection tin rattled under his nose by a striker's wife. He bent down & spat into it, pointing out that that was all he got from them!

The sort of behaviour you'd expect from a shithouse scab. Going to the pithead in reinforced buses while decent miners families had to rely on soup kitchens and handouts. How you can call that turd a friend is beyond me.

OffTheBackAdam

Ah, the voice of democracy!
Miners voted against strike action, Scargill & his Communist cronies didn't like it, so they got their brain-deads to picket.
Mind you. it was fun when we were out on our bikes and got asked by flying pickets how to get to a colliery, I hope they enjoyed the muddy tracks leading to farms we directed them to.

barrowman

Yes, the UK in the late 70's was a wonderful Utopia that Maggie ruined. - NOT

Get over it, hard decisions had to be made, whether they were right or wrong, save your bile for those that allowed the country to get into the state it was in, in the first place.

Which is true for today as well.

dilemna

Frank the tank wrote:

Oh, it's my mate Maggie.

Fingers crossed. I don't normally wish ill on anyone but I'm quite happy to make an exception in her case.

Thought it was your wallet opening :roll: ?

spen666

OffTheBackAdam wrote:

Frank's location being Hucknall, Notts coalfield, so miners there, like my home town of Mansfield voted against a strike and Scargill's politics, like the majority of miners did nationwide, so would have got flying pickets from Yorkshire for their troubles.

What vote?

IIRC there was no national ballot


IIRC the majority of the miners outside the SCABS in Nottingham did appear to support Scargill - hence the year long strike.


Hey, but being SCABS or from a SCAB county, don't let the truth get in the way. Just invent history and invent a ballot that never actually existed

One of my miner friends had a collection tin rattled under his nose by a striker's wife. He bent down & spat into it, pointing out that that was all he got from them!

spen666

Cleat Eastwood wrote:

OffTheBackAdam wrote:

.
One of my miner friends had a collection tin rattled under his nose by a striker's wife. He bent down & spat into it, pointing out that that was all he got from them!

The sort of behaviour you'd expect from a shithouse scab. .... .

+1

spen666

OffTheBackAdam wrote:

Ah, the voice of democracy!
Miners voted against strike action,

Erm what vote was this?


Or are you another who likes to re invent history.


There was NO national ballot about strike action, so therefore you are incorrect to suggest the miners voted against it

Scargill & his Communist cronies didn't like it, so they got their brain-deads to picket.
....

The biggest thing Scargill got wrong was that the planned pit closures were even more severe than his apparent alarmist predictions.



Now we run short of oil and gas to heat/ power the country and are held to ransom by Eastern European Countries ( the old USSR / CIS states) whereas we actually have several hundred years coal underground that could have been mined to make us almost self sufficient in power terms

Ben6899

Jesus H Christ, I agree with spen!

Pross

Ben6899 wrote:

Jesus H Christ, I agree with spen!

Came a bit from left field didn't it?

verylonglegs

So if it was only local ballots and people didn't vote to strike...um, what is the issue then? Being too young to remember any real details I find it difficult to understand why someone thinks they have a right to prevent someone else from working. Or am I missing something here?

Ben6899

Pross wrote:

Ben6899 wrote:

Jesus H Christ, I agree with spen!

Came a bit from left field didn't it?

It upset my Ying and Yang!

Subaqua

verylonglegs wrote:

So if it was only local ballots and people didn't vote to strike...um, what is the issue then? Being too young to remember any real details I find it difficult to understand why someone thinks they have a right to prevent someone else from working. Or am I missing something here?

Nope you aren't missing much. Indeed the fact that it seems such a bizarre concept now, probably indicates how much has changed in the last 25 years!

Pross

My lasting memory of it (other than the effect it had on school friends) was travelling down the M4 as a teenager - ironically to play in a brass band at a May Day parade - and to see the heavy police escort protecting coke lorries travelling from the docks to Llanwern. The laws on Unions were changed as a result of the strike which is why the idea of this sort of strike seems so alien now. I believe the East Midlands mines mainly decided to stay open and either set up a new Union or were already in one other than the NUM and were led to believe they would be kept open only to get closed down a few years later. It obviously had a massive impact in my part of the world and other mining areas but 25 years down the line the main positive is that the environment has improved beyond recognition in the mining valleys. However, I can see mines being reopened in the medium term as oil resrves and gas run low and start costing. There's plenty of coal left and it is probably starting to become financially viable (although one of the key arguments at the time was that it always was).

Mettan

barrowman wrote:

Yes, the UK in the late 70's was a wonderful Utopia that Maggie ruined. - NOT

Nice

Frank the tank

Not every miner in Notts was a scab, but alas it's a cross people of my home town have to carry. I've never worked in a mine but the houshold I lived in was the home of an ex-miner, my dad had left the pit in the seventies.

My dads family were all on strike and my mums family were "scabbing". It doesn't take a genius to work out the kind of strain such a situation placed on the household. My sympathies lay with the strikers and I did all I could to support them financially. This is one of the reasons I hate that woman and why I hate being called a scab by others when watching Hucknall town fc.

Oh Frickley visitus a week on Sat'day another chance to be mis-called. :evil:

daviesee

Could it be the most ironic thing ever if Maggie saved this country by leaving us a fuel supply for once the oil & gas have run out?
Unfortunately there won't be any British miners left to get it out but the resource is still there.

ddraver

daviesee wrote:

Could it be the most ironic thing ever if Maggie saved this country by leaving us a fuel supply for once the oil & gas have run out?
Unfortunately there won't be any British miners left to get it out but the resource is still there.

do you know it's cheaper for the Steel works at Port Talbot to buy the coal they use in their power station from Australia than to buy it from a mine in S Wales. It's hard to argue that the mines are economical when that is the case.....

Kendal Black Drop

Chip \'oyler wrote:

Mate of mine from our pit village has been storing away booze every year in anticipation of 'celebrating' her demise. Looks like he'll be cracking it open soon

I've have a flyer advertising a party in Trafalgar Square the Saturday after her death.

I've had it for 18 years.