The article doesn't seem very objective. For example "always using the royal we" refers to a single incident when she said "we are a grandmother" which was a slip of a tongue. I could go on.
#593008 - 04/09/1305:34 PMRe: RIP Margaret Thatcher
[Re: keymaker]
MicMeister
Le Skibum & Pixelsmith
Registered: 12/15/07
Posts: 1331
Loc: Finland, on the Arctic Circle
I don't think you can still argue with the poverty and inequality graphs, Keymaker. They tell a nasty story. She also cut higher education spending, which indirectly, as well as directly, adds to the preservation of Britain's rigid class structure.
Kinda like the opposite of what Chavez did in these respects, despite his other, negative doings. :P
Sure I can argue with 'em... first of all the initial rise in so called 'poverty' would have been due to the actions of her predecessors and the subsequent fall attributable to the actions of her government. As for equality it's not even an objective.
#593014 - 04/09/1306:22 PMRe: RIP Margaret Thatcher
[Re: keymaker]
MicMeister
Le Skibum & Pixelsmith
Registered: 12/15/07
Posts: 1331
Loc: Finland, on the Arctic Circle
She was in power from 1979 to 1990. In the chart it is clearly visible how poverty started really climbing in 1985 reaching it's peak in 1990 and again in 1992, before starting to decline again. So her predecessors must've had some seriously profound, sophisitcated and long-fused poverty bombs in place.
And for equality not being an objective...it does often go hand in hand with how much money an individual has or has not in their possession, since we live in a society where everything is valued and traded in currency.
Those bombs were definitely in place, no doubt about it. The 'right to buy' that her government extended to social housing tenants also stimulated the most important progress on economic equality of any post-war government.
Anyhow, what I found most interesting about her premiership was actually the fact that she increased social security and health spending both by 31,8% in real terms during her reign. Or that was just the direct result of other policies and effectually the criteria for social security benefits may not have changed.