|
Click Here to Login |
Register | Premium Upgrade | Blogs | Gallery | Arcade | FAQ | Calendar | Search | Today's Posts | Mark Forums Read | Log in |
![]() |
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread | Display Modes |
![]() |
#121 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: NY
Posts: 18,871
Local Time: 02:27 PM
|
Thanks for posting that Russell Brand article - best one I've read yet on the subject matter.
__________________I kind of find Thatcher to be loathsome but I also had the same reaction as Brand's friend..."another one bites the dust." She had personally become totally inconsequential. Unfortunately the effects of her policies live on. Shame. |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#122 | |
ONE
love, blood, life Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Kony Island Baby
Posts: 10,244
Local Time: 04:27 AM
|
Quote:
This shit is why I don't really post here. Dumb and boring as fuck. |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#123 | |
Blue Crack Supplier
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 33,241
Local Time: 02:27 PM
|
Quote:
i was being a bit sarcastic there, but for real -- it's a thread about Thatcher, why the need to post another Obama cartoon? (but viewing Obama and Bush as somehow flip sides of the same coin, or my guy vs. your guy, is an exercise is false equivalency, and most conservatives don't want any sort of association with GWB, but that's for another thread) |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#124 | |
Blue Crack Supplier
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 33,241
Local Time: 02:27 PM
|
ok, well, for the sake of argument, here's a pro-Thatcher essay that acknowledges her obvious shortcomings and failures. i'd love to hear from non-Americans about the good things Sullivan brings up -- i try to be very cautious writing critically about other countries leaders, because, as an American, i get glassy eyed and bored when people march up to you thinking they know everything there is to know about your country and what's wrong with it and what you need to do to fix things. the truth is that domestic politics are rarely truly felt and thoroughly understood by people who don't live them, and the author (a big Obama fan, btw) grew up in Thatcher's England. i have to think at least some of this has merit, and i've bolded the stuff i find most interesting as an outsider:
Quote:
|
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#125 |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
VIP PASS Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 6,293
Local Time: 07:27 PM
|
i just threw up a little reading that Irvine, thanks
![]() this bit: "The government owned almost all major manufacturing, from coal to steel to automobiles." thing is, there is now practically nothing left in Britain, there is no industry - it was all sold off and moved to China because labour was cheap, that's why the mines were closed - it was cheaper to import cheap coal from abroad... but now there are no jobs, people have no money to spend... the same is happening in France right now - Peugeot is closing down factories due to the economic crisis, families are losing their livelihood - the companies shipped out their manufacturing, for cheap labour, expecting still to sell French cars manufactured in China back to the French, only the French workers lost their jobs so don't have the cash to spend, and now Peugeot are complaining... the whole thing is nuts... re. this expatriation of industry, which began in Thatcher's time, well, there IS a bit of a trend going on right now in the UK, repatriation has started in some small companies, bringing their factories back to the UK to create jobs as costs have gone up in China which has made Britain competitive once again... also "Almost every university and elementary and high school was government-run." and what is wrong with that? i was one of the last generation of students able to have a "free" university education - student loans were only just coming in, many student benefits had been cut, but i was still able to get a small maintenance grant and all my tuition fees paid and only needed a tiny top-up loan of a few hundred pounds, literally... (ok, i juggled three part-time jobs on the side at the same time as revising for my finals, but so did everyone, and that was the norm), but now, it's catastrophic for young people, university education is no longer available to all purely based on merit and ability - it is so expensive now, it's unreal... ok i understand this is now the same as it is in the States, but having been lucky enough to have a fantastic non-private education up to postgrad level without having to get into huge debt, and walk straight into a job at the end of it all, well, i feel that young Brits today are facing a tragedy... i hate this guy, Irvine, sorry LOL ![]() although this bit is partly true: "but she definitively ended a truly poisonous, envious, inert period in Britain’s history." -sure, the Labour party were next to useless at that point, but she didn't end the poison, she just refined her own unique toxic brand of it! what if things could have been better if we never had Thatcher, if we had a different leader who wasn't as hard as nails, who wasn't inhuman, and who had had a little compassion? what a missed opportunity... and this: "Her very draconian posture provoked a punk radicalism in the popular culture that changed a generation." sure- people can only take so much ABUSE before they rebel and want to smash things up "The seeds of today’s multicultural, global London – epitomized by that Olympic ceremony – were sown by Thatcher’s will-power" UTTER FUCKING BOLLOCKS (sorry) ok i will stop reading lol |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#126 |
Blue Crack Supplier
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 33,241
Local Time: 02:27 PM
|
it's all good -- i just want to learn more, thanks for your comments!
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#127 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: A far distance down.
Posts: 28,600
Local Time: 10:27 AM
|
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#128 | |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
VIP PASS Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 6,293
Local Time: 07:27 PM
|
Quote:
Maggie Thatcher makes for very emotive discussion, but it's something i feel strongly about and feel able to comment on in some way as she had such a massive impact on people's everyday lives - i think it's because she took her fight right down to the people... to the grass roots... i've never known another political leader in Britain with that same influence, well not in my lifetime, maybe Churchill, but in a more positive way perhaps... |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#129 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: NY
Posts: 18,871
Local Time: 02:27 PM
|
This is a really important point. What are the main drivers of the British economy? The banking/financial sector? We've seen what happens to countries that hang their hats on it. Moreover essentially all of Britain's foreign direct investment is mobile - meaning that there is very little reason to invest in Britain when you can very easily (and much more profitably) take your business to places like China, India, Mexico, etc. As opposed to immobile FDI in the commmodities and resources sector, meaning if you want to buy oil, for example, you are stuck with the relatively few nations that can sell it to you.
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#130 |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Band-aid Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: The American Resistance
Posts: 4,754
Local Time: 12:27 PM
|
Frankly I think any president or prime minister of the past 2 decades pales in comparison to M Thatcher. But contrasted against Margaret Thatcher Barack "No White House tours" Obama is a small, petty politician who, unfortunately because of the size and scope of modern government, is able to do irreparable harm to the country, economy, healthcare system and the cause of liberty.
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#131 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: South Philadelphia
Posts: 19,218
Local Time: 02:27 PM
|
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#132 |
Blue Crack Addict
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: NY
Posts: 18,871
Local Time: 02:27 PM
|
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#133 |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Band-aid Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: The American Resistance
Posts: 4,754
Local Time: 12:27 PM
|
As we were talking about Thatcher and Obama I was only speaking of U.S. presidents and British prime ministers. For example, I think Stephen Harper's guidance of the Canadian economy through the global banking collapse has been exemplary. American conservatives are quite jealous.
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#134 | |
Blue Crack Supplier
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 33,241
Local Time: 02:27 PM
|
Quote:
Tell me, how is Obama stealing your liberty? |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#135 |
The Male
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Hollywoo
Posts: 68,209
Local Time: 11:27 AM
|
Gosh, I forgot about that as well. It must have been so traumatizing that I repressed it.
As a middle class Caucasian male, I feel reasonably liberated here. My collection of assault rifles, on the other hand, has to stay in the closet for now. |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#136 | |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
VIP PASS Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 6,293
Local Time: 07:27 PM
|
Quote:
the energy situation is a real concern, Britain relies on France for much of its electricity these days, and Russia for gas - there was even a scare a few weeks ago with news reports that British gas reserves were dwindling due to the extremely long and cold winter, strangely haven't heard any more reports on this though... there is North Sea oil, but even that is contentious as Scotland would lay claim to those resources if it became independent... |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#137 | |
Rock n' Roll Doggie
VIP PASS Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 6,293
Local Time: 07:27 PM
|
Quote:
![]() ![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|