"Iron Lady"Margaret Thatcher dies at 87

[s_stabeler]

Why is this a bad thing? When Telecom/Telstra was a gov monopoly, it sometimes took weeks to get a phone connected. Now, it's days if not hours. Prices haven't gone through the roof (indeed, my own gut feel is that calls are cheaper - international calls certainly are)

I'm explaining why some people hate Thatcher- in this case, people who owed their jobs to the fact that the government owned the company thye worked for

There are some things that *should* remain in gov hands, things that shouldn't make a profit (roads and so forth), but utilities being privately owned (and non-monopolies, that's an important clause...) are good for the general public.

true, albeit people do have legitimate complaints that some privatised companies gouge people Also, many formerly-privatised things do enjoy a monpoly (trains are pretty much monopolised, for example.)

Again, why is this a bad thing? Too much power in the hands of a few with little oversight is a bad situation just begging for corruption to become endemic. The general strikes in Thatcher's day weren't damaging to the union officials who called them - no, it was the workers who had to take a pay hit who got burned. By making the unions have to vote on a strike it gave power back to the members of the union. They had the power to strike if it was something that affected them, while they could ignore something that affected the union bosses.

Anecdotal case in point - my godfather belonged to one of the unions in the UK who were called on to strike over a proposed pay deal. Original deal was something like 3% for the workers, 2% for the union officials. Officials called a strike. Revised pay deal was 3% across the board. Union officials accepted it.

So, the officials made the workers take a pay hit so the officials could get a better deal...

I know the plural of anecdote is not data, but militant unions can be their own worst enemy. My godfather has been anti-union ever since.

I happen to agree with you; however, many of the people who hate thatcher are from the old industrial towns, where the unions gave the most benifit

Not exactly. Anyone with any sense is pro-business. Encouraging businesses to grow makes more jobs. It's when the encouragement comes at the expense of the workers that the problems start. She was seen as being anti-worker.

anti-worker then. Although pro-business is probably more apt; she presided over the first stock market bubble, for example, and the city of today actually dates from the 1980s.