[walkinman221]

Originally Posted by GEaston

Well thought I was posting on the Margaret Thatcher forum rather than at the NUM supporters club. No idea why we sidetrack to industries that were closed, and needed to be closed.

Mrs T's achievements were far greater than that. Any chance of thinking beyond Lancashire for a second? Like her role in the ending of the cold war (Gorbachov achnowledged this yesterday), her reclamation of billions from the EU - a non-negotiable rebate that European leaders are ****ed off about today, the Falklands War, fixing the broken economy etc etc.

Seems we all forgot why Labour was voted out by a landslide in 1979. Inflation at 15%, interest rates 18%, strikes everywhere, rubbish filling the streets. Even with rose glasses on you cant defend that.

As to my location then and now. I worked both in Newcastle and London in the 1980s, and spent my first 19 years in Newcastle. I can't be accused of being blinkered to the North South Divide - my accent would tell you otherwise.

As to the location of my business. Depends which one you are talking about - I'm the founder of 4 businesses. The largest of these is based in Singapore, but you should note that my first business was UK based and still is UK based. It just couldn't do much beyond struggle because I started it in April 07 and battled that fool Brown's economic policies (where I'm competing against the welfare state for employees, who if they are single mums are paid more to not work) the taxman and the shambolic state of UK's finances. Mrs T fixed Labour's overspend. Then 12 years of Labour overspend followed alongside a complete lack of regulation of banking.

I can say though that the businesses I created since 2007 have provided around 250 man years of employment for people, over 100 of these in deprived parts of Northern UK. I've also paid more tax to the UK govt than anyone here (circa 1m in income tax, payroll tax, VAT since 07). In both regards I think I have little to defend. Money I make in Singapore is largely directly reinvested in Accrington and properties in other parts of the North because I don't trust banks and think the worlds current economic system is a ponzi scheme. I buy shot properties in the town (you know there's loads of these) and bring them back to good standing.

My last point on mining is that if it was such a fantastically profitable industry why didn't anyone buy a mine? The miners could have, one or two independent companies tried it, all lost spectacular sums and closed.

Don't see why the taxpayer should be asked to foot the bill for rotten industries like steel, coal, shipbuilding, British Leyland, cotton, banking, weaving, basket making......

How do you know you have paid more tax than anyone here, I assume you mean accy web by that or do you mean in Britain? I hope the doors in your house (obviously bigger then anyone's here) are wide enough to get your big head out of, next time you pop out to check on your empire.