[andrewb]

I havn't quoted some things because well, they are facts and i'm not going to debate facts with you hehe.

However the mood of the country wasn't for Labour's tougher economic monetarist policies exemplified in the Satchi much vaunted poster; 'Labour isn't working' (with a photo of long line of unemployed).

The mood of labour wasn't for it's ties with the trade Unions. People were fed up of being controled by them, and thats the reason that Thatcher won an even greater majority, because Michael Foot's left wing manifesto was the 'longest suicide note in history'.
It dosn't matter if Callaghans government started to turn against Unions, Labour were still tared as Union loving because thats how they'd been for ages. The same way that Conservatives have been tared with thatcherism long after the Conservatives got rid of her..

I'm not saying that the past Conservatives governments before Thatcher were any better because they didn't really try and U-turn the Labour governments policies.

To suggest that Thatcher cured Britains ill's is just a convenient rewrite. And to suggest Britain isnt the 'sick man of europe' now thanks to Thatcher (and knock the French and Germans) is double think. You can't on the one hand reject everything French or German and say we have got it right in Britain with low unemployment, restrictived union legislation, free markets, control of money supply, and then blame Blair for Britain supposedly now being 'sick under Labour'


Besides, French people and German people (without a dose of Thatcherism) still maintain a higher standard of living than British people, so where's does that leave the argument?

I really don't know the history of France well enough to debate it with you, but the germans have proportional representation, extream policy, be it right or left wing will be hard to get pased... so socialism wasn't such a problem with the economy and such, as it was here, so you can't really argue that they have a better standard of living without thatcher, when the UK and Germany were never on the same starting block.

One irony is political yo-yoing going on. McMillans fiscal, pro union, high emloyment, Tory govt tells us "we have never had it so good" Callaghans Labour, monetist, high unemmployment, anti union govt and we are told 'we have never had it so bad'. And now Cameron is coming back to no tax cuts and better investment in public services as a priority.

Cameron said he wanted to split a good economy between tax cuts and public services, but hes indicated that he won't be promising tax cuts in his manifesto, because that would be silly, as he dosn't know what the economy will be like whenever the next election is.