Who do I think I am? For having an opinion? I don't recall calling you a scrounger so don't call me an arsehole, as if there's any need for it. At the end of the day, she didn't let people sit around doing nothing and get paid for it, which is exactly what New Labour have done. And that's also why that side of British culture will hate her. What's the point in even getting off your arse to do something with your life if you can just sit at home and get by anyway. This is the attitude now and it's lead to laziness in the extreme. It's clear to all that the economy was a hell of a lot stronger after Thatcher, and that is the point I was making. I don't recall saying anything about an industry in particular?

The Unions had the country on its knees and she wouldn't put up with that. Good for her.

You can't have it both ways though. I can see from your location why you probably hate Thatcher, mining communities obviously hate her and probably rightly so, but I wonder if you'd be enjoying the UK as it is today without the way she changed things. I know the city is hated at the moment, but that is solely down to commercial loans which should have had stiffer regulation, not their other activities which have generated vast amounts of cash for the UK over the years, and she was the one who was pretty much responsible for it.

I would also bet my life savings that she wouldn't have had us in Iraq the second time or Afghanistan, but again that's getting away from my original point.