Comments by "" (@lonevoice) on "Did Thatcher Ruin or Save the UK Economy?" video.

  1. This is a problem with leaders. They get voted in but we never know what we are really getting or how far they will go. Political / government leadership is a medieval relic that should have been consigned to the past long ago but is still entrenched with us today. Just look at the problems that we get all around the world that we probably wouldn't otherwise get. Norman St.John Stevas gave us something of an example of what we could have. Thatcher kicked him out of her cabinet as being a "wet". She saw the world in terms of black and white whereas he saw it in terms of shades of grey. After that and as Leader of the House of Commons he was able to set. up our modern day cross party system of Select Committees. By the time Thatcher realised what he had done it was too late. It was a system that could challenge the executive. For me though, this is what the executive should be. A smallish cross party board, all with equal rights and ability to say what they like. The politics of this would be allowed to evolve rather than swing about widely. Annual, generally online general elections may also cut out short termism that we are plagued with. The board may elect a chairperson and spokesperson but it is the board that is in control, not a leader. I also see a more stable and knowledgeable civil service as providing the functions of state to the collective board. We need to change and I don't think we have a choice.
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  2. Really? I must have missed the reference to Brexit. I also thought that it as reasonably balanced. Not sure of what you mean by property ownership and wealth accumulation by the common man. In todays' terms the council house sell off was something like a £100 bn giveaway by the state and many who took it up are today's landlords. As a result of this the common man today, particularly the younger ones, have no chance of buying and often struggle to even rent a house. The video didn't skirt over the issue of union dominance and the need to control inflation. It did mention the wastage of North Sea oil revenue, it did mention how Thatcher managed to make much of the North so much poorer whilst the City became richer. The combined Thatcher and Reagan financial deregulation sowed the seeds for the 2008 global financial crash as well as the surge that we have seen in asset prices such as shares and property, and the massive surge in private debt, which in itself fuelled part of UK growth.
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