Margaret Thatcher - good or bad for Britain?

Just wanting some thoughts on this...admittedly there are valid arguments for both sides and I personally am torn between them.

In some aspects, I agree with some that say she was bad for Britain in that she introduced the poll tax, caused a decrease in social housing and lead the decline of the mining industry...

However, on the other hand I think that apart from her gender and the sheer duration of her time in parliament, she helped get Britain out of the post-war depression, away from economic recession by introducing privatisation in order to allow people to invest in stocks and gain ownership, for the state to act not as a controller or dictator of peoples lives.
I think that whilst she did decrease the amount of social housing now, part of the blame lies with the succession of governments that failed to budget to build for new social housing, which at the time welcomed Thatcher's policy.

Views?

Mod edit: Please consult any of the other similar threads on this topic in the UK Politics forum:

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=60

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 1

Barksy

The only evidence you need is to look at the country before and the country after. I don't particularly care about the plights of a bitter group who held the taxpayer to ransom.