All these damn rules controlling every aspect of life!

Not in private :-)

Dave

I think you're right to say that spending on NHS administration increased. The Tory government set up brand new jobs in the NHS dealing just with the shuttling of money.

decent wages and

Decent wages yes, but back in the late '70's I'm not at all convinced about the quality of that work (with notable exceptions, some things are worse now than back then, mainly die to office bound accountants running the 'shop floor').

selling

another 30

After a

competitors

No, it was a problem with the unions not wanting any cuts in manning, the problems were in place BEFORE Thatcher, indeed if you read the '79 Labour manifesto you will see that these problems are mentioned and that they will have to be dealt with. Thatcher chose to use north sea revenue, who know what a Labour government would have used, we will never know [1].

I'm no fan of Thatcher but I can look at things objectively, credit were credit is due and criticism were criticism is due, she made some right blunders, but then so did the preceding Labour administration - just how much did we owe to the IMF by May '79 (which would probably have been repaid from oil revenue under any post '79 Labour administration)?...

The unemployment would have been worse if they hadn't.

You can't have it both ways :-)

How many additional quangos and civil servants have the present Govt added to the public payrool?

Owain

Pot, meet kettle. Kettle, this is black.

Plus ca change and all that then.

Cheers Clive

Yes the failure is typical of British management and poor investment policies. No, Thatcher had nothing to do with it. The company failed in 78 under a Labour government. Industry should not need taxpayers money. The capital markets can provide adequate funding if the product/service is sound. The US grows industrial companies at a very rapid rate, which are not taxpayer subsidised.

Thatcher was the person who did not allow BL to go into liquidation. A very bad mistake, as inefficiency continued until the company finally collapsed last year.

Re Major:-

Badly. The whole operation should have been privatised and price decontrolled as one entity IMO. There is no case for the majority of taxpayers to subsidise the travel costs of a small minority(except perhaps in poor rural areas). Airlines etc don't need subsidies(unless they are American/European with poor control of wages and efficiency due largely to union strength/greed). Given a few (5?) years for rail fare adjustments to an economic level and provide a real return on capital, the market will sort out the mess the politicians always produce. The folly of increasing population density in city centres was recognised in the 40's, and action taken, but appears to now have been forgotten, resulting in unbelievably squalid travelling and living conditions at the present time. The same policy mistakes are now being repeated with London Underground under Bliar/Livingston. The general public will pick up the tab as usual.

Regards Capitol

Is the cow dead?

..and tiers of management to quantify each action in order to sell off.

Bestie, do you do it a lot?

Jerry.please get professional help.

I didn't mean to suggest that she did; just that she failed to correctly identify the problem.

Not so. Investment requires government policy - tax breaks &c - that encourage the right investments. That policy may need to be backed up with sound government resources (eg North sea Oil) where there is a need to catch up on years of underinvestment. The Labour governments have a perfect excuse as they spent every bit of 64-70 and 74-79 getting the economy back on track after being severely de-railed by the previous government. The Tories 55-64 and

It would have been interesting if BMW had the funds to actually turn it round.

Oh I will believe every word you say - when you post a verifiable source. But on this issue I know you can't and I also know precisely why you can't and that is because what you say is simply NOT correct.

Don't let the bare facts get in the way of the truth on NHS funding......and your totally misguided support for the most hated woman in history.

Must be the new medication, or he cut and pasted from somewhere.

(a) I don't support her. I just believe in people telling the truth & (b) how do you get the spittle off your screen keyboard, etc?

Must be a cut and paste!

NT

Matt, how is your mussie?