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 Originally Posted by Duffryn
Pity many of your "facts" are incorrect. Diana Gould repeatedly asked Thatcher why she had sunk the Belgrano when it was steaming away from the Falklands. She denied that it was, although appeared badly rattled. Probably because she was lying. Her Government later prosecuted Civil Servant Clive Ponting for leaking information that the Belgrano was sailing away from the Falklands and that the Government had lied. Despite him being clearly guilty, the jury acquitted him.
why don't actually check the facts before saying that . from the links i posted above the UK intercepted orders for the belgrano to sail south, The Argentine government had been warned via the swiss embassy that " Her Majesty's Government now wishes to make clear that any approach on the part of Argentine warships, including submarines, naval auxiliaries or military aircraft, which could amount to a threat to interfere with the mission of British Forces in the South Atlantic will encounter the appropriate response. All Argentine aircraft, including civil aircraft engaged in surveillance of these British forces, will be regarded as hostile and are liable to be dealt with accordingly."
Interviews conducted by Martin Middlebrook for his book, The Fight For The Malvinas, indicated that Argentine Naval officers understood the intent of the message was to indicate that any ships operating near the exclusion zone could be attacked.
In late 2011, Major David Thorp, a former British military intelligence officer who led the signals intercept team aboard HMS Intrepid, released the book The Silent Listener detailing the role of intelligence in the Falklands War. In the book he stated that despite the fact that the Belgrano was observed by the Conqueror sailing away from the Falklands at the time of the attack, it had actually been ordered to proceed to a rendezvous point within the Exclusion Zone.[51][52] A report prepared by Thorp for Thatcher several months after the incident stated the destination of the vessel was not to her home port as the Argentine Junta stated; the report was not released because the Prime Minister did not want to compromise British signals intelligence capabilities."
The decision to order the attack was taken on the basis of the intercepted order for the Belgrano to head into the exclusion zone as part of an attack force. Thatcher clearly couldn't reveal the extent of the intelligence reports in the TV interviews without compromising the intelligence gathering .
I am also sick of Thatcher's acolytes denigrating the seventies. I have suffered more power cuts in the last 5 years through privatised electricity companies failing to maintain the infrastructure adequately, than during the seventies. Her fan club drones on about having to wait for a 'phone like it’s the end of the world, but fail to mention that under Thatcher you had to wait 8 months for a driving test.
really? I took my driving test in 1982 ,2 months after my birthday and that included my driving lessons. Waiting time was probably less than 3 weeks after applying for it. Where did you get that statistic from? And combined with another unprovable anecdotal electricity example. The privatised leccy companies have a financial interest in keeping the network working to avoid having to compensate customers for being cut off for extended periods , whether its their fault or due to extreme weather.
I'd love to know why the eighties, with its riots, escalating crime, mass unemployment, selling off state assets at bargain prices, increasing homelessness and me, me, me greed were so much better.
Because the economy was transformed , industry became efficient and could compete for orders and generate profits , and provide the tax income on them and then generate new jobs. Customers could order goods confident that delivery in the required timeframe was likely without strikes interfering.Escalating crime also coincided with increasing drugs availablility, many appreciated the chance to be able to own their own homes, the mistakes were not to recycle the money generated into building new social housing ,in not doing more to tackle the rising teen pregnancy rate which further depleted the availability of the social housing that remained .
I don't disagree thathe greed culture was bad , and we are still stuck with the bankers bonuses, and footballers wages showing how disruptive it is. In fact Football is proball a classic example of how britain was at the end of the seventies. Badly run companies with unaffordable wage costs in severe financial trouble. When the likes of Portsmouth coventry etc go bust the workforce will be out of jobs and there will be collateral damage amongst the businesses surrrounding /supplying the clubs with a knock on effect on families.
Thatcher did not save the country. She ruined it. No serious economist disputes that her ideological adherence to monetary theory made the recession of the early 80s worse. Whole swathes of perfectly viable manufacturing companies were killed off by record interest rates and a high pound. Unemployment has never returned to the level it was in the 70s and Thatcher created an underclass that the Government is throwing money at today. Her greatest success was in depoliticising most of the country, so they swallow nonsense like she made the country a better place and are only concerned with getting the latest gadget and what talentless celebrities are doing.
Now whole swathes of viable companies are being killed despite the record low interest rates because they are unable to get credit . If unemployment was such a barrier to people getting jobs , why are whole swathes of eastern europeans now filling british jobs. Generally they work harder and have a desire to improve themselves. Take a million eastern europeans out of the equation and there would have been a million more jobs for the brits. The brits didn't want those jobs though , many would far rather stay on benefits and watch telly all day.
The last point is complete rubbish as people have always wanted the latest gadget and what the celebrity gossip is , the only thing that has changed is the medium used.
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