2. In the UK the elite was primarily from a very small group - a few thousand families - when I was born. This has changed as the UK became more like a meritocracy under Thatcher (they hated her for that!) But further change is needed.
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Replying to @simon_enefer @KEEMSTAR and
Nothing about Thatcher’s reforms were meritocratic. She ruined the rail system and directly led to dozens of accidents.
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Replying to @mediocre_danny @KEEMSTAR and
2. I can just remember pre Thatcher, power cuts massive inflation and a fear that the country was close to collapse. She was hated, after each election she won. You could never find anyone who had voted for her! She was a significant factor in ending the Soviet Union.
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Replying to @simon_enefer @KEEMSTAR and
I’m sure she was. She was also a significant factor in permanently weakening trade unions, sending homelessness rates on the rise, and prolonging the Troubles on false pretenses.
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Replying to @mediocre_danny @KEEMSTAR and
The IRA did try to kill her in Brighton. They were more like Ireland's FARC, more interested in protecting their drug trade and protection rackets than insurgency. Personally I would have shown them what war is really like, having seen their handiwork first hand.
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Replying to @simon_enefer @KEEMSTAR and
But diplomacy ended up being the key all along. What I really take issue to is her using “we don’t negotiate with terrorists” as the excuse and criticizing others for it, while she herself was secretly negotiating with the IRA. And those wouldn’t be her last terrorist talks.
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Replying to @mediocre_danny @KEEMSTAR and
The West has forgotten a major lesson of WW2. You don't just need to militarily defeat an opponent, you need to humiliate them. The allies and Russians did this to Germany and Japan. Changing two of the most militaristic nations in history into pacifist states.
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Replying to @simon_enefer @KEEMSTAR and
The movement for Irish sovereignty should not have been treated as a military adversary, despite its insurgent elements. And those two just became economic imperialists— obviously better than the death cults they were, but still (Japan’s basically part of the US empire though)
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Replying to @mediocre_danny @KEEMSTAR and
The IRA was/is, more concerned with its drug trafficking and protection businesses than a United Ireland. Ireland has done well from the UK since 1922 as its citizens have been able to work in the UK, as if independence never happened. Hopefully that will be stopped post Brexit.
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Replying to @simon_enefer @KEEMSTAR and
but they conflate other groups that WERE concerned with a United Ireland with the gangs and the terrorists. All three of those groups used “IRA” at various points.
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Yes and INLA. These groups were and are involved in the drug trade and operate protection rackets in Northern Ireland.
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