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notjarvis wrote:QUOTE (notjarvis @ Apr 9 2013, 09:58 AM) I'm already fed up of the wall to wall coverage too.

Don't worry, Radio 4 managed to go nearly 3 minutes without mentioning it this morning. Good old Woman's Hour, bucking the trends again.

raumvogel wrote:QUOTE (raumvogel @ Apr 8 2013, 04:53 PM) As a Yank, I hope one of you Brits could explain the reaction to Margaret Thatcher's death.

On Raum's question at the start of this thread -this Graniaud article pretty much sums up many people's feelings on it.

notjarvis wrote:QUOTE (notjarvis @ Apr 9 2013, 07:54 AM) On Raum's question at the start of this thread -this Graniaud article pretty much sums up many people's feelings on it.

Wow, looks like Greenock could be sister city to Detroit. Thanks for the article,NJ.

tsubaki_sanjuro wrote:QUOTE (tsubaki_sanjuro @ Apr 8 2013, 06:08 PM) what happened after she was dumped off was that her immediate successor (major) cut the grant by 30% and replaced it with a loan. agri drank most of this extra money and spent three years afterwards paying it off. blair then came in and got rid of the grant, increased the amount you could be loaned, started allowing universities to set the level of tuition fees and made students pay them. this now means that, if agri were 18 again he would now be looking at a minimum of £27,000 to do his degree just in fees, and would as a result not be going to university. the condition of many graduates - huge debts etc - also means that they are far more vulnerable to employers than agri was, which is my so many of them are doing unpaid "internships" for months or years at a time in the vain hope that they are going to be offered a job.

It's £0 upfront. It's still a stupid system though, less people should go to university.

I'm too young to remember Maggie but I do find the reaction some people under the age of 30 have to her quite amusing, as they are also too young to remember her! The BBC has an interesting article which suggests that things wouldn't be too different if it wasn't for Maggie.

As for me it's something different I take exception to, and that is the Right to Buy scheme and how it was implemented, which is one of the reasons for the screwy housing situation we have in the UK now, which is one of the main reasons for inequality in the country today.

QUOTE I'm not arguing we should dance on her grave or anything, but the people who are arguing she should be practically deified or deserves a state funeral are out of their $#@!ing tree, when she's hated by swathes of the UK.[/quote]
I find the fact that people are arguing for a state funeral to be stupid as she specifically didn't want one! I don't know why some people are rejoicing at her death though. It's not like it actually changes anything at all, unlike eg Gadaffi or Hussein dying, people who actually have power now.

QUOTE I'm already fed up of the wall to wall coverage too.[/quote]
Yup...

Right to Buy would have been a fantastic idea, if only they had used the money to build more council homes. Instead as you say its screwed the country into a load of people who cant afford a house, and a smaller number of people who all followed the "lets become landlords" herd and would lose out quite a bit if the system was ever fixed.

gandalf2 wrote:It's £0 upfront. It's still a stupid system though, less people should go to university.

indeed, but you still have to pay all of that back. the old system was much better, as well as cheaper for everyone concerned.

One-Man-Bucket wrote:QUOTE (One-Man-Bucket @ Apr 9 2013, 01:36 AM) Yesterday was a sad day for soft scoop ice cream enthusiasts everywhere.

Um, she didn't invent that. That was invented in the states in the late 30's.

QUOTE Right to Buy would have been a fantastic idea, if only they had used the money to build more council homes. Instead as you say its screwed the country into a load of people who cant afford a house, and a smaller number of people who all followed the "lets become landlords" herd and would lose out quite a bit if the system was ever fixed.[/quote]
Spot on.

tsubaki_sanjuro wrote:QUOTE (tsubaki_sanjuro @ Apr 10 2013, 06:46 AM) indeed, but you still have to pay all of that back. the old system was much better, as well as cheaper for everyone concerned.

I don't know enough about the old system to comment about it. However the current system, if you don't earn too much (£21,000 at the moment) you pay none of it back. So this current system actually encourages not-very-bright people to go university! I'm not sure if I would've gone to uni under the current system. I went to a very good university but I use little if any of what I learnt there. However I probably wouldn't have got the jobs I have if I didn't have "been to uni" on my CV. I'm still paying back the loans now but should be done by the time I'm 40. Under the current system I probably would still be going at age 60.