which UK government had done the most damage to the UK in the past 50 years?

Answer 1

Thatcher managed massive unemployment, massive Interest rates, mass closure of hospitals, schools which resembled ghetto's, the privatisation of virtually everything, then gave us Major. People who call Brown 'dour' should remember him.

And then of course Black Wednesday, the biggest ever loss of revenue for any govt.

Yep, The Tories knew how to damage alright. Mick

Answer 2

The present Government.

Answer 3

Without a shadow of doubt the Thatcher dictatorship. She never listened to the public nor even her own cabinet. She could in her opinion never be wrong. She cared about nothing except her own inflated ego. Just before the Falklands war she was the most unpopular prime minister of all time. She did not like "socialism" and detested the trade unions and was hell bent on destroying them so that the work force was each man for himself. She created huge unemployment and if the unions tried to fight her she threatened mass sackings on the grounds that there were plenty of unemployed people to take their places. She created a "I want and I want now and I will get it by whatever means irrespective of the effect on my fellow workmate" attitude and we are still suffering the consequences.

Answer 4

Although I would like to say Thatcher's, who did great economic and social damage and created a much nastier society, I actually think it was Major's government which was worse.

Not only did they give us the totally stupid privatisation of British rail, but they slapped VAT on domestic fuel (hitting the poorest hardest) and were responsible for the economic catastrophe of Black Wednesday.

They also abolished the last wage protection (Wage Councils), threw away a chance for peace in Ireland, and decided to build the Millennium Dome (without any strategy for what to do with it).

Answer 5

PEOPLE WHO SLAG OFF THATCHER MAKE ME SICK.
THEY ALWAYS COME OUT WITH THIS PHRASE 'OOH SHE MADE EVERYONE SELFISH AND UNCARING'
OH DID SHE????

CAN A POLITICIAN HONESTLY MAKE AN ENTIRE NATION GO AGAINST THERE INTERNAL MORALS AND SUDDENLY MAKE THEM ALL NASTY EVIL CAPITALISTS WHO TRAMPLE OVER EVERYONE....

OH GET REAL!

SELFISH PEOPLE ALWAYS EXISTED, FROM THE ROMAN EMPIRE TO TODAY. WHY ARE THESE MORONS ALLOWED TO KEEP SAYING SUCH RUBBISH??? SHE DIDN'T MAKE ME SELFISH AND UNCARING, SO I CAN ONLY PRESUME THE REST OF YOU REALLY ARE WEAK WILLED.

GET A LIFE AND STOP BLAMING YOUR OWN MISTAKES ON SOMEONE WHO LEFT POWER OVER 16 YEARS AGO!!!!!

COAL WAS GOING DOWN THE PAN ANYWAY,

A LOT OF CRAP BUSINESSES RAN BY INCOMPETENTS AND NINCOMPOOPS WENT UNDER AND SO THEY SHOULD OF.

A LOT OF MILITANT TOSSERS WHO LIKED NOTHING BETTER THAN TO HAVE A SANDWICH AND GO ON STRIKE FOR A YEAR SUDDENLY HAD NO WHERE TO RUN.

SHE IS ONLY UNPOPULAR WITH THE GREAT UNWASHED, STRIKING LAZY UNIONS, WHO REFUSED TO BURY THE DEAD IN THE 70's
I'LL NEVER FORGIVE THE UNIONS FOR THAT, FAR FAR FAR WORSE THAN MRS T.

Answer 6

None - they've all damaged the UK. Labour screwed up in the mid- to-late 70's, Thatcher screwed up in the 80's with her heavy handed approach to the miners and her loss of direction, and Labour screwed up in the 90's and beyond with the kind of deceit you'd expect from a school bully.

Answer 7

The conservative administration under Margaret Thatcher.

I wouldn't make the claim that everything they did was wrong. In purely macroeconomic terms they did turn the economy around. Union power did need to be curbed, though it is a shame that the word 'union' is a bit of a dirty word these days - this is part of the Thatcher legacy.

I think she was quite misguided in her dogmatic adherence to the unproven and idealistic notion that that capitalism, competition and market freedom is the solution to everything.

The country's public services and utilities were wrecked by privatisation. These organisations were owned by the public - they were built and paid for with public money. The public were then very generously offered the chance to buy something they already owned. Most small shareholders who bought shares in privatised utilities wound up getting their fingers burnt, and the prices of these services to the public increased in real terms. Where are the cheaper, more efficient services that were supposed to arise naturally through the invisible hand of free competition?

The newly privatised rail service, with its emphasis on profit rather than safety, saw a series of high-profile, high-mortality accidents within a few years of being broken up into competing companies.

"There is no such thing as society" - this was Thatcher's philosophy. We aren't a collective with common aims, hopes and dreams who work together towards something greater than our selves. We are all just a mass of individual consumers of goods and services driven by our selfish urges to own things or experience things.

During the 70's, I recall that people felt pride in the achievements of humanity. Progress didn't just mean smaller, more powerful consumer gadgets, it meant conquering mountains, putting people on the moon, exploring the ocean depths, making new discoveries in science and medicine. There was a sense of 'we'. When you saw someone walking on the Moon you felt that 'we' did this, not 'they' did this.

I'm not trying to idealise the 70's, there was plenty wrong with the world then and there were plenty of greedy, selfish people around at that time, but there was also a sense of shame about being greedy and selfish. I think that many of society's ills stem from the seeds sown during the 'greed is good' 1980's.

I happen to think that most of what Tony Blair has done wrong during the last ten years stems from his admiration for Margaret Thatcher, and his desire to continue her work rather than repair the damage she did.

Answer 8

The one that is currently in power, without any doubt at all. I will spare you the usual list of failures, but wanting to hand your country over to a foreign entity, the EU, must be the ultimate unpatriotic act. I still think that without the express approval of the British people, it is 'ultra vires' the Government. Bear in mind, that they are our servants, not the other way round.

I see that the usual Thatcher bashers have come out in force. The ones indoctrinated by the lefties to sling mud, but without being able to muster a sensible argument as to why they hold these views, in fact, I bet many of them were too young to even remember the Thatcher years. Throughout the sixties, seventies and early eighties, the Unions destroyed so much of British Industry, and eventually brought the country to its knees. Thatcher came just in time to rescue it.

No party has attacked the fabric and values of this country as much as the current administration. It beggars belief that anyone can think differently.

Answer 9

Thatcher's government from 79 - 90 spawned the selfish "I want Now" culture, undermined collectivism (trade Unions and communities) and sold off national assets to make money for their paymasters in the city.

The places where Her regime was resisted most (Industrial North of England, Scotland, Wales) still retain some elements of community - far more than the greed-driven selfish and solipsistic south of England.

Blair just pandered to it - he didn't have the ability to challenge it and fix it.

Answer 10

The Thatcher government. I know Maggie is an easy target on a personal level, but I don't think people realise the extent to which she dismantled the infrastructure of so much of our institutional Establishment - I'm not talking about taking on the unions, I mean the civil service, education, health - she left them all confused and disempowered.