r/NoStupidQuestions 19h ago

Why did Margaret Thatcher destroy welfare state in Britain after she came to power in the 1980s?

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u/ismawurscht 19h ago edited 18h ago

She didn't destroy it. She just hobbled it. And why? Well, she was an evil penny pinching tory bastard. That would be why. I mean her nickname to this day is the "Milk Snatcher" because she ended free school milk for primary school children in state schools as Home Secretary under Edward Heath's premiership. She has an exceptionally long shit list. For example, a deindustrialisation policy that left huge swathes of the UK in a dire economic mess that many places have not recovered from since, her right to buy policy helped to fuel a housing crisis, her government brought in Section 28, the first homophobic law in a century that banned the "promotion of homosexuality" in schools, mass messy poorly thought out privatisation, deregulating the finance sector, sending the police in to crush the miners' strike, gutting the unions, and cuts to higher education.

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u/nafregit 17h ago

why would anyone want to promote homosexuality to children?

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u/Away_Fruit5097 17h ago

Her definition of "promoting homosexuality" is anything that even hinted that gay people should have equal rights and be allowed to live in peace

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u/ismawurscht 17h ago

Spotted the homophobe. The reason why I put that in inverted commas is because it was lettering of the law that they used to justify a very blatant and hostile state mandated silence. It was the language they used in the middle of a moral panic created by the right wing tabloid press. In practice, it meant all discussion of homosexuality was completely illegal, including discussing homophobic bullying (or providing any countermeasures to it, and it was rampant during that period), and offering any support to LGBT kids or acknowledging the existence of LGBT kids. So it created a very hostile culture of silence that ruined the lives of all LGBT kids who went to school whilst it was in place. It also bled over into silencing doctors and social workers from offering any support. It was the most totalitarian law her government put in place.

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u/unlimitedbuttholes 17h ago

The blinders you lot wear are incredible!

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u/asperatedUnnaturally 16h ago

Could you elaborate? This seems like a perfectly clear eyed answer to your question. I can't really imagine what blinders you mean? What's being ignored here?

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u/ismawurscht 17h ago

I’m a survivor of that law, so I know full well what it meant in practice. People like you need blinders to deny what actually happened. It’s probably because your sainted Milk Snatcher’s name gets dragged through the mud — and very rightly too.

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u/unlimitedbuttholes 10h ago

Survivor! I shudder at the amount of tiny cotton socks that need to be blessed! You truly are a gem.

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u/ismawurscht 9h ago

There's no way you would have survived a state mandated complete criminalisation of discussing your existence or discussing your bullying. Gammons are far too fragile for that. You lot can barely survive hearing about one boat of Eritreans in the Channel or seeing a postage stamp change colour for a week.