Complete horse, at any other time we would have left a tiny spec on the map to its fate and negotiated a hand over, being well behind in the polls and looking like being ousted at the impending election was very much on her mind.

See Hong Kong, where the wishes of the residents counted for squat when it came to making a sacrifice to keep the Chinese sweet.

Great point.



As for the BBC it's really plummeted over the past decade or perhaps that's just me being more aware of media bias than. Whatever the case, I'm lost to remember the last time their news team blew the lid off something. The only time, it seems, when the BBC does tackle an issue it's due to [iPanorama[/i rather than a news story they've broken. Same with comedy. Since Sachsgate, it's comedy has been mediocre with the odd exception. This is exactly how the governments would like it though. A barely critical public service news source that is gradually getting less and less relevant, being superseded by any number of online news outlets. I'm just wondering when it's going to get put up for privatisation.

Tony Blair said he would fought the war too. Can't recall him ever needing to win an election after being well behind in the polls.

Tony Blair wasn't even a Member of Parliament when the Falklands Confilict was started and won.

So what? He was asked whether he would have done the same thing as Thatcher and he confirmed he would have, so for Big Graeme to say "at any other time we would have left a tiny spec on the map to its fate and negotiated a hand over", is not the case, as if Blair had been in office he would have also done as Thatcher had.

I don't see your relevance, WTF has it got to do with Tony Blair, the PM was Margaret Thatcher, the Government was a Conservative one, it was the decision of the MP's in the Commons at that moment in time as was the decision to invade Iraq at the time of Blairs government - you can't defend decisions in hindsight by attributing them to people who weren't even part of the decision making process.





And when I say "the decision of MP's in the Commons" I include MP's of all party's.



Just not the ones who weren't actually MP's at the time.

This thing about Thatcher winning in 1983 because of the Falklands is a bit of a myth. There was no reason to believe at the time that a war would help reelection anyway - you would have thought that Churchill would have benefited from a khaki election, after winning WW2, but he got voted out in a landslide defeat by Attlee in 1945.



But also from a tactical point of view, fighting the Falklands war was a massive political risk for Thatcher. If we had lost she would almost certainly have had to resign and a lot of the advice she was receiving was that this was going to be a very difficult fight to win. The safe political option would have been to go for some 'diplomatic settlement' that accepted the Argentinan invasion, and Thatcher (rightly) was not prepared to accept that.



I am not a Thatcher lover by any means but you have to get the facts straight over why she won in 1983. It was basically the same reason she won a majority of over 100 in 1987, when there was no Falklands and no 'longest suicide note in history' Labour manifesto and no Michael Foot. It was because the opposition was split. The SDP-Liberal Alliance hoovered up close to a quarter of the electorates votes in those elections, because of first past the post they didn't get that many seats of course, but it meant they ate away the left/centre left vote. Meanwhile on the opposite side, Thatcher getting 42% or so was able to win landslides.

What proof of this is there?



"at any other time we would have left a tiny spec on the map to its fate and negotiated a hand over"

The Falklands campaign and victory was a helpful contributory factor to her election success as were several of the other points you have duly noted.

The 'Gang of Four' turncoats, Doctor Death, Woy Jenkins, Williams and Rodgers, most definitely did immense damage.

Proof ?



Its his opinion you idiot.

Quote Big Graeme="Big Graeme"Complete horse, at any other time we would have left a tiny spec on the map to its fate and negotiated a hand over, being well behind in the polls and looking like being ousted at the impending election was very much on her mind.'" More myths: the earliest poll taken (7 April 1982) after the Falklands invasion (2 April) had the polls at: CON 31.5%, LAB 29.0%, SDP/LIB 37.0%. So given that the Tories had a small lead over Labour at the time and were only behind the Alliance in the polls, why take such a political risk in fighting a war you have a high chance of losing? It wasn't in early 1982 that Thatcher was well behind in the polls, it was in 1980. In December 1980 it was CON 32.0%, LAB 56.0%, LIB 11.0%. The big turning point in the polls, which shredded Labour, was the formation of the Alliance in early 1981. Labour dropped to the mid 30s after that. During the next term, Thatcher was in more trouble in the polls in 1986 than she was in 1982, she was ten points down on Kinnock's Labour a year away from the 1987 election but still won 100 seat majority, there was no 'Falklands factor' then. Remember as well that at this time the Labour party was scoring own goals over Militant and infighting between Bennites and those on the centre of the party which also played in Thatcher's favour. Historic opinion poll data can be downloaded here: www.markpack.org.uk/opinion-polls/

Quote Big Graeme="Big Graeme"Complete horse, at any other time we would have left a tiny spec on the map to its fate and negotiated a hand over, being well behind in the polls and looking like being ousted at the impending election was very much on her mind.'" More myths: the earliest poll taken (7 April 1982) after the Falklands invasion (2 April) had the polls at: CON 31.5%, LAB 29.0%, SDP/LIB 37.0%. So given that the Tories had a small lead over Labour at the time and were only behind the Alliance in the polls, why take such a political risk in fighting a war you have a high chance of losing? It wasn't in early 1982 that Thatcher was well behind in the polls, it was in 1980. In December 1980 it was CON 32.0%, LAB 56.0%, LIB 11.0%. The big turning point in the polls, which shredded Labour, was the formation of the Alliance in early 1981. Labour dropped to the mid 30s after that. During the next term, Thatcher was in more trouble in the polls in 1986 than she was in 1982, she was ten points down on Kinnock's Labour a year away from the 1987 election but still won 100 seat majority, there was no 'Falklands factor' then. Remember as well that at this time the Labour party was scoring own goals over Militant and infighting between Bennites and those on the centre of the party which also played in Thatcher's favour. Historic opinion poll data can be downloaded here: www.markpack.org.uk/opinion-polls/