Red Eye: benefitted? when is this blinkered romance and totally unfounded pipe dream that the "I'm allright Jack, no such thing as society, elistist" attitude benefits the country as a whole? Education? only the rich can afford advanced education, Health: lets hand over the money to clean hospitals to private firms who then spend so little on staff/training and equipment that our hospitals become breeding grounds for cross infection, nurses pay (never desperately high in the first place) becomes even less attractive and vacancy rates soar, the gap being partially filled by those working for private agencies who charge the NHS a fortune only a small part of which goes to the agency worker. Local Government: Social worker vacancy rates in Local Authorities are currently around 28% the staff that are left sre severly overworked and desperately trying to cover the extra work (and the public wonders why mistakes are made?). Roads full of potholes that the council has no money to repair. Elderly people sent home from hospital, with inadequate support because the authority has raised the criteria because of lack of funding. Care in the community: people with mental health problems taken out of long term residental care and stuck in bedsits with if they are lucky an occasional visit by an overworked social worker. Mines closed and poisoning the rivers as the pumps no longer run, to say nothing of the cost of benefits paid out to families of former miners, (which cost more than subsidising coal) Railtrack: profiteering above safety. Local services, so fragmented between dozens of private firms that there is little effective democratic control or accountability. No, I'm sorry but I do not believe that this country benefitted and one of the worst and most long lasting things she did is still with us in the scapegoating culture she promoted, i.e. the idea that instead of accepting collective responsibility to enable everyone to achieve their potential including those members of our society who start off disadvantaged, instead use them as a target to blame . Jude