"You forget the economy is there to serve us - its not just some abstract beast." -WLD

There you are mistaken, it is the elected Government that is there to serve the people, the economy is the abstract beast that provides them with the where-with-all to do it.

The Conservative Government that Margaret Thatcher led was elected specifically to bring about change, the electorate of the country had had enough of "beer and sandwiches and secret deal" politics. The one thing everyone should expect of a leader is that they should lead and that includes not shying away from unpopular decisions.

The "bloody silly money" you say was wasted in Northern Ireland kept the vast majority of the people of Northern Ireland safe and prevented what could so easily have escalated into a full blown civil war.

Unnecessary as Iraq? Let's see what has been accomplished in Iraq WLD:

- Iraq no longer poses a threat to its neighbours in the region
- Iraq no longer pursues the development and manufacture of WMD
- Iraq no longer acts as a sponsor for international terrorists
- A major illegal network engaged in promoting covert proliferation of nuclear weapons has been exposed and stopped.
- North Korea is no longer pursuing her nuclear weapons programme
- Libya has abandoned its WMD programmes and given up its secret nuclear weapons programme.
- Iran's secret nuclear weapons programme has been exposed and Iran now finds its every move under international scrutiny.
- Syria has given up its virtual occupation of Lebanon after 25 years.

Now apart from that and other points raised in my previous post is there anything of any substance that you would like to discuss?