Undoubtedly, were Sir Jimmy Savile still alive today, and were he permitted to venture an opinion from within his would-be-incarceration, I am sure that he would express deep, deep sorrow for 'our' nation's 'loss.' As I'm equally sure would General Augusto Pinochet, were he not still wiping the blood of countless victims from his guilty hands. Both were, of course, 'great' personal friends of Thatcher.
Others, for whom the demise of the long dark winter of humanity will be (or might have been) mourned, might include the also-outspoken racist Bernard Manning, pocketer of other people's life savings, Bobby slight-of-hand Diamond, perjurer and wasteful pulper of trees, Sir Jeffrey Archer, the ever-slippery and duplicitous Tony Blair, the black-souled Henry Kissinger and professional liar and rabid accumulator of the 'Free' Press and media, Rupert Murdoch.
Thanks to The Library of Congress
For those, mentioned above, who are no longer still present I, for one, cannot mourn their passing. Their presence left a deep stain upon the globe, which no amount of detergent has yet been able to remove. What's more, I think we're going to have to go for a far stronger brand in future.
No, upon hearing the news of Thatcher's death, I didn't personally rush out into the street and start to party, but I certainly don't begrudge those who did. I quietly sat in front of the TV and poured myself a large glass of ruby red wine. It tasted damn fine, I might add!
Cameron has said that, "She saved our country." Major has said, "The UK was turned around by her." The fawning Blair rattled on about Thatcher having been able to, "Change not only the political landscape of 'her' country but of the world." Reagan's widow spoke of Thatcher and her idiot husband as having been, "Political soul mates, committed to freedom." Clegg talked about her as, "One of the defining figures in modern British politics." Ingham said that she was, "The perfect Prime minister." Johnson blew on about Thatcher having, "Unleashed a spirit of enterprise." It seems almost as if all of these people, every one a major beneficiary under a hugely unequal division of wealth, have been blinded to the genuine and deep hurt and division that this woman caused back here in the real world. It's also conceivable that they just don't care!
Thanks also to AMagill
Allow me, please, to return to the 'wise' words of our 'beloved' PM, Cameron; "The real thing about Margaret Thatcher is that she didn't just lead our country, she saved our country, and I believe she'll go down as the greatest British peacetime Prime Minister." Allow me also to draw your attention to the specific term 'our country' and to encourage you to ponder the cut diamond precision of its meaning. "Our country." What do we suppose Cameron meant when he uttered these words?
Did he mean 'our,' as in belonging to the whole nation? Are we to be included within the cosy confines of 'our,' do we suppose? When Thatcher said, "Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error may we bring truth. Where there is doubt may we bring faith. And where there is despair may we bring hope," she was surely not expressing any great desire to bring 'harmony,' truth,' faith' and most certainly not 'hope' to the wider nation. I think history has shown us, entirely like her spawn, that Thatcher was planning exclusively for the same narrow recipient audience as is Cameron.
It has been complained of by some of those fawningly queueing up to voice their 'respects' that many of those who are equally eager to condemn the Thatcher legacy had not even been born at the time of her ignoble reign. Those very same criticisms might also be levelled at those who, rightly, condemn the actions of Hitler. Now there's a man who, "Changed not only the political landscape of 'his' country but of the world."Are we, henceforth to be forbidden from criticism of the man, unless we actually watched those bombs falling from the skies?
Looks like the slate's soon gonna be wiped clean, Adolph old boy.
And to jasonbolonski
Others who might have been described as "driven," "determined" or "relentless in pursuit of a goal" could include the aforementioned General Augusto Pinochet, Idi Amin, Benito Mussoloini, Joseph Stalin, General Francisco Franco and Pol Pot. All of these tyrants, "Changed the political landscape."
My recollections of Thatcher's reign, just for the record, are of council homes being sold off at well below their market value, thus hastening the huge shift in the nature of the housing of the nation's populace. A shift which has, amongst other damaging consequences, enabled private landlords to ratchet up rents upon slum dwellings to astronomical levels. We now live in a country in which vast numbers of fully employed workers might never again be able to afford their own homes.
I recall the sell-off of all the service industries, again for well below their market values, with the hollow promise of 'competition forcing down prices.' Consequently many of us can no longer afford to adequately heat our homes, as gas and oil suppliers no longer even bother to attempt to conceal their evident greed, or that of their major shareholders.
It would appear that, following Thatcher's stripping-bare of the nation's assets, everything that could be sold-off either has either already long gone or else is in the throes of being hawked. It apparently matters not that various forms of transport, along with all of the major utilities companies, stand as irrefutable evidence that affordability will not be a major consideration in Britain's 'brave' new privatised world. Britain's heritage has already largely been sold off to City-so-called-investors or to wider international interests anyway, but Thatcher's acolytes are still thermalling above the scraps. Thatcher would be so proud!
Thanks greatly, to Marko Rosic
I recall the soul-voided Blair's 'transformation' of the political party that had, several decades earlier, magnificently created perhaps the greatest monument to the nation, the National Health Service. And I watched as those Satanic PFIs set about carving up that (once) envy of the world. Thatcher once infamously described Tony Blair as her greatest legacy. And he certainly served her 'proudly' with his management of all things NHS.
There was, of course, the Poll Tax; an attempt to 'share' out the cost of the old Council Tax, whereby those who resided within an estate the size of a small county might have to 'scrape together' the same payment as someone residing in a poorly plumbed-in box. Thatcher seeking as ever to share out the costs, but never the rewards.
I also witnessed the rewriting of the dictionary, when the English language began its gradual corrupted decline, words taking on an entirely different hue. I think this rehashing was eventually labelled as spin, some time during Disciple Blair's reign. Remember 'Care in the Community,' when thousands of ill and often institutionalised individuals were simply 'set free' to wander the streets? Remember how sleeping rough became suddenly 'acceptable' again? Money saved that might better be utilised as tax breaks for the far-better-off. I don't recall 'care' featuring overly much in this major Thatcher rehash.
And there was a callous disregard for not just certain individuals but for whole communities, targeted as 'The Enemy Within.' That would be groups identified as dangerous to the 'better' management of 'our' country, people who might 'derail' the journey into the brave new dawn. It's my recollection, too, that they weren't even bankers, or likely to have been able to throw 'our' country into anything like the levels of debt that we're currently saddled with, nor, when they were duly dispatched, did they comfortably retire on multi-million pound pensions, tucked away in stately comfort. If they haven't since died they might well be numbering amongst those partying in the streets. I raise a glass to them!
And finally to Harle (Summer is here!)
Let us all hope that there might just be enough deep-mined-coal left to bring about a successful cremation, just in case you understand. Perhaps the woman saved some, just to create that nice cosy atmosphere that only an open fire seems capable of fulfilling of a cold winter's evening.
"She was a mother, with a family," the 'faithful' yet uncaring complain. Let us not then recall how she rejoiced at the deaths of all those upon the 'Belgrano,' let us not recall that her son, Sir Mark Thatcher was a mercenary, with an employment record that might have shamed even his own mother. She certainly didn't seem overly eager, when alive, to discuss her son's role in that attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea. Other people's blood, as their livelihoods, was not of apparent great concern; perhaps this was something of a family trait.
Any attempt to separate the woman from her cold-stone-heartfelt beliefs would be, at best, disingenuous, at worst the creation of an alter-ego that never existed in the first place. So, to understand who Thatcher actually was and what she actually valued and prioritised we should recognise that, whilst taking tea with and lauding the non-existent virtues of the genocidal General August Pinochet, she was happy to be quoted as referring to Nelson Mandela as a terrorist. She also cast genuine caustic tears at the arrest of her mercenary son, Sir Mark Thatcher, a man looking to cash in on arms sales that might have enabled another bloody and internationally illegal coup.
So, whether it be the hasty parking of a house, burying all bar those ruby red slippers, or whether it be the lovingly honed point of a wooden stake fortuitously smuggled in through the mysteriously garlic-shrouded foyer to the Ritz, we should cast open our windows, breathe in that sweet spring air, appreciate the suddenly lighter hue to the sky, step more buoyantly upon a more verdant earth. The sun is brighter, the flowers more radiant, more fragrant, the birdsong more dulcet. Let us together celebrate!
Click your heels together three times and repeat, "There's no place like home."
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