RIP Margaret Thatcher

[Huggy]

I doubt Paul Weller is crying over this.

Might be. He leaned Tory.

Weller on the start of The Style Council:

"It wasn't a time to be non partisan," reflects Paul. "It was too serious a time, too extreme. I wasn't waving the Labour party flag but the socialist red flag that's for sure. In The Jam I didn't want to be a part of any movement. But this was different. Thatcher got into power in 1979, and from the Falklands war onwards, that was her wielding her power, the trade unions were being worn down, we had the miners strike, there was mass unemployment, there were all these issues, you had to care and if you didn't you had your head in the sand or didn't give a fork about anyone but yourself. You couldn't sit on the fence. It was very black and white then. Thatcher was a tyrant, a dictator."

That's entertainment.

Very polarizing figure in my house. My old man, a hardcore Scottish Labour man, only felt she was worthy when she was sending the ships to the Falklands. He thought it was too bad they couldn't have picked up a forking layabout like me to put me to work for once. (I was 16, 17 at the time.)

 

[deskslave]

As has been pointed out elsewhere, there's a degree of irony that she worked so hard to preserve the Union with Northern Ireland but is also a huge part of the underlying motivation for the Scottish independence referendum.

 

[britwrit]

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the last two Labour Party heads, made absolutely no attempt to rollback the Thatcherite economic legacy. So her impact was enormous.

Wierdly, though, she's like Jim Callaghan, the Prime Minister who presided over the "Winter of Discontent" in 1979 (strikes, strikes and more strikes.) He also faded away from the public scene long before his death, and like him, I don't see her actual death as causing any great ruckus.

 

[Azrael]

Also: not great on apartheid. And supported Pinochet.

 

[Uncle.Ruckus]

"Let's privatise her funeral. Put it out to competitive tender and accept the cheapest bid. It's what she would have wanted." -- Ken Loach

 

[Huggy]

Her two memoirs are recommended reading for political junkies on either side of the pond.

 

[TigerVols]

I doubt Paul Weller is crying over this.

Amen.

Stand down, Margaret.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/04/08/margaret_thatcher_vs_pop_culture.html

 

[Stoney]

The Huffington Post called her polarizing. Gee, and they don't see that with the current President of the former colonies.

Anybody who'd quibble with the use of "polarizing" to describe Thatcher is either clueless or just looking for a fight. If that word ever fit anyone, it's her. Deskslave nailed it in his first post at the start of this thread, Brits either loved or loathed her, with extraordinarily few in the middle.

 

[tapintoamerica]

Count Morrissey among those not broken up by this. I believe "Margaret on the guillotine" was in the Smiths' catalogue.

 

[dog eat dog world]

As has been pointed out elsewhere, there's a degree of irony that she worked so hard to preserve the Union with Northern Ireland but is also a huge part of the underlying motivation for the Scottish independence referendum.

I'll take "What does Scotland and Texas have in common" for $500, Alex.

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

Who will make up the US delegation at her funeral?

Would Obama go?

 

[Captain Obvious]

As has been pointed out elsewhere, there's a degree of irony that she worked so hard to preserve the Union with Northern Ireland but is also a huge part of the underlying motivation for the Scottish independence referendum.

I'll take "What does Scotland and Texas have in common" for $500, Alex.

Poor infrastructure and inflated sense of importance?