RIP Margaret Thatcher

Don't see anyone popping the cork here on the site. What has happened on the other side of the pond is a different story.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9982143/Margaret-Thatcher-why-is-she-still-so-demonised.html

 

Possible that she was telly Gorbachev what he wanted to hear?

 

Doesn't seem so. From that same link:

Even in 1990 Mrs Thatcher was still trying to slow things down. “I am convinced that reunification needs a long transition period,” she told Mr Gorbachev. “All Europe is watching this not without a degree of fear, remembering very well who started the two world wars.”

It took another year of tough negotiations involving both Germanies and the four victorious wartime allies before a deal was done on unification.

 

But she's still talking to Gorbachev.

If she was telling this to Bush, or another Western leader, you could be more sure of her intentions.

Russia/Soviet Union has always been paranoid that the West is working to undermine it. Despite the folks here who want to give Gorbachev credit, he was not seeking the destruction of the Warsaw Pact, or the weakening of their "influence" in Eastern Europe.

I would expect that tHatcher would be trying to reassure him, regardless of the policies she was pursuing.

 

"If there was one instance in which a foreign policy I pursued met with unambiguous failure, it was my policy on German reunification."

-- Margaret Thatcher


www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/04/09/i_met_with_unambiguous_failure_thatcher_gorbachev_germany

 

Yeah, it's not disputed even among her supporters that Thatcher was opposed to the reunification of Germany, mostly because she was opposed to the concept of Germany (not an uncommon position among Brits of her generation, to say the least).

Given her similar levels of distaste for European unification, I would imagine she saw Germany's current role as proof that she was right.

 

And those who still question her role in the Hillsborough cover up are certainly justified in doing so.

 

It's not as if he was lived by her own party. She didn't have a graceful exit from Downing Street.

 

Incidentally, there are a few people arguing that she should get a minute's silence at football grounds, including Dave Whelan, chairman of Wigan. There are a lot more people who are politely pointing out how stupid an idea that would be.

That said, it's being done at two rugby grounds. But rugby supporters are generally more genteel than football ones.

 

Of course, it has to be pointed out that the Tories haven't won a general election outright since 1992. David Cameron had to get into a coalition with the Lib Dems last time and everyone expects that he'll be out in the next, in May 2015. That's also Thatcher's legacy to the Conservative Party.

(And in a weird footnote, The Telegraph points out that her only two grandchildren are American: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9983087/Margaret-Thatcher-dies-Two-wives-of-Sir-Mark-Thatcher-to-attend-funeral.html)

 

Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead is set to be the No. 1 song in this week's UK Top 40.

There are apparently rather frantic conversations taking place about whether it should be played on the weekly Top 40 show on Radio 1.

Viral protest campaigns surrounding the Top 40 are not necessarily new; a couple years ago, there was a successful campaign to bump the X-Factor winner out of the traditional Christmas No. 1 spot in favor of Rage Against the Machine's Killing in the Name Of.

 

Ongoing argument over the grandeur of the funeral, too.

Should Mrs. Thatcher's send-off be bigger than Churchill's?

www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/11/thatcher-funeral-pomp-concerns-palace