I wish Margaret Thatcher a long and unpleasant death. I don’t care about her reputation as Ronnie Reagan’s buddy, she was a harsh leader who enriched her friends in the south east of Britain at the expense of the rest of the country. Her awful legacy is still being felt in the greed and dishonesty that marks British wealth and upper management.
From today’s Guardian: “The first [effect] is what changed in the temper of Britain and the British. What happened at the hands of this woman’s indifference to sentiment and good sense in the early 1980s brought unnecessary calamity to the lives of several million people who lost their jobs. It led to riots that nobody needed. More insidiously, it fathered a mood of tolerated harshness. Materialistic individualism was blessed as a virtue, the driver of national success. Everything was justified as long as it made money – and this, too, is still with us.”
(My words:) The beneficiaries of this were the City men (and women) who drive Jags and live in the wealthy suburbs and hate the working class. Money and the pursuit of it overrules all else. That’s still the case. The criminally bad management and naked greed that led to the 2008/9 UK bank failures is evidence of this, and it’s still going on! Tax avoidance is regarded as top fashion.
[The Guardian] “[Under her leadership] … the sense of community evaporated. There turned out to be no such thing as society, at least in the sense we used to understand it. Whether pushing each other off the road, barging past social rivals, beating up rival soccer fans, or idolising wealth as the only measure of virtue, Brits became more unpleasant to be with. This regrettable transformation was blessed by a leader who probably did not know it was happening because she didn’t care if it happened or not. But it did, and the consequences seem impossible to reverse.”
“But on the subject of Europe, Thatcher became a contradictory figure. She led Britain further into Europe, while talking us further out. Endeavouring to persuade the British into an attitude of hostility to the group with which she spent 11 years deepening their connection must take a high place in any catalogue of anti-statesmanship. This, too, we still live with.”
(My words:) Cameron and his elitist, Eton/Oxford, anti-society, anti-welfare government are still defying Europe, still being obstinate, still throwing stones under the horses’ hooves, still being perfidious Albion. They idolised Margaret Thatcher.
“… Thatcher was a naturally, perhaps incurably, divisive figure. It was part of her conspicuous virtue, her indifference to familiar political conventions. It came to a head over her most egregious policy failure, Europe. She lost seven cabinet ministers on the Europe question, a record that permeated the party for years afterwards. It still does.”
In my personal opinion, she was a cruel, callous harridan, bent on having her own way, regardless of the effect on people’s lives. As someone said today, she cared nothing for Scotland for example, and the result is that Scotland hated her, and even 30 years later, is probably going to leave the union. Go for it, I say.
Have a nice death, Maggie. Good riddance.
PS: from The Guardian again: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/1990/nov/23/past.conservatives
People are saying, “She won the Falklands War.” Bullshit! She caused the deaths of a hundred or more (more! it was 255) British servicemen and 649 Argentinians. It made her into a heroine, but the cost in human lives! It’s all very well to cheer and wave flags, but if you’ve lost a husband, father or son, see how you feel about war. And if you’re left grievously wounded, crippled, mentally damaged or disfigured for life, you can thank Maggie.
John Howard is in the same mould. The 2003 Iraq war was illegal! He committed Australian troops to a war which was never sanctioned by the UN, without any reference to cabinet, any debate in Parliament or any discussion with the Australian people. It was a futile war based on spurious information, simply so Howard could show he was a good buddy to Bush Junior. It caused the deaths of a hundred thousand or more Iraqis and is still doing so. The situation in Iraq is worse now than before he took us there. In my opinion, he is a war criminal.
Bull's Roar 