[Yudster]

Gotcha.

[The Deadly]

Margaret Thatcher defended the Falkland Islands, looking after our citizens. Blair sent our troops to die on an absolute lie. Not only did he kill our troops he also has the blood of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children on his hands.

I'm hoping nobody here can dispute that.

[hdsport82]

Margaret Thatcher defended the Falkland Islands, looking after our citizens. Blair sent our troops to die on an absolute lie. Not only did he kill our troops he also has the blood of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children on his hands.

I'm hoping nobody here can dispute that.

Only to say she was negligent before the invasion.

[Bruvva]

A more cynical man than I would say she knew damn well what she was doing with the falklands before the Argentinians invaded, worked out surprisingly well for her in the general election that happened soon after as well.

On a side issue, some sports correspondent on the beeb was trying to credit her improving the "match day experience" for football fans. I nearly spat my cornflakes out. This was the woman who HATED the sport and did her best to kill it off by trying to introduce an id card scheme for supporters. Took Hillsborough to scupper that idea (and if anyone thinks she wasn't aware of the police lies after that, then they're naive).

[Nicola_Red]

I loved this quote from Billy Bragg:

This is not a time for celebration. The death of Margaret Thatcher is nothing more than a salient reminder of how Britain got into the mess that we are in today. Raising a glass to the death of an infirm old lady changes none of this.

If he isn't being a dick about it, nobody has to be. And by that I don't really mean anyone here - more some people I know on facebook than anyone.

[Wykey]

I loved this quote from Billy Bragg:

This is not a time for celebration. The death of Margaret Thatcher is nothing more than a salient reminder of how Britain got into the mess that we are in today. Raising a glass to the death of an infirm old lady changes none of this.

If he isn't being a dick about it, nobody has to be. And by that I don't really mean anyone here - more some people I know on facebook than anyone.

I've a lot of respect for Mr Bragg, and I wish I could feel the same clear-headed right thinking way - but I know too many people who were affected by her to not feel as though the spirit of the nation has lifted albeit by a tiny amount with her no longer being here.

And I can't help but read the things my friends and peers keep saying. This for a prime example...

For
The Miners
The Shipbuilders
The Steelworkers
The Old that Froze to Death
The Old that Couldn't Afford Food
For the Thousands Made Homeless

For
The North
The Disenfranchised Black Youth
The Lost Generation of Young
The Hillsborough families
The men dead in a conflict designed to win her an election
The men traumatised from the Falklands War
For Northern Ireland

For
my mam and dad
my Grandparents
my brother
every LGBT kid who committed suicide due to Section 28 in schools
The teachers
The victims of gaybashing which were never investigated due to pressure from her government
For the gay men stitched up and banged up for being gay

For
The women of Greenham Common who were beaten and had their kids forcibly taken into care for no reason
For the men and women assaulted in the Battle of the Beanfield
For the men and women consigned to the scrapheap
For the services that used to belong to all of us and now are badly run in the hands of the rich
For the country that used to stand for social justice and created the National Health Service
The mentally ill thrown out on the streets
The children abused in care homes and ignored or worse abused by some in her government

I celebrate the death of a woman who caused so much pain

[Nicola_Red]

Ah, it's not that I don't understand all that. I'm just kind of a hippy at heart and I can't celebrate any death - and I had the exact same conversation on here with people when Bin Laden was killed!

I also think sweeping generalisations are dangerous - I'm from a Northern working class family, and my parents were Tory voters. My dad hated Labour, and would mutter darkly about three-day weeks and binbags in the street - and it's true that they grew more prosperous under Thatcher's rule than they had been before. She was no longer PM by the time I went to uni, but the Tories were still in power, and I had a free university education under their government. I don't want anyone rejoicing in her death on my behalf just cos I'm from "the North".

[Yudster]

The short termist policies where what got her re-elected - we are only really feeling the bite of them now. Yes, the Labour administrations of the seventies had allowed massive problems to develop and had no forward thinking ideas to either stop them or deal with them. However using all that as an excuse to dismantle the economic infrastructure of Britain for short term gain (short term for most people, the only people to emerge with any lasting benefits were the people who really didn't need it in the first place) and leave us with this mess was despicable - but back in the eighties the 21st century seemed a LONG way off and the electorate, fed up with the problems of the previous decade, was easily seduced by the short term gain and happy to ignore the warnings about what would follow. And lets not even get started on how she tried to kill the NHS and left it bleeding from the wound which is still killing it slowly now.

Her death doesn't make me want to party either, it does nothing but make me sad that she was ever there.

[bmstinton93]

Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead is currently sitting at Number 2 on iTunes. The song is 51 seconds long and weighs in at 79p. That's mental!

[Wykey]

Sadly, I've heard tell that it's too short to be listed in the radio 1 top 40.

[Wykey]

Ah, it's not that I don't understand all that. I'm just kind of a hippy at heart and I can't celebrate any death - and I had the exact same conversation on here with people when Bin Laden was killed!

I was more trying to convey my own mixed emotions - I agree with you, usually I'd be vehement in my respect for the person as a daughter, wife, mother...

[Yudster]

Excellent and compassionate piece on the passing of Thatcher by Russell Brand.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/09/russell-brand-margaret-thatcher

[bmstinton93]

Sadly, I've heard tell that it's too short to be listed in the radio 1 top 40.

The official charts twitter page tweeted that it was eligible.

Edit: http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-new ... eath-2151/

[Nicola_Red]

Excellent and compassionate piece on the passing of Thatcher by Russell Brand.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/09/russell-brand-margaret-thatcher

That is a great article. I always find him a really articulate and intelligent writer.

[Yudster]

He is isn't he? And I always enjoy his TV appearances too. I'm not sure why, but I really seem to want to dislike him and I find it very difficult.

[Wykey]

I find his act to be tedious and decidedly unfunny, but when he's out of character he's engaging, erudite and has a depth of understanding quite rare these days.

[Wykey]

Sadly, I've heard tell that it's too short to be listed in the radio 1 top 40.

The official charts twitter page tweeted that it was eligible.

Edit: http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-new ... eath-2151/

Marvellous

[MK Chris]

Firstly, Deadly, did you read the article I linked to? It sums up incredibly accurately how I feel about not 'speaking ill of the dead'.

Secondly, Russell Brand is a very clever bloke. I like him as a bloke, but not a comedian... it did take me some time to come to this conclusion, since I never liked his comedy, I always avoided his TV appearances.

[Yudster]

If speaking ill of someone is justified, then what the hell does it matter if they are alive or dead?

[MK Chris]

Exackerly.

[Yudster]

Ha! I reckon I am the only person on here whose milk she actually DID steal! And for me, she was welcome to it - school milk was revolting and to be honest, I was happier without it!

[The Deadly]

Firstly, Deadly, did you read the article I linked to? It sums up incredibly accurately how I feel about not 'speaking ill of the dead'.

Secondly, Russell Brand is a very clever bloke. I like him as a bloke, but not a comedian... it did take me some time to come to this conclusion, since I never liked his comedy, I always avoided his TV appearances.

I read it but it justifies nothing. You are a disgrace and I'm looking forward to when someone you respect dies so I can rub your liberal face in it.

[MK Chris]

The thing is, I was joking when I did the *dance* thing at the start deliberately to get people's backs up and start a debate... but actually all the eulogising is disrespectful to the people whose lives she ruined. And yes, many of them were extremely hard working.

[Nicola_Red]

I had school milk, but apparently Thatcher ended free milk in 1971 when she was education secretary, so I guess my parents must have had to pay for it. It was revolting though. Always warm.

[Wykey]

Firstly, Deadly, did you read the article I linked to? It sums up incredibly accurately how I feel about not 'speaking ill of the dead'.

Secondly, Russell Brand is a very clever bloke. I like him as a bloke, but not a comedian... it did take me some time to come to this conclusion, since I never liked his comedy, I always avoided his TV appearances.

It took an interview on LBC about an hour after he'd been on TCMS - basically on TCMS he was in character, and doing his pretty average Stephen Fry/Oscar Wilde impression - saying 'intimidating' long words without any sort of context at all - then he was on LBC talking about teenage drug use and the social impact of criminalising drug users.

It was like night and day, and I realised that his 'act' is dreadful, but he's also got more about him than that.