Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

[seduraed]

Re: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

I am old enough to remember the poll tax riots , the miners strikes andthe winter of discontent . I have to say that of all the policies that she intoducedthere were a few goodthings . The main one was the bringing of global warming into the political adgenda. I dont know if this makes up for the destruction she wrought on the british economy . I loathed her arrogance and her petty hatred of ordinary people and those who did not share her ambition. Ido know that although dead her legacy will live on . "The evil men do lives after them the good is too often interred with their bones . " To misquote shakespeare.

I just hope that her memory can be kept alive and her actions used as a terrible lesson to the future as to how badly wrongpolitics in this country cango .

[starukkiwi]

Re: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

I can assure you that no miner drank or smoked before feeding their family or paying their bills. Or those that did would have done it before the Stike too and probably weren't on strike. The day I mentioned in Nottingham? I was there. I went home to see the news. I have never believed a word of the news since that day. It scares me that we don't know enough about how our country is really run. Maggie may have believed what she did was right. I actually sort of hope she did, because it was probably all she was left with in the end. As Cleverclogs observed - so did Stalin. So did Hitler.

But just to emphasise, I did not blame the police any more than I blamed the miners. In fact there is quite a lot of evidence that more than a few of those people in police uniforms were not police officers at all. But we know that police officers aren't all perfect either. Nor is anyone else. Scargill made fundamental errors of judgement, if not of belief. But we still live with the legacy of Thatcher - it is alive and well in the current government, but they are, despite opinion to the contrary, much cleverer. She laid a foundation of callous government which, now, ordinary people vote for. As a society we are far more selfish and far more concerned about what we get for ourselves and the devil take the hindmost. Now the government can steal from the poorest with the consent of the people.

I agree; the police were bussed all over the country, they couldn't police in their own community - I was at a picket line when the Met pulled up - waving £5 notes - it was the destruction and decimation of communities - they closed the mines down, but did nothing to support retraining or to build other local industry. I do recall sending food parcels (I had just arrived from NZ in 1979 and it snowed on election day). I also recall her authorising the US Bombers to bomb Libya (I went to Greenham Common - those women were an inspiration to a young Trade Unionist).

For those who were not there Orgreave Reaction

and another perspective on public figures http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-death-etiquette Margaret Thatcher and misapplied death etiquette

Re: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

No. Because of the timing.

When, then, should one celebrate the fact that she has finally died?

Re: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

I can recall a Poll Tax demonstration in Plymouth when I was with the police. A protester had a placard reading "Maggie. You Rob From The Poor And Give To The Rich. You Stupid Bitch." At the suggestion of a Devon & Cornwall officer, the word "Bitch" was changed to "Witch". Whether the said officer had an opinion about her, I do not know.

He may just have liked dogs.

[starukkiwi]

Re: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

This is from the film director Ken Loach.

Margaret Thatcher was the most divisive and destructive Prime Minister of modern times.

Mass Unemployment, factory closures, communities destroyed – this is her legacy. She was a fighter and her enemy was the British working class. Her victories were aided by the politically corrupt leaders of the Labour Party and of many Trades Unions. It is because of policies begun by her that we are in this mess today.

Other prime ministers have followed her path, notably Tony Blair. She was the organ grinder, he was the monkey.

Remember she called Mandela a terrorist and took tea with the torturer and murderer Pinochet.

How should we honour her? Let’s privatise her funeral. Put it out to competitive tender and accept the cheapest bid. It’s what she would have wanted.

[PlanB]

Re: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

Because she didn't melt after water had been thrown over her?

No. Because of the timing.

[bluebottle]

Re: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

I can recall a Poll Tax demonstration in Plymouth when I was with the police. A protester had a placard reading "Maggie. You Rob From The Poor And Give To The Rich. You Stupid Bitch." At the suggestion of a Devon & Cornwall officer, the word "Bitch" was changed to "Witch". Whether the said officer had an opinion about her, I do not know.

Re: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

I find the title of this thread unsettling and ghoulish.

Because she didn't melt after water had been thrown over her?

Re: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

Succinctly, she was a pathological liar.

[PlanB]

Re: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

I find the title of this thread unsettling and ghoulish.

[leclerc]

Re: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

Let me give an opinion and I was 5 years old when she became prime minister and was 16ish when she finally left office. She was a very powerful prime minister and clearly I would add I was someone who very much supported her over the opposition, as poor as it was. However, he undoing was the devious way she got the poll tax through parliament. She prolonged an ambulance dispute to get this through and the poll tax was her undoing. Ultimately, she was the first and hopefully not the last female prime minister but she was very anti Europe at a time when I was very pro Europe. She represented the Right of the conservative party, rather than a moderate or centrist.
It is a major event that she is dead but ultimately, he last deeds are remembered more that her first deeds.

There are perhaps some people who will celebrate her death.

[bluebottle]

Re: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

I am only two years older than Eloise. I was serving with the MoD Police in 1984 and we were tied up with the peace camp at Greenham Common. However, we would hear about what was happening in the coal mining communities from Home Office forces who were sending officers there and many of us felt physically sick at what we heard. Much of our duties at Greenham Common was to keep the peace camp inhabitants and the US servicemen coming into contact with each other.

[Hurricane Puffrose]

Re: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

personally I find a lot of the comments offensive, talking about piddling on her grave, talking about how Altzhiemers wasnt enough.. totally out of order.

I was a school girl when she was in power, I can remember the miners strikes just, i remember a lot of shouting and a lot of anger on the TV, I also remember the journalists fighting to keep in fleet street, remember my dad being made redundant as he couldnt get to Canary Wharf, I remember losing free school milk and singing maggie thatcher the milk snatcher, but I also remember her saying, after watching her own friends and colleuges in the Brighton Bomb saying YOU DONT SCARE ME and thinking, what a woman!

Love her or hate her, she never backed down.

Again and this is person to me, I wish her rest in peace, and a happy reunion with Dennis.. and a lot of grudging respect to the first female PM.

[Eloise01]

Re: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

Have to agree, some of the comments are disgraceful.

She was somebody's ,mother, somebody's wife and somebody's daughter.
.

So is Melanie Boswell. By all accounts she is somebody's grandmother. So is Maraid Phillpott somebodies mother, wife and daughter. Onbviously none of these things are qualifying factors in being a decent human being.

Re: Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

She was somebody's ,mother, somebody's wife and somebody's daughter.

And also somebody's denier of justice, somebody's nightmare, somebody's killer and somebody's war criminal.