Margaret Thatcher is dead.

[Blackleaf]

1. She supported the retention of capital punishment

Most of the British public probably did, too.

2. She destroyed the country's manufacturing industry

She got rid of old-fashioned industries that we didn't need anymore, such as coalmining. Every other Western economy ended up doing the same later on, so Thatcher was merely ahead of her time. Name a Western economy now which has a huge manufacturiing industry. There isn't one. Western economies are service economies now.

4

. She abolished free milk for schoolchildren ("Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher")

A policy which she was opposed to but was forced into doing it by the Treasury (and Thatcher was the EducationS ecretary at the time, not the PM). Thatcher wrote in her autobiography: "I learned a valuable lesson [from the experience]. I had incurred the maximum of political odium for the minimum of political benefit." It remains popular belief that Thatcher abolished free school milk for all ages. In fact milk for secondary school pupils was abolished by Edward Short, her predecessor as Education Secretary, whilst free milk for infants was abolished by Shirley Williams.

5. She supported more freedom for business

Good.

6. She gained support from the National Front in the 1979 election by pandering to the fears of immigration

Millions of British people have fears about immigration and she was right to address those fears. Unlike the Left, who ignore people's concerns and condescendingly call them "racists" just for airing their fears about immigration, Thatcher actually took those concerns on board.

7. She gerrymandered local authorities by forcing through council house sales, at the same time preventing councils from spending the money they got for selling houses on building new houses (spending on social housing dropped by 67% in her premiership)

This was Thatcher's Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine's doing, not Thatcher's.

Proponents of the Right to Buy argue that it gave working-class council tenants opportunities to get on the property ladder which they would not otherwise had had without the Act.

8. She was responsible for 3.6 million unemployed - the highest figure and the highest proportion of the workforce in history and three times the previous government. Massaging of the figures means that the figure was closer to 5 million

Oh dear. What often never gets mentioned (usually by the Left) is that unemployment was already rapidly increasing BEFORE Thatcher came to power. The unemployment rate had already hit 1.5 million under her Labour predecessor James Callaghan and it's almost certain that unemployment would have continued to rise rapidly even had Thatcher not come to power.

Britain in the 1980s was always facing an immensely painful transition, partly because so many difficult decisions had been postponed for so long, but also because the stark reality of globalisation meant that major industries - notably carmaking, shipbuilding and coal-mining - were doomed even before she took power. No matter who came to power in 1979 all these manufacturing industries and their resultant jobs were already doomed in Britain.

9. She ignored intelligence about Argentinian preparations for the invasion of the Falkland Islands and scrapped the only Royal Navy presence in the islands

In 1981 the Royal Navy was being reduced in size. The British military suffered cuts. The Argentines (wrongly) interpreted the failure of the British to react as a lack of interest in the Falklands due to the planned withdrawal (as part of a general reduction in size of the Royal Navy in 1981) of the last of the Antarctic Supply vessels, HMS Endurance, and by the British Nationality Act of 1981, which replaced the full British citizenship of Falkland Islanders with a more limited version.

11. She presided over the closure of 150 coal mines; we are now crippled by the cost of energy, having to import expensive coal from abroad

See above. These coalmines and similar industries in Britain were already doomed, no matter which party and which PM were in power in the Eighties.

13. She privatised state monopolies and created the corporate greed culture that we've been railing against for the last 5 years

Again, a good move. The people, rather than the government, now these companies.

14. She introduced the gradual privatisation of the NHS

No, she didn't.

16. She pioneered the unfailing adoration and unquestioning support of the USA

What's the problem with that? Isn't Britain allowed to have any allies? Remember it was Thatcher and Reagan which ended the Cold War and brought freedom to millions of Eastern Europeans.

17. She allowed the US to place nuclear missiles on UK soil, under US control

No, she didn't. This was a NATO decision of 1975, four years before Thatcher came to power.

18. Section 28

Good.

The amendment stated that a local authority "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship".

Yet if anyone tried to tell a local authority to promote heterosexuality the PC Brigade would be up in arms.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_28#cite_note-2

19. She opposed anti-apartheid sanctions against South Africa and described Nelson Mandela as "that grubby little terrorist"

Well, she was right about Mandela.

Having said that the Thatcher government was opposed to apartheid, although she believed sanctions would disproportionately injure Britain and neighbouring African countries and make thousands of black workers iN South Africa unemployed. She argued that political and military measures were more effective.

 

[JLM]

But. . . but. . . but. . . he's Kenyan! And a Muslim! (Not that we're religious bigots or anything.) And a socialist!

And he destroyed Murka!

If he was a Kenyan I couldn't give a rat's ***, BUT he's not. His religion is his business, no one else's. If he's a socialist, he'll find out that doesn't work over the long haul, but society today needs a few (VERY FEW) Socialistic aspects.

Well, she was right about Mandela.

Having said that the Thatcher government was opposed to apartheid, although she believed sanctions would disproportionately injure Britainand neighbouring African countries and make thousands of black workers iN South Africa unemployed. She argued that political and military measures were more effective.

I was more or less agreeing with your post until the very end. I don't agree Nelson Mandela is a "grubby little terrorist". But I suppose she's entitled to some whacky opinions like the rest of us.-

 

[Blackleaf]

I was more or less agreeing with your post until the very end. I don't agree Nelson Mandela is a "grubby little terrorist". But I suppose she's entitled to some whacky opinions like the rest of us.-

Nelson Mandela was a terrorist. He and his cohorts murdered innocent white farmers. His ex-wife even organised murders. He sounds like a terrorist to me.

 

[JLM]

Nelson Mandela was a terrorist. He and his cohorts murdered innocent white farmers. His ex-wife even organised murders. He sounds like a terrorist to me.

I don't know enough about him to argue but I'd have to say if he's a terrorist he's the most popular one in the world. Maybe he was terrorizing Idi Amin and Robert Mugabbe-

 

[Blackleaf]

I had to come off the computer whilst I was referring to those points about Maggie. So I will continue where I left off.

20. She support the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and sent the SAS to train their soldiers

Don't be silly. Thatcher absolutely DETESTED Communism.

You have to remember though that Western governments - not just Thatcher's - repeatedly backed Khmer Rouge in the UN and were in favour of Cambodia retaining its UN seat.

But that doesn't mean they supported the Khmer Rouge.

Margaret Thatcher stated that "So, you'll find that the more reasonable ones of the Khmer Rouge will have to play some part in the future government, but only a minority part. I share your utter horror that these terrible things went on in Kampuchea."

And what is not mentioned in your post is that whilst Thatcher sent the SAS to train Khmer Rouge soldiers, it was not done as a way of training the Khmer Rouge to terrorise their country's civilians but merely to train them to fight against the Vietnamese-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea government, which had no support from the UN.

21. She allowed the US to bomb Libya in 1986, against the wishes of more than 2/3 of the population

She was right to allow the US to bomb Libya. She cited the right of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter. She allowed the bombing as retalitation for the Libyan bombing of a German discotheque which killed 3 people.

22. She opposed the reunification of Germany

As someone who was a teenage girl during WWII, I'm not surprised she was opposed to it. She also expressed concern that a united Germany would align itself more closely with the Soviet Union and move away from NATO. Again, this is not mentioned in your post, for some reason.

23. She invented Quangos

The term "quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation" was created in 1967 by the Carnegie Foundation's Alan Pifer in an essay on independence and accountability in public-funded bodies incorporated in the private sector.

Examples of UK quangos are the British Council (1935) and the Equal Opportunities Commission (1975) - both of which were set up before Thatcher came to power (she was only about ten years' old when the British Council was founded).

24. She increased VAT from 8% to 17.5%

Yeah - in order to fund the Falklands War.

25. She had the lowest approval rating of any post-war Prime Minister

If she had the lowest approval rating of any post-war PM throughout her premiership, then she wouldn't have won the 1983 General Election in a landslide and the 1987 General Election in a landslide.

The only time she had the lowest approval rating of any PM since WWII was in 1981 - but her popularity eventually skyrocketed.

But Thatcher's approvalt rating in 1981 is good compared to that of Labour PM Gordon Brown, PM between 2007 and 2010. He had an approval rating which was the lowest of any PM since Chamberlain.

26. Her post-PM job? Consultant to Philip Morris tobacco at $250,000 a year, plus $50,000 per speech

She gave half of all that money to the Margaret Thatcher Foundation

28. She opposed the indictment of Chile's General Pinochet

Pinochet's Chile was a great ally, and a great help, to Britain during the Falklands war. And, again, was has not been mentioned in the above statement is that, at the time, Pinochet was immsensely POPULAR in Chile.

The Chileans allowed disassembled aircraft to be shipped in for British use. But by far the most important assistance was intelligence. A long-range military radar was installed opposite Argentina's Comodoro Rivadavia air base. With this equipment, the Chileans provided the Task Force with minute-to-minute information on Argentine aircraft movements, so the Task Force commander could prepare his ships' defences and scramble fighters to intercept. On June 8 1982, however, the long-range radar had to be switched off for overdue maintenance. Argentine aircraft were thus able to launch a surprise attack, sinking the troopships Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram, with terrible casualties. Whether Britain could have won the Falklands War without Chile's help is debatable. Whether it could have done so without far greater loss of lives is simply not. Pinochet, who took every key decision, fully deserved Mrs Thatcher's gratitude.

30. She presided over interest rates increasing to 15%

Thatcher believed that inflation and money supply were linked. So she increased interest rates to slow the growth of money supply and thus lower inflation. The link between the money supply and inflation was proven accurate and by January 1982, the inflation rate had dropped back to 8.6% from earlier highs of 18%. Interest rates were then allowed to fall.

31. BSE

So Thatcher was responsible for a DISEASE? Yeah, okay.

32. She presided over 2 million manufacturing job losses in the 79-81 recession

Again, as I've mentioned, these losses in these old-fashioned industries were also destined to happen, with or without Thatcher.

33. She opposed the inclusion of Eire in the Northern Ireland peace process

No, she didn't. It was the people of Northern Ireland who opposed the inclusion.
On 6 November 1981 Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach (PM) Garret FitzGerald had established the Anglo-Irish Inter-Governmental Council, a forum for meetings between the two governments.

On 15 November 1985, Thatcher and FitzGerald signed the Hillsborough Anglo-Irish Agreement, the first time a British government had given the Republic of Ireland an advisory role in the governance of Northern Ireland. In protest the Ulster Says No movement attracted 100,000 to a rally in Belfast, Ian Gow resigned as Minister of State in the HM Treasury, and all fifteen Unionist MPs resigned their parliamentary seats; only one was not returned in the subsequent by-elections on 23 January 1986.

34. She supported sanctions-busting arms deals with South Africa

Thatcher opposed sanctions on South Africa as she knew it would hurt thousands of black South Africans.

35. Cecil Parkinson, Alan Clark, David Mellor, Jeffrey Archer, Jonathan Aitkin

Thatcher was not responisble for the existence and personalities of these people.

37. Black Wednesday – Britain withdraws from the ERM and the pound is devalued. Cost to Britain - £3.5 billion; profit for George Soros - £1 billion

This happened in 1992 when John Major was PM.

38. Poverty doubled while she opposed a minimum wage

When it came to not introducing a minimum wage Thatcher was no different from EVERY Prime Minister other than Blair.

39. She privatised public services, claiming at the time it would increase public ownership. Most are now owned either by foreign governments (EDF) or major investment houses. The profits don’t now accrue to the taxpayer, but to foreign or institutional shareholders.

EDF is British and is not owned by a foreign government.

40. She cut 75% of funding to museums, galleries and other sources of education

Margaret Thatcher won few friends in the art world because of her severe cuts to arts funding. Among those who supported her, however, were Conservative conceptualists Gilbert and George, who told the Telegraph: "We admire Margaret Thatcher greatly. She did a lot for art. Socialism wants everyone to be equal. We want to be different."

42. 21.9% inflation

Whoever wrote this failed to mention - either through complete ingnorance or because they are are Leftie who wants to make it look as though inflation suddenly skyrocketed when Thatcher came along - that inflation in Britain was absolutely rampant in the Seventies. In 1975, four years before Thatcher came to power, inflation hit 29%. So the 21.9% that it came to under Thatcher was actually quite low comparatively.

 

[petros]

Is she still dead?

 

[Blackleaf]

Margaret Thatcher's funeral is to be held on Wednesday 17th April. The ceremony will be televised and will be shown throughout the world on channels such as BBC World.

The funeral ceremony, with full military honours, will take place at London's St Paul's Cathedral, following a procession from Westminster.

The Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, will attend the service, Buckingham Palace said.

Lady Thatcher will not have a state funeral as she didn't want one but will be accorded the same status as Princess Diana and the Queen Mother by being given a ceremonial funeral.

A ceremonial funeral is one rung down from a state funeral and requires the consent of the Queen. State funerals are almost entirely reserved for monarchs, but there have been a few exceptions. Great British heroes like Churchill in 1965, Wellington in 1852 and Nelson in 1805 were given state funerals. There is not much noticeable difference, however, between a state and a ceremonial funeral.

The funeral procession will set out from the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft (above) which lies beneath St Stephen's Hall at the end of the Palace of Westminster. It was completed by Edward I in 1297.

A hearse will take the body to the RAF Chapel at the church of St Clement Danes on the Strand (above). Thatcher's coffin will then be drawn on a gun carriage from Westminster to St Paul's Cathedral by soldiers of the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery who will be resplendent in their shiny breastplates.

The route to St Paul's will be lined by all three armed forces and members of the public and Chelsea Pensioners will attend on the steps of the Cathedral.

A Downing Street spokesman said the details had been agreed at a "co-ordination meeting" between the Thatcher family and Buckingham Palace on Tuesday morning.

At midnight this morning an undertaker's van carrying Thatcher's body in a silver casket left the back entrance of the Ritz hotel, where she passed away, for an undisclosed location.

Parliament will be recalled from its Easter recess this Wednesday to enable MPs and peers to pay tributes.

But Labour MP John Mann said: "I do not know why we are wasting taxpayers' money on an additional session.

"It is perfectly valid that, when a prime minister dies, MPs can pay tribute, but this could be perfectly properly done on Monday."

However, a large number of Labour MPs are expected to pay tribute to Lady Thatcher, a senior party source said.

Respect MP George Galloway said he would not attend, as genuine debate was "not allowed". He called the event a "state-organised eulogy".


In other developments:

• The Premier League and the Football League say they will not be asking clubs to hold a one-minute silence at forthcoming fixtures
• UK and international leaders continue to pay tribute
• Several police are injured and arrests are made as violence breaks out at events "celebrating" Lady Thatcher's death
• Former Prime Minister Tony Blair says such parties are "in poor taste"
• Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness urges people to "resist celebrating the death of Margaret Thatcher"

Poor taste: In Glasgow, Brixton and Bristol parties were held "celebrate" Thatcher's death. One party in Brixton - were a riot took place in 1981 - caused a skirmish with police officers. The "revellers" at Brixton, in south London, even scaled a cinema's walls and rearranged the letters to form to message, shown above.

BBC News - Margaret Thatcher funeral set for next week

 

[petros]

Is she going to pay for all that herself? Somebody who said people should pay their own way instead of out of the taxpayer's pockets should go down by their convictions and do so.

Go out with dignity and as an example.

Dieing with music as they say in E. Europe.

 

[Blackleaf]

but I'd have to say if he's a terrorist he's the most popular one in the world.

Only amongst the Left.

 

[Toro]

It's important to understand how much Britain sucked before Maggie came to power.

The UK had to be bailed out by the IMF.

The Cabinet Papers | IMF crisis

There used to be a phrase called "British Disease" to describe the economic incompetence of the UK after the war to the 1970s. That phrase went away after Maggie came to power.

Competition cured the “British disease” | vox

Unions were all-powerful in Britain. Given the amount of influence they had in the Labour Party at the time, they effectively ran the country. The legacy of that time was garbage piling up in the streets and dead bodies being left unburied. Unions could go on strike without a vote of their membership, and one union could go on strike to support a strike of another union, the two not having anything to do with one another, i.e. steel workers going on strike to support dock workers.

Liverpool council considered public burying own dead in 1979

Wide swaths of the British economy were owned directly by the British government, which ran the businesses first for the unions. Costs were so high, in large part due to the unions, that they ran at loss and were being subsidized by the government. Electricity blackouts were common in the UK in the 1970s because the businesses were so poorly run.

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Your 1970s: Strikes and blackouts

That's why the government privatized. There is no reason for governments to own coal companies or steel companies or airlines or gas drillers.

RIP Maggie, Britain's greatest peacetime Prime Minister.

 

[darkbeaver]

Nevertheless the average limey is worse off than before Hatcher. A better GDP is no indication of better living standards. In fact a really good GDP and abject widespread poverty can and do exist side by each. In any case no elected western government type has had any but the tiniest effect on any governance of any country at practically any time in the last three quarters of a century.
The decisions are made in the shadows by persons of enormous wealth and power. Our elected flunkies might as well be stuffed seat cushions. The bank of Canada material should be a nice introduction to reality. Margaret was a tool of TPTB. Do you really think the hereditary masters allow free elections and then freedom to act by those elected puppets?

 

[coldstream]

I was on a British site where they posted this:


1. She supported the retention of capital punishment
2. She destroyed the country's manufacturing industry
3. She voted against the relaxation of divorce laws
4. She abolished free milk for schoolchildren ("Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher")
5. She supported more freedom for business (and look how that turned out)
6. She gained support from the National Front in the 1979 election by pandering to the fears of immigration
7. She gerrymandered local authorities by forcing through council house sales, at the same time preventing councils from spending the money they got for selling houses on building new houses (spending on social housing dropped by 67% in her premiership)
8. She was responsible for 3.6 million unemployed - the highest figure and the highest proportion of the workforce in history and three times the previous government. Massaging of the figures means that the figure was closer to 5 million
9. She ignored intelligence about Argentinian preparations for the invasion of the Falkland Islands and scrapped the only Royal Navy presence in the islands
10. The poll tax
11. She presided over the closure of 150 coal mines; we are now crippled by the cost of energy, having to import expensive coal from abroad
12. She compared her "fight" against the miners to the Falklands War
13. She privatised state monopolies and created the corporate greed culture that we've been railing against for the last 5 years
14. She introduced the gradual privatisation of the NHS
15. She introduced financial deregulation in a way that turned city institutions into avaricious money pits
16. She pioneered the unfailing adoration and unquestioning support of the USA
17. She allowed the US to place nuclear missiles on UK soil, under US control
18. Section 28
19. She opposed anti-apartheid sanctions against South Africa and described Nelson Mandela as "that grubby little terrorist"
20. She support the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and sent the SAS to train their soldiers
21. She allowed the US to bomb Libya in 1986, against the wishes of more than 2/3 of the population
22. She opposed the reunification of Germany
23. She invented Quangos
24. She increased VAT from 8% to 17.5%
25. She had the lowest approval rating of any post-war Prime Minister
26. Her post-PM job? Consultant to Philip Morris tobacco at $250,000 a year, plus $50,000 per speech
27. The Al Yamamah contract
28. She opposed the indictment of Chile's General Pinochet
29. Social unrest under her leadership was higher than at any time since the General Strike
30. She presided over interest rates increasing to 15%
31. BSE
32. She presided over 2 million manufacturing job losses in the 79-81 recession
33. She opposed the inclusion of Eire in the Northern Ireland peace process
34. She supported sanctions-busting arms deals with South Africa
35. Cecil Parkinson, Alan Clark, David Mellor, Jeffrey Archer, Jonathan Aitkin
36. Crime rates doubled under Thatcher
37. Black Wednesday – Britain withdraws from the ERM and the pound is devalued. Cost to Britain - £3.5 billion; profit for George Soros - £1 billion
38. Poverty doubled while she opposed a minimum wage
39. She privatised public services, claiming at the time it would increase public ownership. Most are now owned either by foreign governments (EDF) or major investment houses. The profits don’t now accrue to the taxpayer, but to foreign or institutional shareholders.
40. She cut 75% of funding to museums, galleries and other sources of education
41. In the Thatcher years the top 10% of earners received almost 50% of the tax remissions
42. 21.9% inflation





They referred to her as a fΰcking cΰnt for all this.

Right wingers celebrated when Hugo Chavez died. If they are as principled as they claimed to be, now is the real time to celebrate.

Yep.. that's the short list. She was a disaster.. a drooling, bellicose hag. Left out here was her sinking of the General Balgrano in the Falklands war, an obsolete cruiser on its way back to port with the loss of hundreds of lives prior to the outbreak of hostilities.. Her snickering complacency with the deaths of Bobby Sands and others on hunger strike in Ireland, her advocacy of Pinochet and his death squads when he was arrested in Britain on an EU warrant for humans rights crimes. .. her outspoken support of Apartheid in South Africa.. there are dozens of smaller issue. Good riddance..she was pathetic.. the lives she destroyed.. the old gal deserves to buried in a sewar.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Never thought I'd be giving coldstream a greenie, but that's my assessment too. She was the most belligerent and divisive leader in Britain since the empire was at its height, had no use for the arts and culture, the free market was everything and the social fabric was nothing. She did much harm to the poorest and weakest.

 

[Mowich]

Dancing on Maggie's grave: How the Left 'celebrated' Baroness Thatcher's death with smashed shops and anarchy in the streets

• Two women arrested for burglary after being found inside a shop
  
• Barnardos shop front smashed in Brixton, south London
• One policeman seriously injured after being pelted with bottles in Bristol
• Death could propel Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead into the top 40
  
• Glasgow, Liverpool and Derry were also the scene of celebrations
• Petrol bombs were thrown at police in Derry amid celebrations
• More parties are being planned for funeral date of Wednesday 17 April

Margaret Thatcher death parties: The Left's sick 'celebration' on Brixton's streets | Mail Online

I came across this comment on another forum.

"One of the things I admire about the left is their innate ability to betray who they really are. Thanks, kids, because you folks do a better job of educating people about yourselves than I or any number of conservatives ever could. "

 

[Spade]

Reading Blackleaf's pandering style, one would think the Germans (Gawd bless their economy) had won the Great Patriotic War.

 

[L Gilbert]

Dancing on Maggie's grave: How the Left 'celebrated' Baroness Thatcher's death with smashed shops and anarchy in the streets

• Two women arrested for burglary after being found inside a shop
  
• Barnardos shop front smashed in Brixton, south London
• One policeman seriously injured after being pelted with bottles in Bristol
• Death could propel Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead into the top 40
  
• Glasgow, Liverpool and Derry were also the scene of celebrations
• Petrol bombs were thrown at police in Derry amid celebrations
• More parties are being planned for funeral date of Wednesday 17 April

Margaret Thatcher death parties: The Left's sick 'celebration' on Brixton's streets | Mail Online

I came across this comment on another forum.

"One of the things I admire about the left is their innate ability to betray who they really are. Thanks, kids, because you folks do a better job of educating people about yourselves than I or any number of conservatives ever could. "

I can remember people dancing and partying over PET's death, too. Foolishness and partisanship are not mutually exclusive.

I might add that decorum and partisanship aren't mutually exclusive either.

 

[darkbeaver]

By Finian Cunningham | Press TV | April 9, 2013

Hours after the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the history books are being re-written and the beatification of the Iron Lady is well underway.
Current British premier David Cameron praised Lady Thatcher for having “saved Britain” and for making the has-been colonial power “great again”.

Tributes poured forth from French and German leaders, Francoise Hollande and Angela Merkel, while US President Barack Obama said America had lost a “special friend”.
Former American secretary of state Henry Kissinger and former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev also lamented the loss of “an historic world figure”. Polish ex-president Lech Walesa hailed Margaret Thatcher for having brought down the Soviet Union and Communism.

Such fulsome praise may be expected coming from so many war criminals. But it is instructive of how history is written by the victors and criminals in high office. Obama, Cameron, Hollande and Merkel should all be arraigned and prosecuted for war crimes in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Pakistan, Somalia and Mali, among other places. Kissinger has long evaded justice for over four decades for his role in the US genocide in Southeast Asia during the so-called Vietnam War in which over three million people were obliterated in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

The British state is to give Thatcher, who died this week aged 87, a full military-honours funeral. The praise, eulogies, wreaths and ceremonies are all self-indictments of association with one of the most ruthless and criminal political figures in modern times.
So, here is a people’s history of Thatcher’s legacy.

She will be remembered for colluding with the most reactionary elements of Rupert Murdoch’s squalid med

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

By Finian Cunningham | Press TV | April 9, 2013

Hours after the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the history books are being re-written and the beatification of the Iron Lady is well underway.
Current British premier David Cameron praised Lady Thatcher for having “saved Britain” and for making the has-been colonial power “great again”.

Tributes poured forth from French and German leaders, Francoise Hollande and Angela Merkel, while US President Barack Obama said America had lost a “special friend”.
Former American secretary of state Henry Kissinger and former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev also lamented the loss of “an historic world figure”. Polish ex-president Lech Walesa hailed Margaret Thatcher for having brought down the Soviet Union and Communism.

Such fulsome praise may be expected coming from so many war criminals. But it is instructive of how history is written by the victors and criminals in high office. Obama, Cameron, Hollande and Merkel should all be arraigned and prosecuted for war crimes in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Pakistan, Somalia and Mali, among other places. Kissinger has long evaded justice for over four decades for his role in the US genocide in Southeast Asia during the so-called Vietnam War in which over three million people were obliterated in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

The British state is to give Thatcher, who died this week aged 87, a full military-honours funeral. The praise, eulogies, wreaths and ceremonies are all self-indictments of association with one of the most ruthless and criminal political figures in modern times.
So, here is a people’s history of Thatcher’s legacy.

She will be remembered for colluding with the most reactionary elements of Rupert Murdoch’s squalid med

I wonder how he feels about Abraham Lincoln.

 

[gopher]

Is she still dead?

Here's how Brits and Scots are celebrating:

I got an email from a Brit pal who said he lives in the mining regions and they condemn the Witch for her role in destroying their industry and livelihood. Was also told by 2 others that "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead" is playing on British radio.

 

[Blackleaf]

Left out here was her sinking of the General Balgrano in the Falklands war, an obsolete cruiser on its way back to port with the loss of hundreds of lives prior to the outbreak of hostilities.

In 1994, Argentina admitted that the sinking of the Belgrano was completely legal.

In August 1994, an official Argentine Defence Ministry report written by armed forces auditor Eugenio Miariwas was released which described the sinking of the Belgrano as "a legal act of war", explaining that "acts of war can be carried out in all of the enemy's territory" and "they can also take place in those areas over which no state can claim sovereignty, in international waters."

Not only that, but the captain of the Belgrano later admitted that he would have done the same thing to a British ship.

Her snickering complacency with the deaths of Bobby Sands and others on hunger
strike in Ireland,

Bobby Sands and the others were just murderous IRA terrorists who deserved everything they got. Why should Maggie have given them any sympathy? There weren't many who shed a tear when they starved themselves to death.

her advocacy of Pinochet and his death squads when he was arrested in
Britain on an EU warrant for humans rights crimes

As posted above:

Pinochet's Chile was a great ally, and a great help, to Britain during the Falklands war. And what has not been mentioned in the above statement is that, at the time, Pinochet was immsensely POPULAR in Chile.

During the Falklands War the Chileans allowed disassembled aircraft to be shipped in for British use. But by far the most important assistance was intelligence. A long-range military radar was installed opposite Argentina's Comodoro Rivadavia air base. With this equipment, the Chileans provided the Task Force with minute-to-minute information on Argentine aircraft movements, so the Task Force commander could prepare his ships' defences and scramble fighters to intercept. On June 8 1982, however, the long-range radar had to be switched off for overdue maintenance. Argentine aircraft were thus able to launch a surprise attack, sinking the troopships Sir Galahad (below) and Sir Tristram, with terrible casualties. Whether Britain could have won the Falklands War without Chile's help is debatable. Whether it could have done so without far greater loss of lives is simply not. Pinochet, who took every key decision, fully deserved Mrs Thatcher's gratitude.

. .. her outspoken support of Apartheid in South Africa..

As posted above:

The Thatcher government was opposed to apartheid, although she believed sanctions would disproportionately injure Britain and neighbouring African countries and make thousands of black workers in South Africa unemployed. She argued that political and military measures were more effective.

Dancing on Maggie's grave: How the Left 'celebrated' Baroness Thatcher's death with smashed shops and anarchy in the streets

The Left have been disgraceful. You should see the photos of them - you can tell they are Lefties because they all wear scruffy clothes and look like they haven't washed for a fortnight - dancing in the streets of places like Brixton, Glasgow, Bristol and Liverpool with cans of Special Brew in their hands celebrating the death of an old lady. They don't realise (or maybe they do) that it was their fellow members of the Left who left Britain an economic laughing stock of the world in the Seventies and that it was Thatcher who pulled the country from the brink of economic disaster.

I had to laugh at the photo of four young girls in Glasgow with big grins on their faces as they each held aloft Socialist Workers Party posters with the words "REJOICE REJOICE" under a picture of the Lady Thatcher puppet from Spitting Image. By the looks of things each of the young girls wasn't even born when Thatcher left office in 1990.

Brixton, south London: Police grapple with Special Brew-swilling Lefties celebrating Thatcher's death

Outside Liverpool's Lime Street train station

Kids not old enough to remember Thatcher's reign "partied" on the streets of Bristol

And there's not only the sickening and disrespectful side of the Left there's also their famed childish side. This is showing itself at the moment with their campaign to get the song "Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead" from the Wizard of Oz film to the top of the charts. And they may well succeed as it has reached the midweek Top Ten.

But we shouldn't be dismayed by this. In fact, if she is looking down Thatcher will be enjoying all the Left celebrating her demise. A few months ago, Maggie was told by close friend Conor Burns that the Trades Union Congress (TUC) was preparing "party packs" for when she died. Thatcher was absolutely delighted.

Mr Burns, who visited Lady Thatcher weekly, said: ‘I remember telling her about the TUC congress selling Thatcher death party packs.

‘She said the fact that they still felt so strongly about her more than 20 years after she left Downing Street was a tribute to the fact that she had done something in politics, rather than just been someone in politics.’


Margaret Thatcher dead: Maggie did more for workers than her Leftie critics ever did | Mail Online

Margaret Thatcher dead: Weaned on the BBC's hatred, no wonder the young rejoice at her death | Mail Online

It's also an amazing fact that the Queen is to attend Lady Thatcher's funeral on Wednesday.

Protocol usually dictates that Her Majesty does not attend funerals because the risk is that if she did make herself available for one then she will have to attend all funerals - for every crowned head, every member of the household staff and every national diginitary who dies.

The Queen did not go to the funerals of Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath or James Callaghan, all of whom served as Prime Minister during her reign. The only Prime Minister of hers whose funeral she has attended to date was that of her first Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, in 1965. His funeral remains the biggest state funeral the world has ever known. People queued for several miles to see his body lying in state and as his body was being carried down the Thames on a barge even the cranes of the city's dockyards dipped in salute.

Queen Elizabeth II's approach is not new. In 1881 Queen Victoria was prevented by protocol from attending the funeral of Benjamin Disraeli, instead sending a wreath of primroses with a handwritten note that read: "His favourite flowers; from Osborne (Victoria's retreat on the Isle of Wight): a tribute of affectionate regard from Queen Victoria."

Queen Victoria with her Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in 1878 during the signing of the Berlin Treaty

Elizabeth II's decision to attend the funeral of Lady Thatcher - a woman that Her Majesty sometimes did not see eye to eye with - effectively makes Lady Thatcher's funeral a state funeral in all but name.

There will be just a few differences between Lady Thatcher's ceremonial funeral and a proper state funeral. For example, Lady Thatcher's coffin will be pulled by horses, whereas in a state funeral her coffin would be pulled by sailors from the Royal Navy.

Downing Street has announced that Lady Thatcher's funeral will have a Falklands War theme.

Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force personnel now serving on ships and in regiments and units which played a key role in the 1982 conflict with Argentina will carry the former Prime Minister’s coffin into St Paul’s Cathedral for the service next Wednesday. The 10 coffin bearers will be drawn from the Royal Marines, the Scots Guards, the Welsh Guards, the Parachute Regiment, the Royal Gurkha Rifles and the RAF. The Welsh Guards suffered some of the heaviest losses in the war. Thirty-two were among 48 British troops killed when the Sir Galahad landing ship was bombed by Argentinian jets.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 67251.html

Britain's two great female leaders of recent times: The Queen and Lady Thatcher attending a dinner in 1995 to mark Thatcher's 70th birthday