The day that Thatcher died

Yesterday at the start of the London Classic, I was chatting to another rider as we rolled down one of those streets lined with horrible flash houses in Dullwich. And I was saying 'didn't Thatcher live here? And is she dead yet!?'

That was yesterday at about 9.30. I await with baited breath to find out what actual time she died ... I've got a feeling I MAY HAVE ACTUALLY KILLED HER WITH MY THOUGHTS!!!!!!!!

Now awaiting my Chumbawamba record in the post. I'm selling it on Anarchobay immediately.

Reported

Oh....

skully - do us a favour please, could you please channel your thoughts towards the right honourable George Osborne?

it made him look credible though.

Not really, I read it as:

'There was this riot going on against one of the Thatcher government's most hated pieces of legislation so I went down there and nicked stuff.'

I think it was added in after you posted it! Twitter first with the news as usual...

Aha. Thanks for the update - I wonder if it is a make it look like the public are not paying 5%/95% split?

Not that it is that important.

She HATED anything and everything to do with Liverpool

See, no-one's all bad...

She was the inspiration for a good song. Well I think so anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WhhSBgd3KI

But also the inspiration for this git.

So she was a cunt after all

I lived through her years as PM. I hated the fucking cow.
But Britain was truly fucked in 1979. I can see why her ideas seemed appealing at the time.

skully - do us a favour please, could you please channel your thoughts towards the right honourable George Osborne?

List:

James Corden
Liam Gallagher
Victoria Beckham

OK I'll work on them. My powers aren't like a tap you know! I have to focus. For about 34 years.

I blamed Thatch that polos went up from 4p to 5p around the time she took power. I was 7.

Fucking Polo snatching bitch!

I don't think this phenomenon you cite is particularly widespread. Generations of young people who existed after her time in power became largely depoliticized in relation to the wider political awareness of those groups in the 60s/70s/80s/early90s. The gradual regression to a state where higher education is largely inaccessible to much of the working class is something that her and her ilk have had a large hand in; and with that comes more ignorance (you can call it blissful if you think being placated by mindless media is a blissful state) among those who would otherwise be likely to kick off about spiteful, divisive, and fearful right-wing policies. That and the apathy that accrues around seeking to correct social injustices when you've been shat on and vilified for so long.

It almost felt like it had become a joke to bemoan Thatcherism as the 90s wore on, and not at all 'cool'. It was not something I witnessed on a regular basis in groups of people 10 to 20 years younger than myself (including some who definitely considered themselves 'cool'). Perhaps there's been a minor resurgence in the sentiment since the student/youth unrest of recent years (not last year as the place was fucking locked down for the Olympics/Jubilee/other shite) - is this the bandwagon jumping you're talking about?

Great post, Scarlett. This kind of subtlety is hard to remember, but you make a very good point for how her divisive reputation seemed to be glossed over quite thickly, sometimes even by socialists, in the 90s.

Fucking Polo snatching bitch!

no polos no talk. you weren't even there man!

Did she even lift?

not sure if real but apparently the bbc made a typo earlier...

.

List:

James Corden
Liam Gallagher
Victoria Beckham
Dappy
James Whale

I had a summer job as a gardener during university holidays in the late 90's. We did her garden. She was always pleasant and tipped well

I did Michael Heseltine's granddaughter's garden once. It was full of dogshit. I refused to do it, my foreman left a carrier bag full of dogshit outside their back door, and they got stroppy about it

Anyone else got any good politicians' (or their relatives') garden stories?

I once puked into a box hedge at a wedding that was a shared boundary with Francis Pym's brother's garden.

I did Michael Heseltine's granddaughter's garden once. It was full of dogshit. I refused to do it, my foreman left a carrier bag full of dogshit outside their back door, and they got stroppy about it

Anyone else got any good politicians' (or their relatives') garden stories?

A lot of public gardens were privetized under Thatcher.

I did Michael Heseltine's granddaughter's garden once. It was full of dogshit. I refused to do it, my foreman left a carrier bag full of dogshit outside their back door, and they got stroppy about it

Anyone else got any good politicians' (or their relatives') garden stories?

I squatted a house owned by Micheal Heseltine, a friend at the time did nearby Nina Hagen's garden...

Say what you like but when Thatcher was in power you could get your bottom bracket changed for less than £15.

I know that doesn't sound like much (and it isn't), but it's very, very hard to over state how fucked the nation has become since that watershed price was passed.

I shagged the missus in the middle of the foreign secretary's maze in Kent. FUCK YOU THATCHER!

Your dad ain't Neil Simmons

He sure is

"There's something distinctively creepy ... about this mandated ritual that our political leaders must be heralded and consecrated as saints upon death. This is accomplished by this baseless moral precept that it is gauche or worse to balance the gushing praise for them upon death with valid criticisms. There is absolutely nothing wrong with loathing Margaret Thatcher or any other person with political influence and power based upon perceived bad acts, and that doesn't change simply because they die. If anything, it becomes more compelling to commemorate those bad acts upon death as the only antidote against a society erecting a false and jingoistically self-serving history."

Pretty good article here about the 'do not speak ill of the dead' attitude...