Margaret Thatcher is dead

[Dries van Tonder]

I heard it on the news as I was on my way to buy a bottle of brandy for the evening. They related FW de Klerk's comment: "She understood the complexities of apartheid". To which the the DJ hosting the show replied: "Yeah, she treated South Africa with kid gloves. That's what constructive engagement meant." I thought to myself: "Is that dinosaur really dead?"

Then onto Facebook, and lo and behold: White South Africans (of the unreligious and free-thinking type), paying homage to the witch. After my initial panic attacks at seeing that, at last came the comments from you lot (for those of you who are on FB), which made me breathe a sigh of relief.

She lent apartheid a helping hand when the rest of the world was ready to destroy it; and thus prolonged the suffering of so many South Africans. I won't be able to go over there for the funeral; but could someone just do me a favour and go spit on her grave for me?

[klr]

I hate the woman, but SOMEONE had to sort out the Unions, and there was no chance of any labour leader doing it, so I did vote for her.
I didn't actually vote for her, I voted against Neil Kinnock. I blame Labour for Margaret Thatcher. They put Neil Kinnock in charge, effectively giving her a free hand. But I'm glad that they did. Because THEY would never have sorted out the Unions, whereas she did.

The miners were twats. They got what they deserved. Fuck em.

I remember that only too well - I was still in school at the time, and "looking on" from here in Ireland. I didn't (of course) appreciate at the time just how much power the unions wielded.

One of the odd things about Thatcher is how much of her policies (but not all!) have now become "mainstream", while she herself remains to this day extremely divisive.

[Animavore]

Did anyone else play the Maggie Thatcher game as a child?

You would draw a picture of Maggie on your palm, well, a stick-woman, and you would show her out to your friends and incant the rhyme -

Here's Maggie Thatcher
Throw her up and catch her
(Mime throwing her up and catching her then clasping the hands and rubbing them continue...)
Squish, squash, squish, squash
There's Maggie Thatcher.
(Showing the other palm with a stick woman now spreadeageld in a pool of blood)

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"Margaret Thatcher is DEAD! From now on you owe your allegiance to ME, ME, do you hear!"

[John_fi_Skye]

It's no good this happening now. We need it to have happened in 1978.

And if Arthur Scargill had died at the same time that would have been a double victory for many of our communities which were torn apart in the 80's by those two fucking megalo bastards.

[Pappa]

I heard a great interview with Neil Kinnock on the radio earlier. he didn't hold back.

[Pappa]

She created today’s housing crisis. She created the banking crisis. And she created the benefits crisis. It was her government that started putting people on incapacity benefit rather than register them as unemployed because the Britain she inherited was broadly full employment.

She decided when she wrote off our manufacturing industry that she could live with two or three million unemployed, and the benefits bill, the legacy of that, we are struggling with today. In actual fact, every real problem we face today is the legacy of the fact that she was fundamentally wrong.” - Ken Livingstone

[Coito ergo sum]

And don't even get me started on the Falklands! If it weren't for Argentina's invasion, she would have been out of office after one term! It was only the jingoistic sabre-rattling and Rule-Brittaniaing that saved her political neck! She seized that opportunity with both hands - 1000 dead and 2000 injured to save her career! Cunt.

Were the British residents of the Falkland Islands to be left to the Argentinians, then? You said it yourself, Argentina invaded. What was to be done about it? Nothing? A strongly worded letter?

[cronus]

And don't even get me started on the Falklands! If it weren't for Argentina's invasion, she would have been out of office after one term! It was only the jingoistic sabre-rattling and Rule-Brittaniaing that saved her political neck! She seized that opportunity with both hands - 1000 dead and 2000 injured to save her career! Cunt.

Were the British residents of the Falkland Islands to be left to the Argentinians, then? You said it yourself, Argentina invaded. What was to be done about it? Nothing? A strongly worded letter?

They should have been transported to one of The Shetlands. Add sheep and they wouldn't know they'd been moved.

[Coito ergo sum]

And don't even get me started on the Falklands! If it weren't for Argentina's invasion, she would have been out of office after one term! It was only the jingoistic sabre-rattling and Rule-Brittaniaing that saved her political neck! She seized that opportunity with both hands - 1000 dead and 2000 injured to save her career! Cunt.

Were the British residents of the Falkland Islands to be left to the Argentinians, then? You said it yourself, Argentina invaded. What was to be done about it? Nothing? A strongly worded letter?

They should have been transported to one of The Shetlands. Add sheep and they wouldn't know they'd been moved.

A picture is worth 1,000 words.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

And don't even get me started on the Falklands! If it weren't for Argentina's invasion, she would have been out of office after one term! It was only the jingoistic sabre-rattling and Rule-Brittaniaing that saved her political neck! She seized that opportunity with both hands - 1000 dead and 2000 injured to save her career! Cunt.

Were the British residents of the Falkland Islands to be left to the Argentinians, then? You said it yourself, Argentina invaded. What was to be done about it? Nothing? A strongly worded letter?

Far more of an attempt to find a diplomatic solution before sending in the troops for a start. The Argentinians were hardly nazis - the Falklanders were not in any danger.

And then we get the sinking of the Belgrano... Half of the Argentinians to die in the conflict were on that ship, torpedoed by a British submarine well outside of the British exclusion zone. A military fuck up that was defended to the hilt by the Thatcher cabinet.

[Coito ergo sum]

And don't even get me started on the Falklands! If it weren't for Argentina's invasion, she would have been out of office after one term! It was only the jingoistic sabre-rattling and Rule-Brittaniaing that saved her political neck! She seized that opportunity with both hands - 1000 dead and 2000 injured to save her career! Cunt.

Were the British residents of the Falkland Islands to be left to the Argentinians, then? You said it yourself, Argentina invaded. What was to be done about it? Nothing? A strongly worded letter?

Far more of an attempt to find a diplomatic solution before sending in the troops for a start. The Argentinians were hardly nazis - the Falklanders were not in any danger.

???????

Errr.... huh? Argentina was a military dictatorship. They had already invaded the island, taken prisoners -- they were lobbing grenades and firing live rounds. They forced a surrender.

And then we get the sinking of the Belgrano... Half of the Argentinians to die in the conflict were on that ship, torpedoed by a British submarine well outside of the British exclusion zone. A military fuck up that was defended to the hilt by the Thatcher cabinet.

It wasn't a fuck up at all. The Belgrano was part of the Argentinian navy and part of the war that Argentina started. The Total Exclusion Zone was not an exclusive, bright line rule -- i.e. it was not "if you're inside the line, you're a target -- if you're outside the line, you're safe" - - that isn't how it works. As part of the announcement of the exclusion zone, the Brits reserved the right to hit any Argentine ship that it thought needed to be hit in defense of the Falklands, and reiterated that when it upgraded to a Total Exclusion Zone (the upgrade was the announcement that any ship from any country might expect to be sunk if they ventured in that area).

This sort of criticism is very strained -- Argentina invades British territory, and then bitches when the Brits sink a destroyer on the high seas? Ridiculous.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

And don't even get me started on the Falklands! If it weren't for Argentina's invasion, she would have been out of office after one term! It was only the jingoistic sabre-rattling and Rule-Brittaniaing that saved her political neck! She seized that opportunity with both hands - 1000 dead and 2000 injured to save her career! Cunt.

Were the British residents of the Falkland Islands to be left to the Argentinians, then? You said it yourself, Argentina invaded. What was to be done about it? Nothing? A strongly worded letter?

Far more of an attempt to find a diplomatic solution before sending in the troops for a start. The Argentinians were hardly nazis - the Falklanders were not in any danger.

???????

Errr.... huh? Argentina was a military dictatorship. They had already invaded the island, taken prisoners -- they were lobbing grenades and firing live rounds. They forced a surrender.

And then we get the sinking of the Belgrano... Half of the Argentinians to die in the conflict were on that ship, torpedoed by a British submarine well outside of the British exclusion zone. A military fuck up that was defended to the hilt by the Thatcher cabinet.

It wasn't a fuck up at all. The Belgrano was part of the Argentinian navy and part of the war that Argentina started. The Total Exclusion Zone was not an exclusive, bright line rule -- i.e. it was not "if you're inside the line, you're a target -- if you're outside the line, you're safe" - - that isn't how it works. As part of the announcement of the exclusion zone, the Brits reserved the right to hit any Argentine ship that it thought needed to be hit in defense of the Falklands, and reiterated that when it upgraded to a Total Exclusion Zone (the upgrade was the announcement that any ship from any country might expect to be sunk if they ventured in that area).

This sort of criticism is very strained -- Argentina invades British territory, and then bitches when the Brits sink a destroyer on the high seas? Ridiculous.

"Some details of the action were leaked to a British Member of Parliament, Tam Dalyell, in 1985 by the senior civil servant Clive Ponting, resulting in the unsuccessful prosecution of the latter under the Official Secrets Act 1911. The documents revealed that the Belgrano was sailing away from the exclusion zone when she was attacked and sunk."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARA_Genera ... ontroversy

[Coito ergo sum]

So what if it was sailing away? They were at war and it was a military vessel of the instigating power. It was fair game.

The exclusion zone was not a zone wherein vessels were safe merely by being outside of it.

[cronus]

So what if it was sailing away? They were at war and it was a military vessel of the instigating power. It was fair game.

The exclusion zone was not a zone wherein vessels were safe merely by being outside of it.

It was unnecessary. Following your logic of laizzez faire warfare we should have shot captured Argentinian soldiers too.