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RIP Margaret Thatcher


Zepphile

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While I don't wish death on anyone, I have heard nothing but bad things about her.

There are always more sides, if it interests you read about a bit - she was quite a formidable woman.

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"Breznev took Afghanistan,

Begin took Beirut.

Galtieri took the Union Jack!

And Maggie, over lunch one day,

Took a cruiser, with all hands.

Apparently, to make them give it back."

- Pink Floyd

Methinks I'll be busting out The Final Cut today...

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The Specials: Ghost Town

This town
Is going like a ghost town.

All the clubs are being closed down.

This Place
Is coming like a ghost town.

Bands won't play no more,
To much fighting on the dance floor.

Do you remember the good old days before the ghost town?
We danced and sang as the music played in any boomtown.

This town is going like a ghost town.
Why must the youth fight against themselves?
Government leaving the youth on the shelf.

This place is coming like a ghost town.
No job to be found in this country.
Can't go on no more.
People getting angry.

UB40 - One in Ten

I am the one in ten
A number on a list
I am the one in ten
Even though I don`t exist
Nobody Knows me
Even though I`m always there
A statistic, a reminder
Of a world that doesn`t care

My arms enfold the dole queue
Malnutrition dulls my hair
My eyes are black and lifeless
With an underprivileged stare
I`m the beggar on the corner
Will no-one spare a dime?
I`m the child that never learns to read
`Cause no-one spared the time

[Chorus]

I`m the murderer and the victim
The licence with the gun
I`m a sad and bruised old lady
In an ally in a slum
I`m a middle aged businessman
With chronic heart disease
I`m another teenaged suicide
In a street that has no trees

[Chorus]

I`m a starving third world mother
A refugee without a home
I`m a house wife hooked on Valium
I`m a Pensioner alone
I`m a cancer ridden spectre
Covering the earth
I`m another hungry baby
I`m an accident of birth.

Stopping free school milk - wrong

Privitisation of the utility companies - wrong

Privitisation of the railways - wrong

Poll tax - wrong

Council House sell Off, cheap homes but never built any - wrong

Closure Of the Coal Fields - wrong

1 in 10 unemployed - wrong

North/South divide - wrong

Selfish me me me culture - wrong

Capitalism - wrong

Criminal Justice Bill - wrong ( roots of)

Riots - RIGHT

To quote Ken Livingstone:

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

"She decided when she wrote off our manufacturing industry that she could live with two or three million unemployed and the legacy of that, the benefits bill that we are still struggling with today.

"In actual fact, every real problem we face today is the legacy of the fact she was fundamentally wrong."

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You forgot "Stand Down, Margaret" by The Beat (known as The English Beat over here)!

What a towering figure. Of course, I didn't have to live under her policies. Still, what an amazing woman - as strong as they come.

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The most significant if not most impressive Prime Minister since Sir Winston Churchill.

Really? Tell that to the families of miners whose life depended on the coal pits. Lets see. Nottinghamshire,Yorkshire,Derbyshire, South Wales, After the closure these hard working villages were left to rot and the people with them. No wonder there was a massive Heroin explosion in the 80's

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That was her downfall, they say. Telling Europe, "No, no and no." I could be paraphrasing there.

She was widely admired in the U.S., pretty much regardless of one's political orientation. Even "liberal" newspapers like the Washington Post are eulogizing her as "In Every Sense a Leader."

We've never had our own female head of state, so we have to glom onto other people's, I guess...

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A compilation of musical commentary on Thatcher:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/angelameiquan/21-incredibly-angry-songs-about-margaret-thatcher

She was not "widely admired" in the U.S., sorry. I think there are women here who wonder why we haven't had a female President yet...in reality, a female President would end up acting more like a man than a man given our current culture...

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I agree FireOpal. Maggie was widely admired in Canada as well. When she took office, 60% of the English didn't own their own homes in England, when she left office, 60% of the English owned their own homes. Suddenly the individual English person was more in charge of their own lives instead of government.

She was widely admired in the U.S., pretty much regardless of one's political orientation. Even "liberal" newspapers like the Washington Post are eulogizing her as "In Every Sense a Leader."

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I agree FireOpal. Maggie was widely admired in Canada as well. When she took office, 60% of the English didn't own their own homes in England, when she left office, 60% of the English owned their own homes. Suddenly the individual English person was more in charge of their own lives instead of government.

But what she didn't do was Build anymore affordable Housing. We now suffer from a lack of Social Housing which is Affordable.

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Baroness Margaret Hilda Thatcher

“Individualism has come in for an enormous amount of criticism over the years. It still does. It is widely assumed to be synonymous with selfishness -- an argument which I have already examined and I hope successfully dismissed. But the main reason why so many people in power have always disliked individualism is because it is individualists who are ever keenest to prevent abuse of authority.

A large part of the explanation of why the English have been so successful in making liberty work is, I am convinced, that the nation has bred and nurtured more than its share of these rugged, angular individualists. We all know who they are. They are the people referred as ‘one of a kind’, or ‘a character’, or, sometimes and less favourably ‘a difficult customer’, or even on occasion ‘a damned nuisance’. They are not to be consigned to social categories, nor planned into programmes, nor fitted into schemes. They drive socialists wild. We need such individualists in every walk of life. We need them just as oysters need grit. No grit, no pearl.”

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While I don't wish death on anyone, I have heard nothing but bad things about her.

I don't know anything about politicians in the UK but that is usually a good sign if you live in America. It isn't like our media is full of honest and intelligent people giving fair representation to ideas. They're mostly swine who demand conformity. So personally I won't render an opinion about her during her life.

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From Gerry Adams

<“Margaret Thatcher did great hurt to the Irish and British people during her time as British Prime Minister,” Adams said. "Working class communities were devastated in Britain because of her policies.

"Her role in international affairs was equally belligerent whether in support of the Chilean dictator Pinochet, her opposition to sanctions against apartheid South Africa; and her support for the Khmer Rouge. Here in Ireland her espousal of old draconian militaristic policies prolonged the war and caused great suffering.

"She embraced censorship, collusion and the killing of citizens by covert operations, including the targeting of solicitors like Pat Finucane, alongside more open military operations and refused to recognise the rights of citizens to vote for parties of their choice.

"Her failed efforts to criminalise the republican struggle and the political prisoners is part of her legacy. It should be noted that in complete contradiction of her public posturing, she authorised a back channel of communications with the Sinn Féin leadership but failed to act on the logic of this. Unfortunately she was faced with weak Irish governments who failed to oppose her securocrat agenda or to enlist international support in defence of citizens in the north.

"Margaret Thatcher will be especially remembered for her shameful role during the epic hunger strikes of 1980 and 81. Her Irish policy failed miserably.">

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/adams-thatcher-did-great-hurt-to-irish-people-590577.html

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Well, we know Jimmy was a supporter, so I guess at least one member of Zeppelin will be sorry.

Didn't much care for her, but one thing to be said for her was that she never seemed to be one of those politicians who say whatever they think's going to get them the most votes. She always said what she meant and meant what she said. Don't think we've got many politicians like that nowadays.

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It depends on your point of view I guess. If you believe that people should be able to keep more of their money, her lowering the tax rates from 90% to something much more moderate will be viewed as good. If you think her England going from 60% of the people NOT owning their own home to 60% owning a home you will like her.

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