Margaret Thatcher is dead

[Meshugger]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22067155

 

I was surprised that this wasn't a topic already.

[NOK222]

I dont know how to respond without sounding like a **** that disrespects the dead. So I won't say anything.

[Malcador]

I get the sense she was disliked

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

So that is why the British keep posting "Ding Dong the Witch is dead" on twitter.

 

I agree with their sentiment.

[Hurlshort]

While I know there is a lot of controversy over her time in office, she was one of the first prominent female leaders of the time and her influence on future generations of women should be acknowledged. 

[babaganoosh13]

My favorite moment(s) involving Margaret Thatcher:

 

All of the references to her from Rick in The Young Ones.

 

[HoonDing]

There are already petitions to privatise her funeral.

[Nonek]

My wifes been celebrating since the news broke, find it a little distasteful to crow over an octogenarians passing but then again my home village and industry weren't decimated like hers.

[Malcador]

Slashdot had a good joke about installing a pay toilet above her grace as a way to pay for it.

[Amentep]

I knew she was disliked, but I'm surprised by the vehemence seen from people on her passing.

[babaganoosh13]

I get the sense she was disliked

 

When they sing that at a match, there are no ties... EVERYONE WINS!!!!

[Rosbjerg]

I knew she was disliked, but I'm surprised by the vehemence seen from people on her passing.

 

 yeah it seems a tad distateful..

 

There are already petitions to privatise her funeral.

 

Haha, but that was actually pretty hilarious..

[HoonDing]

Liverpool fans obviously hate the crone because of Hillsborough.

[Meshugger]

I knew she was disliked, but I'm surprised by the vehemence seen from people on her passing.

 

Yeah, me too. Has anyone written an eulogy of sorts on what would've happened if she wouldn't been prime minister?

[Guard Dog]

Wow, somewhat surprising to hear this kind of venom. But then everyone was snarky and nasty when Regan passed too. I guess speaking well of people who were champions of liberty is out of style around here, even if they were not perfect. But then freedom is not something the posters on this board value highly so there we go.

[Malcador]

Wow, somewhat surprising to hear this kind of venom. But then everyone was snarky and nasty when Regan passed too. I guess speaking well of people who were champions of liberty is out of style around here, even if they were not perfect. But then freedom is not something the posters on this board value highly so there we go.

 

How was she a champion of liberty ?  Opposing USSR isn't really enough for that.

[Nonek]

I remember the years before she came to power, hillocks of rubbish in the streets, intermittent or no gas or electricity, dead bodies remaining unburied, fairly much every public service on the verge of collapse. Maggie might not have been the Prime Minister Britain wanted, but she was certainly the leader we needed. Of course in dragging the country into the modern world there was a lot of damage done, and there are poorer areas of Britain that have still not recovered entirely.

[Zoraptor]

There's little point in speculating on what a Maggie less world would be like- she's far too polarising. You'd just have a dichotomy between "we'd be communists and Westminster Abbey would have been renamed the Arthur Scargill Memorial Mine Worker's Emporium" and "we wouldn't have shifted from subsidising miners at $20k a pop in 1979 to subsidising bankers at 400k a pop in 2013". Neo-liberal/ laissez-faire types always love her, the more left leaning will always hate her.

 

And yeah, the person who deserves most credit for the 'defeat' of the USSR is one Mikael Gorbachev*- the guy who did all the heavy lifting and made all the concessions- not either Thatcher or Reagan.

 

*Or maybe Brezhnev and the general ossification of the soviet leadership

[Hurlshort]

Wow, somewhat surprising to hear this kind of venom. But then everyone was snarky and nasty when Regan passed too. I guess speaking well of people who were champions of liberty is out of style around here, even if they were not perfect. But then freedom is not something the posters on this board value highly so there we go.

 

It's really a matter of perspective, since we have so many people here that are not from the US.  Reagan is and was an immensely popular president at home, but from an outsider's perspective his reputation isn't the same.  Personally I have little to say about Margaret Thatcher because I am an outsider and I try not to speak about things I know little about.

 

But that doesn't stop everyone else, of course

[Tsuga C]

How was she a champion of liberty ?  Opposing USSR isn't really enough for that.

Yes, it is. Also, she stood up to the trade unions and generally advocated free markets and competition as opposed to socialist ossification. She was more concerned about enabling the creation of wealth than promoting its kleptocratic confiscation and distribution by the government. God speed, Iron Lady. Edited April 8, 2013 by Tsuga C

[Tsuga C]

...and there are poorer areas of Britain that have still not recovered entirely.

When you've neither skills nor education, you're screwed when forced to finally relinquish your death grip on the governmental and/or union teat. Those were the people left behind in the USA, too, when the union dominated, post-WWII economy began to slough off the old ways and accept that change (i.e. increasing computerization, robotics, and lean production methods) was the way of the future if we wanted to compete on the international scene. It'd been a long time coming and it still knocked them on their collective rump as they'd convinced themselves that the good times for grunts would never end.

 

It was a painful lesson and their sort will never forgive either Reagan or Thatcher, God rest their souls.

[Malcador]

 

How was she a champion of liberty ?  Opposing USSR isn't really enough for that.

Yes, it is. Also, she stood up to the trade unions and generally advocated free markets and competition as opposed to socialist ossification. She was more concerned about enabling the creation of wealth than promoting its kleptocratic confiscation and distribution by the government. God speed, Iron Lady.

 

Pretty low bar you have for something as lofty as 'champion of liberty' then. 

[Monte Carlo]

Every whine and piece of childish vitriol just reinforces how much she eviscerated the Left. Good.

 

I am old enough to remember the three day week, electricity cuts, unburied bodies and no bread in the shops in the 1970's under the Socialist grip of the Labour Government, who couldn't do anything without the agreement of the Trades Unions. Besides, some of the most egregious bull**** about Margaret Thatcher is from kids who probably don't even remember her time in office.

 

This is the woman who recognised Gorbachov as a man the West could do business with. Some of the intellectual pygmies attacking her legacy are beneath contempt.

 

RIP Baroness Thatcher.

Edited April 8, 2013 by Monte Carlo

[babaganoosh13]

I'm a strong advocate of verbally bashing any politician, living or dead, regardless of political stripes.

 

Except for John Williams. I also like my local MP, he's certainly not above criticism, however.

[melkathi]

 intellectual pygmies attacking her legacy are beneath contempt.

 

Ah yes, insulting people. That always raises oneself above contempt and helps underline the truth of one's own opinion *nodnod*

 

Interesting how the most venom in this thread does not come from the people who disliked her, but from her supporters.