The Thatcher Haters

“No British politician has ever been more despised by the British people than Margaret Thatcher,” moody crooner Morrissey contends. “Thatcher’s funeral on Wednesday will be heavily policed for fear that the British tax-payer will want to finally express their view of Thatcher. They are certain to be tear-gassed out of sight by the police. United Kingdom? Syria? China? What’s the difference?”

Aside from the smell, a big difference is that people vote in the United Kingdom. In 1979, 1983, and again in 1987, the British people voted for the Conservative Party, which Margaret Thatcher led. If Brits so “despised” Thatcher, why did she hold office longer than any other 20th century UK prime minister? Also, people in the United Kingdom exercise the right to tastelessly celebrate the deaths of political figures. In Syria, opposing a leader means your home gets shelled; in China, one runs the risk of getting run over by a tank. Oh, yeah, China and Syria didn’t produce the Magna Carta, Shakespeare, The Beatles, or Monty Python. But other than that, Morrissey’s analogy holds...

...Does popping a champagne cork and dancing a jig upon news of a human being’s passing make others join in despising the departed or prompt a sense of revulsion at the gleeful crepe hangers? (like some on this board apparently want to do)

Some people just don’t get their own irony.


http://spectator.org/archives/2013/04/12/the-thatcher-haters