Maragaret Thatcher follow up

Yesterday we were criticized by some for including the lyrics to Morrissey's 1987 song "Margaret on a Guillotine" as being in very poor taste, inappropriate, etc..

As we explained yesterday, we had no personal axes to grind with Thatcher.. After all, we at A&G are Americans and we freely admit we didn't follow or study the years she was in power.

Her policies, right or wrong didn't affect any of us at A&G directly in any shape nor form..

However, we felt to point out that Thatcher was not loved or admired by all..  She was rather galvanizing, and those who hated her policies and her personage did so Deeply and with Sincerest Bitterness..

Upon her death, many Britons celebrated..

According to the International Business Times UK, "'Ding Dong The Witch is Dead' is set to top the charts after a Facebook campaign in the wake of Margaret Thatcher's passing sent Judy Garland's hit soaring into the iTunes Top 30 download chart."

It is deeply phony for those who find sincere hatred for another to suddenly find a kind word or two upon that person's death. Whether it be a politician or even a deviant member of one's family.. Propriety should never take a backseat to conscience.

In the US, Richard Nixon and Reagan were both galvanizing forces-- when both died, the nation-- rather, those who spent their lives hating both men decided to go the route of phonies and hypocrites and kept their inward joy silent...

In Britain, there's some that like it or not, don't wish to follow..

From the Guardian UK (in blue font):

"Several hundred people gathered in south London on Monday evening to celebrate Margaret Thatcher's death with cans of beer, pints of milk and an impromptu street disco playing the soundtrack to her years in power.

Young and old descended on Brixton, a suburb which weathered two outbreaks of rioting during the Thatcher years. Many expressed jubilation that the leader they loved to hate was no more..

To cheers of "Maggie Maggie Maggie, dead dead dead," posters of Thatcher were held aloft as reggae basslines pounded.

Clive Barger, a 62-year-old adult education tutor, said he had turned out to mark the passing of "one of the vilest abominations of social and economic history".

He said: "It is a moment to remember. She embodied everything that was so elitist in terms of repressing people who had nothing. She presided over a class war."

Builder Phil Lewis, 47, a veteran of the 1990 poll tax riots, said he had turned out to recall the political struggles the Thatcher years had embroiled him in. "She ripped the arsehole out of this country and we are still suffering the consequences."...

Unemployed Kiki Madden scrawled "you snatched my milk and our hope" on a fence and said she felt slightly guilty taking delight in Thatcher's death, "but in the end I can't deny the fact that Thatcher made me so unhappy when I was a kid. I grew up in Liverpool and all my friends' dads lost their jobs on the docks under Thatcher. It was an awful time.""

Former Smiths frontman Morrissey, who's song lyrics we reposted and which upset some,  described Margaret Thatcher as 'a terror without an atom of humanity' on today's Telegraph UK..

He goes on to say (in blue font):

"Thatcher is remembered as The Iron Lady only because she possessed completely negative traits such as persistent stubbornness and a determined refusal to listen to others...

"Every move she made was charged by negativity; she destroyed the British manufacturing industry, she hated the miners, she hated the arts, she hated the Irish Freedom Fighters and allowed them to die, she hated the English poor and did nothing at all to help them, she hated Greenpeace and environmental protectionists, she was the only European political leader who opposed a ban on the Ivory Trade, she had no wit and no warmth and even her own Cabinet booted her out...

"She gave the order to blow up the Belgrano (Argentine warship) even though it was outside of the Malvinas Exclusion Zone – and was sailing away from the islands.  When the young Argentinian boys aboard The Belgrano had suffered a most appalling and unjust death, Thatcher gave the thumbs up sign for the British press. Iron? No. Barbaric? Yes.

She hated feminists even though it was largely due to the progression of the women's movement that the British people allowed themselves to accept that a Prime Minister could actually be female. But because of Thatcher, there will never again be another woman in power in British politics, and rather than opening that particular door for other women, she closed it." 

~ Irish Protesters, early to mid 1980s

Like we've said before..  None of us at A&G are British and thus never lived through the Thatcher years.  All we know of her really as Americans is she was allied with Reagan and if you were a Reagan lover, you loved 'Maggie' and if you hated him you tended to hate her too by proxy...

This last part from the Telegraph article we found interesting because it shows how one person can be looked upon in such stark contrast based on whether you're part of the upper crust or the working classes (in blue font)...

"Other public figures have paid tribute to Lady Thatcher, with Prime Minister David Cameron praising her "lion-hearted love for this country", and Tony Blair calling her a "remarkable and towering figure".

~ North English protesters, late 1970s

Singer and left-wing activist Bill Bragg wrote on his Facebook page:

"The death of Margaret Thatcher is nothing more than a salient reminder of how Britain got into the mess that we are in today. Of why ordinary working people are no longer able to earn enough from one job to support a family; of why a spiteful government seeks to penalise the poor for having an extra bedroom; of why cynicism and greed became the hallmarks of our society. "

Who's right?  Who's wrong?

Truth always rears its ugly head somewhere between anger and anointment