Margaret Thatcher Dies

[Buckeye1]

I wish to extend my sincere sympathy to our British friends in the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. I believe history will be kind to her as a strong leader in a difficult world.

 

[tampa24]

I was also deeply saddened to hear of her passing. I greatly admired and respected her. I've often heard that we Americans had a much higher opinion of her than the British public itself. There's no denying though that she was a strong leader who projected a proud and strong Britain on the world stage. In the midst of the Cold War bipolar world between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, she still managed to keep Britain's opinions and goals relevant in world affairs.

 

[jamesxx1]

Although she was a pain in the bum for the Catholics in Northern Ireland,
However I respect her for standing up in what she believed in,
May she Rest in peace

 

[joninliverton]

There was a 90 min programme about her on the BBC tonight - should be available to you Americans soon. My own opinion of Thatcher based on history alone, is that she was an arrogant person who used the fact that she was the first woman prime minister to prove a point how Iron she actually was.

Good points were her relations with Gorbachev and her stand up to the Argentinians over the Falklands. Bad points were the way she handled Northern Ireland and the unions. Because of her there is now very little manufacturing industry in the UK and very little council housing that those who cannot afford to buy, can afford.

 

[rrhill]

[h=1]Margaret Thatcher's death greeted with street parties in Brixton and Glasgow[/h]Crowds shout 'Maggie Maggie Maggie, dead dead dead' during impromptu events

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; others spoke of frustration that her legacy lived on.
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." (...)

In Glasgow, more than 300 people gathered in the city centre for an impromptu party, organised on Twitter.

Members of organisations including the Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation, the Communist party, the Socialist party, the Socialist Workers party and the International Socialist Group, were joined by members of the public in George Square.

A chorus of "so long, the witch is dead" erupted, along with chants of "Maggie Maggie Maggie, dead dead dead," from the gathering as champagne bottles were popped.

read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-death-party-brixton-glasgow

 

[jamesxx1]

[h=1]Margaret Thatcher's death greeted with street parties in Brixton and Glasgow[/h]Crowds shout 'Maggie Maggie Maggie, dead dead dead' during impromptu events

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; others spoke of frustration that her legacy lived on.
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." (...)

In Glasgow, more than 300 people gathered in the city centre for an impromptu party, organised on Twitter.

Members of organisations including the Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation, the Communist party, the Socialist party, the Socialist Workers party and the International Socialist Group, were joined by members of the public in George Square.

A chorus of "so long, the witch is dead" erupted, along with chants of "Maggie Maggie Maggie, dead dead dead," from the gathering as champagne bottles were popped.

read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-death-party-brixton-glasgow

These people are just sick to death,
We'd be lucky if we had a prime minter like her in Ireland,
Britain used to be a sick man of Europe before she came, strikes were everywhere,
She came and changed all that, unemployment rate dropped when she left
And she stopped the Uk from entering the Euro currency which we all regret
Some people just don't appreciate what they have,
Plus the liberal unfair media hide facts just because she's a conservative.
I dont agree with her in some foreign polices(Northern Ireland),
But she did remarkable things, History will never forget,
Even Tony Blair gave credit to her Polices and loved her as a person.

 

[cumrag27]

May Margaret Thatcher RIP

Isn't one's life full of contradictions and compromises. She had a love/hate relationship with the public, depending upon which side the political divide you inhabit. Simply said, Britain was better off for having her at the time. Even so, she would not be someone you'd want to be in power forever, just like Ronald Reagan. Thank God the political process is capable of working properly from time to time.


Sincerely,


Stimpy

 

[joninliverton]

Isn't one's life full of contradictions and compromises. She had a love/hate relationship with the public, depending upon which side the political divide you inhabit. Simply said, Britain was better off for having her at the time. Even so, she would not be someone you'd want to be in power forever, just like Ronald Reagan. Thank God the political process is capable of working properly from time to time.


Sincerely,


Stimpy

Well said Stimpy. She will certainly go down in history as a PM who was loved by the rich but hated by the poor - quite the opposite to Robin Hood. She did a lot for world peace and was a big catalyst in melting down the cold war however, she destroyed manufacturing industry in the UK, destroyed the coal mining industry and caused a bitter North / South divide. Her ace move was to allow people to buy council houses at a discounted price and a lot of people took this offer (including my grandparents). Of course once tied into mortgages these people could no longer afford to come out on strike or they would lose their houses.

The feelings shown in Glasgow and Brixton are echoed here in Yorkshire and I would imagine there are more people celebrating than grieving her death.

 

[joninliverton]

Will the Queen attend Thatcher's funeral ?

[h=1]Will the Queen attend Margaret Thatcher's funeral? Buckingham Palace says Her Majesty is 'waiting for details' about the service but hasn't confirmed she will go[/h]By REBECCA ENGLISH
PUBLISHED: 01:27, 9 April 2013 | UPDATED: 01:27, 9 April 2013

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Born six months apart, they were two women very much making their mark in a man's world.
But the Queen is often said to have had a less than easy relationship with Margaret Thatcher, her eighth – and longest-serving – prime minister.
Always mindful of her constitutional role and cordial to the last, the monarch is nevertheless said to have personally disagreed with some of Mrs Thatcher's more divisive policies and privately expressed her alarm over issues such as unemployment and the miners' strike.
Yesterday a Buckingham Palace spokesman issued a statement saying she was ‘sad to hear the news of the death of Baroness Thatcher' and would be sending a private message of sympathy to her family.

Strained relationship? The Queen and Prince Philip arrive at Margaret Thatcher's 80th birthday party at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Knightsbridge, London, in October 2005

However there was no confirmation that the Queen would attend the funeral (as she did for Sir Winston Churchill, although that was a state occasion), despite having no public engagements in her diary for either Wednesday or Thursday next week.
Instead, a spokesman said Her Majesty was ‘waiting for details about the funeral arrangements from the Government'. While the Queen may have found her first female prime minister somewhat frosty, Mrs Thatcher's respect and admiration for the monarch knew no bounds, not least because she had been raised in an intensely patriotic family.
She once told author Gyles Brandreth that the talk of a strained relationship with the Queen was ‘a lot of nonsense' and spoke with admiration about her commitment to the Commonwealth and armed services.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...tails-service-confirmed-go.html#ixzz2PwkkbRyk
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[joninliverton]

LA Times report

LONDON — Indifference was not an option.
In death as in life, at home and abroad, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was lionized and lambasted — sometimes both in the same breath — as news of her passing Monday spread across the world.
Whether she was lauded as a savior or loathed as a destroyer, no one could deny the indelible imprint left on Britain by its first female prime minister, whose free-market revolution in the 1980s shook this country to its core.
"We have lost a great leader, a great prime minister and a great Briton," said Prime Minister David Cameron, one of Thatcher's heirs as leader of the Conservative Party. "People will be learning about what she did and her achievements in decades, probably centuries to come."
But to Labor Party grandee and former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, those lessons will be cautionary tales, not celebratory ones. For him and other critics, Thatcher set the stage for the financial crisis and the glaring social divide that Britain is now grappling with nearly a quarter of a century after her exit from politics.
"Every real problem we face today is the legacy of the fact that she was fundamentally wrong," Livingstone told Sky News.
No doubt Thatcher would have loved to take on that fight if she were still alive and in her pomp. From her seat in 10 Downing St. between 1979 and 1990, she pursued her agenda to restore what was great about Britain, economically and militarily, with a ruthless single-mindedness that both friend and foe admired — and crossed to their peril.
She was a staunch opponent of communism, an imposing cold warrior who basked in her nickname "Iron Lady" and in her role as the strongest ally of the United States. For that reason, many of the most glowing encomiums to Thatcher on Monday came from across the Atlantic.
"The world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend," President Obama said in a statement. "She helped restore the confidence and pride that has always been the hallmark of Britain at its best."
Nancy Reagan, the widow of President Reagan, the American most closely identified with Thatcher, also mourned Thatcher's death.
"Ronnie and Margaret were political soul mates, committed to freedom and resolved to end communism. As prime minister, Margaret had the clear vision and strong determination to stand up for her beliefs at a time when so many were afraid to 'rock the boat,' " Nancy Reagan said. "Ronnie and I knew her as a dear and trusted friend, and I will miss her."
Even the man whose country she wanted to see forced into submission, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, described Thatcher as "a big-time politician and a bright personality." He credited her with helping to end the Cold War, noting that "relations were complicated sometimes, not always fair, but serious and responsible on both parts.... We managed to achieve mutual understanding after all."
Downing Street lowered its Union Jack to half-staff, and Cameron's office announced that Queen Elizabeth II had granted consent for Thatcher to be given a ceremonial funeral with military honors in St. Paul's Cathedral, a distinction reserved for great figures of state. Winston Churchill was also given a funeral in the cathedral.
A special session of Parliament will convene Wednesday to allow members to pay tribute. Her supporters say that Thatcher unleashed Britain's spirit of free enterprise, cut out fat from government spending and oversaw a British renaissance.
But in a reflection of the polarized opinions that she continues to inspire here in her homeland, at least one lawmaker openly rejoiced at her death. George Galloway, a member of a small leftist party, drew some loud rebukes with his reference to "tramp[ing] the dirt down" on Thatcher's grave and his condemnation of her suspicion of South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.
"Thatcher described Nelson Mandela as a 'terrorist.' I was there. I saw her lips move. May she burn in the hellfires," Galloway tweeted.
Miners in northern England also shed no tears, still angry over her successful campaign to break the union that represented them and to shut down many mines, which drove up unemployment. And opponents of British rule in Northern Ireland, where Thatcher took an uncompromising stance toward the Irish Republican Army, also blamed her for inflicting misery on them.
Significantly, many of today's most important political figures are members of the cohort known as "Thatcher's children," the boys and girls who grew up in Britain under her aegis, the longest tenure of any prime minister in more than a century. Whether they loved her or hated her, many of them still find her influence formative and are dealing with the continued impact of her policies.
"She reshaped the politics of a whole generation.... She moved the center ground of British politics and was a huge figure on the world stage," said Ed Miliband, the leader of Britain's opposition Labor Party, which implacably opposed, then reluctantly adopted, many of Thatcher's free-market policies. "David Cameron, [Deputy Prime Minister] Nick Clegg and I all grew up in a politics shaped by Lady Thatcher."
Cameron acknowledged Thatcher's divisiveness but said that she would probably go down in history as Britain's greatest peacetime prime minister.
"For many of us, she was and is an inspiration. For others, she was a force to be defined against," Cameron said outside 10 Downing St.
"But if there is one thing that cuts through all of this, one thing that runs through everything that she did, it was her lionhearted love of this country," Cameron said. "She was the patriot prime minister, and she fought for Britain's interests every step of the way."
[email protected]

 

[grace17]

Off topic slightly...

Headlines on OZ Yahoo this morning was how Margaret Thatcher's death was causing confusion on Twitter. People thought Cher had passed. Apparently #thatcherdead was misread as 'That Cher Dead' instead of 'Thatcher Dead'...

Okay back to being serious...

 

[joninliverton]

Off topic slightly...

Headlines on OZ Yahoo this morning was how Margaret Thatcher's death was causing confusion on Twitter. People thought Cher had passed. Apparently #thatcherdead was misread as 'That Cher Dead' instead of 'Thatcher Dead'...

Okay back to being serious...

No that's funny Grace.. There are no tears being shed up in the Northern part of the country.

 

[Buckeye1]

I wish to extend my sincere sympathy to our British friends in the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. I believe history will be kind to her as a strong leader in a difficult world.

Maybe I should add a p.s. to my original post and extend my sympathies to forum members who are actually mourning the passing of Ms. Thatcher. I had no idea she was as controversial as she apparently was.

 

[joninliverton]

Maybe I should add a p.s. to my original post and extend my sympathies to forum members who are actually mourning the passing of Ms. Thatcher. I had no idea she was as controversial as she apparently was.

Robb et al,

I got a text today that had been doing the rounds.

"She's gone to hell and closed three furnesses down already"

 

[Buckeye1]

robb et al,

i got a text today that had been doing the rounds.

"she's gone to hell and closed three furnesses down already"

lmao

 

[rrhill]

Maggie would mail back: "Pennies don’t fall from heaven – they have to be earned here on earth. No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions; he had money as well. I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it."

 

[joninliverton]

The funeral is next week, not exactly a state funeral as per what Churchill had - she said she didn't one, but one similar to that of what the Queen mother had. They'll be mourning in London and there will be street parties all over the rest of the uk

 

[Buckeye1]

The funeral is next week, not exactly a state funeral as per what Churchill had - she said she didn't one, but one similar to that of what the Queen mother had. They'll be mourning in London and there will be street parties all over the rest of the uk

You're starting to give new meaning to "whipping a dead horse".

 

[mikeyank]

You're starting to give new meaning to "whipping a dead horse".

It wasn't that long ago that you asked me how to insert those smilies into your posts, Robb. You "young kids" today sure learn your computer skills fast, now-a-days.

 

[tampa24]

They grow up so fast. Sigh... LOL