Thatchers Funeral - Evidence of the Great Class Divide.

As i type this, the procession of thatcher's funeral has just begun. Its been a long 9 days since her death and many arguments have raged been those who loved her and those who were relieved to finally learn that a wicked woman has finally met her maker. Anyone who bother's to study thatchers 11 and half years in power will be able to attest to the devastation she brought forth to town and cities north of the midlands.

But let me try and put into context how the class divide of this country was exposed to the surface for all to see.

-The News
Within the first 24 hrs of thatcher's death, the bbc (state news broadcaster) began to report on her passing with a constant stream of "breaking news" Doing interviews with past MP's, present MP's and friends. They were showing nothing but praise for this woman, as if the entire country was mourning the passing of this "Great Lady" - Ignoring the darker side of her time as prime minister - such as how she handled the miners strikes, the mass unemployment, privatization of state assets. Those who were making an honest point about her leadership were looked upon as being disrespectful.

- The Celebrations
There were a few reports of celebrations by average people upon her death. People in pubs, football crowds, ex miners, dockers, steel/factory workers People who lived through those years and were caused so much heartache. Not only has she put million's of people on the dole, she cared not a thing about them. She was using the money from selling north sea oil to PAY for them to live on the breadline - When 99% of these people would have preferred to be in work. Their parties were berated, told THEY were being disrespectful. The double standard had really started to show.

- Parliamentary recall to "Tribute" thatcher
The class divide got even more evident when politicians got involved. David camerons speech was as expected - A tory lead arse kissing for a woman who "Saved great britain" (Subjective depending on what side of the political scale you like to sit on) And then Ed Miliband gave his own little version of "I can be a tory too" Before the tribute, Miliband told members of his labour party to basically "be respectful" - And what he basically meant by that was dont start talking about how she decimated this country and make millions destitute. Because representing the general consensus of your constituency (The the people who vote for your MP's) Would be "disrespectful"
Despite his pleads to "his" party, Its reported that 150 labour MP's shunned the tribute altogether - and rightly so. Though some credit goes out to those that did turn up and said it like it is:



Her speech was to the Jeer's of the conservative opposition - Who had totalled a number of hours calling themselves "Thatchers children" and how grateful they were to be living in thatchers Britain. More to a point, the cost of recalling parliament for a "we love thatcher" orgy may have costed the tax payer upwards of £3000 per MP who attended. More wasted money.

- Backhanding of the Youth
The youth of this country have been slagged off for having an opinion on thacther and her time in power. "You weren't around when she was running the country, your hate is learned, you've got no morals" And yet, this is the generation who has been left BROKEN by thatcherism. No social housing, no well paid secure jobs, the cost of living has sky rocketed since the privatization of state assets: Gas, Electric, Water, Transport etc.
I wasnt around when Hitler killed 6 million jews, yet im allowed to judge him and his policies and make a "disrespectful" remark about him and his time as leader of germany - Dont you think that's strange?

- The Music Charts
Almost immediately after her death a campaign started to get "Ding dong the witch is dead" into the charts and it reached No 2, five thousand copies away from being number one. Again, the controversy was rife, with the BBC refusing to play the entire 50 second clip of the song that the PEOPLE has bought in order to get to number one. It was again regarded as disrespectful.
BUT WAIT! a rival song "I Love Maggie Thatcher" made it into the charts at No 35 (They play the top 40 in the UK every Sunday) That song was played in full.

- The Planning Of Her Funeral
Thatcher was a hardcore conservative, she didnt believe in society, she believed that people should help themselves. Indeed, practice what you preach? Im sure she'll be sick to her stomach knowing that her funeral is rumoured to be costing the taxpayer around £10 million - At a time when austerity is cutting deep into British society. The guardian have been running online polls on whether or not she should receive state funeral and the results were and overwhelming NO
Having such a public funeral is in defiance against what half of the country wants. They are making it into a grand funeral, affording her an Honour that has only once been bestowed upon one other Ex prime minister and that my friends was Sir Winston Churchill - A figure LOVED by the people of this country.
Even talk of silencing Big Ben so it wouldn't "disrespect" such a controversial figure as her horse-drawn hearse made its way through the vibrant streets of london.

Her death has divided 62 Million people. Those running the country, the elite and so forth, have done everything they can to try and make this woman out to be a martyr. They've gone against ALL the opposition this country has proudly shown and pressed ahead to give this woman a lavish public funeral with absolutely no consideration to the millions she caused untold grief to. This stands as yet another case of the powerful elite doing exactly what they want to do because they can. Their arrogance and unwillingness to acknowledge the pain and suffering she caused to so many families, i believe, only made everything so much worse.

Miliband will not be getting my vote come 2015.
Thatcher will not be getting my respect at any point.
And freedom of expression wont be getting a seize fire any time soon.

This isnt intended to be a "I hate thatcher" thread, i'm making this to highlight the splitting of opinions between the citizens of the the United Kingdom and how class warfare is still alive and well. Placed it in this forum because she was a political figure.

Most of the people on the streets were tourists according to the news.

The protests were happening but were avoided by the media to make out everyone loved the woman. Plenty of pictures on twitter of people holding signs against the woman, none made it onto the tv.

£18m for all this, maybe a bit more. Straight out of the taxpayers pocket, we wasnt asked, we were told we would be paying for it.

Democracy my arse

So much evil in one place, Blair, Cameron, Major....elitists, bankers, tyrants, dictators....kind of fitting for the lady really.

Originally posted by AmberLeaf
Most of the people on the streets were tourists according to the news.

The protests were happening but were avoided by the media to make out everyone loved the woman. Plenty of pictures on twitter of people holding signs against the woman, none made it onto the tv.

£18m for all this, maybe a bit more. Straight out of the taxpayers pocket, we wasnt asked, we were told we would be paying for it.

Democracy my arse

Hear Hear, Have you got a link to the twitter pics?

Another aspect of the context is this;
The hostility being demonstrated comes from the fact that Mrs Thatcher got engaged in an episode of the "class war" and won her battle.
The success has proved permanent, in the sense that the restrictions she placed on union power have never been reversed, even by Labour governments.
So the hostility towards her is the product and symptom of a sense of defeat.
If she had lost her battles, nobody would be bothering to hate her.

I would just like to say.a very well done to sir. You are pne of the few people I have seem to comment on her death with dignity an humanity. No abuse, just views and opinions, the way iy should be done!

I am 21 years old and live in Essex which I am sure you know of. I come from a modest family, we have what we have and make do. We are not rich! But I am proud of my family for putting themselves in the possition to not have to struggle and claim beneits. We also realise how extremely lucky we are to be in this possition, and I for one think its am absolute dosgrace that the leaders of our country have let millions of our honest citizens get into such a state, that they cannot feed their families.

I was mot around when Thatcher ruled. But I can and do observe the effects of some things she did. Some i agree with. Some I do not. I am not too big on politics. My stance is that all MPs make promises and then when they get the power they cant keep the promise, so whats the point. Its for this reason I do not moan and protest. I merely observe. Thatcher really did divide the nation I feel. And she did screw up alot of lives. But I do respect her because she had the stones to do it.

This is a great post!!!

reply to post by DISRAELI


She "won" her battles? Did you miss the part about putting 3-5 million people out of work, effecting and destroying many families, the loss of secure well paid jobs where people could actually have a dispute with their employer? The loss of industrial skill sets, such as ship building, steel working?

You dont think there's a little more to it than people feeling defeated by this woman?

Originally posted by AmberLeaf
Most of the people on the streets were tourists according to the news.

The protests were happening but were avoided by the media to make out everyone loved the woman. Plenty of pictures on twitter of people holding signs against the woman, none made it onto the tv.

£18m for all this, maybe a bit more. Straight out of the taxpayers pocket, we wasnt asked, we were told we would be paying for it.

Democracy my arse

I caught it as the procession drifted a stones throw, not enough to get you out of puff if you were jogging to St Pauls just as Her Madge arrived and yes, it just looked like your average tourists lining the road taking holiday snaps to me...

I have to admit chuckling a bit last night as she was laid in the crypt of her former place of work - Bloodsucker central. To borrow the Bauhaus tune..Maggie Thatchers dead......Undead, Undead, Undead..

reply to post by AmberLeaf


Just thought i would point out that most of the cost of the funeral is the Policing and that is where is bit of a debate arises as to the actual costs. These officers would have been on duty anyway, just on their normal patch instead of Policing the funeral. Therefore in terms of manpower there is actually little to no extra cost and that £18 million figure is vastly reduced.

Obviously, this means that those officers won't be on their normal patch though.

Whoa, with that kind of price tag I'd think a private cremation would be in order.

Yikes!

If I ever get famous and die, do it the cheap way.
I'll be dead I won't mind.

Originally posted by Flavian
reply to post by AmberLeaf

 

Just thought i would point out that most of the cost of the funeral is the Policing and that is where is bit of a debate arises as to the actual costs. These officers would have been on duty anyway, just on their normal patch instead of Policing the funeral. Therefore in terms of manpower there is actually little to no extra cost and that £18 million figure is vastly reduced.

Obviously, this means that those officers won't be on their normal patch though.

Seems pretty pointless.

Imagine all of the better things they could have been assigned to do for the day...

Originally posted by Flavian
reply to post by AmberLeaf

 

Just thought i would point out that most of the cost of the funeral is the Policing and that is where is bit of a debate arises as to the actual costs. These officers would have been on duty anyway, just on their normal patch instead of Policing the funeral. Therefore in terms of manpower there is actually little to no extra cost and that £18 million figure is vastly reduced.

Obviously, this means that those officers won't be on their normal patch though.

Sorry but that is incorrect...The Police that are Policing the event will be in on overtime, do you really think that the rest of London is not being Policed today! The cost of the security for this event will be huge.

Originally posted by muzzleflash

Originally posted by Flavian
reply to post by AmberLeaf

 

Just thought i would point out that most of the cost of the funeral is the Policing and that is where is bit of a debate arises as to the actual costs. These officers would have been on duty anyway, just on their normal patch instead of Policing the funeral. Therefore in terms of manpower there is actually little to no extra cost and that £18 million figure is vastly reduced.

Obviously, this means that those officers won't be on their normal patch though.

Seems pretty pointless.

Imagine all of the better things they could have been assigned to do for the day...

Yeah, like their actual jobs

It's making my blood boil just watching it...they have no right to make us pay for it.

Edited due to previous post being just plain awful, but that's what she brings out in some of us.

reply to post by yorkshireman


Police are being drafted in from around the country - it isn't just Police from London (so no, actually it is correct).

To be honest though, i was going to avoid any further Thatcher threads because objectivity goes out of the window on this site regarding Thatcher.

Originally posted by Flavian
reply to post by yorkshireman

 

Police are being drafted in from around the country - it isn't just Police from London (so no, actually it is correct).

To be honest though, i was going to avoid any further Thatcher threads because objectivity goes out of the window on this site regarding Thatcher.

edit on 17-4-2013 by Flavian because: (no reason given)

Yeah drafted in from all over the country on overtime...

reply to post by yorkshireman


Some on overtime, many on normal hourly pay.

Like i said, lack of objectivity regarding Thatcher so that is me out of these threads.

I remember Princess Margaret's ( the Queens only sister ) cremation costing £280.00 - which included a £20.00 surcharge because she lived outside the borough ( Slough ).

It seems to me that The British public have been short-changed on this one.

As for the Queen attending, what on earth is she thinking? I thought that she was the monarch of all the UK, including the north of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - all of which suffered terribly under the Thatcher regime.
This is nothing but a Tory propaganda exercise and to my mind the Queen has no right to be involved.

Originally posted by ironorchid
I remember Princess Margaret's ( the Queens only sister ) cremation costing £280.00 - which included a £20.00 surcharge because she lived outside the borough ( Slough ).

It seems to me that The British public have been short-changed on this one.

As for the Queen attending, what on earth is she thinking? I thought that she was the monarch of all the UK, including the north of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - all of which suffered terribly under the Thatcher regime.
This is nothing but a Tory propaganda exercise and to my mind the Queen has no right to be involved.

Aye, the queen is suppose to be neutral when it comes to politics but she did attend Churchill's funeral. To my knowledge, she has never attended another ex PM's funeral.

I watched her funeral on the BBC.....not out of respect or because I have been saddened by her death but just because I wanted to witness it as the piece of history it is.

I have to say I found the whole event very surreal to watch.....the pomp and grandiose gesture's displayed as a sign of respect for her couldn't be more extremely opposed to the feeling's in my part of the North where I live! It feel's quite literally like two very different world's!

I will be glad after today is done with and when eventually those of us with strong opinion's on both side's can get it out of our system's.....because quite frankly what all this stuff as done for me is make me extremely worried about my own children and history repeating itself. My own children in 20,30, 40 year's time having strong emotion's on the death of another PM with memories of how they lived through a time when the government of the day impacted their own existence in such a negative soul destroying way and denied them of a real future.....

After the backlash of her death as settled down what we need to do as a nation is focus on our current situation with a new vigour in a way we haven't done before....wouldn't it be great if part of Margaret Thatcher's death left a legacy of us all getting up of our arse's and opposing the further decline of our nation and showing there is indeed such thing as a society! Maybe I am living in a fantasy world even daring to believe that we the people will demand change....personally I am feeling a little demoralised right now, but really when will enough be enough?

One thing I will say about her death.....I think many people outside the UK here on ATS and indeed other part's of the world in general seem to have been a little shocked that she was anything more than the well loved and respected figure they had somehow always thought or been led to believe she was....for many it as opened their eye's to the Real Margaret Thatcher and the very real division she brought to this country. In some small way it as helped put history straight!

Madge just wanted to make sure she was dispatched and might I add she still look's a bit of a fox in black.
I'll not deny the Monarch a post funeral sherry and vol au vent.