Margaret Thatcher dies at 87

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Will we see another like the Iron Lady, The Gipper or John Paul II? 

I hope not.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Btw, this thread surprisingly turned out to be less horrible than "Jesse Helms is dead", "Ted Kennedy is dead", "Jerry Falwell is dead" counterparts.

Anyway, I'm truly sorry for her family. Taking care of an Alzheimer patient is something few of us who never experienced it can fully understand. I'm also extending my sympathies for her admirers, while I utterly disagree with them politically. But I also understand her enemies, particularly those directly affected by her policies.

That happens when importany political figures passes away. I'm sorry for an old lady that dies, but I won't pretend by opinion of Thatcher as a politician improved even slightly just because she is no longer among us.

[Cryptic]

I was no fan of her but my sympathies goes to family and supporters.

[Supersonic]

Absolutely sickening front cover of the Socialist Worker.

 

#TheCompassionateLeft

[Leftbehind]

How's your compassionate conservatism going btw? Last I heard people more or less on their deathbed were being forced out to non-existent work so you can cut their benefits?

Or is it okay, because you now accept that the right don't hold any compassion?

[Hash]

They're as compassionate as Thatcher's friends in Pretoria and Santiago were.

[Supersonic]

How's your compassionate conservatism going btw? Last I heard people more or less on their deathbed were being forced out to non-existent work so you can cut their benefits?

Or is it okay, because you now accept that the right don't hold any compassion?

Mindless socialist rhetoric versus the front cover of a profound left wing paper.

I'll take the paper as better evidence.

[Leftbehind]

How's your compassionate conservatism going btw? Last I heard people more or less on their deathbed were being forced out to non-existent work so you can cut their benefits?

Or is it okay, because you now accept that the right don't hold any compassion?

Mindless socialist rhetoric versus the front cover of a profound left wing paper.

I'll take the paper as better evidence.

Funnily enough plenty of evidence for it though: http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/04/32-die-a-week-after-failing-in.html ?

[Brittain33]

Is there a mine for superfluous outrage?

I really doubt anyone on this forum takes the Socialist Worker magazine...

[afleitch]

How's your compassionate conservatism going btw? Last I heard people more or less on their deathbed were being forced out to non-existent work so you can cut their benefits?

Or is it okay, because you now accept that the right don't hold any compassion?

Mindless socialist rhetoric versus the front cover of a profound left wing paper.

I'll take the paper as better evidence.

Funnily enough plenty of evidence for it though: http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/04/32-die-a-week-after-failing-in.html ?

Is there? I mean you do understand how mortality rates work? People on benefits relating to ill health can die, surprise surprise because of ill health.

http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/adhoc_analysis/2012/incap_decd_recips_0712.pdf

Here is an official paper from the Department of Work and Pensions responding to the Freedom of Information Request. The article refers to an FOI request made last February so it will only have figures to 2010/2011. It outlines the percentage of those who have 'rolled off' incapacity benefits due to death. In 2008/9 (Labour) it was 6%. In 2009/10 (Labour) it was 6%. In 2010/11 (Coalition) it was 6%.

So...er...no.

[Silent Hunter]

Coalition hadn't implemented the changes to incapacity benefit then.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Is there a mine for superfluous outrage?

I really doubt anyone on this forum takes the Socialist Worker magazine...

You mean it's not delivered to your door each day with your latte, b33?  

[ZuWo]

Not that it matters on the international level, but the chairman of the Swiss Young Socialists posted on Facebook that it wasn't "cynical to drink a toast to Maggie's best day tonight". People like him are the future leaders of the Social Democratic Party in my country. What a delightful prospect!

[Keystone Phil]

Found a lovely picture of Maggie meeting Al on the campaign trail...

[ingemann]

and here's one with Thatcher and Phil

[RogueBeaver]

Mulroney's memories of her.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/mulroney-remembers-thatcher-an-iron-lady-indeed/article10912484/

[Keystone Phil]

and here's one with Thatcher and Phil

Looking like a boss, as usual. One of my personal favorites!

[You kip if you want to...]

How's your compassionate conservatism going btw? Last I heard people more or less on their deathbed were being forced out to non-existent work so you can cut their benefits?

Or is it okay, because you now accept that the right don't hold any compassion?

Mindless socialist rhetoric versus the front cover of a profound left wing paper.

I'll take the paper as better evidence.

Funnily enough plenty of evidence for it though: http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/04/32-die-a-week-after-failing-in.html ?

Surely she's still considered fit to work under this government.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Apart from the moral aspect of it, the idea that Socialists should rejoice at Thatcher's death is also pretty stupid. Her legacy is alive and well: when that will be dead, we'll have a real reason to rejoice.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Margaret Thatcher was not a monster. Monsters are made and created by people to create a crude caricature of their own fears, angers and vices and that was true of Margaret Thatcher. You can disagree with her and you can disagree with the direction in which she took this country but for many she was a person on to which they could direct their own anger. People had a very tough time in the 1980’s because of what her government did, people suffered, people lost and had to pick themselves up my own family included, but many people had a tough existence because they didn’t strive to better themselves when opportunities arose. I came from a family and a town of miners and steelworkers. But come the end of the 20th Century the mining stopped and the steel working stopped and for some their whole world ended. I fully understand it. It must have felt the same for my family and my town at end of the 19th Century when the cotton mills stopped because that was all they knew or for my family at the end of the 18th Century when they were thrown out of their farmland. But you pick yourselves up and you move on and adjust to the new economy because it will always change; that is the capitalist system. And workers have always responded to those demands; they’ve been smart enough to do that. My family did that and had that same spirit, yet some of my neighbours did not. You cannot blame that one woman thirty years later if you still have not adjusted and re-skilled to meet the demands of the economy and missed the opportunities because you pine for a past that really wasn’t as idealistic and as community spirited as you feel it was. That is my address to those who are of a certain age but it’s not really appropriate on this board.

For those on this board who are not of that age, then you don’t really have the right to ‘claim’ her, either as a great woman or as a monster. It wasn’t your life or your existence.

Andrew, won't historians of the future, who are not of that age be making those claims?  If so, why can't others who weren't around during her time have at least an opinion, based on what they've learned or read?

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

My point was centered around ChairmanSanchez (assumedly) not being old enough to observe any of Thatcher's premiership firsthand as much as it was his nationality. I doubt any Brits from this generation cry when watching the clip of JFK's head exploding.

This is a silly thing to argue about either way, as they're another man's emotions, not mine. I just couldn't help but sense the embellishment.

Should liberals not admire FDR for his actions, even if they were born forty years after he died? Was JFK alive when any of the Brits from this generation were alive?

[Supersonic]

How's your compassionate conservatism going btw? Last I heard people more or less on their deathbed were being forced out to non-existent work so you can cut their benefits?

Or is it okay, because you now accept that the right don't hold any compassion?

Mindless socialist rhetoric versus the front cover of a profound left wing paper.

I'll take the paper as better evidence.

Funnily enough plenty of evidence for it though: http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/04/32-die-a-week-after-failing-in.html ?

Come now. Quoting the Mirror as evidence is like me quoting the Daily Mail and keeping a straight face.

[Mr. Illini]

Instead of defaming the thread about her death with hatred, I would like to memorialize her legacy. She was a lady, a strong one. She stood for liberty at a time when Britain didn't want it. She stood for western progress when her opposition pushed for Marxism. She stood against the Euro before everyone else could tell it was a disaster. She stood against the EU before everyone could tel it was a disaster. She stood for individual freedom when others wanted state control. She stood for an ideology when others wanted a popularity contest. Britons can piss on her grave all they want while their country faces disaster. You think she cares? She did what she knew was right, and she knows that if Britain takes the opposite track toward socialism/communism, they'll come crawling back to capitalism when it fails. She's re-united with the Gipper and the Pope now, three people who divided nations because they STOOD FOR SOMETHING. They believed in a cause and fought for it to the end, and if that divides people, oh, well. It is better than standing back and giving in to what is popular.

R.I.P. Maggie Thatcher; you'll be missed by freedom-lovers forever, and those who hate freedom? They'll come around.

[Dr. Cynic]

What was it Michael Foot said that could perfectly encapsulate how I feel about her?

"Maggie, Maggie, Maggie! Out! Out! Out!"

In all seriousness... I don't mourn her death, but I'm not British so I have nothing to gain either.

[Hash]

Didn't know that Pinochet and the apartheid regime were counted as "freedom-lovers" now. Good to know.