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[Durin Stronginthearm]

My Halloween costume has been sorted out well ahead of schedule, at least.

[darkrider2]

We need a thatcher look-a-like & sound-a-like to appear publicly and yell "YOU THINK IT WOULD BE THAT EASY?"

Generous hazard pay will be included.

[Dutchling]

Why do you all hate the woman anyway?

[Owlbread]

I'm quietly enjoying Frankie Boyle's twitter wisecrack:

Looking forward to hearing about who found all the horcruxes

In response to your question Dutchling, I'm not going to bore you with my own reasons for disliking the late Mrs. Thatcher. They're basically the same as everyone else's. Instead to give you a flavour of the kind of reasons people would give you, I'm just going to show you what Morrissey (a grand twat, though his statement was fairly decent) said yesterday.

The former Smiths singer said: "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."

Morrissey, whose first Smiths single Hand In Glove was released a month before Baroness Thatcher won her second term of office as Prime Minister in 1983, was highly critical of her role in the Falklands War.

He said: "She gave the order to blow up The Belgrano 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.

Outspoken Morrissey, who recently cancelled a series of shows due to ill health, went on: "Thatcher will only be fondly remembered by sentimentalists who did not suffer under her leadership, but the majority of British working people have forgotten her already, and the people of Argentina will be celebrating her death.

"As a matter of recorded fact, Thatcher was a terror without an atom of humanity," he added.

The only thing I'd like to add (besides the fact that I disagree that Mrs. Thatcher was without an atom of humanity - that's a bit of a daft thing to say), she completely wrecked British politics by killing any kind of credible right-wing movement for at least two decades and launching a god forsaken era of Presidential-style politics of personality.

[Frumple]

Why do you all hate the woman anyway?

From what I recall she... like, heavily pushed UK towards corporatization/privatization and... similar such things. In a lot of ways and in a lot of areas that really didn't need it, and through methods which were and have since been a net malus for the UK population. She basically made a lot of things worse while making some things nominally better, and in the process shoved corporate schlong deep(er) into the bowels of the UK government and general state.

Least that's my understanding of it, as an outsider who frankly hasn't paid very deep attention to it. A more even-handed understanding of her influence would be interesting, really.

[Dutchling]

Sound like a good enough reason to hate her guts.

[Owlbread]

The remnants of our working class (such as the miners who are now virtually non existent) would also tell you that she "destroyed their communities" and ruined their lives through the harsh privatisation of their industries. A lot of those industries were indeed declining and failing, but to put it simply, Mrs. Thatcher's approach was to just cut them loose. She was far too heavy-handed and didn't seem to have much regard for the people she was shafting.

It's also quite interesting that in the coming years we are going to be experiencing fuel shortages due to lack of coal, so we're going to have to buy coal in bulk from abroad.

We Scots also hate her guts because her party used Scotland as a "test subject" for controversial ideas like the Poll Tax. We also never voted for her, and some say that her heavy handed actions in relation to Scotland (and Wales I believe) may have actually spurred demand for devolution - we did not want to be "at the mercy" of governments like that anymore. Of course we still are in all the ways that still matter (any macro-economic policy, taxation, foreign affairs etc), but in general our autonomy protects us.

[palsch]

This Salon piece (and the site is an ugly mess of javascript from about 30 different domains, so apologies to fellow NoScript users) is the best complete breakdown I've seen so far.

[MonkeyHead]

The remnants of our working class (such as the miners who are now virtually non existent) would also tell you that she "destroyed their communities" and ruined their lives through the harsh privatisation of their industries. A lot of those industries were indeed declining and failing, but to put it simply, Mrs. Thatcher's approach was to just cut them loose. She was far too heavy-handed and didn't seem to have much regard for the people she was shafting.

It's also quite interesting that in the coming years we are going to be experiencing fuel shortages due to lack of coal, so we're going to have to buy coal in bulk from abroad.

We Scots also hate her guts because her party used Scotland as a "test subject" for controversial ideas like the Poll Tax. We also never voted for her, and some say that her heavy handed actions in relation to Scotland (and Wales I believe) may have actually spurred demand for devolution - we did not want to be "at the mercy" of governments like that anymore. Of course we still are in all the ways that still matter (any macro-economic policy, taxation, foreign affairs etc), but in general our autonomy protects us.

Heavy handed is an understatement for how her policies turned the industrial heartlands of South Wales into a bleak poverty stricken blight on Europe. She showed no regard at all for how simply removing the sole source of income of entire communties could have massive negative human effects, all in the name of cost cutting and captialism. The Port Talbot steel plant used to employ 50,000 men, my late grandfather amongst them. Thatcher sold it (and the entire British Steel brand name) bit by bit to the highest bidder, and now it emplys a few hundred at most. The same can be said for dozens and dozens of towns in South Wales, where the local mine or foundry or suchlike was where EVERYONE worked. Meanwhile, her chums in the private sector grew rich of cushy deals and the fruits of the newly privatized industries. Was it any wonder we didnt and still do not hold her in high regard?

[Leafsnail]

It's something of an awkward situation for the new BBC director general.  Currently it seems like the song will be played on the chart programmes, but possibly with some explanation.

[Zangi]

Ah, to leave behind such a legacy... now... how will the history books portray her?  What narrative is going to end up being the dominate one 20 or 30 years from now?

[Guardian G.I.]

Ah, to leave behind such a legacy... now... how will the history books portray her?  What narrative is going to end up being the dominate one 20 or 30 years from now?

That depends on which political ideology would be dominant 20 years in the future.

[scriver]

So, I hear Iceland just reelected the liberals who caused their crisis to begin with, because I guess that's better than the social demiceats/centrists who actually got their country out of gutter. They literally made an Italy.

Still like them so much, Salmon?

[Myrkky100]

So, I hear Iceland just reelected the liberals who caused their crisis to begin with, because I guess that's better than the social demiceats/centrists who actually got their country out of gutter. They literally made an Italy.

From what I've understood, Icelanders consider all politicians to be slightly less trusworthy than professional dog thiefs and Scientologists (and with good reason). The the result of the election is just a case of slapping the ones who screwed up most recently, i.e. were going to let the UK just walk over them regarding the IceSave-repayments. Still, I'd argue that calling them an Italy is a bit too much, the political system is still healthy in the sense that average people care about what goes on and corruption is low.

[scriver]

I didn't say they were (an) Italy, I said they did an Italy, ie chose to vote for someone or something again in spite of their own interest. Because Berlusconi.