There will be few tears shed in Ireland on the death of Margaret Thatcher primarily due to her callous treatment of the H-Block prisoners protest and her ill-concealed glee at the deaths of those ten brave men. The English, Scottish and Welsh workingclass will also be dry-eyed due to her despicable treatment of the miners. Internationally, she was roundly condemned for her leading role in the cold-blooded mass murder of hundreds of Argentinian sailors aboard the General Belgrano, an unarmed troop ship that she gave the order to sink during the Falklands War while it was well clear of any combat zone. Her calculating pursuit of war in the Falklands in 1982 unleashed a predicted blast of jingoism that improved her 'Personal Approval rating' from only 30% (pre-Falklands) to 59% according to Mori. In life Thatcher was a close ally and confidant of General Pinochet the genocidal fascist dictator of Chile.
As Britain's first female Prime Minister she quickly earned the nickname the "Iron Lady" for her obstinacy in government, dictatorial and 'Presidential' Prime Ministerial style. Born Margaret Hilda Roberts on October 13th 1925, the old fascist has had very good innings. Her first degree was in Chemistry but her husband Dennis Thatcher's money enabled Margaret to fast-track herself into training and eventually qualifying as a barrister.
She made her political bones within Toryism as a rabid anti-Socialist who worshipped at the alter of Monetarism and laisez-faire Free Market capitalism. One of her most dispicable acts was when as Secretary of State for Education in the Heath Tory government, she abolished the provision of a third of a pint of milk for primary school children aged 7-11, earning herself the accurate moniker as 'Thatcher the milk snatcher!' During the height of her dictatorial reign, she infamously sent the SAS to rescue her playboy and coup d'etat-sponsoring son Mark Thatcher in Africa. Mark Thatcher due to a renowned lack of common sense and unburdened by even basic driving skills, combined with an inability to read a compass, had managed to get himself lost during the well organised Paris-to-Dakkar rally!
The Poll Tax Tyrant
Her introduction of the Poll Tax proved one of her most unpopular political measures and the images of the 'Trafalgar Riots' were shown all over the world when Socialists, Anarchists and non-aligned ordinary pissed-off people, took on the Metropolitan police in the heart of London. The Thatcher government pilotted the Poll Tax in Scotland first with the unintended consequence that it eventually wiped out any real Conservative party representation north of Hadrians' wall. 'Can't pay, won't pay" was the slogan adopted by the many anti-Poll tax demonstrations and in Britain, the courts gaoled scores of old aged pensioners and the poor for their inability to pay the hated poll tax. Thatcher and her draconian policies made her without doubt the most unpopular politician in modern times.
Hate figure number 1!
The IRA's bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton on the 12th of October 1984 came very close to wiping her, the entire Tory cabinet and much of the Conservative party off the face of the map. Ironically the attack happened within a few hours of her birthday! There were 5 fatalities and countless injuries, included in the casualty list was her chief-henchman the ultra-rightwing Norman Tebbit MP. The next day Thatcher appeared before the hastily assembled party faithful and the world's media defiantly declaring that they were 'unafraid' of the IRA! However, it was wryly noted by many that when she uttered these bellicose words of defiance, she was safely surrounded by literally legions of armed police, the British army including the SAS and even had a Royal Navy frigate in anchored offshore!
Thatcher's reign was a festival of reaction; unemployment soared to 3.5 million plus; the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. The UK became an even more enthusiastic 'client state' of the USA and Thatcher allowed the US airforce to bomb Libya from airbases in England in April 1986. She even managed to infuriate her once most ardent admirers within that bastion of reaction Ulster Unionism by signing the 'Anglo-Irish Agreement' of 1986 with Irish Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald the Fine Gael premier. Fitzgerald would have been an ideological bedfellow of Thatcher and reportedly a fellow Bilderberger. Given Thatcher's closeness to other Fascist bretheren all over the world including Pinochet, she certainly had no difficulty finding common ground with Fitzgerald as leader of a party that had direct links to Irelands only fascist movement the "Blueshirts!"
Thatcher's Fall from Power
Eventually even her most loyal party colleagues were forced to turn on her and effectively oust her in a 'palace coup' in the second round of a Tory leadership battle in 1990. This hastily penned imperious communique from the Thatcher press office announced the end of the reign of Britain's most unpopular Prime Minister:
"The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Margaret Thatcher, F.R.S., has informed the Queen that she does not intend to contest the second ballot of the election for leadership of the Conservative Party and intends to resign as Prime Minister as soon as a new leader of the Conservative Party has been elected… "Having consulted widely among my colleagues, I have concluded that the unity of the Party and the prospects of victory in a General Election would be better served if I stood down to enable Cabinet colleagues to enter the ballot for the leadership. I should like to thank all those in Cabinet and outside who have given me such dedicated support."
Thatcher post-Downing Street
In recent years Thatcher had suffered several strokes and reportedly been suffering from dementia. Her Daughter Carol who remarkably still gets work as a journalist, has admitted that her mother's short term memory has completely gone and in an unguarded moment stated that: "Mother does not know her arse from her earhole!"
The anarchist group 'Class War' have pre-organised a party in London's Trafalgar Square for the Saturday evening following her death. The current British governent have yet to announce if she will receive the speculated state funeral.
It would be debatable due to her deteriorating mental health whether Thatcher remembered, for example, her role in the deaths of the ten Hungerstrikers? Did she recall her vicious repression of the Miners Strike? It is doubtfull if the untold misery she caused to workingclass people in her own country and abroad ever troubled her conscience when she was compus mentus, so it unlikely that it ever troubled her befuddled mind in her latter years.
As the prime minister who famously stated that there was no such thing as 'society', her death will cause unprecedented rejoicing among ordinary British workingclass people not seen since the end of World War Two. In Ireland many people will make a holiday in their hearts on hearing the news of the death of their cruellest of imperialist foes. On the day that the tyrant dies who caused so much heartache and the tragic flying of black flags due to her murderous policies, flags in Ireland and in other working class communities will most certainly be flying at full mast!
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