Comments on: Thatcher: You’ve got to fight! For the left! To party!

By: admin

admin — Fri, 03 May 2013 07:59:38 +0000

I should clarify that we removed the comments by Tony Warton because they were personal abuse with no political substance. We do not allow personal abuse in Red Pepper’s comments section.

By: Siobhan McGuirk

Siobhan McGuirk — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:44:19 +0000

Thanks for all the comments and feedback. On the riots, I was thinking about journalists rush to characterise and condemn rioters as similar to the rush to discredit Thatcher revellers, rather than compare the actual riots to the recent parties. I could have been more clear there: I don’t see the events as similar themselves.

As for democratic alternatives, I agree it looks bleak. I hope that public opinion can sway Labour left, or more likely empower smaller parties to fight for seats.

I should point out that as a journalist for Red Pepper I have no input over the deleting of comments or not, and I have my photo next to my byline as is standard practice and requested of all Commissioning Editors.

I’m not sure how to respond to the comments left by Tony Warton otherwise. Tony, you are entitled to your opinion but you aren’t raising any points for discussion. We have very different ideas over the content of my character and the value of my writing to contribute to a debate playing out across the nation (at lest, it was three weeks ago). I am quite content with my sense of decency, and stand by my writing. If others want to celebrate my death, that is up to them to decide. I would hope they had better things to do, to be honest.

By: Michael Kenny

Michael Kenny — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:09:56 +0000

It’s worth reminding people that one of Thatcher’s pet hates was the European Union. If she saw the EU as an obstacle to her policies, then how logical is the far left’s knee-jerk anti-EU obsession?

By: Simon Ashworth Wood

Simon Ashworth Wood — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:04:37 +0000

Any “the witch is dead” party is more politically conscious and progressive than the popular holiday where citizens of the UK burn images of the anti government rebel, Guy Fawkes.

Why aren’t you criticising Guy Fawkes night parties instead? Why aren’t you criticising Thatcher and all other politicians of the exploiter class instead? Prefer to criticise any popular egalitarian expressions, eh??? Prefer to side with the filthy rich and their politicians and politics of inequality, eh???

I’d rather listen to George Galloway anyday, than read such rubbish!!!

By: Robert Cook

Robert Cook — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 21:22:40 +0000

The simple fact is that she kicked the shit out of the left while she was in office and all the left can do now is feebly kick against her corpse in death. How brave and courageous! Typical toothless low class British reaction.

By: Milly Shaw

Milly Shaw — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 20:30:38 +0000

Great article. Thatcher was a symbol, and people are using celebrations as a way of showing their ongoing anger at Thatcher the public figure and political leader. It’s not about Thatcher the private individual.

However, I’m not sure I’d agree that equating Thatcher parties with the summer riots is warranted – this is a legitimate political statement, that was apolitical violence and greed.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 20:14:23 +0000

I concur with this article. The barrage of eulogising across the media this week has been infuriating. The parties in Belfast, Bristol, Brixton & Glasgow really did serve a purpose ; to remind the media that Baroness Thatcher remains the most widely depised British politician of the 20th century & beyond. I don’t deny the support that also exists to this day, for the values she represented. However, the ceremonial splendor of her funeral service next Wednesday, implies consensus regarding her legacy. No such consensus exists and public displays such as the Trafalgar Square party tomorrow will serve to remind us that keywords such as ‘divisive’, ‘destructive’ & ‘disputed’ are far closer to the truth of her story.

Tory myth-making should be nipped in the bud.

By: Mike Jones

Mike Jones — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:57:18 +0000

Thatcher said, thought and did exactly what she wanted to the extent that her own Cabinet rebelled against her. So why shouldn’t other people do the same? She never cared what other people thought about her when she was alive, so I don’t think that she will be bothered now.

By: Alex Nunns

Alex Nunns — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:53:47 +0000

Nice piece! When Thatcher died, the media instantly went into reverential mode. But later in the day they were forced to grudgingly concede that there wasn’t a consensus of grief in the country. The death parties were the most visible expression. They helped to shift the narrative slightly away from “our greatest prime minister” to “a divisive prime minister”, which is a marginal improvement.

Imagine what it would have been like if everyone who had a critical opinion about Thatcher had just shut up – it would have been like Ronald Reagan’s death was in the US: a week of historical distortions and lies where no dissent was transmitted. We’ve had a lot of that anyway in the UK, but we would have had a lot more if people hadn’t forced the issue by expressing contrary opinions in the most obvious way possible. That Soviet style official grief for Reagan in the US did a lot of damage – many Americans now have a completely false impression of their history as a result. We can’t let that happen here, because we are still living with Thatcherism. It isn’t an arcane academic debate, and the parties aren’t pointless expressions of joy in a vacuum. They’re part of the contemporary fight against everything she represented.

By: Andrew David

Andrew David — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:29:26 +0000

‘The rioters that set London ablaze in August 2011 received similar condescension.’

The rioters that set London ablaze in August 2011 were criminals, convicted by the courts, and rightly, sent to prison. How can you argue otherwise?