Death of a Milk Snatcher

[steepholm]

Darn. For years I've been looking forward to being delighted when I heard this news, and now I find I'm not. I appear still to have a third of a pint of the milk of human kindness left, no thanks to her.

I'm not sorry either, mind.

Comments

[lamentables]

I have been poised for so long, that I went ahead and sang 'ding dong, the witch is dead' anyway, but was surprised how little passion I felt. I guess my anger and disgust has new targets these days. (And how.)

[steepholm]

Many of whom are now busily claiming her as saviour of the nation...

[colorwheel]

it's like when reagan died. ugh. they were so bad, but by the time they died they were so out of power, yet, yeah, meh.

[steepholm]

Exactly.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Same here!

[gillo]

I find the idea of partying tasteless, but I'm not sorry, and find I am still deeply bitter and angry. I am not in favour of a state funeral. You are not surprised by this.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

To hold a state funeral for such a divisive figure, who saw half her countrymen and women as "the enemy within", would be obscene.

[gillo]

Indeed, but it will happen.

Two minutes ago the BBC said her funeral would be like Diana's, but now all it says is that she will not be accorded a state funerall, in accordance with her own wishes, Downing Street said.


If there is any sort of big, expensive funeral I foresee protest marches. Divisive in death as in life.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

If they make it into a political statement, they must expect people to reply in kind.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Great piece by Glenn Greenwald on exactly that point. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-death-etiquette)

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Thanks - that's a very good piece.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Why hold a public funeral for someone who was all about privatisation?

[sheenaghpugh]

I think it's quite unlikely. Outside the sovereign, even other royals don't usually get one, and the only commoners who do tend to be war leaders, I mean real wars like the Crimea (Palmerston), Napoleonic (Nelson or WW2 (Churchill) not relatively piddling affairs like the Falklands (which started because she took her eye off the ball anyway). I don't think it will happen.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Did Palmerston have a state funeral? Seems unlikely to me. They were definitely rare in those days. Wellington had one, but he was a genuine national hero, so much so that his political views in later years were beside the point (as was the fact that, despite his radical-right views, he turned genuinely conciliatory when the rubber really hit the road: see his reaction to the Corn Laws crisis). Palmerston was much more divisive, and the Queen did not like him, a fact which would have carried weight.

[sheenaghpugh]

It's wikipedia, but right: " Although Palmerston wanted to be buried at Romsey Abbey, the Cabinet insisted that he should have a state funeral and be buried at Westminster Abbey, which he was, on 27 October 1865. He was the fourth person not of royalty to be granted a state funeral (after Sir Isaac Newton, Lord Nelson, and the Duke of Wellington)."

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

As a townsperson of Romsey, I can confirm that he's not buried there (although his statue dominates the square). We do have Lord Mountbatten, though, lived in the same house a little later on.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I hated her policies when she was in power, but I am not gloating or celebrating over her death. She lost power years ago and the world has moved on. A lot of her outward persona was due to her having to out-macho the men in her party in order to be considered fit for power in the first place and one has to ask oneself if she would have been vilified to the same extent if she had been male.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

To the same extent, I trust - but certainly not in the same way.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

Her policies led to the current problems such as her deregulation of the banks and selling off council houses without building any new ones. I could go on but the record stands. I will not miss her.

[adaese.livejournal.com]

I disagreed with most of her policies, and disapproved of most of her actions. But neither fancy military funerals nor dancing in the streets are going to heal the divisions in society - and either reaction seems almost calculated to widen them instead.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. I'm certainly not sorry, but I'm actually glad to not be the kind of person who can rejoice in someone's death, so there's that.