Thank you Morrissey. Glad to know that there are at least a few artists in the public eye with the guts to speak out about this hideous revisionism. If you're from the UK and have half a brain you'll know that over the past week we've been living in some Orwellian nightmare, where the media (even those on the Left) have adopted this tone of hushed respect for Thatcher and somehow rewritten her legacy as a feminist icon and deified leader, as if her 'conviction' politics was something to be admired. Well, here's a history lesson, for those who don't know much about her:
Her only act of parliament that remains in place is The Housing Act, where she allowed people to buy their council houses. So far so good for the people in social housing right? Apart from she neglected to put the money back into building more social housing, so now, when the press complain about families living in mansions at the expense of the taxpayer and there are many going homeless because they're on 'a waiting list', it's because she sold off all the council houses.
She closed the coal mines and other industries almost overnight, as a punishment for union strikes, and had no inclination to introduce any more job opportunities to those who found themselves out of work. Men were injured, a couple even killed, by police brutality on the picket lines, some committed suicide, miners and their families had to live on handouts (honest to god food parcels from well-wishers, in the late 20th century). Now those communities still have high rates of unemployment, alcoholism, drug addiction and the generations unable to work, have become generations unwilling to work. Her actions laid waste to The North, in the fashion of William the Conqueror, in order to subjugate dissent. I'm not saying that some industries didn't need to be shut down over time, but her sweeping reforms and stubborn refusal to help the unemployed was nothing short of heinous. Now we import coal to Britain and it's costing a fortune and the biggest irony is, we're sitting on bloody mines of the stuff.
She introduced 'care in the community' by shutting mental institutions and said that services would step in to help the mentally ill. They didn't, because she didn't fund them. Of the people who had hitherto lived in those institutions, many went homeless, some committed murder, some committed suicide. The legacy of this horrific policy still exists today. Not only that, but of the returning soldiers from the Falklands war, more committed suicide than died fighting, so to those who claim Thatcher was a friend of the armed forces, was she hell!
And speaking of the Falklands war, she committed a war crime by firing on The Belgrano as it was retreating. Apparently we're 'not being British' if we hate Thatcher, but what's British about shooting your enemy in the back? They were outside an agreed exclusion zone and the ship was manned by conscripted soldiers, meaning whether those young men wanted to or not, they had to fight for their country. Then she, and the right wing press gloated about it. Horrible!
On a similar subject, she was pally with several dictators, General Zia ul Haq, General Suharto, Saddam Hussein and General Pinochet, the latter remaining her 'friend' long after his crimes had been revealed; she even voiced opposition to his international arrest warrant. In maintaining these friendships she showed contempt for the millions of people that these men suppressed, tortured and murdered. You want to know where places like Libya and Iraq sourced their weapons back then? Thatcher and her arms deals, that's where.
She supported apartheid and branded Nelson Mandella a "grubby little terrorist". That one needs no more explanation.
She voiced her hatred for feminism, calling it a 'poison' and said that single mothers and their children would be 'better off in religious organisations'. Considering how many people have come forward to testify about abuse at the hands of religious organisations, all I can say is thank god that didn't happen.
She introduced Section 28 (which David Cameron apologised for). Basically, schools weren't allowed to talk about homosexuality, meaning homophobic bullying went unchallenged by teachers. She said that "our children think they have an inalienable right to be gay", as if homosexuality was something you could learn, as if it was a choice, not the way you were born. And to pin such an accusation on children, confused and probably scared when coming to terms with such a life changing thing, was vile; what a twisted piece of legislation.
She sealed documents pertinent to the Hillsborough Disaster, in order to protect the police and hide corruption; it took 23 years for the truth to come out and it's still unfolding. The deaths of 96 people were covered up, because Thatcher despised football as a working class game and she supported the same type of police brutality that suppressed our democratic right to peacefully protest. Indeed, during protests police officers would actively stir up trouble, by disguising themselves as civilians and encouraging riots, so that they could literally batter down dissent at Thatcher's behest.
She stood by and allowed Bobby Sands to starve to death. Whatever your view on the rights and wrongs of Sands' protest, her stubborn refusal to engage in dialogue and negotiation resulted in massive recruitment for the IRA, which led to a surge in the Troubles and bombings in England. And what was it that brought about The Good Friday Agreement 17 years later? Oh that's right, dialogue and negotiation.
And speaking of starving, she starved education and healthcare of money, to the point where school resources were pitiful and the NHS was a joke. Labour may have had to tender some of education and the NHS out to the private sector, but having parents who are teachers and working in the NHS myself, I'm proud of most of our schools and hospitals these days, although we never get to hear about the good stuff in the media. It's a cruel slap in the face when you think that Thatcher got to live out the end of her life in the bloody Ritz, whilst on her watch, there were pensioners dying on trolleys in hospital corridors because of a shortage of beds and staff.
Finally, she privatised vast swathes of the country, meaning bus fares, rail fares, gas bills, electricity bills, water bills, stamps and fuel to name a few items, are unaffordable to many.
And so to her economic policies, those that the Conservatives would have you believe saved Britain. Yes, well, successive governments, Tory and Labour, have continued with Thatcher's economics and now, when we have nothing left to trade, because she sold it all abroad, no money in the pot and we have become that Nation of Shopkeepers (or at least shopworkers) that Napoleon described, we can see her economic legacy for what it really is: Sell off anything potentially valuable, live like kings for a few years (or at least allow the South East to do so) and then, when the money runs out, shrug and blame someone else.
She was a Libertarian; she famously said "there is no such thing as society" and proceeded to dismantle it for the next 11 years. Now the press, especially the right wing press, lament the 'me, me, me' generation, but it's Thatcher's bloody fault. She thought nothing of riding roughshod over anyone who stood in her way and encouraged others to do the same, she sought money and power in order to plug it all back into Westminster and big business. She expressed no remorse for the lives lost on her watch, no empathy for the victims of her policies, no interest in any of the UK outside London and no love for anyone but herself; the only time she shed a tear was when her own party booted her out of Number 10 and even her own daughter said she was a poor mother. Indeed, it was telling that her family weren't even in the country when she died and, as Morrissey points out, her son is a convicted criminal and arms dealer, whilst her daughter was booted off the BBC for being racist.
So, thanks again Morrissey for at least trying to be a sensible voice in a country gone mad. However, the Tories and the press will stick with this revisionist agenda; the left wing press are too frightened and downtrodden by the government and the Daily Mail to tell the truth, whilst the right wing press are being typically dictatorial about it all. And as for the government themselves, well, they have to pretend that every word they say about Thatcher is true; they can't admit that the reason they love the woman is because she was callous, because her only concerns were how to fund and maintain power and keep her public subservient. Thatcher spoke like the Queen (using the royal 'we' in her speeches) because she saw herself as all powerful, as ruling over naughty children who disagreed with her and therefore she would crush their dissent like the royalty of old. No wonder the actual Queen didn't like her; she may have turned out for the funeral, but Elizabeth II was not a fan of Maggie, though you'll have to look hard in the press to find that out.
Overall, Margaret Thatcher was a pertinacious sociopath and the fact our government today spent £10million of our taxes burying her, in a remarkably similar manner to the way we honoured Churchill, leaves a bitter taste. However, if any good does come of this, it will be that opinion in the UK moves a bit further to the Left, even if the media and the authorities are trying to restrict our democratic rights in the name of 'respect'. As Thatcher found out to her cost, stamping down so hard on a nation used to freedom won't work; we will rise up and take back what is rightfully ours.
And so rejoice, the lady’s not returning.
Viva Truth! Viva Hate! Viva Morrissey!