Mrs Thatcher’s other funeral
Posted on
April 17, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We doff our hats to the people of former mining village Goldthorpe in South Yorkshire today. This afternoon they marked the passing of Baroness Thatcher according to their own experience of her, and it didn’t cost the taxpayer a single penny.
Full picture gallery courtesy of BBC reporter James Vincent here, story here.
This puts in to stark relief the to’ing and fro’ing which has been going on on Facebook recently over Thatcher’s death & funeral arrangements. There are those who have criticised others for celebrating the death of a leader from before their time when it was well before their time as well.
I wasn’t affected at the time (although we all are now, even those born after her reign) but I remember the news reports and the miners strike, I also remember more clearly the poll tax riots.
Just shows the strength of feeling, I would say to those criticising people for celebrating in George Square (for example,) you can bemoan the fact that they may not have been there when Thatcher was alive and doing her damage; but neither were you.
It’s such a bogus argument anyway. Many of the communities destroyed by Thatcher are still wastelands a generation later. People who were three when Chernobyl was irradiated are still entitled to be angry about it now.
Even with my dodgy eyes, I can tell that picture was not taken in London.
I would suggest that now is an appropriate time to move on and map out a new future for Scotland.
Many of the communities destroyed by Thatcher are still wastelands a generation later
Sadly too true……a few baubles….an Arts Centre here….a Museum there…but after 2 (going on 3) generations entire regions have been left to rot…..
To blame the people who live there for the lack of employment and a result being poor just shows what a wicked and vile philosophy Thatcherism was and is….
The hypocrisy of the Labour Party which in theory opposes it but have done nothing to reverse it or to help the areas which loyally returns them to Parliament is even worse
Rev, the funeral arrangements for Margaret Thatcher are nothing short of obscene and offensive state propaganda. She was entitled to a private family funeral and, sometime later, a memorial service. By all means a memorial service wherever. But under no circumstance should there have been any state or military propaganda attached to it. A private family funeral and a memorial service – that is how any dignified nation would have dealt with the passing of a very ordinary but extraordinarily divisive former prime minister.
David Cowan on STV news said this was the end of an era – hasn’t he got that wrong? It’s the end of her, but the era won’t end till we’re rid of her legacy!
Nick Robinson has just said that no government would dare to ‘dismantle the NHS.’ BBC Propaganda.
Ruth Davidson just said that Thatcher tried to help people!!
Might I suggest instead of the state sponsored burning of an effigy celebrating historic religious intolerence and handing gunpowder out to neds in handy rocket form every year, we just do this instead?
Well done Goldthorpe.
She’s gone.
Time to repair the damage.
Vote YES September 18th 2014
The telling thing about the above image is that Middle England and I suspect certain parts of South Lanarkshire will look at those scenes and think of the people in them in the same imperial mindset as a group of Iraqis burning a union flag. They will see them as foreign savages. That says more about the Daily Mail reading classes than it does about those burning the effigy.
Can’t believe the tone of incredulity coming from BBC news presenters as they report on Scotland’s good economic performance between December and February. And of course no suggestion at all that the good performance could be linked to the SNP government.
O/T but somewhat interesting.
link to en.wikipedia.org
Was just reading a wee bit of history about my town of Beith in North Ayrshire and came across this fella. I had heard there was a fella from Beith who had signed the Decleration of Independence but found out he was a right interesting fella who had this to say about to the No crowd almost 250 years ago…
In answer to an objection that the country was not yet ready for independence, according to tradition he replied that it “was not only ripe for the measure, but in danger of rotting for the want of it.”
Another fine Reverend.
@aye machrihanish
Well said. I’d completely agree with that. If they really wanted to pay their respects to the person, that would have been the way to do it. But what they wanted to do was make a political statement….at our expense.
If you want to see a fairly wide ranging illustration of the Industrial might that preceeded the 80’s and 90’s decline under Mrs T just look at sites like this
link to jhowie.f9.co.uk
Ive no doubt the likes of Gartcosh, Ravenscraig, Gartsherrie, Bilston, Polkemmet would associate with the above image…
Problem is these same areas are full of folk who think Labour is still the same Labour they once believed in, and who they still think can save them from The Tories. They have been waiting 40 years for their lives to improve and just dont get it
The probably dont read sites such as this, never will, and are spoon fed the anti SG dross from the Record, BBC, etc. This demographic should be one of the YES camps main targets. You could wake up half a million here
At last. The Whore of Babylon has finally shuffled off to complete her tortured perdition which began when her acolytes turned on, and consumed her.
I’m convinced she was tormented by doubts from the moment of her downfall, to the bitter end.
I can’t celebrate her death, but neither can I listen to the pish emanating from Westminster about her. The fact is she rode the bubble of peak North Sea oil production, squandered the nation’s assetts, laid waste to sections of SOCIETY, and sent good people to their deaths in order to see herself re elected. Good riddance!
I cannot help thinking that today will be the day the union was finally cremated.
The historical revisionism and orgasmic writhing of the Thatcher gang will stick in Scotland’s throat and has revived her memory in time for the referendum.
We hear much from the unionists about how Scottish Independence will “rip” and “tear” Scotland out of the UK. How we will be “breaking up” a 304 year old union. And how we will be “separating” from the UK. And much other pejorative nonsense besides, designed to portray Scottish Independence as being the work of some extremist organisation when in fact it is now mainstream Scottish politics.
In 1979 Scotland was effectively ripped and torn to shreds by the arrival of Thatcher who ripped and tore in to the Scottish industrial landscape, separating Scottish families from the dignity of work and condemning them to poverty, ill health and immigration, an auld Scottish sang. The spirit of Scotland was almost broken in the years that followed. We were left in no doubt what Thatcher and her cronies thought, as they quaffed their fine wines and champagne and puffed their Havana’s in The City. ‘We English, who are a marvellous people, are really very generous to Scotland.’ croaked Thatcher in 1990 after she had laid the country and people to waste. The Tories have never recovered in Scotland for that reason. That’s why there are more giant pandas in Scotland than Tory MPs. However Scotland is at last showing signs of recovery.
Nothing that happened since then has repaired the horrendous impact this women and her gang of henchmen had on Scotland. In fact under the following Labour government, poverty and inequality increased as they took over Thatchers mantle, and mortgaged the country with PFI debt and poor monetary policy as they sidled up to the rich boys in The City. The Devolution settlement of 1997 was a patronising insult to a country that is sick and tired of Westminster’s imperialism. So the ripping and tearing and breaking of the union has been achieved long before we become Independent, the unionists just don’t like being reminded of that. Scottish Independence is now inevitable because of this broken and failed union. Scotland did not break it.
RUST IN PEACE IRON LADY
SAOR ALBA GU BRATH
Meanwhile there’s a complete, uncensored report of all the day’s events here http://www.bbc.scotlandshire.co.uk/index.php/shorts.html
I cannot help thinking that today will be the day the union was finally cremated.
Her timing was certainly impeccable.
In other news, looks like Labour could be losing their rather ‘phantom’ weak lead.
link to newstatesman.com
I’d noted a downward trend. Seems it’s being picked up on.
Note I say ‘phantom’ as Ed is generally less popular than Cameron/is not seen as PM material and has been discussed numerous times on here, the party with the strongest leader normally wins for Westminster.
That and there’s this:
..no modern opposition has ever won without being at least 20 points ahead in mid-term.
@HenBroon-
Well said. Today, of all days, it takes quite a bit of effort to write more than a couple of lines.
Here’s a piece about, and by, some of the people that woman and her ilk despised so much:
seeing is believing, this is the response I got from the OSCE today ,angry does not begin to quantify my feeling about this response
Dear Mr. King,
Thank you for your message regarding possible observation by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the referendum scheduled for 2014.
From your message I am aware that you are familiar with the Office’s previous responses to inquiries on this subject, so I will focus here on the specific question you have asked regarding ODIHR’s mandate and the referendum.
ODIHR is mandated to observe elections in OSCE participating States, and all 57 participating States have committed themselves to invite the Office to observe their elections. The wording of the commitment in this instance refers to “national election proceedings”, so the government of the United Kingdom is not politically obligated by the OSCE commitments it has made to invite ODIHR to observe the referendum.
That said, ODIHR has been invited been invited in the past by the governments of OSCE participating States to observe local elections or referenda. If the government of the United Kingdom did issue an invitation to ODIHR to observe the referendum, the Office would then certainly consider doing so. Analysing the media landscape and monitoring the coverage of the referendum campaign would almost certainly be part of such an observation activity.
Best regards,
Thomas Rymer
Spokesperson
OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)
Tel: +48 22 520 0640
Mobile: +48 609 522 266
O/T but I really want this response to me from the ODIHR to me to be seen as the response to my question beggars believe
Dear Mr. King,
Thank you for your message regarding possible observation by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the referendum scheduled for 2014.
From your message I am aware that you are familiar with the Office’s previous responses to inquiries on this subject, so I will focus here on the specific question you have asked regarding ODIHR’s mandate and the referendum.
ODIHR is mandated to observe elections in OSCE participating States, and all 57 participating States have committed themselves to invite the Office to observe their elections. The wording of the commitment in this instance refers to “national election proceedings”, so the government of the United Kingdom is not politically obligated by the OSCE commitments it has made to invite ODIHR to observe the referendum.
That said, ODIHR has been invited been invited in the past by the governments of OSCE participating States to observe local elections or referenda. If the government of the United Kingdom did issue an invitation to ODIHR to observe the referendum, the Office would then certainly consider doing so. Analysing the media landscape and monitoring the coverage of the referendum campaign would almost certainly be part of such an observation activity.
Best regards,
Thomas Rymer
Spokesperson
OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)
Tel: +48 22 520 0640
Mobile: +48 609 522 266
who knew? Scotland’s future is so insignificant to these people they dont give a shit
I hope someone has driven a stake through her heart or she’ll be stalking the streets of London tonight.
I hope someone has driven a stake through her heart or she’ll be stalking the streets of London tonight.
Whatever next – Margaret Thatcher Ghost Tours?
@ john king
That’s most interesting, and thank you for posting it. But I’m not surprised by the reply. At least it’s polite.
There’s a streak of naivety, both here and elsewhere, which is comforted by the thought that some international body – UN, ECHR, EC – whoever, will ensure that democracy and human rights will prevail, and that injustice will be remedied.
Forget it.
We are on our own here. I’m not aware that we – Scotland that is – has ever been especially concerned by that. But we need to recognise that if we are going to achieve this, it will have to be by our own efforts, and by a refusal to give up (plenty of precedent for that.) No one said it would be easy.
@ john king
I love the fact that your letter comes from Thomas Rymer.
Thomas Rhymer of Earlston was ‘True Thomas’ – a seer among the best of seers.
He prophesied:
“On the morrow, afore noon, shall blow the greatest wind that ever was heard in Scotland.”
Many learned professors have taken this to refer to the death of Alexander III. But of course it might refer to something else entirely….
So, if I were you, I’d not despair.
@john king
Is his name really Thomas Rymer? Spooky.
The show is over folks. The person known as Margaret Thatcher no longer exists. She is merely so much dust and the sychophantic southern English have, once again, made themselves look like tits. What say we all move on?
One more unfortunate,
Weary of breath,
Rashly importunate,
Gone to her death.
Hood. The Bridge of Sighs.
Unashamedly nicked for another non Indie blog
David Cameron – the long rasping fart at the end of Thatcherism.
anon
I rather like that
John King,
Thanks for your efforts here. If for no other reason than to make it clear to people that we cannot rely on some external democratic police body, or even a change of heart and reporting policy from our own state broadcaster (never mind the privately owned media conglomerates).
We will win this referendum exactly the same way that the Independence movement in Scotland has won every other hard mile on our journey. By telling the truth of our circumstances and spelling out our shared hopes and aspirations for a free and democratic Scotland to all our fellow citisens, in as many places, whenever and as often as we can.
Scotland is a Nation, a Country and Community(s) and it is through community that the truth spreads. This is where the YES campaign is centered and this is where the Referendum will be won. All the BBCs, Press Barons, and propaganda call centers bought and payed for with dirty foreign donations are simply big expensive fixed guns, aimed out to sea. Guns that are all but irrelevant to the outcome of this debate as we are coming at them from an inner Scotland.
Unless debate is joined by The Better No Campaign, which they seem incapable of doing, then time and the community centered and disseminated truth of an Independent Scotland’s future will (and already has started to) simply percolate. This was how I remembered the reality of 1997’s YES YES vote and the expression of the ‘settled will of the people’.
This was not a Party political victory. 97 was a percolation and settling on an idea of autonomy (although unnecessarily limited) brought about after years of proven political impotence in the face of Thatcherism. It was voted on quietly and without fanfare (or million people marches) and made fact.
Come 2014 I see a very similar percolation happening in reaction to very similar circumstances that have shown once again to our population the impotence of their current political ‘autonomy’ to protect themselves from that same age old right wing policy agenda.
I say keep the faith, work hard every day towards it and vote YES come 18 09 2014! (please)
So to me that means OSCE/ODIHR believe that the UK govt is running the Referendum and if they need assistance they will ask. Wonder if anybody has pointed out that Dave.Gov isnt running it.
kininvie says:
17 April, 2013 at 8:55 pm
@ john king
Bang on! My thoughts too.
@Dave Smith
at 6:46pm
South Lanarkshire?
What have we done?
@muttley79
To be fair, she did try to help people.
She tried to help her already rich friends get even richer by stamping on the throats of the working class.
So the OSCE/ODIHR will only agree to monitor at the request of one of the parties which would greatly benefit from the lack of international observers?
I think its all been like a kind of exorcism for many communities that were murdered and had their futures stolen by Thatcher. Now, its time to leave it all behind and create a new reality, but ALWAYS REMEMBER THE LESSONS SHE GAVE US BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT WILL SAVE US. Alba Gu snooker loopy!
My feet are my only carriage so … I have got to push on through.
link to youtube.com
My feet are my only carriage so … I have got to push on through.
Oops! sorry, that was meant to be a click on blue link. What did I do wrong there as my usual attempts when omitting bits usually works?
John King – I have a feeling that the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights is gonna get a barrage of letters from Scots asking what the bloody hell they are there for, if not to do what is says on their tin!
Working on it already – who’s paying for the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights?
Your man, Thomas Rhymer has just opened a big can of worms.
What’s their full mailing address?
Well done Goldthorpe! And from such occasions do annual events occur…
This from Wikipedia relating to Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night:
“… during increasingly raucous celebrations common folk burnt effigies of popular hate-figures…”
Who knows, 17 April 2013 might just have seen the start of something to mark in our calendars!
They are just a form of international troll. We are not recognised and so invisible. Is this really a surprise?
Please don’t waste your time and more importantly, your righteous anger in letters to nobody.
Funnel whatever you have to give, in the gush or by the drip, as close to home as you can. You are the message and the message out of context is much less effective.
Work where you are and work with what you have got. ( Sorry I paraphrase)
It’s now only less than a year and a half FFS!
Talk & talk & talk and then vote YES (please)
Excellent piece from Morrissey regarding Thatcher, her ‘legacy’ and the wilful distortion of the truth by the British Establishment:
link to true-to-you.net
I forgot to add my original email which was the reason for the response I got from said Thomas Rymer
here it is
I am aware other Scots have approached the ODIHR for help in combatting a completely biased main stream media in Scotland in favour of the country of Scotland remaining within the United Kingdom,
the main culprit being the British Broadcasting Company,
this has led to a scenario where although people are obliged under law to pay a license fee to the BBC, they quite outrageously prevent people having a response to biased articles,
this coupled with vested interests paying for the no campaign but resisting media interest raises the question of a fair and open debate,
however to reach my point, the other contactors appear (correct me if I’m wrong) to have had responses which imply only the sovereign state can ask for help which suggests your mandate is only to support the oppressor and not the oppressed ,please I would be most grateful if could enlighten me as to the facts,
yours very sincerely
john king
Barontorc says:
18 April, 2013 at 1:29 am
John King – I have a feeling that the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights is gonna get a barrage of letters from Scots asking what the bloody hell they are there for, if not to do what is says on their tin!
Working on it already – who’s paying for the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights?
Your man, Thomas Rhymer has just opened a big can of worms. What’s their full mailing address?
here it is
OSCE Secretariat
Wallnerstrasse 6
1010 Vienna
Austria
Tel: +43 1 514 360
Fax: +43 1 514 36 6996
E-mail: info@osce.org
Barontorc
What’s their full mailing address?
here it is
OSCE Secretariat
Wallnerstrasse 6
1010 Vienna
Austria
Tel: +43 1 514 360
Fax: +43 1 514 36 6996
E-mail: info@osce.org
“On the morrow, afore noon, shall blow the greatest wind that ever was heard in Scotland.”
love it
Didnt take long for the negative spin and rubbishing of Scotlands employment and growth figures yesterday….see The Herald.
Must be uncomfortable for the incompetents down south and I notice the state broadcasters breakfast programme continues to peddle the UKs increase in unemployment only.
Jam Tomorrow over devolved income tax from Ms Lamont today on the BBC webshite. She goes on to say that Scotland’s oil wealth is too volatile for Scotland to handle. Of course she is in no position to offer anything from her ‘commission’ and soley relies on Millibot winning the next election, and even then any further devolved settlement has to be put to the Westminster Parliament for a vote and we all know how that will go. Are there still people in Scotland buying into this guff?
Johann Lamont has now taken up the weak and feeble position vacated by Alec Douglas-Home me thinks.
@The Man in the Jar
Some mentalists in Strathaven were allegedly requesting that shops shut in the town as a mark of respect to the Chief Lizard!
Nowt personal old, boy, but I know a few of that mindset round there!
Lamont also a suggesting it would be a good idea to raise the council tax. Who remembers the automatic 5% increase every year where it was easier to do that than for councils to manage their budgets!
Anyhow, there must be lots of unemployable Labour cooncilor friends and family champing at the bit to be shooed into a cushy number. If only Labour could get in at Holyrood by the next millenium.
I honestly hope the media keep the memory of Thatcher at the front of everyone’s mind in Scotland. When the people vote in the referendum, that memory might give a fair amount of voters the will to say “enough is enough” and vote yes.
A surprisingly appropriate use of the word “militated” (derived from the Latin for soldier and with overtones of “to fight for a belief” in its meaning):
link to channel4.com
4000 police definitely could be construed as a military force, in this context. I wonder why it was considered insufficient to mitigate the expression of the public reaction?
References:
link to thefreedictionary.com
link to thefreedictionary.com
O/T Sorry Rev for going O/T Does anyone know what is happening with national collective ? The original message has disappeared and all I get now is a white screen with the words ‘ music for a forgotten future ‘ in the middle of the screen .
Some mentalists in Strathaven were allegedly requesting that shops shut in the town as a mark of respect to the Chief Lizard!
Nowt personal old, boy, but I know a few of that mindset round there!
Yesterday lunchtime I went to the hairdresser in West Linton for a haircut. One of the stylists remarked that someone had come in in the morning and said that he was surprised to see so many people out, and that the place was so busy. “Because of the weather?” remarked the stylist innocently. (It was raining horizontally at the time.) Er, no, he meant the funeral.
I’m pleased to report that the story was met by sniggers and snorts of derision all round.
nationalcollective have just posted a cryptic image to their facebook : https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=453573401384618&set=a.233148850093742.56160.199573770117917&type=1&theater
edit: They’re holding a press conference in about 10 minutes.
@auslander
Do you know how the press conference went?
Original article and site back online, will not back down over threats. Anwar taking case Pro-Bono and hopeful of no more action. Good read here : link to nationalcollective.com
Cheers.
I think that this quote from F. D. Roosevelt is quite relevant to Ian Taylor’s donation, which will hopefully stick in Better No’s throat until 2014.
The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, April 29, 1938. Message to congress.
@Dave Smith
Strathaven who’d have thought. I suppose that it is the type of place that attracts retired Tories. At first I thought you might have meant Larkhall they have a penchant for the old red, white and blue but I don’t think that “the Blessed Margaret” would have been very popular there.
Thanks for your reply. I won’t be losing much sleep over Strathaven.
Hey, I got cousins in Strathaven!
He was a journalist with the Scotsman.
Er, as you were….
@Morag
Love Stathaven toffee. I remember the wee steam train in the park. Last time I looked it was still there.
@Morag
We had better watch out, all this “Auld Lanarkshire” reminiscing. We are in danger of turning the Rev.’s BTL comments into the letters page of “The Peoples Friend”
We will be chucked into quarantine.