One for the UK Dopers and other interested parties:
The former PM is still in hospital and while she may recover from her current ailment she’s 83 years old and becoming increasingly frail.
I know that a lot of Brits have had their “Ding dong the witch is dead” parties planned for a long, long time, but Thatcher has been out of office for 20 years now. Does the flame of hatred still burn so bright? Will there still be a queue to dance on her grave? Or, like Nixon, has her legacy been somewhat redeemed with the passage of time?
[Mods: I started this in the BBQ Pit in anticipation of a, er, free exchange of views but feel free to move as appropriate]
A awful lot will dance on her grave if they had a chance. I’m one of them. Her policies in NI helped fan the flames of an already fucked up situation. Her policies on unions and homosexuals was terribly damaging. She was the main non-Irish figure of hate and scorn for my generation(born 1971).
Others will view her as a person who pushed very needed reforms through and took the pain that was required to take.
I’d guess that a lot of Americans won’t understand the level of hate against her.
Either way, love her or hate her, she was a political collosus of the late 20th century. I’ve heard people try to say that Palin is like Thatch which is one of the most laughable things I’ve heard in a long time.
The only impact her death will have on me will be mild annoyance at all the newpaper and telly coverage about it.*
*Similarly, while I’m hardly a royalist, I really hope ol’ Liz is immortal.
I’m about the same age as you, I dislike Thatcher and her legacy, but won’t really care one way or the other when she dies. Like the OP said, she’s been out of office for around 20 years now. What’s really sad is that Blair and Brown seem to be carrying on her policies and the country is still a mess.
Thatcher was incredibly determined and hard-working. She had to cope in a ‘man’s world’ (as politics was incredibly sexist then).
However she never listened to advice and only changed her mind when the situation became disastrous.
She didn’t like competition and so her successors were weak.
She split the country over several issues (miner’s strike, poll tax) and we need to avoid having a leader like her ever again.
The unions in Britain needed to be broken, and economic reform was an imperative, but there were times when she was far too blunt, and she wasn’t great on Northern Ireland.
One thing I heard that did pluck my empathy string quite hard was that apparently due to dementia she finds out her husband is dead every day as she forgets that he is. That is very sad.
I grew up in Glasgow in the 80s, and my dad was a steelworker, so you could argue that I’d have plenty of cause to celebrate the demise of the evil old witch.
The unfortunate thing though is that not only are we still surrounded by Thatcher’s legacy, but barring a miracle we’re also about to re-elect the Tories. As disillusioned as I may be with the current Labour party, I really can’t stand the thought of that shower of bastards getting back into power.
When her black heart finally stops beating in the shrivelled husk in which it lives these days, I might raise a glass in celebration - but it’s hardly going to usher in a bright new post-Thatcher dawn.
Yikes. You know, there’s a movie in there somewhere. Not necessarily about Thatcher, but I could see that as a hell of a premise for some aspiring writer out there.
Well, they gave him his own TV series a few months back, and his new album has already scored his highest U.S. chart placing since 1980. Yeah, he’s worried.