# When Margaret Thatcher dies, will you... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 16, 2009, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925 "2009-06-16T10:02:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/261 "2013-04-08T19:34:07Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > That was so weird! I had not read this thread until earlier today, and of course I noted that the majority of it was from 2009…and that it had been revived in 2012 and then again last month… > > Take a break for lunch, come back to thread, bam! She’s dead. How strange. See? Prayer works! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/262 "2013-04-08T20:35:18Z")
Apparently on twitter, the hashtag #nowthatcherisdead read to some as #NowThatCherIsDead leading to people thinking that Cher was dead. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/263 "2013-04-08T21:20:08Z")
> [@casdave](#): > > There must be a few illegal immigrants or home stealing benefit sapping sapping scrounger who we can blame for all our money going to bail out bankers who are still paying themselves bonuses with taxpayers rescue money. Haven’t you heard? It’s all Mick Philpott’s fault, according to the current Chancellor. [I wish I were joking](http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2013/apr/04/osborne-philpott-welfare-state-video). ---
**Author:** ![Weirofhermiston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e274bd/32.png) [@Weirofhermiston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirofhermiston)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2013, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/264 "2013-04-08T22:03:51Z")
I am old enough to remember the seventies and her rise to power and the eleven years that followed. I am deeply saddened by her death. A few more years of confusion and incontinence was what she richly deserved. In dying she has put yet another hardworking person out of work-she won’t need her arse wiping any more. A callous bitch even in death. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/265 "2013-04-09T00:29:48Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > How is it Thatcher and her crew got voted in, what, three times in a row? Great question. Everybody hated her, right? Stupid democracy. [edit] Four times, in fact. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/266 "2013-04-09T00:50:44Z")
> [@Weirofhermiston](#): > > I am old enough to remember the seventies and her rise to power and the eleven years that followed. > > I am deeply saddened by her death. A few more years of confusion and incontinence was what she richly deserved. In dying she has put yet another hardworking person out of work-she won’t need her arse wiping any more. > A callous bitch even in death. Wow. Just…wow. I didn’t like Thatcher, but that’s fucking sick. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/267 "2013-04-09T01:21:45Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Wow. Just…wow. I didn’t like Thatcher, but that’s fucking sick. I agree with BigT here. That’s just sick. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/268 "2013-04-09T03:18:17Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > I agree with BigT here. That’s just sick. Oh shut up. Seriously though, I’m not one for wishing people suffer when they die like that, unless it’s someone who’s like, a serial killer or Hitler. Alzheimers is pretty viscious. I didn’t like the woman, I don’t give a rat’s ass that she’s dead. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/269 "2013-04-09T03:43:55Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Oh shut up. Seriously though, I’m not one for wishing people suffer when they die like that, unless it’s someone who’s like, a serial killer or Hitler. Alzheimers is pretty viscious. > > I didn’t like the woman, I don’t give a rat’s ass that she’s dead. Sorry, I confused you with the SDMB’s other moral compass. The trademark use of the word “fuck” should’ve tipped me off. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/270 "2013-04-09T04:04:47Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > According the NPR report I listened to this morning, there are some who argue that her policies directly led to England’s vulnerabilities in the most recent banking and economic crises. Primarily shifting the economy toward one based more on banking/financial markets and the heavy deregulation of industry that she implemented had a direct impact to today. > > I don’t know nearly enough to agree or disagree, but the argument that her policies directly affected the today’s economy and a such are negatively impacting people right now. And she managed to keep those polices in effect after she left office…how, again? If memory serves, the UK has had more than one government after Thatcher left #10 Downing Street. Can you elaborate on how she managed to keep her policies from being reversed, especially after her mind went? ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/271 "2013-04-09T05:09:28Z")
> [@yojimbo](#): > > 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. Which would be just if every day she learned once again anew how many families suffered directly from her ‘tough love’. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/272 "2013-04-09T05:10:58Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > Sorry, I confused you with the SDMB’s other moral compass. The trademark use of the word “fuck” should’ve tipped me off. It’s not so much about being a “moral compass”, I just think taking glee in seeing someone suffering from dementia is seriously fucked up. I mean, she can rot in hell for all I care and I’m not going to pretend I liked her. But the idea of out right laughing at someone’s suffering like that? I don’t know, it seems like the kind of thing Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter would do. Oh well, YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/273 "2013-04-09T05:30:02Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > It’s not so much about being a “moral compass”, I just think taking glee in seeing someone suffering from dementia is seriously fucked up. I mean, she can rot in hell for all I care and I’m not going to pretend I liked her. But the idea of out right laughing at someone’s suffering like that? I don’t know, it seems like the kind of thing Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter would do. Oh well, YMMV. Total Agreement. I hated Thatcher – much the same as I hated Reagan – but in both cases, their decline into senility is no substitute for real justice. I would have liked both to have seen a full repudiation of the harm they did by their reprehensible public policies, but not to see them horribly sick. Especially dementia that removes their ability to comprehend their own moral wrongs. I’d like someone to have punched 'em a good one in the nose… But not Alzheimers. That’s too much like a bad Christian wishing someone to go to hell. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/274 "2013-04-09T05:48:58Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > It’s not so much about being a “moral compass”, I just think taking glee in seeing someone suffering from dementia is seriously fucked up. I mean, she can rot in hell for all I care and I’m not going to pretend I liked her. But the idea of out right laughing at someone’s suffering like that? I don’t know, it seems like the kind of thing Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter would do. Oh well, YMMV. Some people, left, right and center, will publicly express glee or sling mud at the death of any given polarizing figure. Not Coulter and Limbaugh, though. They have editors. When Teddy Kennedy died (to take the first example that came to mind) Limbaugh limited himself to self-congratulations on predicting the immanent death of a man with cancer. My mileage does indeed vary. I don’t see the “think of the buttwiper” post as any worse than BrainGlutton’s joke that the death of an old woman, who was long past doing being able to do anyone any direct harm, was the answer to somebody’s prayers. Well, maybe the buttwiper’s. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/275 "2013-04-09T09:06:09Z")
> [@Weirofhermiston](#): > > I am old enough to remember the seventies and her rise to power and the eleven years that followed. > > I am deeply saddened by her death. A few more years of confusion and incontinence was what she richly deserved. In dying she has put yet another hardworking person out of work-she won’t need her arse wiping any more. > A callous bitch even in death. Oh, don’t be like that. Think of the hardworking shop-owners selling booze and dancing shoes, they’re making enough to see them through the year! ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/276 "2013-04-09T10:45:14Z")
She made Britain grim again. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/277 "2013-04-09T10:58:28Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > And she managed to keep those polices in effect after she left office…how, again? If memory serves, the UK has had more than one government after Thatcher left #10 Downing Street. Can you elaborate on how she managed to keep her policies from being reversed, especially after her mind went? :rolleyes: Uh, did you read the second paragraph, where I said I don’t know enough to agree or disagree? Did you see that was directly responding to someone who suggested that no one today should remain angry because how was her rule relevant to them? I was pointing out that some argue that there is a connection from her leadership to today, so it’s not so simple as the past being the past. And my understanding of the argument is that changes were so wholesale and sweeping (selling off govt owned industries, wide deregulation policies, gutting the power of labor unions etc) that they changed the fabric of England’s economy. That’s what the people who vilify AND praise her suggest: that her leadership was incredibly transformative and she left England’s economy fundamentally different than she found it. It’s all whether you like the changes, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/278 "2013-04-09T11:26:35Z")
Yeah. I read it; missing verb and all. My point is that it’s a ridiculous argument. I understand that you’re not the one making it. Basically, you’re the messenger. My response message to the haters is: Fine, hate the lady for what she died when she was in office. Wishing death on her is a bit much. If one doesn’t like what a democratically-elected leader (we’ll set aside for the moment the argument of exactly how democratic the UK’s method is of choosing its leader) does while in office, then agitate for removal from office. That happened, did it not? She left office. She hasn’t been Prime Minister for years and years now. Conservative _and_ Liberal governments have had the opportunity to institute policies to negate or even reverse what her government did, did they not? Again, wishing death and/or delighting in her death to the extreme seen in this thread is a bit much, isn’t it? Oh, and laying all the blame on one person is just silly. The UK hasn’t had an absolute dictator for quite some time. I agree with you that one’s perception of the woman depends on if you liked the changes her government instituted or not. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/279 "2013-04-09T11:58:30Z")
Wait, hold on, WHAT?! CHER IS DEAD?! ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925/280 "2013-04-09T13:40:14Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Yeah. I read it; missing verb and all. My point is that it’s a ridiculous argument. I understand that you’re not the one making it. Basically, you’re the messenger. > > My response message to the haters is: Fine, hate the lady for what she died when she was in office. Wishing death on her is a bit much. If one doesn’t like what a democratically-elected leader (we’ll set aside for the moment the argument of exactly how democratic the UK’s method is of choosing its leader) does while in office, then agitate for removal from office. That happened, did it not? She left office. She hasn’t been Prime Minister for years and years now. Conservative _and_ Liberal governments have had the opportunity to institute policies to negate or even reverse what her government did, did they not? > > Again, wishing death and/or delighting in her death to the extreme seen in this thread is a bit much, isn’t it? Oh, and laying all the blame on one person is just silly. The UK hasn’t had an absolute dictator for quite some time. > > I agree with you that one’s perception of the woman depends on if you liked the changes her government instituted or not. It’s very easy to be dispassionate when you’re not among those directly affected. Thanks to Thatcher and her govt intentionally destroying the UK’s manufacturing sector, because they thought a service economy would be better, there are whole towns where there simply aren’t enough jobs for even half the working-age people. Thatcherism is not just a theory for those people. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-margaret-thatcher-dies-will-you/499925.md?page=15)