Monday, April 08, 2013

What twitter will look like on the day that Margaret Thatcher dies....

I've just learnt the news about the death of Margaret Thatcher. I will post on her another time. In the meantime hat tip Clifford Singer for "chart" and looking at all the silliness on social media this is so, so true.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let’s have a cyber party…I’m going to buy the most expensive bottle of malt I can afford.

John Gray said...

Hi anon

At the time I would have agreed but now I am not too sure. Thatcher would have loved all the abuse she is getting now from "the enemy within". She would have felt vindicated by it.

Surely we are better than her?

Anonymous said...

John.

Surely we are better than her?

Are you talking about the opposition front bench? Yeah, they are slightly more right-wing than her. So I suppose she wasn’t as bad as they make out.
R.I.P Snatcher.

John Gray said...

Hi anon

Those people who directly suffered have the right to be angry but they should attack the politics not the person. Despise Thatcherism but don't dehumanise a person.

That is what Thatcher did and we should be better than her.

Some (not all) of the comments about remind me of Daily Mail letter writers.

Anonymous said...

John

This is Your Labour blog, not the Daily Mail.

So hear it is...
"Where there is harmony, may we bring discord. Where there is truth, may we bring error. Where there is faith, may we bring doubt. And where there is hope, may we bring despair."

And that’s exactly how it happened.

John Gray said...

Hi anon

she stole that quote from St. Francis of Assisi!

Thatcher the quote snatcher

Anonymous said...

It is in poor taste to have parties at Thatcher's death. She was a good prime minister. We needed her to sort out the mess of the last Labour government and we need her now to sort out the mess of the blair/brown government. Thatcher was right when she said "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money to spend."

Thatchers did n't get everything right in hindsight. Privatisation was right, but I believe the government should have kept 30% of the shares to pay for today's pensioners. The sale of council housing was another error, it was made worse by Labour encouraging immigration and not seeing EU enlargement would put pressure on our housing.

We must not forget she won three general elections.

Ken Livingstone was blaming the current banking crisis and high house prices on Thatcher.
What an opportunistic joker. What were Blair/Brown government doing? Labour did n't see the banking crisis coming, they did n't see house prices spiraling out of control...

John Gray said...

Hi anon

I agree that it is in bad taste to hold parties but it’s a bit ironic to accuse Socialism of spending other people’s money when we are still paying for the banking crisis (and which Red started that?)And borrowing billions to pay for a failed economic model.

Forget the personalities it was neo liberalism/monetarism/Thatcherism whatever that nearly bankrupted this country (and may do yet).

Labour's big mistake was not to reimpose financial controls. Hopefully Ed will not make the same mistake.

Anonymous said...

I believe her children wanted a private funeral and for the good of the country she should have got a private funeral.
This is nothing but Tory Triumphalism. Them and us. A total disgrace and an affront to democracy.

John Gray said...

Hi anon
I agree that Cameron is manipulating this for party purpose but whats new. I also think we are in danger of falling into a Tory trap if we confuse Thatcher the Prime Minister with Thatcherism.

Most Brits will expect any Prime Minister to be given some sort of an official state send off.

Whether or not they like their politics.

Anonymous said...

Why blame neo-liberalism?. Gordon Brown, let the Bank of England set interest rates, but somehow forgot to monitor the economy. Anyone with a copy of the FT would have been concerned about hedge funds or debt bubble etc...

Look what went on under Blair / Brown. Big corporations paying little tax. Now you want to the little people (individual and small businesses) to pay 40% 50% tax and even though big companies have paid disproportionally less.

Forget your wealth tax. Get those companies or wealthy individual (e.g. Andy Carr) who have not paid taxes to pay it. Give a refund to the rest. Start with Ken Livinstone.

If companies don't want to pay tax, stop them trading in the UK.

What is your alternative idea? Socialism. Neither extreme version of neo-liberlism and socialist are the answer. Just look at the behaviour of retired Arthur Scargill, who like a parasite want a second home in London. The NUM has only 2,000 members down from 200,000. He like all socialist are like parasites who suck their employers dry.

We have no hope with either Cameron/Osborne or Milliband/Balls.

As Thatcher she would have remembered the housing crash of 1990s and she would not have let a recession be repeated... Gordon Brown just took no notice of history and thought he was super-human....

John Gray said...

Hi anon

"Why blame neo-liberalism.." because it is to blame. Yes, Brown and Blair should have realised that Capitalism is incapable of self regulation or being controlled by an "invisible hand". The FT would have savaged any call for controls or state "interference".

The Tories have slashed corporation tax but yes we should have been tougher and less trusting with these greedy selfish spongers. (Ken - as always is a complete innocent)

Agree - kick them out of the UK if they do not want to pay their fair share and let them go to some unstable dictatorship where no one pays taxes and see what happens in the long run.

You confuse socialism with ultra leftism. Your ignorance and reliance on the Daily Mail for your prejudices on trade unions and socialism is shameful. Have you no mind of your own? No ability to think for yourself?

Thatcher caused the housing crash in 1990 (I remember it well). The Tories are bought and paid for by the financial services industry in this country and you cannot trust them one iota to bite the hand that feeds them.

Anonymous said...

The old bag is gone…she’s had enough of my attention/comments ‘I’m depressed enough’. Think this is my last on her John and by-the-way good riddance!

John Gray said...

nuf said anon. Time now to deal with the real enemy which is Thatcherism.