[qazwsx]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22067155

Well, I know some people will be celebrating tonight 

I won't be, a death is a horrid thing to celebrate.

[Phantom Hoover]

as is her life

[qazwsx]

I never liked Thatcher and hated her policies. But nobody deserves the ill-health she suffered towards the end of her life, nor the death she had.

[Luis Dias]

Not a right winger, but I am a big fan of hers. What a person! Very very sorry to hear this news.

as is her life

The kind of remark I could never bring myself to express. Nauseates me a little.

[Lorric]

I think this thread has a high potential to get real ugly real fast.

I'm too young to know what she was like, but my Grandad thought she was magnificent. He loved her. And My Mum always voted for her too, so I've always had the impression she was this great, strong leader that didn't take **** from anybody, and we've never had anyone better since. I just asked my Mum why she liked her, and she says it's because she (Thatcher) whenever she spoke, you felt she meant what she said, and she was going to do what she said, and didn't mess around, while today's politicians, you ask them a question and they just dance circles around it.

[Phantom Hoover]

and you know she systematically destroyed the livelihoods of the british working class, but i guess she deserves praise for doing it with conviction

[Gray113]

This woman was a evil malicious *****. The suffering she went through at the end is nothing compared to the lives she destroyed and the communities left wrecked in her wake. ROT IN HELL!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbp3k3rYMs4

[Gray113]

Though to be sure it's dead we must drive a stake through the heart, dismember the corspe, cut off the head and place it atop a Glasgow urinal.

[The E]

I would like to ask everyone involved here to remain civil.

[Flipside]

History will not forget her. It may not always remember her favourably, but it will remember her.

Personally I'm of mixed opinion, it's against my nature to celebrate death of any kind, but Thatcher's 'successes' of the 80's turned out to be the time-bombs of the 2K's, particularly in the financial and education sectors.

She was a great Diplomat, did good things for the UK Abroad (apart from Argentina, of course) but her own insecurity at being the first female PM probably made her over-compensate and by the end of her final term, she genuinely seemed to be completely paranoid, and took every form of dissent as a personal insult and that damaged the entire country.

[Lorric]

Good thing those aren't my views then, but it's strange to have always had this inherited high opinion of her, and you all think she was gutterscum.

However, celebrating her death is very wrong I feel. The moment she left politics is the time to rejoice if you didn't like her, and then there's no need for anything else. She is "dead" then, in the terms she can't do any harm, she has no power. She was harmless and irrelevant long before her death. I've never seen her in the news past her reign that I can remember, meaning I don't think she exerted any influence after.

[Flipside]

I think it depends largely on where you were and what you did in the case of Thatcher. My wife is from Glasgow, which Thatcher used as a kind of petri-dish for the Poll Tax, so there are very strong feelings about her there.

I'm not saying everything she did was bad, or that I would celebrate her death in any way, but I do understand why this is such a divisive issue.

Edit: I suppose the difference for me is that I was in the generation of children that grew up in the Thatcher years. I was 9 when she came into Office for her first term, and 20 when she left her final one, so I really did kind of grow up under Thatcher.

[karajorma]

I also grew up under Thatcher and I was very glad when she left politics. After that, I really didn't care much about her as the damage she could do to the country was pretty much limited. So I'm not going to celebrate her death, but I can't ever really forgive her for what she did while she was in charge of the UK.


That said, if I'm being fair to her, there were some good things about her too. She was the last prime minister we've had with a spine, for one thing.

[MP-Ryan]

Love or hate her policies, you have to respect her.  Quite the woman and politician.

EDIT:  I always find it interesting how much vile she receives from some UK citizens, as she's quite well-regarded by Britain's allies for her foreign policy.

[Dragon]

What's with all those people who made history dying recently? I've never seen such concentration of famous people deaths since about halfway into 2012. Maybe it's just statistics, but it's a bit unsettling to see all those names you know from history books and hear that they recently died.

[The E]

It's just statistics.

[MP-Ryan]

What's with all those people who made history dying recently? I've never seen such concentration of famous people deaths since about halfway into 2012. Maybe it's just statistics, but it's a bit unsettling to see all those names you know from history books and hear that they recently died.

There's a bit of a joke among followers and teachers of Cold War history that Cold War veterans live / have lived forever.  We're only now starting to see some of the more prominent political and state veterans of the Cold War era reaching the end of their lives.  Quite a number of prominent players from the Cold War have lived well into their late-80s and 90s.

[Luis Dias]

She was ****ing spot on about the Euro, I'll give her that at least.

[Gray113]

This woman and her government regarded the Chilean dictator Pinochet (who murdered thousands) as a great friend, opposed sanctions against Apartheid South Africa, supported the Khmer Rouge and sold weapons to Saddam Hussein. Yes some great foreign policy decisions there

[FireSpawn]

While I have nothing against the woman personally, I do hold quite the grudge against her as a politician as she did some questionable things. Now that she's dead, i won't even hold that.
Though I just know that some yobs are going to get royally pissed and do something stupid like dance on her grave, or piss on it.

 Hmm, I wonder if it'll get the same coverage as when that guy pissed on the Cenotaph. And if so, how much of the public will actually care?