I wasn't going to, but I feel I have to get a few things off my chest with regard to the death of Margaret Thatcher. First of all I have not and will not shed any tears at her demise. In fact, I am glad she is dead and it's a pity her draconian policies won't die with her.
She came within a whisker of completely destroying the social fabric of this country. Greed was (and still is) good, and not only good but virtually compulsory. Everyone for his or herself and to hell with those left behind. The UK no longer has any heavy industry left. We now only assemble parts of cars or electrical goods that have been manufactured abroad. The so called tributes that are being vomited out about her being a "great leader" are complete misrepresentations of what she was really like. First of all, she was not a leader, she was a bully of the first order. True leaders admit they were wrong when they were wrong. They apologise for mistakes made. She never uttered one word of apology in her life. One instance was the forced implementation of the "Poll Tax" which was wheeled out in Scotland first as a test case. It was opposed from the start and various "Don't Pay" organisations sprung up all over Scotland. Thatcher never acknowledged that there was a problem with it and after a few months of almost daily protests in Scotland, she wheeled it out in the rest of the UK. Rioting spontaneously broke out in major cities in the UK. People power eventually won through and the tax was scrapped. Till the day she died, she never had any regrets about this policy despite the opinions of the vast majority of the population. In her view it was still a good idea. The Falklands war was a bit too coincidental with an upcoming general election in which she was widely tipped to lose. All of a sudden we had a crisis that we could all come together to face. It fell into her lap at exactly the right time and she exploited the situation to the full. From the moment the Argentinian Junta invaded, Thatcher's election victory was secure. The deaths of British and Argentinian servicemen was the tool she used to win. The sinking of the Argentinian cruiser, General Belgrano was torpedoed and sunk with great loss of life, was a war crime that she has to take the blame for. The ship was outside the "Exclusion Zone" and headed away from the Falklands and therefore as no threat to the UK task force. A definite war crime that will not see justice.
She had a poor choice of friends that included the apartheid government of South Africa. She was quoted as saying that Nelson Mandela was a "common terrorist" Chilean dictator General Pinochet was another "friend" along with Pol Pot from Thailand.
I could go on and on about her but it's starting to depress me.
Till next time.
