Margaret Thatcher has passed away

[quartermainefan]

I think it is very funny that "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead" is climbing up the UK charts threatening to go to the top spot.

[Cat]

I think that song is kind of tacky. I mean, she's been out of power and politics for over 20 years and people are still blaming her for their problems and hardships? Those poor mining and industrial communities she devastated with her economic policies -- why didn't the Labour local politicos (and Labour in national government for 13 years between 1997 and 2010!) do more to rebuild and regenerate these communities? Improve educational standards among the local kids? No, that would have taken imagination and actual work. Instead they just deadened these communities with welfare handouts and nothing else, all in order to keep the Labour electoral machine ticking over.

She's dead now, she can do no more to them or us. Cheering her death like she's Hitler or Bin Laden is a bit much.

[DaytimeFan]

+1

[quartermainefan]

Yeah but it is still funny and I love the way british people have a sense of humor. If that happened here in the US after Reagan died, or whoever, the righteous indignation about the moral collapse of society would be neverending and the song would be banned from the airwaves and anyone saying what they thought out loud would be deemed unamerican.

[dragonflies]

cheering for her being dead is tacky and morally wrong, not to mention the karma one will get from something like that

[Cat]

quartermainefan, I get what you mean, and the fact that the Brits are self-deprecating, take most things with a pinch of salt and don't like to make idols of their politicians/stars is very healthy on their part. While criticism against Thatcher has risen to a crescendo this week, many people have taken a pretty balanced view overall, even though she was the definition of polarising. And when criticism against the Ding Dong song went overboard, most have also been saying "No point in getting invested one way or another over a damn song."

I still am uncomfortable with people outright celebrating somebody's death, though, not just Thatcher but in general.