We can’t let Maggie go…..(quietly?)

What do you say about the late Margaret Thatcher? For every complimentary adjective there is a negative, or even an insulting one lurking in the minds of many. Resolute, committed, indefatigable, indomitable:

Stubborn, dogmatic, nasty, vindictive.

Whatever she was, she has gone now. Left us just in time for all the old divisions to re-surface. For she didn’t just divide the country, she polarised it. Many people became better off, entrepreneurial and prospered under her charge. She was all about the individual, and when the individual was a winner she was firmly on their side. For us also-rans she came up with the ‘right-to-buy’ and for the losers she came up with little but a sneering, detached contempt.She did like ‘triers’ though, I’ll give her that.

She led us into  a recession which many believe was unavoidable. I lost a half-decent job in 1980 as the collateral damage of her monetarist policies began to bite. She took on those Trade Unions and their leaders who saw themselves as supreme. Buckton,  Scanlon, Jones, Gormley & Scargill…how those names rolled off the tongue back then. How many Trade Union leaders can YOU name today?

She put more of people’s own money into their own pocket and gradually, living standards and material possessions began to improve & increase…for all.Though I always though that was more by accident than design.

She took us to a war of liberation on the other side of the world. The swelling of national pride which followed victory propelled her popularity from  a deep nadir to the darling ‘iron lady’ . The Falklands war ensured her electoral success in 1983, and soon the economy picked up for many and she went on to win  a third term.

So now the Conservative Party eulogise and regret her passing. Such  a shame then that it was the Conservative Party which got rid of her in the end. They thought the qualities they had once drooled over in  a succession of  ‘not for turning’ moments had become a liability.

We have the usual rent-a-mob hard left and the Sons and Daughter of Anarchy dancing in the streets to celebrate the death of this frail old woman. Many too young to have been directly affected. They rejoice. Some of them  are teenagers, the progeny of the embittered, or more likely given the nature of teenagers the offspring of those who prospered and who are keen to latch on to  a cause. Those who celebrate & dance at her death do themselves no favours. But if she had suffered this fatal  stroke c.1982 when her nadir was engulfing all then the streets would have been full…remember those yellow  ‘Don’t Blame Me, I voted Labour’ car stickers? I do. And I did.

The plans for an elaborate funeral, with the gun carriage and the pomp & circumstance is a big mistake. For there will be violence, and there will be malevolence. Talk of a minutes silence at football matches is even more ridiculous. The silences will be drowned out by jeers and catcalls, especially in the north of England.

A private ceremony followed by  a memorial service at St.Paul’s would  be more appropriate. If the nation ‘can’t let Maggie go’ with dignity then we will all suffer the embarrassment, the division and the old schisms will endure. May she Rest in Peace if she can. I didn’t like her stewardship of our country  but what followed was far  worse in ways I could never have dreamed of.