I don't even begin to understand British politics but from what I can gather, former British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher (PM 1979-1990) brought Britain, Scotland & Wales to their knees.
My Irish grannie, no Anglophile, was always reading and fond of quoting from the
Brehon Laws, O'Hart's Irish Pedigrees, and the original 1894 Gaelic League edition of
Dinneen's Irish Dictionary—while cursing the Irish equivalent of the devil incarnate,
Oliver Cromwell, and current British politics in empty
rooms. Such was my education.
Official news reports are extolling the virtues of the Thatcher Years, canonizing her at death, akin to how we whitewashed Governor/President Reagan's sins, then chiding us to not to speak ill of the dead. We Irish Americans have had our fill of revisionist Anglocentric history. Lest ye forget—Thatcher's dark legacy was a "political legacy of rampant inequality and greed, privatisation and social breakdown."
Thatcher's key policies,
deregulation of the financial sector, the privatization of
state-owned companies, and what she called
Community Charge (a poll tax), devastated the backbone of the United Kingdom—the working class.
Thatcher ruthlessly and systematically destroyed the social fabric of the
welfare state that protected the economic well-being of UK citizens. No wonder Scotland and Wales—hardest hit by Thatcherism—want to secede.
O'Hurley continued: "Historically, truth and facts have had little relation to decision-making. Only consider Joe McCarthy and how he and Tricky Dick Nixon shaped the nation."
Thatcher's Privatisation has
been described as "the biggest electoral bribe in history." Thatcher also tried to sell off privatize social medicine, hospitals, waterworks, gas, electricity, etc., in other words: to put publically owned amenities already paid for by the people through taxes—into
the hands of private investors so it wouldn't be financial a burden on the government. Sound familiar? The rich got richer under her stewardship. Can you spell Bush?
For many, Thatcher's reign saw the destruction of British industry, when she assaulted and declared civil war on the trade unions (especially coal, and print unions)—what she dubbed, "the enemy within." Then she turned around and privatized all but 15 publicly owned coal mines which left thousands out of work—most notably in Wales.
Under Thatcher's regime, direct taxes on income were lowered and to balance the shortfall, she increased indirect taxes. Meanwhile, working class unemployment (over 3.3 million), skyrocketed through the roof. Trade and industry fell by 38.2%. She hamstrung and garrotted the middle class, then drowned them.
As the recession of the early 1980s spiraled, Thatcher counter-measured by increasing taxes and cutting funding for social services, housing, and education (taking school lunch milk from the children—fergawdsakes—as bad as Reagan's proclaiming
katsup as a vegetable). She then completely gutted funding for higher education.
The wholesale loss of employment, mass closure of factories, housing, and loss of basic social services fueled massive race riots in every major city which led to the reinstatement of the Vagrancy Act of 1824 to detain citizens based on "reasonable suspicion" which was heavily enforced in migrant and black communities.
She played the race card during reelection, saying, "People are really afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people of a different culture" which helped spark the
1981 race riots in London, Liverpool, Glasgow and Brixton.
Then during the next decade, Thatcher introduced a per capita "poll tax"(at 20% +) to fund local government in order to—get this—lower the
tax burden of large property owners and big businesses. Sound familiar?
When 1.8 million people point-blank refused to pay the head tax, Thatcher enforced draconioan measures,
riots ensued. During the Poll Tax Riots, the Battle of Trafalgar, at Trafalgar Square, was among the most violent where hundreds were arrested and incarcerated.
Meanwhile, under Thatcher's regime, interest rates soared, value added tax (VAT)
shot up to 15%; and tellingly, by 1990, when she resigned from office, inflation was back at 10%—the same level as when she implemented the reforms in 1979.
A
modern day Cromwell, Thatcher's aggression towards Ireland was horiffic; Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said she had done "great hurt to working class communities across Britain and also people in Ireland".
Adams also accused Thatcher of "embracing collusion" and playing a "shameful role" in the IRA hunger strike of 1981. (BBC)
"As De Valera said about Churchill, she was good for the UK, but her policies were not good for Ireland," said Fianan Fail leader, former taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. "She was a unique lady and a formidable lady. She was prime minister for the same length of time that I was. But nothing was achieved towards peace in Northern Ireland during Thatcher's time as prime minister." (Herald)
Thatcher also destroyed basic human rights in Northern Ireland. Catholics were stripped of civil rights. She made political prisoner Bobby Sands, an Irish martyr whose death led to a surge in IRA recruitment. Ironic, isn't it, that on this very day in 1981, Bobby Sands was elected MP for Fermanagh/South Tyrone with 30,493 votes—almost 10,000 more votes than British Prime Minister Thatcher received.
(Political prisoner and
IRA Hunger Strike leader,
Bobby Sands (Roibeárd Gearóid Ó Seachnasaigh 1954 – 1981) was arrested in 1976 at age 18, and imprisoned 14 years in the most brutal of British prison camps, the H-Block of Long Kesh—Great Britain's own Gitmo in Belfast, for "illegal possession" of a gun in the boot of a car. Not shooting anyone, or blowing anyone up.)
IRA prisoners had historically been treated differently than common criminals. They were treated as political prisoners. Thatcher’s decision to treat them like ordinary criminals was a disastrous policy measure. It lengthened The Troubles by at least a decade, if not a generation. It led to the inevitability of the hunger strikes and the polarization that followed. (Boston Globe)
Sands' MP election victory raised hopes that a settlement to raise Sands to political prisoner status could be reached—thus restoring basic human rights under the
Geneva Convention, but Thatcher took a hard stance, stating that Mr. Sands was a convicted criminal, with no rights— not prisoners of war. Under Thatcher's tenure, Sands was tortured with daily beatings, water-hosing, mental abuse. Sands died in 1981 after 66 days on hunger strike. Said Thatcher, "Mr. Sands was a convicted criminal. He chose to take his own life." The mother of Joe McDonnell, one of the hunger strikers, said “Criminals don’t starve themselves to death to make a point.”
Boston Globe's Kevin
Cullen writes, “Thatcher’s intransigence drove many young men into the waiting arms of the IRA. She was one of the IRA’s best recruiters. She pushed the end of the war back at least 10 years and consigned a generation to conflict.”
shot. It left me shaken to the core. It made me sit up and bear witness.
Ironically, it was Reagan who told Thatcher that "she had to talk to the Irish government"—which led to the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985. As Nelson Mandela once told Martin McGuinness, “You don’t make peace with your friends. You make peace with your enemies.”(
Boston Globe)
Thatcher (bosom friend of Pinochet) denounced Nelson Mandela and the ANC as "grubby little terrorists, while backing South African apartheid. (she later reversed that
position when it became economically and politically savvy to abolish Apartheid).
Thatcher did more to polarize society and create a rift and division between the classes and between oppressors and the oppressed than any other Prime Minister. I won't even mention the Falklands farce—with a thousand dead and 2,500 wounded. For what?
Cojones?
Thatcher's policies also foisted us into the first Gulf War
(and ultimately to Iraq.) But I'm tired now, so in closing, yes, Thatcher was female, but no feminist. She was not a good role model for women—as Amy Tan's friend posted on Facebook (which got my blood boiling—and led to this diatribe).
Obama said that she had "broken glass ceiling for women." In his Guardian obit, comedian/actor
Russell Brand quipped: "Only in the sense that all the women beneath her were blinded by falling shards. She is an icon of individualism, not of feminism."
I fear Thatcher's death has already become a Welshman's holiday replete with epithets of verbal grave dancing.
Across Britain tonight, especially in Liverpool, Glasgow and Brixton, Thatcher's death is turning into an early
Guy Fawkes birthday celebration. And they are gathering at Trafalgar Square. Poetic justice is served.
Twitter reported more than one million mentions of the word "Thatcher" in the four hours after the announcement of the former prime minister's death. (BBC)
"Ding Dong! The witch is dead" has become a national anthem. British filmmaker, Ken Loach “Remember she called Mandela a terrorist and took tea with the torturer and murderer Pinochet. How should we honor her? Let’s privatize her funeral. Put it out to competitive tender and accept the cheapest bid. It’s what she would have wanted.” Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle (
@frankieboyle) posted: "Finally, I get to wear my black suit and tap shoes together."
My sweetie in Scotland reports that: "They're also raising flags and having celebratory street parties—especially in the north and mining areas. Thatcher ironically caused the [resurrection of the] Scottish Parliament—in response to her policies that decimated Scotland during her time. The Poll Tax was her final undoing."
Stone-hearted Maggie was ruthless. She was a curious admixture of Iron Lady and Good Old Boys school. She championing warmongers Reagan, Bush & Bushs' worst politics served up with a sidedish of corrupt Wall Street bakers tossed in for good
measure.
So tell, me how Thatcher's legacy was a good legacy? I don't understand. I don't wish to speak ill of the dead but I wonder how long will it take to reverse the damage done during Thatcher's reign. Perhaps a generation, more like a lifetime.
In the words of Bobby Sands, "Our revenge will be the laughter of our children."
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