Ding Dong

[Charlie Darwin]

The witch is dead. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22067155)

[pineapple stu]

http://www.isthatcherdeadyet.co.uk/

[BonnieShels]

My god she was an awful human. The Eulogising over on BBC is vomit-inducing.

Cameron flying back from Spain where he was to hold a meeting with other EU leaders. Why? It's not the blinking Queen.

I can imagine Merrion Street is finding difficulty with a press release, maybe the prto-Unionist Hayes can announce his sadness at her death.

[Charlie Darwin]

Seamus Mallon's interview on RTE news was great. They were clearly looking for some empty platitudes, but the best he could muster was "she was a remarkable person" before listing all of the horrible things she did.

[BonnieShels]

Seamus Mallon's interview on RTE news was great. They were clearly looking for some empty platitudes, but the best he could muster was "she was a remarkable person" before listing all of the horrible things she did.


Upon which he remarked... I crossed into Clady yesterday and I couldn't help but notice how bloody similar to Finchley it was. She was onto something.

[Gather round]

This real Unionist isn't sad, at least not for her even more Thatcherite followers. Both have done enormous damage to our country even if Maggie's was 25 years ago.

Some coverage and comments (not necessarily Bonnie's) seem to assume almost total Ulster unionist support because she claimed to stand up to terrorism. Not so, and not just because there are other issues beyond the partition of Ireland. Her party was in charge for three-quarters of the Troubles, yet for all the security initiatives and infiltration of paramilitarism failed to end them; she allowed one of the most active such paramilitary groups to remain banned for 20 years, and so on.

[the 12 th man]

https://twitter.com/fieldproducer/status/321236023248035842/photo/1

[Not Brazil]

Some coverage and comments (not necessarily Bonnie's) seem to assume almost total Ulster unionist support because she claimed to stand up to terrorism. Not so, and not just because there are other issues beyond the partition of Ireland.

Do you recall who asked this salient question of Mrs Thatcher in The House Of Commons in 1985, GR - a day before she visited Hillsborough Castle?

"Does the Right Hon. Lady understand—if she does not yet understand she soon will—that the penalty for treachery is to fall into public contempt?"

[Gather round]

Do you recall who asked this salient question of Mrs Thatcher in The House Of Commons in 1985, GR - a day before she visited Hillsborough Castle?

"Does the Right Hon. Lady understand—if she does not yet understand she soon will—that the penalty for treachery is to fall into public contempt?"

Wasn't that the Wolverhampton Wanderer, Enoch Powell? But just to clarify, I'm not suggesting she treated NI treacherously, just incompetently and hypocritically.

[BonnieShels]

This real Unionist isn't sad, at least not for her even more Thatcherite followers. Both have done enormous damage to our country even if Maggie's was 25 years ago.

Some coverage and comments (not necessarily Bonnie's) seem to assume almost total Ulster unionist support because she claimed to stand up to terrorism. Not so, and not just because there are other issues beyond the partition of Ireland. Her party was in charge for three-quarters of the Troubles, yet for all the security initiatives and infiltration of paramilitarism failed to end them; she allowed one of the most active such paramilitary groups to remain banned for 20 years, and so on.

A Czech girl I know posted up on FB earlier that she thinks it's sick that people are contemplating parties and celebration of her death.

She actually called her a "little old lady"; but it seems the generational difference is at work here.
I tried to point out the destruction of lives and livelihoods she meted out either directly or indirectly to the North of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland and not to mention her support for her dear friend Augusto, all to no avail.

I would never assume she had total support amongst Ireland's unionist community. We all remember the reactions to the AI Agreement?

But the eulogising for her on display on BBC (I haven't bothered with Sky today) is nothing short of breathtaking.

Would I wager black armbands and minutes silence in Manchester tonight?

[Not Brazil]

Wasn't that the Wolverhampton Wanderer, Enoch Powell? But just to clarify, I'm not suggesting she treated NI treacherously, just incompetently and hypocritically.

It sure was Enoch.

I agree with you.

Many Unionists see her handling of the Hunger Strikes, for example, to be something to celebrate - I think that's taking a very limited view of The Lady's handling of Northern Ireland issues.

[Gather round]

I would never assume she had total support amongst Ireland's unionist community. We all remember the reactions to the AI Agreement?

Aye, fair dos I diddn't explain that properly. While some Unionists slammed her because the AIA was seen as giving in to Nationalists, I did so then and now because she failed to address Unionist paramilitarism.

[DannyInvincible]

A Czech girl I know posted up on FB earlier that she thinks it's sick that people are contemplating parties and celebration of her death.

She actually called her a "little old lady"; but it seems the generational difference is at work here.
I tried to point out the destruction of lives and livelihoods she meted out either directly or indirectly to the North of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland and not to mention her support for her dear friend Augusto, all to no avail.

I had absolutely no time for "The Lady" whatsoever and will not be mourning her loss, but I also find little appeal in the celebration of another human being's death, no matter how dislikable a figure they might have been in life. To be honest, I find the notion to be more sociopathic - barbaric even - than iconoclastic. I found the gloating from the right after the recent death of Hugo Chavez to be equally unsettling and distasteful. And that's not merely because I held a certain level of admiration for his humility, vigour, passion and ideals; I just don't think it very mature or sophisticated to gloat in the death of another human being. Remember these scenes in the US upon the death of Osama bin Laden?:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kI8EUqbWdM

That hullabaloo struck me as not only weird, but also cheap and crass. You'd nearly have felt sorry for Bin Laden!

I think it would be hypocritical then for me to apply a double standard here and proceed to revel in the death of Thatcher. I don't want to be a sanctimonious party-pooper either, mind, so do party on if that's where you feel your energies would be best applied. :p It would just sit uneasily with me personally for some reason.

Are people actually out getting the pints into them, by the way, or is it all just a bit of gloating and excitement around Facebook and Twitter? Isn't it all a bit futile anyway? Does her death really change anything? Does celebrating it make any difference? Thatcherism is still very much alive and well, after all. These are worth a read: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/not-all-socialists-want-to-dance-on-margaret-thatchers-grave-i-want-her-to-go-on-and-on-8143089.html and http://thequietus.com/articles/11886-margaret-thatcher-obituary

In saying all of the above, criticism of her should most certainly not be suppressed out of "respect for a family in mourning" either. A good article by the learned and ever-impressive Glenn Greenwald on that here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-death-etiquette?CMP=twt_gu

[DannyInvincible]

I'd been aware that Edward Heath considered the notion of ethnically-cleansing the north of its Catholic population, but only finding out that Thatcher also suggested the same years later: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2001/jun/16/northernireland.catholicism


Margaret Thatcher horrified her advisers when she recommended that the government should revive the memory of Oliver Cromwell - dubbed the butcher of Ireland - and encourage tens of thousands of Catholics to leave Ulster for the south.

A year after she was nearly killed in the IRA's 1984 Brighton bomb, the then prime minister expressed dismay at Catholic opposition to British rule when they could follow the example of ancestors who were evicted from Ulster at the barrel of a Cromwellian gun in the 17th century.

Lady Thatcher's extraordinary solution to the Troubles has been disclosed by her advisers at the time of the negotiations on the 1985 Anglo-Irish agreement.

Sir David Goodall, then a diplomat who was one of the most senior British officials negotiating with the Irish government, told a BBC four-part documentary, Endgame in Ireland, that Lady Thatcher made the "outrageous" proposal during a late night conversation at Chequers.

"She said, if the northern [Catholic] population want to be in the south, well why don't they move over there? After all, there was a big movement of population in Ireland, wasn't there?

"Nobody could think what it was. So finally I said, are you talking about Cromwell, prime minister? She said, that's right, Cromwell."

Her interest in him is likely to turn her into an even greater hate figure among nationalists, who have never forgiven her for mishandling the 1981 republican hunger strikes. Catholics were slaughtered in their tens of thousands in the 1640s and 1650s by Cromwell's forces. Virtually all Catholic landowners were hounded out of Ulster.

In light of recent discussion in the eligibility thread, interesting that she also supported a re-drawing of the border, but not out of any consideration for the notion of self-determination or those living there...:


Lady Thatcher's "outrageous" plan did not stop at reviving the memory of Cromwell.

Sir Charles Powell, then her private secretary, told the programme that she also called for Northern Ireland's border with the republic to be redrawn.

"She thought that if we had a straight line border, not one with all those kinks and wiggles in it, it would be easier to defend," he said.

The zigzag border is notoriously difficult to patrol. But Lord Armstrong of Ilminster, then cabinet secretary, told Lady Thatcher of the folly of her idea.

"It wasn't as simple as that because the nationalist communities were not all in one place, not all in Fermanagh and Tyrone and South Armagh and so on," he told the programme.

"There were many in Belfast, and the idea of partition in Belfast or moving large numbers of population didn't seem to be very attractive."

However, she would not abandon her idea and called for a "security zone" on both sides of the border to help the British army and the RUC to chase IRA terrorists who used to slip over the border after attacks in the north. This was rejected out of hand by the Irish government.

[DannyInvincible]

The BBC's coverage is all a bit nauseating. Heard David Cameron's statement a while ago there too. Did I hear him correctly when he referred to Thatcher as having been "a great statesman"?

[BonnieShels]

Aye, fair dos I diddn't explain that properly. While some Unionists slammed her because the AIA was seen as giving in to Nationalists, I did so then and now because she failed to address Unionist paramilitarism.

Ah yes indeed.

The hypocrisy you speak of is rarely spoken off by a lot of Irish unionists like yourself.

Remember having that out with a citizen of Portadown in Australia, she failed to see my side. Think Daddy or Grandaddy was a UDR man.

[BonnieShels]

The BBC's coverage is all a bit nauseating. Heard David Cameron's statement a while ago there too. Did I hear him correctly when he referred to Thatcher as having been "a great statesman"?

The revisionism has begun with vigour on Sky News.

[DannyInvincible]

I'd expect it from Sky News, but from the "neutral" BBC?!... Then again, their coverage of the London Olympics was pretty soppy too.

[Spudulika]

BBC isn't neutral, it gladly jumped on the anti-Assad bandwagon, conveniently ignoring the horrific mob who were "fighting for democracy", if democracy means butchering anyone who doesn't believe completely in what some criminally insane islamic fundies preach! BBC is a joke of a service (though they do good comedies and I liked Casualty).

[BonnieShels]

http://sphotos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/604035_10151327825961637_777298752_n.jpg

Heh heh

[The Fly]

Seems Cher has had to issue a statement announcing she is still alive after today's most popular Twitter tag is #nowthatcherisdead.

[Dermotron]

Apparently there are parties all across Argentina this evening

[Charlie Darwin]

I had absolutely no time for "The Lady" whatsoever and will not be mourning her loss, but I also find little appeal in the celebration of another human being's death, no matter how dislikable a figure they might have been in life.
I wouldn't revel in anybody's death, but I think people vastly overcompensate so they can be seen not to be celebrating somebody's death. As far as I'm concerned, she's just a person who died, but as far as people who died go she's about as disgusting as they come.

[peadar1987]

I wouldn't revel in anybody's death, but I think people vastly overcompensate so they can be seen not to be celebrating somebody's death. As far as I'm concerned, she's just a person who died, but as far as people who died go she's about as disgusting as they come.

I don't like the whitewashing of peoples' legacy that happens when they die. It means people don't learn from it. A lot of young people are going to be subjected to Thatcher-worship from the media over the next few days with no balance, because that's not the done thing.

[Charlie Darwin]

I don't like the whitewashing of peoples' legacy that happens when they die. It means people don't learn from it. A lot of young people are going to be subjected to Thatcher-worship from the media over the next few days with no balance, because that's not the done thing.
It was the same when Reagan died. People always rabbit on about the media being so liberal, but it seems that when right-wing nuts die, they all lose their nerve. Chavez got the same treatment despite the fact the right-wing press despised him while he lived. Both were horrible human beings and the world is a better place now they're dead.

[horton]

There was a 32csm party at Free Derry Corner for most of yesterday evening, 50 or so nutjobs there as I passed. Most of our (NI) politicians seem to agree that she was a "divisive" figure, me though, will always remember her as the b"tch that stole the free school milk!

[Spudulika]

Listening to Lord Solooney on Morning Ireland, you begin to realise that there are some care in the community has gone too far. Why Taylor or anyone else should slam middle ground or deny the truth, it opens the door for the shameful scum who profited from the misery on both sides of the Northern conflict. Here in Russia they're being very nice about the woman, which makes sense. Like the current Russian ruler she too slaughtered and promoted the slaughter of her own people. She too, like VVP, made sure to keep conflict zones active to trim the working class population and maintain power. And she too, like VVP, was buddied up with savage butchers (Hussein-Kadyrov, Pinochet-Karimov). Beggars belief.

[DannyInvincible]

There was a 32csm party at Free Derry Corner for most of yesterday evening, 50 or so nutjobs there as I passed. Most of our (NI) politicians seem to agree that she was a "divisive" figure, me though, will always remember her as the b"tch that stole the free school milk!

Article on it here from the Belfast Telegraph: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/video-crowds-gather-in-belfast-and-derry-to-celebrate-death-of-margaret-thatcher-29182412.html

http://static.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/article29182411.ece/ALTERNATES/h342/hDERRY74701954jpg.jpg

http://static.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/article29182403.ece/ALTERNATES/h342/DERRY+53MML314jpg.jpg


Large numbers of people have gathered in Londonderry to 'celebrate' the death of Margaret Thatcher earlier today.

The crowd - many waving Tricolour flags - gathered at the famous Free Derry Corner in the city's Bogside.

Several Chinese lanterns were also lit as families gathered in the area this evening.

Crowds also gathered on the Falls Road in west Belfast.

Meanwhile elsewhere in Glasgow and London there were similar events.

A crowd of two or three hundred people assembled in Glasgow's George Square where in 1989 protests to the introduction of Thatcher's poll tax took place.

Some wore party hats and launched streamers into the air while a bottle of champagne was opened with a toast to the demise of Baroness Thatcher.

Members of various organisations including the Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation, the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, the Socialist Working Party, the International Socialist Group, were joined by members of the public to mark the occasion.

Meanwhile, More than 100 people gathered in Brixton, south London - the scene of fierce riots in 1981 - two years into her first time in office.

There was also a reaction from music star Morrissey, a long-time critic of Baroness Thatcher, who berated her as "barbaric" and "without an atom of humanity".

Falls Road scenes last night:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fbndyzt2Blw

[DannyInvincible]

BBC isn't neutral

True, I was being somewhat facetious. They do like to portray themselves as such and are widely perceived as such, mind, which is dangerous given the extraordinarily flattering treatment they have accorded Thatcher upon her death. The likes of Sky or ITN aren't accorded the same level of undue reverence as the BBC. Peadar highlights exactly why such white-washing and worship should be of concern to critical thinkers.

[peadar1987]

It was the same when Reagan died. People always rabbit on about the media being so liberal, but it seems that when right-wing nuts die, they all lose their nerve. Chavez got the same treatment despite the fact the right-wing press despised him while he lived. Both were horrible human beings and the world is a better place now they're dead.

I think the whole tiptoeing around what you say about the dead is a hangover from a more superstitious age when people thought they were looking over your shoulder, more than out of respect for their bereaved families. Respect for their families definitely didn't even cross peoples' minds when they were alive.

[horton]

Free Derry Corner after they finished the party last night:https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BHW4YX3CQAEomsc.jpg:large

[BonnieShels]

Free Derry Corner after they finished the party last night:https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BHW4YX3CQAEomsc.jpg:large

Is there something wrong with me that I read that as "You are now Thatcher's Dead- NG, Let's Bury Greed With Her! Y"

[DannyInvincible]

I wouldn't revel in anybody's death, but I think people vastly overcompensate so they can be seen not to be celebrating somebody's death.

In what sense do they overcompensate? Like posting about it on a forum, you mean? :p

[Charlie Darwin]

In what sense do they overcompensate? Like posting about it on a forum, you mean? :p
Haha. No, I just mean there's a tendency to eulogise people when they die, as if it's not an appropriate time to critically assess their lives, when in fact it's precisely the time that should be done. The result is sycophantic tributes all over the media that will give many people a completely false impression of her and the damage she wreaked.

[DannyInvincible]

Haha. No, I just mean there's a tendency to eulogise people when they die, as if it's not an appropriate time to critically assess their lives, when in fact it's precisely the time that should be done. The result is sycophantic tributes all over the media that will give many people a completely false impression of her and the damage she wreaked.

Ah, yes, I see. The Glenn Greenwald piece to which I linked in an earlier post deals with this "misapplied death etiquette". Worth a read.

[peadar1987]

I'm dreading the day Tony Blair snuffs it and the media either try and desperately justify the invasion of Iraq, or fail to mention it altogether.

[Macy]

Anyone that doesn't get the celebrating, doesn't get the damage she inflicted, in my opinion.

Her legacy is all around us - continued poverty, the banking crisis, the lack of social housing, sh1thole estates left to rot with children with no hope other than becoming criminals, public health systems collapsing or being privatised, diminished public services, demonisation of public servants, families not able to survive on one wage, people working 2 part time jobs rather than having 1 permenant job, pensioners financially unable to retire etc etc etc. Everything that's wrong with society on these islands can pretty much be traced back to Thatcher and those that follow her ideology (both in Britain and here).

Personally I won't be celebrating until she's in the ground and we get the chance to Tramp The Dirt Down.

[DannyInvincible]

Anyone that doesn't get the celebrating, doesn't get the damage she inflicted, in my opinion.

I get the celebrating completely; it's an entirely predictable and natural reaction. I understand how divisive and destructive she was and can see why people would be delighted to personally see the back of her. However, can we assume that the many people expressing glee at her death have a reasonable grasp of the consistency of her tenure? I care naught for her myself, nor do I wish to moralise or engage in sanctimony. As you point out though with your list, she might be gone in person, but Thatcherism is still very much alive and well. What are the implications of her death? Her death makes no difference in the sense that her legacy lives on. In fact, it has led to a worrying glossing over by the mainstream media of her character and policies. What's to celebrate about that?

Besides the fact there's nothing constructive in the celebration of death, I'd also feel a bit crass and vindictive celebrating or gloating about the death of another human, no matter who they were. It's not that I feel she in particular is deserving of being treated with a certain reverence in death or anything; it just wouldn't sit easily with me, and I'm not sure I can really rationalise as to why exactly. Does reacting to the death of a perceived tyrant with gleeful gloating set you on any higher a moral pedestal than the one on which you've positioned them? I'd like to be able to think I had a greater respect for life than she had.

[Real ale Madrid]

Anyone that doesn't get the celebrating, doesn't get the damage she inflicted, in my opinion.


The damage she inflicted as a person or as a politician ? She had to get elected first to inflict damage. How many times did that happen ? I'd understand the celebration if she was pulled weeping from No.10 after being shunted out by her own people, but I don't remember those celebrations. I only see celebrations now of the death a withered, incontinent, lonely, demented old woman. Society is gone to the dogs. Ironically, the celebration of her death is probably a symbol of her legacy - a woman who didn't believe in a compassionate society, who believed that vulnerability was the ultimate weakness. Perhaps the celebration of her death is in some way a manifestation of her policies of misery?

[Macy]

The damage she inflicted as a person or as a politician ?
Same thing, unless a politician isn't a person? She wasn't making unpopular decisions forced on the UK, she was following her own ideology. That a flawed electoral system gave her a mandate is a different thing.


Ironically, the celebration of her death is probably a symbol of her legacy - a woman who didn't believe in a compassionate society, who believed that vulnerability was the ultimate weakness. Perhaps the celebration of her death is in some way a manifestation of her policies of misery?
I agree with the link to her policies and her vision of society - I made a similar point in Off Topic. Which makes the establishments criticism of it even more hard to take to be honest.


I care naught for her myself, nor do I wish to moralise or engage in sanctimony. As you point out though with your list, she might be gone in person, but Thatcherism is still very much alive and well. What are the implications of her death? Her death makes no difference in the sense that her legacy lives on. In fact, it has led to a worrying glossing over by the mainstream media of her character and policies. What's to celebrate about that?
I agree to a degree, and I think some outspoken socialists have made a similar point. However, I would have to add the caveat without the celebrating would there even be a reasoned debate about her legacy? People that were too young to remember may dig a bit deeper when they see the strength of feeling she still engenders, and see the damage she did, and her ideology continues to do.

I personally didn't celebrate yesterday (although my initial reaction was to a certain extent) - I preferred to think of the towns and villages in the North of England she destroyed, for the sake of destroying. When I saw posts on social media criticising the celebrating by saying "it's not like she was a criminal or anything" I thought of the conscripts on the Belgrano, and her support Pinochet. I reflected on the what she left - as I outlined in my other post. We're determined to not learn from history, not helped by there's no proper debate in the media.

[Spudulika]

I've deliberately not read anything in Irish newspapers (well, the Examiner or IT, I refuse to read the rag anymore) or listen to it on radio - I switch over to Lyric when they start on. In Russia they're trying to make more of it than there is, when you hear the likes of Michael Graham and his likes in the UK saying how she brought down the Iron Curtain with Ronnie R. None of it makes sense. And it brings me back to Summer 1997, a week before Diana died in a crash, the Sun and other papers (including broadsheets) were scandalising her for shacking up with an arab, the photo of her diving off a speedboat with Dodi was front page. They were filleting her. A week later and she's gone from queen of tarts to queen of hearts. It wouldn't sell to fillet thatcher now, more money will be made from thrashing her "given appropriate time".

I'm with Macy, we refuse to learn from history - look at the rise in support for FF, FG being elected, Mick the D!ck noonan being allowed to represent the public (and Republic). It boils down to money and ad sales, nothing else matters.

[culloty82]

Wing Commander David Stubbs (http://www.mr-agreeable.net/2013/04/10/the-wing-commander-a-tribute-to-mrs-thatcher/) pays tribute in his inimitable fashion.

[BonnieShels]

That's wonderful.

[Sleepingpartner]

Horrible, nasty woman. Glad she's finally gone.

[DannyInvincible]

'R1 Chart show will not play full Thatcher row song': http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21241791


The Wizard of Oz song at the centre of an anti-Margaret Thatcher campaign will not be played in full on the Official Chart Show.

Instead a five second clip of the 51-second song will be aired as part of a Newsbeat report, Radio 1 controller Ben Cooper has said.

Sales of Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead have soared since the former Prime Minister's death on Monday, aged 87.

Mr Cooper called the decision "a difficult compromise".

The song is set to take the number three spot in Sunday's countdown, according to the Official Charts Company.

Speaking to Radio 1 Newsbeat, Mr Cooper said: "The decision I have made is I am not going to play it in full but that I will play a clip of it in a news environment.

"When I say a news environment, that is a newsreader telling you about the fact that this record has reached a certain place in the chart and here is a clip of that track.

"It is a compromise and it is a difficult compromise to come to. You have very difficult and emotional arguments on both sides of the fence.

"Let's not forget you also have a family that is grieving for a loved one who is yet to be buried."

The announcement was followed by a statement from the corporation. "The BBC finds this campaign distasteful but does not believe the record should be banned," it read.

"On Sunday, the Radio 1 Chart Show will contain a news item explaining why the song is in the charts during which a short clip will be played as it has been in some of our news programmes."

The decision has already drawn criticism, with Radio Times film reviewer Andrew Collins accusing the corporation of "caving in" on Twitter.

Footballer turned pundit Stan Collymore was also disdainful, saying it was "amazing that our state broadcaster really does act like it's 70's Soviet equivalents at times".

The original song was performed in the 1939 Judy Garland film by characters celebrating the demise of the much-hated Wicked Witch of the East.

The campaign has been called "tasteless" by the BBC's director general Tony Hall, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and others, though few have called for the song to be banned outright.

DJ Paul Gambaccini and former director general Greg Dyke are among those who have taken the opposite position, arguing that the chart is a statistical reality that should not be editorialised.

Ding Dong!, attributed to Garland and the cast of the movie, is also expected to feature in the Capital Chart's Big Top 40.

A spokesman for Capital FM said the station was currently "reviewing the situation".

Rival campaigns are under way to get a song considered to be more favourable to Baroness Thatcher into this week's countdown as well.

One Facebook group is seeking to boost sales of (I'm In Love With) Margaret Thatcher, a 1980 track by the punk band Notsensible.

That news came as a surprise to band member Steven Hartley, who told the BBC News website the song had been conceived as a satirical swipe at the former Conservative leader.

"We were of Thatcher's Britain - just a bunch of ordinary north-west lads from a north-western town," said guitarist Hartley, who nonetheless said it would be "great" if the song charted.

[Gather round]

I think I remember that other ****take from the 80s:

I'm in love with Margaret Thatcher
I once met her in a War
Playing the part of a latter-day Boadicea
By re-capturing a village at the South Pole
And giving in to the UDA
Oh yeah baby, it really moved me

[Wolfman]

Horrible, nasty woman. Glad she's finally gone.
What they said.

And that rhyme immediately above is supposed to be funny?

[Eminence Grise]

£10,000,000 being bandied about as the cost of her funeral.

I'm horrified - it's not nearly enough.

Not when you consider the size of the stake and the amount of garlic needed.

[BonnieShels]

£10,000,000 being bandied about as the cost of her funeral.

I'm horrified - it's not nearly enough.

Not when you consider the size of the stake and the amount of garlic needed.

I thought she was a witch, not a vampire?

I briefly felt sorry this morning when I saw later pictures of her... and then I remembered her Finchely quote again and then I exhaled.

[Eminence Grise]

Taking no chances, Bonnie. Don't ever want her roaming around again.