Hi Mark I get worried by this reworking of history - someone recently remarked to me that Thatcher wasn't all bad - that she did good stuff as well as bad, and I let it pass. But then later I was thinking about it, and I can't think of a single good thing she did. I suppose she must have done something good in her life, if only by mistake?
dave On 6 January 2012 10:02, Mark Hancock <[email protected]> wrote: > Dave, a timely reminder ( not that those of us old enough in the UK need it!) > of this vile woman and her time in office. It truly worries me that there has > been this revisionist reworking of the Thatcher era. Is she being held up as > a strong feminist hero by people who forget what she was like? Hopefully not! > I do wonder if she's part of a nostalgia for 80s culture generally and that > some people are thinking that it was a prosperous, joyful era, with great > fashions etc? As long as people remember that the New Romantics were a 'last > days of Pompeii' response to the era! > > As an antidote to this film, let's all watch the Boys From The Blackstuff! > > Never forget > > M > > On 6 Jan 2012, at 09:47, dave miller <[email protected]> wrote: > >> http://www.thenation.com/blog/165450/iron-lady-margaret-thatcher-movie-we-dont-need >> >> The Iron Lady just opened in London where, let's hope, it >> generates some serious critique. The critical silence in the >> US has been astounding only made worse by the praise, not >> just for the film but for its subject, former British Prime >> Minister Margaret Thatcher, played in the movie by Meryl >> Streep. >> >> Newsweek's holiday double issue slapped Streep as Thatcher >> on its cover, hailing "The New Thatcher Era." The feature >> story in summary reads: "Margaret Thatcher was the infamous >> Iron Lady the Brits love to hate. This month's bio starring >> Meryl Streep proves she was right all along." >> >> Streep's already winning awards and accolades and Oscars are >> probably on the way. People are saying the film's no >> whitewash because it shows the former Prime Minister in her >> dotage, fighting dementia - three decades after she came to >> power. Director Phyllida Lloyd has described the treatment >> as operatic. Streep's called it revealing. The two >> collaborated before on the musical Mamma Mia! The truth >> is, in Lloyd's hands Thatcher's iron isn't just rusty, it's >> melted down and depoliticized, made feminist enough to root >> for and ultimately sad enough for some to sniffle at. The >> Iron Lady is Thatcher -- The ABBA Version. It's the last >> thing we need, ever, and especially at this point. >> >> Think of Thatcher and I think of hungry people. Irish hunger >> strikers, first of all, ten of whom starved to death for >> status as political prisoners on her watch. Thatcher >> insisted anti-government rebels in Afghanistan were >> "resistance fighters," not terrorists, but it was a >> different story for the Irish. Indeed, in Thatcher's time, >> there was to be no story, no effort to understand the >> reasons for the conflict in Northern Ireland; certainly >> there was to be no discussion or consideration in public of >> why anyone might pick up a gun, or place a bomb, or starve >> themselves to death. >> >> Long before the USA PATRIOT Act and the 9-11 demonization of >> asking "why," Britons were starved of information about the >> so-called "troubles." Under an ever-expanding Prevention of >> Terrorism Act, British journalists were forced to report to >> police any contact with any "known or suspected terrorist." >> Irish parties to the conflict were banned from speaking on >> radio and TV yet Thatcher's government could tell the public >> any lie it liked. When British secret service snipers shot >> and killed three unarmed IRA members (two men and a woman, >> Mairead Farrell,) on the island of Gibraltar in 1988, >> Thatcher's government released an official story about >> crossfire and a gun fight, and a bomb planted near an old >> people's home. Video footage of an impressive little >> military robot supposedly defusing an incendiary device >> played on the evening news. It wasn't true. Lloyd's film >> shows the IRA's bombings and bloodshed but not the denial >> and the deadly government tactics which likely delayed peace >> talks for a decade. >> >> Think of Thatcher and I think of the hungry people who >> started showing up in villages in Yorkshire and Scotland and >> Wales where work was scarce because Thatcher's experts >> decided nuclear power was a better energy source than >> unionized coalfields. Miners went on strike - for a year. >> Their wives and children collected soup-kitchen money from >> their churches and their neighbors and when they ran out, >> they went down to London where they tried to tell their >> story of helmeted horsemen charging the ranks of union >> strikers and police bashing men's heads in. But Londoners >> didn't believe them. They'd heard the miners were greedy and >> dangerous and a threat to their jobs. After all, "trade >> union power is the true cause of unemployment," said >> Thatcher. The 1984 strike by the National Union of >> Mineworkers (NUM) gets a couple of seconds on screen in >> Lloyd's film, but there's no explanation, no follow-up and >> no consideration: does anyone wish now that they'd listened >> to the miners then? >> >> "There is no such thing as society. Only individuals." >> Thatcher also said. With more spending by successive >> Thatcher governments on police (so-called "law and order") >> and less on just about everything else, "no society" became >> true soon enough. The Iron Lady shows Prime Minister >> Thatcher over-ruling her "wet" male colleagues over waging >> war with Argentina. A few hundred far-off Falkland Islanders >> were worth fighting for, she famously decided. A take- >> control feminist? The film ignores the families in Toxteth >> (inner city Liverpool) and Brixton (a largely black >> neighborhood in London) whom Thatcher found it quite >> acceptable to sacrifice. Cabinet papers released by the >> National Archives just now under a 30-year rule reveal >> Thatcher's closest advisers told her that the "concentration >> of hopelessness" on Merseyside was "very largely self- >> inflicted" and not worth government repair. >> >> Thatcher didn't - actually - evacuate Liverpool in the >> aftermath of the 1981 inner-city riots. She led something >> more insidious. With her professionally crafted "grocer's >> daughter" image, Thatcher gave class-conscious Britons >> permission to dismiss real human difficulties with a blow- >> dried bourgeois smirk: Unemployed? Get on yer bike! Said her >> administration. Got a problem? You're the problem! In >> Maggie's world, deprivation is your own damn fault. >> >> Nor did Thatcher give people permission only to look away. >> Under Thatcher and egged-on by her, those who could leave >> troubled towns and troubled people did, and so did >> government. We'd "mind the gap" (between the train and the >> platform) on the London Underground, but we came not to mind >> the gap between the rich and the rest, the north and the >> south; the possibilities people had if they needed things to >> be public and the possibilities they had if they could pay >> for the private stuff - the private health care, the private >> school, the private house. Today, in a new time of budget >> wars, The Iron Lady's depiction of draconian cuts as >> feminist guts is chilling. What Thatcher called "harsh >> medicine" meant one thing for the poor and another for the >> very powerful then, and it still does. In both instances, >> there is hell to pay in social fabric. >> >> I don't remember if Lloyd's Lady quotes the real lady's most >> famous phrase: "There is No Alternative." Certainly TINA >> deserves star billing. Thatcher's quip about globalized >> capitalism has defined our epoch. People can debate the >> successes and failures of "the Thatcher era" all they like. >> One thing's for certain, we don't need a new one because the >> old one's still here. The consequences of the politicies >> Thatcher pioneered and made respectable - deregulation, >> privatization and globalization - can be measured in public >> costs and private profits on both sides of the Atlantic. >> More damning, even, is the enduring cultural habit of denial >> (looking away;) and the political practice of silence; >> shutting the problem people up. >> >> Grow the gap between government and the governed and you get >> what we have: a burnt-out world driven by the super-super- >> rich where some are stealing others blind and billions are >> alienated or angry, sure that government has nothing to >> offer but a bash on the head. >> >> Lloyd's soft-pop version deals with none of this. >> Ironically, the "deeds matter" Thatcher herself would >> probably be the first to dislike this shrunken, personal- >> over-political fantasy of her inner life. Lucky for us, we >> don't need to worry about her. We need to worry about us. We >> are not demented. There are alternatives. There always have >> been. What we need (among other things) are more movies >> about the women - and maybe a few of the men -- bringing >> those to life. >> _______________________________________________ >> NetBehaviour mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
