At least she was a good mum and raised some well balanced, likeable children.
Oh, hang on....... On 6 Jan 2012, at 10:16, dave miller <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
