Hi Bob, this is a great idea. I signed it a while ago. Hopefully these things work and are listened to? M
On 6 Jan 2012, at 10:52, bob catchpole <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello NBs in the UK, > > Re Thatcher, please consider signing this official petition, which has a real > sense of logic and justice about it. > > http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/18914 > > Bob > > From: dave miller <[email protected]> > To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity > <[email protected]> > Sent: Friday, 6 January 2012, 10:47 > Subject: [NetBehaviour] The Iron Lady: The Margaret Thatcher Movie We Don't > Need > > 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
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