The people voted for Thatcher to run the country. They did not vote for the unions (only a small segment). The unions needed to be put back into their box and she did it. Yes there were hard times some parts of society but equally the whole of the UK cannot be held to ransom by a minority.
Also the way she dealt with the Falklands conflict was first class.
As I understand it she is getting the same type of funeral that Winston Churchill had.Should be some pretty good demos in London as the left will want to give her a good send off.
I don't get when people are so mean and nasty when a political opponent dies. I wasn't a Reagan fan, but there is a time and a place for everything. When someone dies, I personally think a few days of keeping quiet if you didn't like them is good. (Not saying what should happen on this list mind you, just my personal beliefs about conduct after someone dies.)
Maybe I'm being an overly sensitive child who didn't live through the thatcher era, but I'm still depressed that a forum I respect and appreciate for the level of maturity and discussion has a 7 page thread which is basically "yay the witch is dead! Let's party!" Its one of the sadder sides of human nature.
if you were born in Nicaragua or Guatemala you might understand why people we're happy to voice there disdain for Ronald Reagan in the wake of his death.
If you had lived through those times then you'd have a better understanding of why so many people are glad to see the back of her.
She was a deeply divisive figure, who polarised British politics and polarised public opinion. There are those who still love her, but far more people who despise her, the values she stood for, the policies she pursued and the damage she did to our country and to the lives of millions of people.
You would have to live through her era to realise how hated she was in some quarters.Having lived through her era myself I understand why some people hate her.
Memories of growing up in late 70's/80's(i.e.thatcherism)
Badowercuts,candlelight,rubbish in streets,police vs miners,brixton,toxteth,
Chapeltown,falklands war,new romantics,yuppies,battle of the beanfield (police vs hippies,women,children,dogs)poll tax, criminal justice act
goodunk,two-tone,goths,grebos,festivals,oxford win milk cup,raving in a field,
er thats it.
So she had different political views. Cameron's changes to benefits have/are severely screwed my household, I'm still not going to be literally drinking to his death. I've spent a day with my facebook feed full of people basically saying she's the equivalent of Hitler or Stalin and that, to me at least, is so retarded I couldn't be bothered to even reply.
I'm not going to sing her praises. I disagree with the ideas of Thatcherism and I think she was bad for the country. However not enough for me to take joy in her death years after she had already been voted out of power which itself is enough punishment for me. She was a political opposite to me and she faced the political punishment of that. She was out of office, she didn't have an impact on policy or politics or your life for decades. her death has done nothing to improve your life. Although if I thought about it I guess there are two major reasons I'm taking issue with this attitude.
Firstly, I detest class politics. I'm far too tired to go into my reasons why but I absolutely abhor the devisiveness that comes from it and I lump it in with other type of politics based on accidents of birth. Its not quite the same thing but that's the level I treat it with.
My second one is I'm opposed to people praising things they wouldn't do themselves. For instance I don't like people who advocate the death penalty but wouldn't kill the person themselves. So I don't like people jumping up and down for joy that she's dead and saying the world's better off without her unless they would of done it themselves. Its a bit of a step to go from saying your glad she's dead to me saying you should of murdered her if that's how you feel but I really am shattered and can't think properly to put it a better way.
The time to celebrate and have parties was when she was voted out of power. That's when everything you hated about her ended. Her death means nothing and I'm unhappy seeing people who I have an immense amount of respect for cheering about it like they were Iraqis watching Hussein get hanged.
When I was young, I always thought it was a bit silly the way that my mum would hiss whenever Hitler appeared on telly. (Not 'live', obviously, I'm not THAT old.) Sure he was an evil scumbag, but I found her reaction a bit unnecessary.
It was only when I found myself instinctively doing the same with Thatcher that I started to understand how my mum felt. It isn't a conscious decision, it's just a gut reaction that you can't help, when someone that evil and nauseating appears.
The worst clip for me is that St Francis of Assissi quote that she barfed up when she first went to Downing Street as PM in 1979. For sheer stomach-curdling hypocrisy it really takes some beating.
I'm sure there's a good chance you'll run into somebody that has a profound effect on your life for the worse you wouldn't mind seeing dead. Hate is taught, you just haven't been given the lessons yet.
Doesn't really matter if you find class politics distasteful the fact is they exist, they are an integral part of the capitalist system you live in. You make it sound like she was banished to the red waste by being unelected this is a woman who died in the ritz.
on your other points Id happily have put a bullet in her head at the hight of her power and everything we hated her for did not end with her leadership ending then and has not ended with her death now, her politics are still a force in modern Briton today that should actually put the hatred in a better context for those who "just can't get there head around hating someone who was last priminister 20 years ago"