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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22067155

Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has died at 87 following a stroke, her spokesman has said.

Lord Bell said: "It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning."

Baroness Thatcher was Conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1990.

She was the first woman to hold the post. Her family is expected to make a further statement later.

87 isn't a bad innings I guess eh ?


... I appreciate she was something of a polarising figure, but lets show a touch of decorum when posting. If you're just going to flame her/other users then it'd be best if she expressed such opinions elsewhere. Thank you.

It is sad news but hopefully she is at peace with her husband and no more dementia.

I think this wasn't long in coming - she has been ill for some time. Like any PM you care to mention, she did some good, she did some bad but whichever way you look at it, I think it is fair to say she changed the face of both UK politics and affected our own outlook as a nation.

At least her family know she's at peace now, watching a loved one suffer from dementia is not easy.

I ah... I think this is a night to go to the pub.

They'll be rammed in the North of England.

I do hope if Cameron starts angling this for a state funeral, that they put it out to private tender.

87 is a good run. With her debate skills I am sure the Iron Lady had St. Pete all tied in knots in minutes.

 Frazzled wrote:
87 is a good run. With her debate skills I am sure the Iron Lady had St. Pete all tied in knots in minutes.

I don't think she's heading upstairs... That elevator is bound for the basement...

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:
87 is a good run. With her debate skills I am sure the Iron Lady had St. Pete all tied in knots in minutes.

I don't think she's heading upstairs... That elevator is bound for the basement...

I would respectfully beg to disagree.

I'm also not sure that saying she's going to hell is necessarily the kind of respect due an old lady who has just passed away.

A shame. PMs with balls appear to be rare.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22067155

She will not have a state funeral but will be accorded the same status as Princess Diana and the Queen Mother.

Still a bit much I think.

 Ketara wrote:

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:
87 is a good run. With her debate skills I am sure the Iron Lady had St. Pete all tied in knots in minutes.

I don't think she's heading upstairs... That elevator is bound for the basement...

I would respectfully beg to disagree.

I'm also not sure that saying she's going to hell is necessarily the kind of respect due an old lady who has just passed away.

...Hilter was an old man. 0.o

 Wyrmalla wrote:

 Ketara wrote:

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:
87 is a good run. With her debate skills I am sure the Iron Lady had St. Pete all tied in knots in minutes.

I don't think she's heading upstairs... That elevator is bound for the basement...

I would respectfully beg to disagree.

I'm also not sure that saying she's going to hell is necessarily the kind of respect due an old lady who has just passed away.

...Hilter was an old man. 0.o

Silly me, forgetting all those innocents butchered and gassed to death by Thatcher. And the World War she started.




Like her or hate her, Margaret Thatcher was a woman who stood by her beliefs, and tried to do her best for her nation. Could we have a little less stupidity and not invoke Godwin's Law in a thread about an old lady passing away?

The national opinion here compares her to him on the level that she screwed over the people here is all. Just because someone's old doesn't just reconcile the things that they did earlier in their lives. =/

 Ketara wrote:

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:
87 is a good run. With her debate skills I am sure the Iron Lady had St. Pete all tied in knots in minutes.

I don't think she's heading upstairs... That elevator is bound for the basement...

I would respectfully beg to disagree.

I'm also not sure that saying she's going to hell is necessarily the kind of respect due an old lady who has just passed away.

Indeed. My grandmother is an old lady with dementia. She also happens to be an ex-Labour politician. Presumably this means she's going to heaven when she dies, because socialists get to decide who goes and who doesn't?


Not that heaven exists, of course.

Anyhow, RIP Mrs. T.

It's strange that such a polarising figure be given the honours of those generally loved by the state. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of people who don't like the royal family but I don't think it's in the same percentage as those who felt less favourable about Mrs. Thatcher.

"I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it. 'I have a problem, I'll get a grant.' 'I'm homeless, the government must house me.' They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation."

 Wyrmalla wrote:
The national opinion here compares her to him on the level that she screwed over the people here is all.

What on earth are you talking about? That's not even remotely true.

How exactly did Thatcher 'screw over' the people of the UK in a comparable fashion to Hitler and Germany? Please explain yourself.

 Wyrmalla wrote:
The national opinion here compares her to him on the level that she screwed over the people here is all. Just because someone's old doesn't just reconcile the things that they did earlier in their lives. =/

I disagree that you sir, are in any position to proudly declare what the 'national opinion' is.

If you personally equate economic policies in the 80's with the Holocaust, then I would respectfully recommend that you cease posting to that effect. There are plenty of other places on the internet where you can gloat about the death of an old lady. Here, it just comes across as crass and tasteless.

She's certainly not Hitler, that's hardly a fair comparison. I also fully back her strong aggressive stance on the Falklands. She was formidable and I can respect that, she was strong and I respect that.

But the damage she did to the British infrastructure, the families she destroyed in Wales and the North, well, I'm not sure they will be shedding tears in many places beyond the garden counties of the South East. She sold our legacy down the river. As a left winger, I'll say that the union stranglehold on the nation prior to her taking office was damaging, but she swung the pendulum so far in the opposite direction that great damage was done to communities across the Isles and many places are still reeling from it.

And she openly and honestly didn't give a shiz. She clearly stated that she needed to keep 1/3rd of the population happy to remain in power and did that, to the detriment of the other 2/3rds of the nation.

 Medium of Death wrote:
It's strange that such a polarising figure be given the honours of those generally loved by the state. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of people who don't like the royal family but I don't think it's in the same percentage as those who felt less favourable about Mrs. Thatcher.

"I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it. 'I have a problem, I'll get a grant.' 'I'm homeless, the government must house me.' They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation."

Churchill had many bad things to say, from

This movement among the Jews is not new. From the days of Spartacus-Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky (Russia), Bela Kun (Hungary), Rosa Luxembourg (Germany), and Emma Goldman (United States)... this worldwide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilisation and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality, has been steadily growing. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the 19th century"

to

I do not admit... that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia... by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race... has come in and taken its place.

Yet Churchill is remembered well. How curious.

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
She's certainly not Hitler, that's hardly a fair comparison. I also fully back her strong aggressive stance on the Falklands. She was formidable and I can respect that, she was strong and I respect that.

But the damage she did to the British infrastructure, the families she destroyed in Wales and the North, well, I'm not sure they will be shedding tears in many places beyond the garden counties of the South East. She sold our legacy down the river. As a left winger, I'll say that the union stranglehold on the nation prior to her taking office was damaging, but she swung the pendulum so far in the opposite direction that great damage was done to communities across the Isles and many places are still reeling from it.

And she openly and honestly didn't give a shiz. She clearly stated that she needed to keep 1/3rd of the population happy to remain in power and did that, to the detriment of the other 2/3rds of the nation.

I would agree and disagree with various parts of that.


But that can and should be saved for another thread. People saying tasteless things about the death of an old lady in just about any context just plain strikes me as disrespectful.

 Wyrmalla wrote:
The national opinion here compares her to him on the level that she screwed over the people here is all. Just because someone's old doesn't just reconcile the things that they did earlier in their lives. =/

That's as hyperbolic and nonsensical as the window lickers over here comparing Obama to Hitler, when either Thatcher or Obama are shown to have systematically and industrially exterminated 8 million people and lead the world into a conflict costing 40 million lives, let me know.

Arguably that's due to the Second World War overshadowing much of that kind of thing in popular media. You can contrast or gloss over those appalling statements with the other things he's done. For a lot of people, in regards to Mrs Thatcher, there isn't very much of anything to use as gloss. Falklands and... ?

^^ Heh, I just picked a figure of the top of my head, sorry if it was specific. What I'm inferring is that whilst the South of England and the Conservatives may see her as a woman who's heavy handedness was what was required for the good of the country, the other countries in the union kind of think differently. The BBC's currently lauding her role during the economic crisis of the time and the putting her other policies into a positive light, whereas glazing over things like the Hunger Strikes, Poll Tax, her ignorance of the poor, etc. In retrospect those that weren't effected by her negative points see her in a good light, whereas the ones on the other end of the scale demonize her.

I didn't live through any of her tenure, but the opinion people have about her here is hardly split. =/

This is going to start an internet feeding frenzy. Sorry but I just can’t get behind anyone who considers the death of an old woman to be great news.

I don’t think she was a great PM but I do think she’s worthy of respect.

 Medium of Death wrote:
Arguably that's due to the Second World War overshadowing much of that kind of thing in popular media. You can contrast or gloss over those appalling statements with the other things he's done. For a lot of people, in regards to Mrs Thatcher, there isn't very much of anything to use as gloss. Falklands and... ?

She broke the Unions, something that desperately needed to be done. She was the first female Prime Minister. She stood up for Britain remarkably well on the international stage. She was honest, and you got exactly what it said on the package when you voted for her (something lacking in politics today).

Her domestic policies were often unsavoury, and I disagree with many of her privatisations. Others I think were horribly damaging in the short term, but beneficial in the long term.

History as a general rule of thumb looks rather well on old Maggie. She's gone down as one of the greats next to Disraeli, Churchill, or Gladstone.

 Wyrmalla wrote:
...glazing over things like the Hunger Strikes...

Right. Stop. Stop now.

Your lack of knowledge on this subject has long since ceased to be cute.

 Ketara wrote:

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:
87 is a good run. With her debate skills I am sure the Iron Lady had St. Pete all tied in knots in minutes.

I don't think she's heading upstairs... That elevator is bound for the basement...

I would respectfully beg to disagree.

I'm also not sure that saying she's going to hell is necessarily the kind of respect due an old lady who has just passed away.

I don't want to stir this pot, but I'm pretty sure she'd have Hell ship shape Bristol fashion in 6 months.

Wow this thread got Godwin'd hard.

R.I.P Mrs. Thatcher.

 Albatross wrote:

 Wyrmalla wrote:
...glazing over things like the Hunger Strikes...

Right. Stop. Stop now.

Your lack of knowledge on this subject has long since ceased to be cute.

She let ten men die and set back peace between Ireland and Britain back by years by radicalizing and already outspoken nationalist movement. It was her heavy handedness that's caused such low opinions from those that actually had to deal with the results.