As Thatcher's state funded funeral procession gets rolling it is worth recalling that Clement Attlee, widely seen by British historians as the greatest prime minister of the last century, certainly in peace time, had a rather modest send-off. Then again, the political elite of the day were not trying to persuade the rest of us that he was something other than a fine man who did his best for his country, as just about everyone accepted that.
That is not the case with Margaret Thatcher who was loathed by great swathes of the country. Scotland and Wales are now virtually Tory free, as are the great cities of Northern England. The notion that this creature can go from being capitalism's whore to mother of the nation just because the gates of hell have now opened to receive her is risible in the extreme, but that is what the metropolitan elite wants us to start believing. Hence the taxpayer funded junket that is taking place as I write prior to the planting of her carcase.
Obviously the three main parties are in league in this attempt to rewrite history and try to convince us that we are all Thatcherites now. That was probably the reason why Labour declined to object when the Tory-Liberal government airily decided to waste £10 million of our money on this propaganda exercise.
We were on a better road in the post-war years and what I want to do with this blog is look back on those years to try and help kill the notion that everything prior to 1979 was gloomy. Actually, being a young working man in the 1970s was pretty bloody good and we need to state that loud and clear.
So, this new toy of mine has one use at least.
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Several questions arise out of the character of Margaret Thatcher's funeral, out of the taxpayer's bearing of its cost, out of the cancellation of Prime Minister's Questions in order to accommodate it, and out of the silencing of Big Ben.
ReplyDeleteFirst, where, when, how, why, and by whom was it decided that neoliberal capitalism and its neoconservative foreign policy were now the official ideology of this State, and beyond question even on the floor of the House of Commons, the business of which has been suspended in order to glorify that ideology? Extremely prominent seats were allocated to Dick Cheney and Binyamin Netanyahu, as he calls himself. They were closer to the bier than the Queen was, or even than Lady Thatcher's children were. Departing mourners were air-kissed at the back of the Cathedral by Tony and Cherie Blair. Obeisance was made not only by Parliament, but also by the monarchy, by the churches, by the print and broadcast media, by the Corporation of the City of London, and most especially by the Police and by the Armed Forces.
Secondly, where, when, how, why, and by whom was it decided that political office and military rank were now interchangeable, even identical? No other reasonable inference can be drawn from the burial with full military honours of a politician who was never a member of any of the Armed Forces.
Thirdly, where, when, how, why, and by whom was it decided to draw a line from the Bristol Channel to the Wash, beyond which, in relation to London, all territory has literally been alienated, and declared occupied rather than integral? In view of the first two questions, we in the Occupied Territories are well and truly bracing ourselves.
Fourthly, what would the 800 and more military personnel have been doing if this funeral had not been taking place, how could those duties have been cancelled or postponed at such short notice if at all, and how many of those personnel are expected still to be in their jobs this time next year?
Fifthly, on what would the £10 million that this funeral has cost the taxpayer otherwise have been spent, how can that spending be foregone, and what plans are in place to deal with the consequences of that foregoing?
And sixthly, when is legislation going to be brought before the House of Commons to recover those costs by levying a charge of £770 on each of the 13,000 beneficiaries of the reduction in the top rate of tax on incomes above £100,000 by Blubbing George Osborne, who is himself one of those beneficiaries?