When it comes to Margaret
Thatcher, people have very clear-cut views.
That much has always been evident.
People either like or loathe her, depending on what their outlook on her
time as prime minister was.
I’m not writing this post to
argue political issues and what she did or did not do. I’m writing this post in relation to the
frankly abhorrent comments and hateful things I have seen said over the past
few days.
From people holding parties in
the street, to others buying “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” to such a degree
that it is now in the top ten on the Itunes Charts, I’ve never seen anything
like it before. Twitter is full of
people celebrating her death, suggesting parties when “the witch burns” and hoping
that she is “being tortured in hell”.
She made her mistakes, you cannot deny that, but whatever
else you say about Margaret Thatcher you can’t deny that she had courage of
conviction. She had her victories
too. She played
a part in the end of the Cold War and brought us to victory in the Falklands.
She survived an IRA bombing attack and was still
at the Conservative Party Conference the next day at 9.00am. Can you imagine any of our current MPs doing
the same? I wholly doubt it. They would have been up and out of there quicker than you could say “How much can I claim in expenses for this?”.
This woman didn’t commit
genocide. She isn’t Adolf Hitler. In the grand scale of things does she really
deserve all of this hate nearly 25 years after she left Downing Street?
Will the same things be said of
Tony Blair for the war in Iraq or of David Cameron for the privatisation of the
NHS and cuts of benefits?
In the end, she died a frail 87 year old woman, reading
in her bed. Whatever your views on Margaret
Thatcher may be, can we not show a little restraint in how they are expressed?
Think of her family, of her children, of the
people who loved her. Would you like to
be grieving at the loss of your mother, whilst in the background you hear
chimes of “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead”?
Let’s show a little dignity.
“Maturity
is the ability to think, speak and act your feelings within the bounds of
dignity.” Samuel Ullman.
