The hellish legacy of Thatcher

Martin Rowson's Guardian cartoon of April 13 satirises the spectacle of Baroness Thatcher's funeral, calling it as he sees it: A primitive tribal ritual.

Martin Rowson’s Guardian cartoon of April 13 satirises the spectacle of Baroness Thatcher’s funeral, calling it as he sees it: A primitive tribal ritual.

“This is Hell, nor am I out of it.” – Mephistopheles, Doctor Faustus.

As I write these words, the funeral of Margaret Thatcher is taking place at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

Unemployment stands at 2.56 million (7.9 per cent of the workforce).

The banks are not lending money.

More small firms are going out of business every day.

The economy is stagnant and the outlook for growth is bleak, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The rich elite prey on the poor – Britain’s highest-earners are billions better-off than in 2010, while wages for the lowest-earners are increased by so little that most of them are on benefit and sliding into debt (0.8 per cent rise in the year to February).

The cost of living has risen by around three per cent.

900,000 people have been out of work for more than a year.

The number of unemployed people aged 16-24 is up to 979,000 (21.6 per cent of all those in that age group).

Politicians lie to us, in order to win our support by deceit.

Assessment for disability benefits is on a model devised by an insurance company to avoid paying money to those who need it most.

Health services are being privatised, to make money for corporate shareholders rather than heal the sick.

Government policies have reinstated the ‘Poll Tax’ principle that everybody must pay taxation, no matter how poor they are.

Government policies mean child poverty will rise by 100,000 this year. It will not achieve the target of ending child poverty in the UK by 2020.

Government policies are ensuring that many thousands of people will soon be homeless, while social housing is being sold into the private sector.

And Legal Aid is being cut back, to ensure that the only people with access to justice are those who can pay for it.

This is Thatcher’s Britain, nor are we out of it.

She died; we went to hell.

latest video

news via inbox

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

31 Comments

  1. Alun April 17, 2013 at 10:56 am - Reply

    You are a very sad person. Most of those out of work choose to be. The idle part of society. The ex miners talk about loosing their jobs. Jobs which should have gone 10 years before. Heavily substidised. Let’s now move on the farmers and their grants

    • Mike Sivier April 17, 2013 at 11:03 am - Reply

      Today is a very sad day, with the UK being made to sit through hours of right-wing politicians hijacking history in order to turn a monster into a saint.

      Now, what makes you think that I’m out of work, and what makes you think I’m sad by nature?

      It’s comments like this that confirm our suspicions that supporters of right-wing governments are unintelligent – and also the spelling mistakes. “Loosing” should be “losing”; “substidised” should be “subsidised”. Normally I don’t correct spelling but if a person is going to come here and make broad statements based on false assumptions, I think they should get all the ridicule they deserve.

    • skarp April 17, 2013 at 11:43 am - Reply

      In which case how do you explain stories like this Alun? You’re a pathetic little troll.

      http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/city-news/costa-coffee-job-applications-top-1718132

    • Erica April 17, 2013 at 11:59 am - Reply

      Of course most people out of work DO NOT CHOOSE TO BE SO.

      • Erica April 18, 2013 at 12:21 pm - Reply

        Please could you let me know by e-mail if possible why my reasonable comments, not rude, no bad language or personal insults, are still awaiting moderation.

    • tony567052457 April 17, 2013 at 12:17 pm - Reply

      I suppose the 70 local people, highly skilled in manufacturing advanced electronics for industry that have been put out of work this month to join the “dole queue” asked for it?

      I suppose Students having studied hard in expert areas suitable for industry, social, health, financial and millions of other sectors coming out of education think “sod it I don’t want to work”

      I suppose hard working families on 40+ hours per week on minimum wage with kids ask to starve so their children can eat and queue at food banks because all of their money is chewed up by electric, gas, commuting, taxation, and spiralling prices?

      I suppose people who are having to leave work because the companies cannot or will not pay them wages deserve it? and I suppose they deserve to have their right to fight to be paid for the hours they work taken from under them (and every other worker) under this Tory Government?

      I suppose publically owned banks that are making a loss deserve to have publicly subsidised bonuses equating to millions?

      I suppose MP’s deserve a 32% wage increase like they want?

      I suppose doctors and nurses and indeed anyone who has ever had any health issue deserves to suffer and die because how dare they ask for help from the government they pay taxes too.

      I suppose Miners and any other peaceful picketers deserved to be trampled down by met police on horses, many suffering irreparable injuries they still suffer from today?

      And I suppose all you right wingers actually go out into society and help to those who need it? whether it be a soup kitchen for the homeless, raising food donations for food banks, helping people with nowhere to turn after suffering injustice or helping people to find opportunities that may help them in life?

      Sorry scratch that last one, of course you don’t!

      Come out with me and do some community work, meet these people you say deserve to starve, deserve to freeze, deserve to be sick, without money, without a home or any other shelter, to be branded, attacked physically and emotionally, who fight with every ounce of strength they have to make their life better and fit into the society and contribute to the world around them.

      Will you do it? could you do it? could you face the people you so openly and willingly persecute? because to date despite rallying from many, the MP’s and “Figureheads” you take so willingly at their words won’t.

      They refuse to face the people they brand as “skivers” they refuse to visit food banks, homeless shelters, charities, job centres, homes without heat or light or food, people on waiting lists for surgery who don’t want to be out of work, but they must because they are not well enough to who then go through ATOS to be thrown back even further.

      Will you take my offer?

      Or are you happy to be ignorant, until a point where you too may need that safety net? the one that so many people are being forced into never by choice.

    • ginanaylor2013 April 17, 2013 at 12:21 pm - Reply

      Alun, you are a very ill informed, disgusting little man.

    • jaypot2012 April 17, 2013 at 1:27 pm - Reply

      Alun, do go away, there’s a good boy … or if you don’t can you ban the bugger please?

    • Michelle Richardson April 18, 2013 at 6:20 pm - Reply

      Let’s move onto the farmers………..what world do you live in Alun. What about the bloody politicians AND their families, they take far far more than the unemployed be they ill or whatever.

    • Jj April 19, 2013 at 4:19 pm - Reply

      Why not read this official release then?
      https://www.gov.uk/government/news/number-of-jobseekers-allowance-claimants-falls
      It shows that there are 5x more people on jobseeker’s allowance, let alone simply out of work, than there is demonstrable availability in the labour market.
      So even if you were right and 80% of benefits claimants didn’t want to work, it would make no difference, as long as 1 in 5 are genuinely seeking.

      Also notice the difference between you and me. You rely on specious opinions that aren’t your’s. You are merely a parrot of political rhetoric.
      I, on the other hand, took the time to read and present the reality back to you.

      From this I hope you will develop a more open mind. Question things.

  2. wrjones2012 April 17, 2013 at 11:07 am - Reply

    Well Alun,it seems you’ve been reading the Daily Mail and taking it as fact!Come and join us in the real world?Where the facts say that less than one per cent accept being out of work as a lifestyle choice.

    As for the “idle part of society”,I take it you refer to those bankers whose actions led to the crash of 2008?Which brings us right back to Thatcher and her legacy;It was Margaret Thatcher who deregulated the Banks and other City institutions.

  3. NORBET (@NORBET) April 17, 2013 at 11:11 am - Reply

    Carol Thatcher – Beloved mother always in our thoughts, yeah right died alone in a hotel room buried by the state, socialism WINS Bye Bye

    • Joan April 17, 2013 at 12:12 pm - Reply

      Too true. If they really loved the old bat that much why weren’t they around when she was ill? Crawled back out the woodwork for her money and some publicity. By the way, has it finished yet? Is it safe to turn on the radio?

      • tony567052457 April 17, 2013 at 12:18 pm - Reply

        No idea if its safe yet, I have YORKSHIRE PITS BRASS BAND MUSIC PLAYING FULL BLAST.

  4. Norman Walsh April 17, 2013 at 12:00 pm - Reply

    Y we vote this lot in ill never know every one knows Tories get in we get shafted!. Changes need to be made after all its not a game

    • tony567052457 April 17, 2013 at 12:21 pm - Reply

      We didn’t vote them in, the majority voted against.
      The plague that is Party Politics holds civilisation back.

      There should be no parties, only individuals elected by the public for their area, then elected officials from them individuals into the job titles. Even then there can be obtuse, but there will never be a clear left and right, just a voice for each counties interests as it should be.

  5. Erica April 17, 2013 at 12:05 pm - Reply

    Who thinks there might be a Ministry of Right Wing Trolls. Highly educated people pretending to be ordinary folk.

    • Erica April 18, 2013 at 12:20 pm - Reply

      Please could you let me know by e-mail if possible why my reasonable comments, not rude, no bad language or personal insults, are still awaiting moderation.

      • Mike Sivier April 18, 2013 at 12:27 pm - Reply

        They had not appeared on my ‘Notifications’ list!

        Simple as that. I had to go through the user dashboard and into the ‘Comments’ page to find them.

  6. Editor April 17, 2013 at 12:18 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on kickingthecat.

  7. No job, no benefits, no income for a whole year. Thanks, Cleggy. April 17, 2013 at 12:20 pm - Reply

    Excellent article, Mike. Pity Alun didn’t read it before regurgitating some bloke-in-pub style Daily Hate drivel into your comments box.
    Actually, I’m a little bit saddened by today’s events myself; I’ve waited 25 years for this party and I can’t go because of an overwhelmingly important prior engagement.
    PS. Ding dong.

  8. Erica April 17, 2013 at 12:22 pm - Reply

    Mike, thanks for this article. Once again the facts are clearly stated.

  9. jaypot2012 April 17, 2013 at 1:30 pm - Reply

    Really good article, well written and every word true!
    Has it finished yet? Maybe then we’ll get to the things that happened this week under our noses but kept out of the media as all the news was about Thatcher!

  10. beetleypete April 17, 2013 at 5:02 pm - Reply

    Perhaps when my mother was ailing and infirm, in her late eighties, confused, lacking professional care, and relying on me for almost all help and support, Southwark Council should have moved her into The Ritz?
    What is that guy Alun on? And why is he even bothering to contribute to a blog that he must see is totally unsympathetic to the spiteful, vindictive hag?
    I am sick of the TV coverage today, and only watched a small part of the news, just to be totally sure that she was actually dead.
    Great post as always. Regards, Pete.

  11. beetleypete April 17, 2013 at 5:03 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on beetleypete and commented:
    I have never re-blogged an article before, but this seemed appropriate today.

  12. beetleypete April 17, 2013 at 5:04 pm - Reply

    P.S. Hope it was OK, I have re-blogged on beetleypete.wordpress.com

  13. inavukic April 17, 2013 at 9:45 pm - Reply

    Perhaps the cartoon could be seen more as a reflection of colonisation and reaping benefits from “savages”from so many years ago than the funeral of the great lady who, by the way, paid her dues a long time ago by being voted out of office for things people say she did wrong. Let’s keep in mind that majority kept her in office over three mandates and that only means they agreed with her policies. She had been out of office for decades yet her critics have done bugger all to correct things they say she did wrong. Hm!

    • Mike Sivier April 17, 2013 at 10:03 pm - Reply

      Considering where Martin Rowson usually comes from, I sincerely doubt it. I will ask him, though.
      Tory share of the vote was 43 per cent in 1979, 42.4 in 1983 and 42.2 in 1987 – not only was it not a majority but it was dropping. In fact, if she had not had the benefit of Saatchi & Saatchi advertising campaigns, it’s doubtful she would have won at all. Most of the people didn’t really understand what was going on – they had hardly heard of the political philosophy that fuelled the Thatcher governments (Friedmanism – not Thatcherism). They did what the right-wing press told them to do.
      New Labour was a partial acceptance of the Neo-Liberal ideals behind the Thatcher governments, but we can see from the results that it didn’t work either. The members of New Labour weren’t really strong critics of the Thatcher governments. Those people have not yet had a chance to get to grips with matters.
      The sooner they do, the better!

  14. Phil Ruggiero April 18, 2013 at 4:02 am - Reply

    I read your blog and feel as though I get a feel for the real England. And, I enjoy your writing so very much. Just one thought about the England you describe:

    Sounds a lot like the USA.

    Phil

Leave A Comment