Seriously - How many posters in this thread are old enough to have actually formed a view of Thatcher as Prime Minister from their personal experience? Anyone?
What's the minimum age you would feel appropriate if this limiting factor is important to you? How old do you feel one has to be to form a(n accurate) view of another's actions from their personal experience?
I think that the approximate minimum age that most people are mature enough to develop a personal awareness of political issues as complex as British Industrial Relations in the late 20th century would be 13. And that would still be a pretty basic, one dimensional outlook.
Any younger than that, and even the most seemingly politically aware kid is probably just parroting what they've heard from other people. We all know what kids are like.
The personal experience of posters is of central importance to the
'Ding Dong the Witch is Dead' thread because the thread is all about the celebration of the death of Margaret Thatcher.
Without some direct personal experience of the horrors of Thatcherism, how could anyone possibly want to publicly celebrate the death of a geriatric woman who basically faded from public life two decades ago? What is the personal stake that a 25 year old holds in relation to the matter? What did Thatcher do in the last couple of years of her reign that could possibly ignite such passion?
I'm not critical of people having a view of the merits of Thatcher's policies. Anyone who has studied that period of history will have one.
I am generally mystified by this whole
celebration of her death though. Especially with regard to people who have no personal experience or memory of her.
Here's the thing:
I can understand how people might have publicly celebrated the killing of say, Osama Bin Laden - he was basically as close as it gets to a real life super villain. He orchestrated the killings of thousands of completely innocent civilians, and indirectly set in chain the events which lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands more over the next decade or so. When he was killed by those Navy SEALS, his death could be seen as him being brought to justice and an end to his reign of terror. A lot of people might have thought that the dancing in the streets and all the triumphalism was a bit much, but I think it's fair to say that the overwhelming view was that he had it coming to him.
But with Thatcher it's totally different:
She is considered arguably the most influential woman of the last century.
The reforms she put in place are more or less still intact.
She is admired as one of the great world leaders of the 20th century by her supporters.
She is despised by (a lot of) people whose opinions she pretty obviously couldn't have cared less about.
She basically left public life more than 20 years ago.
She died of a stroke at the age of 87. She basically died of old age.
What exactly are her detractors celebrating?
She didn't get her comeuppance - she died of old age, her legacy secure. She's never been 'brought to justice' by her enemies.
It's not the end of her reign of terror (like the munchkins in the song) - she stopped being Prime Minister more than 20 years ago. She more or less left public life, in any serious sense, shortly thereafter. Her eventual death changes nothing.
Is there some sort of victory that I'm missing?