RIP Margaret Thatcher

When Ted Kennedy's your go-to ...

 

There wouldn't be an RIP for a political figure unless it was because of their political career. You shouldn't revel in anyone's death but nor should you look at their death as a free pass to praise their poltical accomplishments without consequence.

 

That's enough from America's Hat.

 

I promised myself not to get drawn into any more political threads.

I'm out.

 

My description of Canada as a generally respected fashion accessory was in no way political. I thought it was a compliment.

 

completely disagree, obviously. No denigration of Thatcher as a politician or leader, but merely disagree with her role in the end of the USSR. RR, otoh ... A superficial anti-intellectual

 

"Hate speech?"

 

It's not hate speech to point out that Thatcher caused tremendous suffering to a lot of people, and that therefore some people didn't care for her.

It's not hate speech to point out that Thatcher once called Nelson Mandela a terrorist, and that her response to the sinking of an Argentine ship that was retreating -- and the several hundred deaths that ensued -- was "Rejoice!"

If you want to point out elements of her legacy that you feel were positive, fine. Do that. But don't get the hump when someone disagrees with you. And if you could avoid flinging insults like you're on that other thread, that would be appreciated.

 

Interesting how reverential some Americans are being about Mrs. Thatcher's legacy, while the British continue to argue.

www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/world/europe/british-lawmakers-margaret-thatcher-legacy.html?hp&_r=0

www.guardian.co.uk

 

Two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Margaret Thatcher told President Gorbachev that neither Britain nor Western Europe wanted the reunification of Germany and made clear that she wanted the Soviet leader to do what he could to stop it.

In an extraordinary frank meeting with Mr Gorbachev in Moscow in 1989 - never before fully reported - Mrs Thatcher said the destabilisation of Eastern Europe and the breakdown of the Warsaw Pact were also not in the West's interests. She noted the huge changes happening across Eastern Europe, but she insisted that the West would not push for its decommunisation. Nor would it do anything to risk the security of the Soviet Union.

Even 20 years later, her remarks are likely to cause uproar. They are all the more explosive as she admitted that what she said was quite different from the West's public pronouncements and official Nato communiqués. She told Mr Gorbachev that he should pay no attention to these.

“We do not want a united Germany,” she said. “This would lead to a change to postwar borders, and we cannot allow that because such a development would undermine the stability of the whole international situation and could endanger our security.”

www.margaretthatcher.org/document/112006

 

Australia's foreign minister said she made racist comments about Asisn immigration, with the foreign minister's Malaysian-born wife just out of earshot. I guess being white is enough to permanently lay claim to land.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22087702

 

From a biography of Thatcher:

The Australian immigration quotes were particularly nice given that she was telling him to make sure that immigration didn't push out the natives. By which she meant white Europeans.