{"id":65999,"date":"2013-04-09T18:33:48","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T22:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=65999"},"modified":"2013-04-10T12:50:41","modified_gmt":"2013-04-10T16:50:41","slug":"on-the-life-and-death-of-margaret-thatcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/on-the-life-and-death-of-margaret-thatcher\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Life And Death Of Margaret Thatcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Karen Barnes<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Two of England\u2019s top football clubs, Manchester United and Manchester City, chose to not show a minute\u2019s silence to Margaret Thatcher before the start of their derby game on Monday, April 8, 2013 — the day that she died — probably in fear of the riot it would most certainly provoke. <\/p>\n

\"photo
The Iron Lady; photo by Roy Letkey\/Reuters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was a wise idea seeing as for years now, a party on the Saturday after the former English Prime Minister\u2019s death has been planned for Trafalgar Square; it seems that people throughout the UK just couldn\u2019t wait and took to the streets the very same day. As to how her \u2018Ceremonial Funeral\u2019 will be received, we\u2019ll have to wait until Wednesday, April 16, to see. <\/p>\n

Public antipathy towards her and towards any notion of an official State Funeral is high. People on the streets can think of far better ways to spend such a vast amount of money, rather than on the public figure-head most hold to blame for countless issues that have not only plagued the UK and their lives personally, but the politics of the whole world also.<\/p>\n

On being asked to come up with the three most influential policies and problems surrounding Margaret Thatcher, I replied with a list of 42 that had been posted on a Facebook site called, “David Is A Twat Who Hasn\u2019t Got A Clue.” This is no joke. Furthermore, no doubt this list will get longer still. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Most commonly known as the Iron Lady after a Soviet journalist coined the name in reference to her uncompromising politics and ruthless leadership style, the phrase Thatcherism, which in the US became known as Reaganomics, was also termed to highlight the severity of her ways. Born on Oct. 13, 1925, her final years were spent in a steady decline of dementia and suffering from a string of strokes. She went down in history well before her death and will be remembered for evermore.<\/p>\n

Not wanting to seem morbid or lacking empathy, emotion or compassion, I must be honest here and say that I have been eagerly anticipating this moment for many years. Not because I wish illness or death on anybody but because I\u2019m sure this represents a tipping point that we as a country, and subsequently as the world, truly need to see.<\/p>\n

Maggie was most notably known as the first ever (and to date, only) woman to lead a major political party in the UK, having already become the youngest woman to be elected to parliament and made Secretary of State for Education and Science. She then not only became Prime Minister but, to this day, remains the longest serving PM also (1979-1990).<\/p>\n

In her time, she forged many important alliances, including close bonds with Reagan in the US and Gorbachev in the former USSR. However, for each ally, Maggie made at least 10,000 more enemies. The flurry on Facebook is testament to this.<\/p>\n

Her government spanned my childhood. We watched the rich get richer and the poor become poorer. We were told in school to respect life and love our neighbours, yet had to witness countless lives lost be it through the UK\u2019s conflict with the IRA, our unjust invasion of Argentina, or again in the Gulf War. The entire notion of industry and economics shifted under Maggie\u2019s government. Welfare, education and nutrition all plummeted. Unemployment rose to a high, long-term and often violent worker strikes took place, riots occurred and the enforcement of Maggie\u2019s way became the new norm.<\/p>\n

I hate to say it, but her politics were and still are a postcode lottery and she was most definitely a driving force for the 1%. Understandably now there is some divide as to the reactions concerning her death, with the right claiming the left to be disrespectful and the left quite frankly past caring for or what the right think.<\/p>\n

The perspective I\u2019m gaining from afar is somewhat interesting and I hope healthy and practical dialogues are formed. We\u2019re becoming well aware as to why there is such a high level of discontent towards her but surely the next question is: where do we take that now; what next? <\/p>\n

Throughout my lifetime in the UK, I\u2019ve seen the population tear apart and grow disenfranchised. Those who have stood up and protested have been beaten back and left exhausted. The general populace have been moulded so tightly that conforming became the only viable option. I took the alternative route and chose to live in a truck and it really hasn\u2019t been easy — although I know for me to conform would\u2019ve been even harder. Perhaps Baroness Thatcher\u2019s death will act as a much needed wake up call to stand united and say, in the words of Bob Dylan, “I Ain\u2019t Gonna Work On Maggie\u2019s Farm No More.”<\/p>\n

To end on a high note, what good can I see that came from Thatcher\u2019s Conservative presence? A lot of great art and a lot of great music. Everyday, ordinary people at grass-roots level maintaining a smile throughout and being forever determined not to be completely beat. We may have been told where and how we can live, what music we can dance to and how many of us may participate — and we had little choice but to listen. As to how much of that we really heard, however…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Karen Barnes Two of England\u2019s top football clubs, Manchester United and Manchester City, chose to not show a minute\u2019s silence to Margaret Thatcher before the start of their derby game on Monday, April 8, 2013 — the day that she died — probably in fear of the riot it would most certainly provoke. This … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65999"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}