Margaret Thatcher 1925-2013

[Prospero]

This speaks for itself...

[Stavros]

A pity that you can't do more research, or for that matter rely on your own memory.

Why would there have been a state funeral for Clement Attlee? He had the private funeral he wanted, attended by 20 people, mostly family and was then cremated, following which there was a service in Westminster Abbey to inter his ashes not far from the Unknown Warrior, attended by 2,000 including members of the Royal Family and leading politicians of the day, as well as Churchill's surviving family members.

Social security in its earliest form was introduced in the first Liberal Government elected in 1906 and many of Attlee's policies were derived from the Beveridge Report -Beveridge was a Liberal.

The schools that were closed when Margaret Thatcher was PM were in areas where the mean age of schoolchildren was in decline; one of the perennial problems local education authorities have is the rise and fall of available schoolchildren -do you close a school or merge it? But there were certainly more private schools than ever before, which isn't mentioned in your cartoon.

It was in the Heath Government (1970-1974) not her own, when Margaret Thatcher put an end to the provision of school milk for children which had been introduced at a time when rickets and other preventable diseases in children were common. By the 1970s this was no longer needed as a health issue, and anyway I hated it and was glad to see it go, even if I had already left school by then.

The 'record levels of unemployment' usually comes with the rider 'excluding the great depression' as if that episode was for some reason exempt, so Margaret Thatcher's record is not as bad as that, except that I think there are always more people unemployed than are registered as such, and those registered as unemployed who actually work but fiddle the system.

Britain lost approximately 25% of its manufacturing capacity, not 50%.

When a warrant was issued for Pinochet's arrest in the UK, Labour was in power, and it was the cowardice of the Labour Government that enabled Pinochet to escape prosecution in Spain -he could have been tried in the UK but neither Blair nor Straw were up to it.

If Margaret Thatcher did describe Nelson Mandela as a 'grubby little terrorist' where is the evidence? She did publicly condemn Apartheid, but like many people opposed sanctions, the effectiveness of which is still a matter of debate.

'Biggest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in British history' -you wouldn't get away with that in a O level paper.

Cartoons often work, not this one.

[Prospero]

...........

[Prospero]

C'mon Stavros... never let the truth get in the way of a good political joke. After all our leaders never bother with the truth.

[reformedcharacter]

[reformedcharacter]

the reason why there's going to be 700 troops attending in the funeral is in case she's not dead and tries to climb out of her coffin

[TSBootyLondon]

While so many chant that famous song from munchkin land where the little people rejoice the death of the wicked old witch I must point out that the free milk handed to me as a child was probably my most vivid memory from my childhood...
It is also the grimmest... I can still smell that foul stench that broke free from the bottle as soon as the straw penetrated the foil top!

She's gone everybody..... the wicked old mother cannot hurt you anymore!

[Prospero]

Well since the BBC has funked it when it comes to paying Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead,I wonder if they'll play this one instead. For all the Tories out there.

[robertlouis]

I've just heard that Mrs T has been passed fit for work by ATOS. She starts in Asda on the wet fish counter on Thursday morning.

[fred41]

A pity ....etc.

Thanks Stavros for sometimes cutting through the bullshit.

On this side of the planet we (meaning I)..don't always know the facts when it comes to your history. I actually glean a lot of info from these pages,which I then follow up with my own research.
You seem to favor a more balanced, less emotional approach. I appreciate that.