On The Iron Lady

It's been a while since I posted anything. I wish I had a good reason for this but unless laziness counts, I don't.

Margaret Thatcher's death seems like something that requires comment. I've read a few articles lately about how respect for the dead should (and shouldn't) stop us from thinking and speaking clearly about the legacy of public figures. As you might imagine, the people who argue respect for the dead trumps political argument are on the Right this time. They had no such scruples when Hugo Chavez died. Or when Osama bin Laden was murdered. But consistency has never been one of the Right's strengths.

Those who argue the legacy of public figures deserves consideration despite the taboo against speaking ill of the dead all seem to be employed (or published) by the Manchester Guardian. I love the Guardian - one of the last bastions of the working class Left. Shit, I accidentally punned (or is that a double entendre?) I think public comment about public figures is fine, whether they are alive or dead. Going to Mrs. Thatcher's funeral and screaming nasty things at her family would be a genuinely shitty thing to do. Her family deserve their grief and it is wrong to disturb the dignity of their private grieving. All public figures have a public and a private life (except in the United States where anything goes) and that separation should remain after they die.

Having said that, Margaret Thatcher was as nasty a bitch as ever lived. She was cruel to those with the least ability to defend themselves. The exception she made to this rule was for ousted dictators, to whom she showed immense kindness.

She was the person most responsible for two decades of murder in Iraq. For those of you who don't know this piece of political trivia (which isn't trivial at all), the American government gave Saddam the green light to invade Kuwait. The Kuwaitis were ignoring their OPEC quota, driving the price of oil down to a level insufficient to maintain Iraq's economy. Saddam had a private meeting with the American ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie. During that meeting (25 July, 1990) he asked three separate times what American policy vis a vis the conflict between Iraq and Kuwait was, each time the response was, "We [the United States] have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts." Saddam correctly interpreted this as tacit permission to invade. He launched the invasion (2 August, 1990) and there was no response from the US. But the next day Bush met with Thatcher. When he emerged from the meeting he told a group of reporters (and some very surprised senior White House staff) that unchecked aggression will not stand. The rest, as they say, is history. Very brutal and ugly history of the systematic destruction of a people by hi-tech weaponry, sanctions and trade embargoes, and some more hi-tech weaponry. A history of deceit and murder.

There are plenty of other reasons to hate Thatcher's politics. They were the politics of greed, divisive and brutal. She waged a not-very civil war against all forms of social protection in her own country and inspired the leaders of other countries to do the same.

Society, in various degrees, operates on the Neighbour Principle - the basic belief the person who lives next door might not like you but has no specific wish to harm you. And, in times on great need, will help you. This is such a basic element of being human no one had to think of a name for it until the previous century. It wasn't a principle, it was what people did without thought or question. Thatcher's greatest war was against this most fundamental aspect of humanity. Her most famous quote, "There is no such thing as society. There are only individuals." strikes right at the heart of that which allows us to live together without killing each other.

So, as individuals, you might chose to mourn her death. As a society I think we should all dance on her grave. If nothing else, such an expression of collective feeling and social solidarity would give the lie to her most pernicious contribution to political thought.