by Chris Tobin

When Baroness Thatcher left this mortal coil for a much warmer place, possibly with the irony of being heated by some foreign coal I have listened with suspicion to those supposed enemies of Thatcher both personal and political, as they have eulogised like a collection of contrite children. They seem unable to speak ill of the sleeping dog as it lay for its final time and despondent like the many, I have raged. What on earth is wrong with these hypocrites as they hallucinate their hypocrisy seemingly forgetful within their haze?

Continually we have been re-educated in the history of “The Iron Lady” – Or if you watch the BBC we have been bullshitted with a rewrite and regaling of the tale to boot.

She was born the daughter of a grocer and from this impossible beginning she would become Britain’s first and last female Prime Minister – So no such lies there then, until of course you look slightly closer to her upbringing. Her father would own two greengrocers in 1920’s Britain with a middle class upbringing. The family were far from poor working class stock, hardworking most definitely but not the poor nurturing we are constantly fed by a media intent on deluding all about her legacy.

Margaret Thatcher’s finger prints will be found all over the Hillsborough cover-up . She would assume the position of judge and jury in her condemnation through her belief of false and malicious allegations. Football would become a tool for her political protestations and at the heart of her belligerence toward football fans and the games governing bodies would be her self-promotion.

When Lord Justice Taylor released his report into the Hillsborough disaster Thatcher’s only concern was how damning evidence against the police would make them look – Saving face or faces. The report which exonerated supporters whom were accused of hooliganism would not stop Mrs Thatcher from considering withdrawing the national team from Italia 90. Blame should have been apportioned appropriately at this stage and perhaps the biggest cover-up in British history may have been averted.

Whilst the World would endorse sanctions against a racist South Africa choo-chooing along on its Apartheid train Mrs Thatcher would take a far softer approach and of course her government which represented the good old folk of the UK. Of Nelson Mandella and his African National Congress party, she would label them as “A typical terrorist organisation” and Mandella one of history’s greatest freedom fighters, himself as a “ common terrorist”.

Margaret Thatcher is constantly promoted as a champion against terrorism, certainly with her stance in regard to Ireland and the IRA – she would not engage with terrorists or indeed give them the oxygen they craved. The threat of violence and death toward British citizens would not be used as bargaining power as far as Thatcher was concerned. The truth is actually slightly different.

In April 1984 WPC Yvonne Fletcher would be shot dead whilst policing a peaceful demonstration by anti Gaddafi students outside the Libyan embassy, in St James Square. After an 11 day siege Margaret Thatcher would allow her murderer alongside Libyan diplomats to leave the country freely and unobstructed, as she feared for the safety of British citizens living in Libya. Yvonne Fletchers murderer has never been brought to justice and remains the only police killing that remains unsolved in the last 30 years. That is the truth about Thatcher’s hard-line toward terrorism.

Not only was The Lady not for turning she would also be not for listening. Whether the audience would be citizens or her own party, ignorance and arrogance were not only caricatures expressed on Spitting Image but true characteristics and traits of the woman herself.

Her battles with the equally pugnacious and confrontational president of the National Union of Mineworkers, Arthur Scargill would lead to some of the bloodiest battles between striking workers and the police ever seen in this country. In her pursuit of destroying the unions and removing the rights of workers which have never been regained or returned, Mrs Thatcher would bully her way through communities and families in her personal battle with Scargill. Unaffected by the destruction of hard working genuine people who had concern for the welfare of their fellow workers, slurring them as militants and criminal trouble makers – Thatcher’s Britain alive and well.

When former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet would die on 10th December 2006 he would leave behind him over 300 charges ranging from human rights violations, tax evasion and embezzlement; the dictator would be responsible for some of Chile’s most horrid crimes whilst leading the country. As unlikely a friendship as one could find would begin when Pinochet would aid Britain and Thatcher in its war with Argentina over the right to the Falkland Islands.

Imagine Prime Minister David Cameron not only supporting, rather more befriending Kim Jong-un whilst leaping to his defence on any given occasion. Yes crazy isn’t it?

Thatcher would attack Pinochet’s detractors, quarrelsomely defending the indefensible. She would describe his critics as jealous of his introduction of the free market in Chile. After his arrest in October 1998 she would describe it as “Callous” and “Unjust”. She would continue to host him as a guest at her home over the subsequent years.

Thatcher’s gravest decision would be the bull-dozing through of her Poll Tax, which would ultimately lead to her downfall and her own party turning upon her. It was a typical Thatcher characteristic to disregard the opinion of the people. She had gotten away with this attitude during the miners’ strike and the riots of the early 1980, when Britain’s unemployed and disenfranchised youth would take to the streets in protest.

1990’s Britain was a very different place and civil disorder had a far greater impact and organisation about it. On a sunny day in March 1990 over 60,000 people congregated in Trafalgar Square intent on showing her and her government that they refused to be bullied, ignored and fleeced while her rich friends became rather more affluent – Paid for by the poor.

A riot ensued, the like that had not been seen in this country for many years. An uprising had begun. As was usual for London the Conservatives and Thatcher herself, the blame was levelled at militants and anarchists once again ignorant to the facts. The people had spoken and Mrs Thatcher’s days were numbered

There are very many more inaccuracies scattered in what is being artistically painted as a true picture of a great leader and the first lady Prime Minister – I have not even mentioned the fact that she stole milk out of the mouths of children purely in a money saving exercise; or how today’s bedroom tax is a direct consequence of selling off social housing; or how this little old lady who is worth around £30 million was being subsidised by the tax payer during her final years. Or how her funeral will cost around £8 million as the poor are told they are scroungers.

The truth is what the truth is and as much as some flower it up History will tell us – “I told you so” –

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