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Posts Tagged ‘margaret thatcher’

The True Blue Cookery Book – cookies with Tories

The Truth Blue Cookery Book is is “an assembly of recipes contributed by the Conservative Members of Parliament and their wives”. No husbands can cook, or at least no husbands are prepared to share their recipes.

Published in 1977 in association with the Ruislip-Northwood Conservative Association, the people and recipes are a blast from a different age. In the same series, titles include: “Right Way To Make James”; “Deep Freeze Secret”; “Easy Wine And Country Drinks”; and “Choose A Wine”. Any wine. They all get you there, dear boy:

The True Blue Cookery Book
The True Blue Cookery Book
The True Blue Cookery Book
The True Blue Cookery Book

Spotter: Flashbak

Posted: 22nd, November 2019 | In: Books, Key Posts, Politicians, The Consumer | Comment


Watch: In 1987 Margaret Thatcher reviewed records on a BBC kids TV show

Margaret Thatcher Saturday Superstore

 

In 1987, Maggie Thatcher was well into her second term as British Prime Minister. With an election looming – which she won – Thatcher thought it a good idea to appear on the BBC’s Saturday morning show Saturday Superstore. 

Dressed in uniform ‘hearing-aide beige’, Maggie would seduce the mums and dads to her cause and turn the kids on to politics. She tooks calls. One caller, an Alison Standfast, asked her, “Where will you be if nuclear war breaks out?” Maggie said she’d be in London, possibly stood amidst the ruins in a blackened concrete hellscape. It’d be awful but at least she could finally empathise with the miners.

 

 

Incidentally, Maggie wasn’t the most right-wing personality on show. That honour goes to presenter Mike Read, the BBC Radio DJ who released this record in praise of UKIP (remember them?). For resons unclear, Read sang his tune in a West Indian accent, like Max Bygraves.

 

Posted: 20th, August 2015 | In: Key Posts, Politicians, Reviews | Comment


Can a person’s physical strength dictate their politics? Yes

Politics - The Cabinet - 10 Downing Street

CAN a person’s muscles dictate their politics?

Men who are physically strong are more likely to take a right wing political stance, while weaker men are inclined to support the welfare state, according to a new study.

Researchers discovered political motivations may have evolutionary links to physical strength.

Men’s upper-body strength predicts their political opinions on economic redistribution, according to the research.

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Posted: 18th, May 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment


Zombie Thatcher – the book of Maggie in the afterlife

BOOK of the day: Zombie Thatcher by Bronwen Winter Phoenix (Author), Al Terry (Illustrator):

thatcher zombie

 

Posted: 3rd, May 2013 | In: Books, Politicians | Comment


In 1995 Margaret Thatcher refused to jump (video)

margareth thachter jump

MARGARET Thatcher refuses to jump. In 1995, Swedish host Stina Lundberg Dabrowski asked Maggie to jump. Margaret Thatcher said no.

Nick Clegg, David Cameron and Ed Miliband all reply in one voice: “How high do you want us? And when can we come down?”

Posted: 2nd, May 2013 | In: Flashback, Politicians | Comment


The Margaret Thatcher commemorative candle snuffer

Margaret Thatcher cande snuffer

NOW that Margaret Thatcher has died and the funeral is over, what will you do to keep her memory alive? Peter Jones has a solutions. The smart shop for household items has for £185 a Bronte Margaret Thatcher Extinguisher*.

This exquisite hand-made and hand-painted fine bone china figurine is of Mrs Thatcher depicted at the start of her parliamentary career on the evening in 1959 when she successfully contested the Finchley seat. Comes with a limited edition certificate personally signed by Margaret Thatcher. Limited Edition 300 Height 4″.

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Posted: 19th, April 2013 | In: Politicians, The Consumer | Comment


How many people attended Margaret Thatcher’s funeral?

Politics - Margaret Thatcher - Appleford Farm, East Anglia

HOW many people lined to route to see Margaret Thatcher’s funeral?

More than 250,000 lined the streets of London, clapping and cheering as her coffin processed through London – Daily Mail

…estimates put the number of people on the streets at 100,000 – Daily Telegraph

Margaret Thatcher funeral attended by ‘Essex Man’ – BBC

Posted: 17th, April 2013 | In: Politicians | Comments (4)


Margaret Thatcher’s Funeral in 48 photos

MARGARET Thatcher’s funeral was a made-for-media event. The mountain of puff and guff that paved its way were hard to ignore. We did as nation meet Thatcheration point.  Now she is gone, we can move on.

Baroness Thatcher funeral

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Posted: 17th, April 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment


Margaret Thatcher v Princess Diana: How People’s Princess Tony Blair scooped David Cameron

Britain Thatcher Funeral

COMPARE and contrast the deaths of Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher, as told by Alastair Campbell, Tony’s Blair’s older spin doctor. He writes on his blog:

…Cameron decided to…tear up his own travel plans, and head back to London effectively to demand a recall of Parliament…

So we are left with the question – why? What was so urgent that these tributes could not wait until Parliament was back? And it is hard to escape the conclusion that as a politician, not as a national leader, Mr Cameron and his team saw some advantage. Perhaps, as has been suggested to me by a civil servant, he was worried that the many Thatcher worshippers on the Murdoch papers, the Mail, the Telegraph and the Express would turn their ire further upon him if he did not bow down in worship with them. Perhaps he felt some potential benefit in associating himself closely with a strong leader who, in death, was likely to have greater focus on achievements than failings. Perhaps he felt that this association would help him with his right wing which fears he is not a strong leader, and that his brand of Conservatism is shipping support to UKIP. Perhaps he thinks her presence back at the heart of national debate will help him with the difficult decisions ahead, on welfare for example.

Some of his readers write in response:

Gilliebc –
Cameron is doing what he always does, i.e. making it up as he goes along and not missing an opportunity to bathe in what he probably sees as reflected glory. He’s an opportunistic media savvy, snake oil salesman.

KDouglas −
Yep, you’re right. This is a seedy attempt by the Conservatives to promote themselves…

Readers may well recall the words of Campbell’s boss Tony Blair when Diana’s died:

“I feel like everyone else in this country today, utterly devastated. She was the people’s princess, and that’s how she will stay, how she will remain, in our hearts and in our memories forever.”

Princess of Wales death - Tony Blair speech

Campbell wrote in his Diaries:

alastair campbell diana 4

And:

 alastair campbell diana 2

And:

 

alastair campbell diana 1

And:

alastair campbell diana

Such are the facts.

 

RIPR.

Photo 1:Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron delivers a reading next to the coffin of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during her funeral service in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, Wednesday, April 17, 2013. Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s Iron Lady, was laid to rest Wednesday with a level of pomp and protest reflecting her status as a commanding, polarizing political figure. 

 

Posted: 17th, April 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment


How the regional press reacted to the death of Margaret Thatcher

HOW did the local newspapers respond to the death of Margaret Thatcher? Did Nottingham and Dorset have a shared view of the thrice-elected Prime Minister? What about Wales and Scotland? Is she lamented in Derry as she might be in Oxford?

A few of the juxtapositions between Thatcher’s image and the other fornt-page news jar and amuse: The Daily Echo (Bournemouth) has news of hospital bugs; the Hull Daily Mail has news of a “benefit cheat mum” and the Yorkshire Evening Post says “Heart Ops Get The Go AHead”. Maggie died from a stroke.

Let’s see:

1york

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Posted: 16th, April 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment


Turn Your Back On Thatcher: the funeral protest that might be a Poznan

Turn Your Back On Thatcher

REBECCA Lush Blum has created the Facebook page Turn Your Back On Thatcher: police sanctioned protest about this grotesque state funded funeral.

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Posted: 16th, April 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment (1)


What the Margaret Thatcher death parties taught us

Britain Thatcher

WHAT did we learn for the Margreat Thatcher death parties? Personally, I learned nothing. I knew she was divisive. I knew the BBC was idiotic (they banned the Ding-Dong The  Witch Is Dead song). I knew anyone who wears a jester’s hat in public shouldn’t and that anyone over 12 who sees juggling a mode of self-expression has issues. And that was it.

Writing in the Daily Express, Peter Hill learnet more:

Thatcher’s dead ‘parties’ have shown the political Left to be utterly unworthy of government. They have shown the political Left to be utterly unworthy of government, motivated as they are by spite, envy and pettiness and, as Mr Blair has pointed out, devoid of any purpose other than protest. 

Labour’s leaders have affected to distance themselves from the shameful, graceless mob but that’s where their support comes from. Let’s hope voters remember.

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Posted: 16th, April 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment (1)


Margaret Thatcher: The Trafalgar Square party in photos

THE pathetic BBC made the drive to make a Judy Garland Wizard of Oz No.1 in the hit parade a meaningful political act by banning it. Others who wanted to celebrate Baroness Margaret Thatcher death have been drinking in Brixton and meeting in Trafalgar Square. There, a man held aloft a pig’s head. It was not his own. “Maggie, Maggie, Maggie – dead, dead, dead,” came the chant. A few Millwall fans arrived and tried to tear down a banner. And it was, all said and done, a bit pathetic.

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People attend a Thatcher's dead 'party' organised via Facebook, in Trafalgar Square, central London, following the death of Baroness Margaret Thatcher.

 

 

 

Posted: 13th, April 2013 | In: Politicians | Comments (2)


Munchkins and Flying Monkeys at war over Maggie Thatcher’s funeral

DING! DONG! This was the day the newspapers decided to be more like The Onion. It is what Margaret Thatcher would have wanted. She was always sticking up for the little people.

Tomorrow, the Flying Monkeys explain why they always backed the miners.The Sun front page  13.04.13  MUNCHKIN FURY AT MAGGIE DING DONG SONG

Posted: 13th, April 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment


Freedom loving Daily Mail upset as BBC chief refuses to ban Thatcher Ding-Dong death song – oh, the irony

BBC ding dong thatcher

THE Daily Mail has campaigned for press freedom. It says “no” to Leveson. The same Mail wants the BBC to ban Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead, the ditty from the soundtrack of the 1939 film The Wizard Of Oz and sung by Judy Garland.

It’s in the Top Ten following Margaret Thatcher’s death.

@MartinBelam notes:

Maybe Mail/Telegraph could campaign for some kind of state regulation of the media to prevent Wizard of Oz songs being broadcast?

ding dong thatcher mail

Posted: 11th, April 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment


Margaret Thatcher and Hillsborough: Her Press Secretary Bernard Ingham’s letter to a ‘disgusted’ Liverpool fan

Hillsborough Disaster - Margaret Thatcher Visit - Northern General Hospital - Sheffield

ANORAK has argued against a minute’s silence at football grounds for Margaret Thatcher. She was no football fan. Her time as Prime Minister coincided with English football’s slide into darkness. The nadir was the Millwall fans rioting at Luton Town. The horrors were at Bradford City (56 dead), Heysel (39) and Hillsborough. Of that last tragedy in which 96 Liverpool fans – adults and children – lost their lives at the FA Cup semi-final, voices poured misinformation into Thatcher’s ear. She was a willing audience to their lies – “One officer, born and bred in Liverpool, said that he was deeply ashamed to say that it was drunken Liverpool fans who had caused this disaster, just as they had caused the deaths at Heysel.” 

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Posted: 11th, April 2013 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comment


Left wing applaud Thatcher’s decision to close coal pits (she saved the polar bears)

MINER AND POLICEMEN : 1984

MARGARET Thatcher is, perhaps, best remembered for closing the coal mines. Some on the Left hate her for it. Fast forward to today and voices on the Left are beseeching the powers that be to close the mines.

‘’If the world ever takes climate change seriously, that coal simply has to stay in the ground,’’ Mr McKibben said. ‘’There’s no physical way to burn it, or Canada’s tar sands, or Venezuela’s shale oil, and not go over the red line that almost all governments, including Australia’s, have drawn at two degrees.’’

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Posted: 11th, April 2013 | In: Reviews | Comments (9)


Margaret Thatcher dies: how Melbourne students ‘celebrated unreservedly’

Miners Dispute - Selby

TO mark the death of Margaret Thatcher, the kids  of the Students’ Council of University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) passed a motion to “celebrate unreservedly”.

Party! Booze? Fags? Pop? The students…

… asked for the a screening of Ken Loach’s documentary film Which side are you on? to ‘continue the celebration’.

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Posted: 11th, April 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment


Margaret Thatcher and a pet black sheep called Barack Obama

Thatcher opens dog charity building

MARGARET Thatcher: cats or dogs? Lady Carla Powell of Bayswater settles the debate:

“Lady Thatcher adored animals. I have a dachshund puppy called Maggie that she loved. I name all my animals after friends and distinguished people. I have two black sheep called Barack Obama and Colin Powell.”

That’s raci…!

Sir Charles Powell/Knighthood

Photo: Sir Charles Powell, fromer private secretary to Margaret Thatcher, and his wife Carla outside Buckingham Palace in London after he receives his Knighthood form HM Queen Elizabeth II. Date: 16/07/1991

Posted: 10th, April 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment


Owen Jones: Tony Blair was a national catastrophe that still poisons us

Blair followed masochism strategy

OWEN Jones is turning into a troll. Writing in the Independent, he looks at Margaret Thatcher’s legacy:

In the coming days, some on the right will attempt to snuff out criticism of her legacy… Those who grew up in the Britain that Thatcher built will be patronised: you were still learning how to walk at the height of her power. And that is why it is crucial to separate Thatcherism from the woman who spearheaded it.

Eh? What about the Labour Party, who waged at least one of its wars on a lie? The Labour Party that gave us an undemocratically elected Prime Minister? The Labour Party that caused the current recession? The illiberal Labour Party that sought to control our eating, drinking, smoking and thinking?

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Posted: 10th, April 2013 | In: Politicians | Comments (2)


Football must have no minute’s silence for Margaret Thatcher: what madman wants to remember the 1980s?

Politics - Margaret Thatcher and England footballers - 1980

THE best thing you can say about Margaret Thatcher’s attitude to football was that she rarely used it to coin easy popularity. To her, football was a thing that needed controlling. Football to Thatcher was a threat to the social order. The Sunday Times said football was a “slum sport watched by slum people in slum stadiums”.

So. Football will not mark her passing in any special way. There was no minute’s silence for the former Prime Minister at Old Trafford last night as Manchester United took on Manchester City. Good. The minute’s silence has become the most overused tribute going.

Photo above:  Margaret Thatcher sharing a joke with England footballers, left to right, Kevin Keegan, Terry McDermott, Phil Thompson and Emlyn Hughes and other members of the international squad outside 10 Downing Street when they were leaving after attending a reception given by Mrs Thatcher. Date: 05/06/1980

This was not snub. Maggie Thatcher (once an honorary vice-president of Blackburn Rovers) was the Prime Minister when English football was in the mire.

Soccer - Canon League Division Three - Bradford City v Lincoln City - Valley Parade

Photo: Screen shot from ITN News showing the fire that swept through the main stand at Bradford City’s football ground. The club were playing Lincoln City in the last match of the season. 56 people died and 265 were injured as a fire swept the packed stand just before half-time.

On May 11 1985, 15-year-old Ian Hambridge left his Northampton home to see his first football match. Birmingham City Football Club were playing Leeds United. A riot saw 80 fans and 96 police officers injured. Ian was stood by a 12 ft high wall, which collapsed. You might have read about him. But it’ unlikely. Because on that every day a fire took hold at Bradford City’s ground killing 56 people.

A short time later, on May 29, Liverpool played Juventus in the European Cup Final at Belgium’s Heysel stadium. Another riot. Another wall collapsed. 39 Italian fans died in the mayhem. English clubs were banned from European competitions.

Soccer - European Cup - Final - Liverpool v Juventus - Heysel Stadium

In a era of lows, the infamous footage of Millwall fans rioting at Luton Town stands out.

Thatcher’s Government assed the The Football Spectators Act of 1989. It made ID cards compulsory. To be a football fan you needed to carry ID. You were no longer a citizen of a free democracy. You were a pariah the State wanted to control. Margaret Thatcher, regarded football fans as the “enemy within”.

Thatcher ordered Justice Oliver Popplewell to investigate football. He suggested fences to keep the fans from the pitch.

Bradford City Chairman and Inquiry Judge at Fire Stand

Bradford City FC chairman Stafford Heginbotham (left) with Mr Justice Popplewell, in front of the stand which was burnt at Bradford’s Valley Parade ground. The 57-year old judge spent more than half-an-hour touring the ground. He headed the inquiry into the blaze.

Chelsea chairman Ken Bates suggested electrifying it. If it was good enough for his cattle, it was good enough for football fans. (The GLC prevented Bates from plugging it in.)

Ken Bates next to electric fence

1985: Chelsea chairman, Ken Bates, indicating the controversial anti-hooligan 12-volt electric wire on top of the 12ft high fence screening spectators from the pitch at Stamford Bridge football ground when it went on public show for the first time.

Then came the horror of Hillsborough, in which 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death. The police refused to open the fences at Sheffield Wednesday’s ground. The dying and uninjured were not instantly recognised as victims. They were a public order matter.

Baroness Thatcher death

The police lied, saying that hooliganism was to blame. How much did Thatcher’s Government know?

Soccer - Barclays Premier League - Arsenal v Liverpool - Emirates Stadium

So. Does Baroness Thatcher get a minute’s silence at sport she was no fan of? The Daily Mail’s Jeff Powell thinks she should, writing beneath the headline:

No Old Trafford tribute for Baroness Thatcher… Shame on football for snubbing the lady who rescued our game from tribal hooligans

A snub? Who in their right mind would want to remember football’s dark days?

As they took their comfortable seats on Monday night, feeling safe and secure as they enjoyed the match, in many cases savouring the hospitality of their boxes, how might they have reflected on the lady without whom such glittering stadiums would never have been built? And where might English football be now, had Thatcher allowed football to wither on the vine of feral violence and tribal hooliganism?

She wanted to bring in those aforementioned ID cards. And what of Hillsborough?

Did she save the national game? Without question.

On Monday night, that contribution to the beautiful game went unrecognised.

What about Hillsborough, then?

The long haul towards all-seat grounds, monitored by closed-circuit television cameras, began. It was a battle which would not be won until, by a terrible irony, the people of Liverpool became entrapped in an even greater disaster of their own, at Hillsborough four years later.

 

Trapped in disaster, literally and metaphorically as the State, media and police colluded to wrongly blame the victims for their own deaths.

Of course, watching football has improved massively. Matt Dickinson writes in the Times:

Taylor’s report in 1990 rejected Thatcher’s ID cards and heralded the era of all-seat stadiums. Indeed, it was as Thatcher tearfully departed in late 1990 that the conditions were coming together for football’s boom. The growth might well have been called Thatcherite given its reliance on club flotations (Manchester United became a plc in 1991), free-market economics, the arrival of Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB paying its first £300 million for a TV deal and the elitism of the new Premier League.

We now have minute’s silence for economic policy? Please, no. Football and politics… never!

Update:  Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan and Reading’s Sir John Madejski want a minute’s silence for Maggie.

Whelan:  “We owe Mrs Thatcher a minute’s silence. It is not my decision, it is for the FA to decide, but I would be in favour of wearing an armband out of respect to Mrs Thatcher. We have to say thank you very much for the services the former PM has given us.”

Madejski: “We have got to appreciate that Margaret Thatcher was a world leader who did so much for this country. So much that she deserves a minute’s silence. The funeral’s going to take place at St Paul’s attended by the Queen and Prince Philip so I think it would be a fitting tribute from the world of football to Margaret Thatcher, one of our greatest leaders.”

 

Posted: 9th, April 2013 | In: Politicians, Sports | Comments (3)


Margaret Thatcher’s funeral will not be privatised: Ken Loach looks at the Iron Lady’s plans

thatcher ding dong

MARGARET Thatcher’s funeral will enjoy the same status as they of Princess Diana and the Queen Mother. It will either be a global event steeped in mawkish emotion and teddies, or largely ignored. Voices on the Left react:

Sunny Hundal in The Guardian:

“Let me be clear: it’s isn’t nice to wish death on most people, and I’m not doing that here for Thatcher. She deserves a degree of respect like other people, in my view, despite what she did as prime minister. Surely Thatcher herself would agree that poor taxpayers should not be further burdened in these times of austerity.”

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Posted: 9th, April 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment


Margaret Thatcher’s death: the newspapers front pages

HOW do you report on the death of Margaret Thatcher? The newspapers’ front pages show us how. The pick is The Times’ cover, which opts for simplicity over opinion:

Britain Obit Thatcher

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Posted: 9th, April 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment


In photos: the anti-woman Brixton Party to celebrate Margaret Thatcher’s death

DOESN’T it warm the cockles to see men in Brixton, London, holding up a sign declaring “THE BITCH IS DEAD”? The ‘Bitch’ was Margaret Thatcher, the only woman to lead one of three main political parties and become Prime Minister. When a woman is successful and powerful she is a ‘bitch’. Others who disliked her have been wondering if Baroness Thatcher was even a woman. Loathe her for her policies, if you must, but don’t hate her for being a woman. You only end up looking like a misogynist and a p**ck.

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EDS NOTE LANGUAGE People celebrate the death of Baroness Thatcher in Brixton, south London.

Posted: 9th, April 2013 | In: Politicians | Comments (8)