Thursday, April 11, 2013

Oddballs & Misfits.

It is worth remembering that despite the disproportionate attention given to a collection of misfits and oddballs who are celebrating the death of Margaret Thatcher- it really is a tiny number of people.

They have a lot in common with Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church who protest at the funerals of soldiers and gays. Like Phelps they represent no wider movement.

The agenda of the press in giving them such coverage is worth considering- the left is probably trying to make her appear more hated than she was, the likes of the Daily Mail are trying to hype something up so they can be outraged at it.

90% of prominent left wing figures that I have heard of have been respectful, 90% of lefties I know personally have been respectful. That isn't to say that they liked her but normal people can tell the difference between an opponent and someone to hate.

Secondly it is worth remembering that while politicians are inherently divisive, Lady Thatcher is not unpopular as this poll in the Guardian from September demonstrates:

Out of 20 national figures, Thatcher was the second most respected, only Boris Johnson beat her.

The least respected figure on the list, George Galloway, is one of the oddballs and misfits I mentioned earlier (as well as being an antisemitic totalitarian crook) . Galloway isn't divisive of course, everyone is united in thinking he's a twat.

These "celebrations" are about thuggery and intimidation- trying to dominate the public space for one fringe outlook.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know. From what I can tell we're in the middle of a bout of national hysteria which reminds me of August 97. As a former Lefty who hated Fatcha in the 1980s, some of the stuff being thrown around by people I know is getting utterly deranged. When I very reasonably asked if people thought we'd still have a large scale deep coal mining industry if, say, Foot had won the 1983 election, two people immediately dropped me from Facebook and one person I know called me a Fascist. When I pointed out that France has no coal mines left at all, I honestly thought he was going to physically attack me.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous
Some of us had to put up with this nonsense at the time!

JuliaM said...

Just as the 'riots' that greeted the death of gangsta Duggan, it's an excuse for mindless destruction and looting...