Margaret Thatcher Funeral & Trafalgar Square Party Compared
Domino Effect | 17.04.2013 08:12 | Public sector cuts
In contrast to the 2-3,000 that the BBC confirmed attended the Margaret Thatcher Death Party in Trafalgar Square, 9am 17 April the BBC are reporting "one or two" members of the public gathering to pay their respects to Margaret Thatcher on Fleet Street, and "well over a thousand" gathered around St Paul's...
In contrast to the (under-estimated) 2-3,000 that the BBC confirmed attended the Margaret Thatcher Death Party in Trafalgar Square, 8:50am 17 April the BBC are reporting "one or two" members of the public gathering to pay their respects to Margaret Thatcher on Fleet Street, and "well over a thousand" gathered around St Paul's.
So, with the millions of pounds in public resources, the hundreds, possibly thousands of hours of prime-time TV, and thousands of pages of newspaper and magazine coverage devoted to white-washing the legacy of Margaret Thatcher and to promoting public adulation at her funeral, STILL Margaret Thatcher's supporters are less numerous than the people who gathered to condemn the legacy of her divisive politics in Trafalgar Square.
No doubt the effect of the media hype will mean that, as the day goes on, the number of Margaret Thatcher's supporters will grow, but recall again the enormous media campaign required to achieve this, as opposed to the Trafalgar Square event being realised at short notice, with no formal organisation and with effectively zero resources.
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2013/04/508580.html?c=on#comments
So, with the millions of pounds in public resources, the hundreds, possibly thousands of hours of prime-time TV, and thousands of pages of newspaper and magazine coverage devoted to white-washing the legacy of Margaret Thatcher and to promoting public adulation at her funeral, STILL Margaret Thatcher's supporters are less numerous than the people who gathered to condemn the legacy of her divisive politics in Trafalgar Square.
No doubt the effect of the media hype will mean that, as the day goes on, the number of Margaret Thatcher's supporters will grow, but recall again the enormous media campaign required to achieve this, as opposed to the Trafalgar Square event being realised at short notice, with no formal organisation and with effectively zero resources.
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2013/04/508580.html?c=on#comments
Domino Effect
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Trolling....AGAIN.
17.04.2013 08:58
Thats all the Tory party have ever been concerned about.
Its why they destroyed much of the countries infrastructure and abandoned much of the population to their own devices.
Its also the reason why their party membership has collapsed and in less than five years they will have to throw in the towel and declare bankruptcy. Thats if they can keep their claws off the public funds in the meantime.
That will be the ultimate test for them...they could never maintain themselves as a going concern.
This will all be over soon.
anonymous
When they give you two options, always take the third.....
17.04.2013 09:14
Today, war criminals from Kissinger to Cheney arrive in London to bury Margaret Thatcher. A state funeral choreography celebrating the Falklands War has been planned.
London Catholic Workers gathered at Giuseppe Conlon House for our monthly liturgy and to reflect on the passing of Margaret Thatcher and the nature of ongoing Thatcherism. After the reading of Acts 6:1-7 & John 6:16-21 ,reflection by John Hamblett, remembering Thatcher's victims, the breaking of bread & the sharing of wine, John McLean led us in "Maggies Farm". We committed to further nonviolent resistance to her legacy and prayed that she receives a merciful judgement.
LCW
Thatcher's vote
17.04.2013 09:22
She recieved less than 50% of the vote at each of the three elections she won. I would not call that a majority of people
Richard
e-mail:
richard-brennan@hotmail.co.uk
Homepage:
http://brennybaby.blogspot.co.uk/
HALF A MILLION attended TUC demo, 26 March 2011
17.04.2013 10:47
CNN
Sea of white faces at St Paul's
17.04.2013 10:51
Lomax
Thatcher's funeral, in context...
17.04.2013 10:58
To put that in perspective, there were so many people it took a good 90 minutes to get INTO the demo on March 26, before the demo had even started. QED
Rollo
Makes me happy
17.04.2013 11:06
★
To the trolls @? and @Gay
17.04.2013 11:44
wake up call
Counter-protest at Ludgate Circus
17.04.2013 11:45
Margaret Thatcher's coffin passes protestors at Ludgate Circus
Good counter-protest at Ludgate Circus, despite protestors having been told they'd be met by police snipers
Ludgate
Northern Tories line the streets to commemorate Thatcher
17.04.2013 11:46
*
Northern Tories pack town centres to commemorate Margaret Thatcher
17.04.2013 11:48
Thatcher Funeral - Leeds City Centre
*
Facilitating peaceful protest
17.04.2013 11:50
Margaret Thatcher funeral, London
Steve
Lovin' it
17.04.2013 11:56
poster boy
Responses to right-wing troll
17.04.2013 12:00
A: Over 400,000 LESS than marched thru London to oppose austerity, Sherlock
Q: "Millions more watch on television around the world"?
A: Millions watch adverts for bog-roll and air-freshener on TV
As for "poster boy", that's a REALLY childish cartoon, thanks for nuthin'
Atlantic
laugh at the trolls
17.04.2013 12:26
in the centre of one of the biggest and busiest cities in the western world, of course thousands of people are gonna stand and watch as the roads are blocked off and cops are everywhere. it doesnt mean that all of them know what the fuck is going down or actually supported thatcher.
you could parade through the streets with a paper filled football mascots outfit in a coffin, line the streets with cops, block roads, and still thousands of people would turn out to watch.
people enjoy spectacles, doesnt mean they loved that old hag.
trolls, fuck you.
millions of people hated thatcher - get over it.
i hate all tories, dead or alive
Thatcher Supporters
17.04.2013 12:31
Thatcher Supporters
Thatcher Supporters
I know right-wingers can be a bit thick, but do you really think making assertions that aren't factually accurate somehow helps your cause?
Smiley
Thatcher Funeral in Goldthorpe
17.04.2013 12:33
Margaret Thatcher Funeral
Margaret Thatcher Funeral
Margaret Thatcher Funeral
Barnsley
Thatcher's coffin makes its way through Goldthorpe
17.04.2013 12:39
Thatcher's funeral
Yorks
mwah mwah mwah.
17.04.2013 12:41
All in all a good example of our power. We can do pretty much whatever we want.
I think we can take the gloves off now. Our rule is clearly uncontested and the British middle class to weak in the head to stand in our way. The UK has now completed the transition toward the new Victorian era.
We can privatise everything now and we can get rid of the NHS. This country needs a new elite class of philanthropists who dictate the wealth of the people according to their own morality and public standards. This is the only way for US to achieve our freedoms, by imprisonment of the middle class and control by tactical charity.
Never in human history has so much wealth, being concentrated in the hands of so few, for the denial of the rights of so many.
This is freedom. Our freedom.
If this is a problem, go and vote Labour...they'll know what to do!
Jeremy de'ath.
Goldthorpe today
17.04.2013 14:25
TS
These 'lot' left their Mother to rot over the last few years
17.04.2013 14:52
crypt
Hundreds of thousands line London streets for Margaret Thatcher's final journey
17.04.2013 16:06
Margaret Thatcher's final journey
Pinochet's victims
Tony Blair shakes Cameron's hand - New Labour, The Betrayal is Total
17.04.2013 16:10
David & Samantha Cameron arrive in St Paul's for Margaret Thatcher's funeral - Tony Blair kisses Samantha and shakes hands with David Cameron -
Pinochet's Victims
Perspective
17.04.2013 16:36
Lorraine
next
17.04.2013 16:46
There are plenty of pictures where there are 10s of 1000s of people watching
What you are attempting to do is the equiv of quote mining. Its totally biased...... why havnt you shown any pictures where lots of people are watching? Why have you chosen to censor these pictures and just show the ones where there a nobody on short sections?
Also
Q: "Thousands line the streets to pay their respects..."?
A: Over 400,000 LESS than marched thru London to oppose austerity, Sherlock
Bullshit. There was about 100,000 at austerity, so about the same.
Different is, the austerity march was on a saturday when most people have time to attend!
Whereas, today is wednesday, where most people don't! Forgot to mention that didnt you?
Q: "Millions more watch on television around the world"?
A: Millions watch adverts for bog-roll and air-freshener on TV
Or.......... they watched it on TV as per the original statement before you tried to inteject that all these people were doing so to watch a toilet roll advert. Utter nonsense, since when do millions of people ever turn on a tv to watch a toilet roll advert you utter muppet? Your argument is weak
So, learn difference between Wedsneday and Saturday is regard to busy and quiet times
And b, learn that people dont watch TV just to watch adverts on.
Loser - your arguments are both easily destroyed.
CC
@CC
17.04.2013 16:59
As for your argument about the big left-wing demo being on a weekend, the reason they scheduled Thatcher's funeral for a week-day was to STOP the people who supported the big anti-austerity demos from turning up at Thatcher's funeral (think about it, Sherlock)
*****
crowds growing in Goldthorpe
17.04.2013 17:14
pyro
Miserable Britain.
17.04.2013 17:46
As they say in the films...the time for honouring yourself, will soon be at an end.
Revolution it is.
The steel magnolia.
summary of day
17.04.2013 18:24
The prosecution rests.
what happened
@what happened
17.04.2013 18:37
B
Bleakness of a rainy day.
17.04.2013 19:17
Same ole crappy same ole.
On any event in London, as soon as a crowd gather the tourists flock in to see what's going down. Most of those people standing in Whitehall would have been tourists. The tories and the BBC knew that. That always happens. You could march a pantomime chicken down the road in London and as long as you close the roads, the tourists will flock in, even though the vast majority have no idea what is happening, or why. Take the tourists away and you will have yourself a shocking amount of blank pavement.
Around St Paul's the people were actually crowded into what is a very small space. From a helicopter, it looked much larger than it actually was. Put 500 people into that tiny courtyard outside the cathedral and its going to look like a big crowd.
But its when Thatcher was driven out and away from St-Paul's that the real story was told. Nobody, absolutely nobody showed up along the pavement. There was no spontaneous display of either grief or happiness from anybody, just universal indifference. Even the very few people that were standing at bus stops and walking along the road did nothing. It was indeed a very dull, plain and unremarkable event. The only thing that really stood out on the day, was the bizaare notion that it had happened at all.
Thatcher's funeral should have been a private affair. There was no need at all for it to have been publicly funded. It should have been a private funeral attanded by friends and family at her family home or in the town of her birth. If Thatcher's children had problems raising the funds for it then freinds and family could have stumped up the cash for it.
Everybody involved in this has screwed up big time.
Longbow..
still not many protesters like promised
17.04.2013 19:28
the prosecution rests (again).
clue: It was because there wasn'y any booze/partying involved.
Most "protestors" go somewhere when it is a party. Otherwise they dont bother.
volume of a sphere
disappointed
17.04.2013 19:43
Thatchers mates-torturers and child rapists.
Goldthorpe
17.04.2013 19:49
Legacy
@Thatchers mates-torturers and child rapists.
17.04.2013 19:55
r00k
highyl trained
17.04.2013 20:34
keeps everything in line.
Plod
Thank you.
17.04.2013 23:23
In life, Thatcher was a women who championed the private sector and independence from the state. She lionised personal responsibility over the collectivity of unionisation. Thatcher believed in claiming to pay your own way while paying nothing. Thatcher believed in each person being responsible for themselves and she believed in limiting government spending and taxation.
In death, Thatcher was a women who sponged £10,000,000 from the state for her funeral. Thatcher was a women who threw all her beliefs to the wind and reached out to the state and demanded the public pay her way. Thatcher was a women who hoovered up the trappings of state and the public purse and invited all her freinds to take one last bite of the pie, Capitalists and dictators alike. Thatcher is a women who abandoned every last idea she ever believed in, when it came to having to pay her way.
The British people do not believe in paying nothing to the state your entire working life, and then expecting the state to pick up the bill when you have no money left to pay your way.
The British people know who the real spongers and scroungers are, they don't need to be told that it is always the poor that need to be persecuted. That is just something the Conservatives and their media clones like to say.
Argue all you want, but all is naught.
You hung yourself today.
You don't know it yet, but you hung yourself today.
I am personally grateful to you for that.
In that sense, yes, the Conservative Party are true revolutionaries.
Longbow.
@Plod
18.04.2013 11:43
wishing well
@Thatchers mates-torturers and child rapists
18.04.2013 15:35
not_plod
different mutations / different outcomes
18.04.2013 19:53
plod
plod
18.04.2013 20:45
tosser
Last Word on Numbers
18.04.2013 20:50
1. The police threatened potential protestors with pre-emptive arrests, aggressive searches and with SNIPERS
2. In addition to those very important factors, the funeral was held on a week-day when the hundreds of thousands of working left who attend the big TUC demos were, inevitably, going to be AT WORK
1973
Liverpool fans do the conga to celebrate death of Margaret Thatcher
18.04.2013 20:52
Handy
The media heaped praise on Jimmy Savile immediately after he died
18.04.2013 20:56
Justice
oh look - logic and common sense
18.04.2013 22:27
In other words, the protestors were wimps. Big talk one day, and then runaway scared the next? I think not. Never stopped you in the past . I think there were no protestors because they knew they'd fail.
2. In addition to those very important factors, the funeral was held on a week-day when the hundreds of thousands of working left who attend the big TUC demos were, inevitably, going to be AT WORK
Oh, and there me being told that theres no jobs and unemployment is very high because of the evil tories. What about the people without jobs? What about the students who love to skive off? What about using a day of annual leave? What about all these people who have been made redundant?
Barely 100. Not for the reasons you said. But reason that they didn't want to go despite your campaigns to get them to go for your own political agendas.
Sure, they went to the death parties (because there is booze involved - who in the world DOESN'T like a street party). If there was a street party because lots of people died, I think you'd still find lots of people go.... .because..... people like street parties. The same people DONT like protesting at a funeral.
amplify
@amplify
18.04.2013 23:43
Carol Thatcher - Margaret Thatcher's love-child with Jimmy Savile
1. As for "common sense", it doesn't matter how brave you or strong you are, a Metropolitan Police Heckler & Koch MP5 is still going to kill you. As for "logic", even if protestors were (as you say) "wimps" for being intimidated by ARMED COPS, that doesn't disprove the argument (the argument is not about whether people are wimps or not). So, your argument fails on both counts (please don't talk about "common sense" and "logic" until you've bothered to learn what those terms mean)
2. The comparison with the big TUC demos, refers, obviously, to Trades Union members - to be a Trades Union member you have to be in employment, it's not therefore likely you'll be free during a week-day. You swerve the obvious by asking about "the students" etc, blind to the fact that point's already been answered (see 1)
Now do fuck off
Common sense & logic
there there
19.04.2013 01:36
2. Well a small town in yorkshire managed to drag a couple of thousand away from their jobs. London is much bigger why only 100? I doubt everyone apart from 100 were wotrking
3. 100 protesters is very very small. Anarchists have been plannibg this day for years. Its a big big deal, yet only 100
Now do fuck off and go back to your drivelling
mio moi
@mio moi
19.04.2013 13:52
trollkiller
@pussy galore
20.04.2013 21:38
You're a fool
You're still a fool
Now look at the Thatcher party photos (above). Bearing in mind that figure of 12,000, does Trafalgar Square look empty to you, or does Trafalgar Square look full? Your opinion is contradicted by factual evidence.
835
Thatcher supporters
20.04.2013 21:43
Thatcher supporters
Thatcher supporters
Luisa
THATCHER YOUTH / HITLER YOUTH
20.04.2013 21:44
Luisa
Another Thatcher Death Party in Liverpool
20.04.2013 23:10
Margaret Thatcher Death Party, Liverpool
Margaret Thatcher Death Party, Liverpool
Margaret Thatcher Death Party, Liverpool
Margaret Thatcher Death Party, Liverpool
Studs
Why Celebrate the Death of Thatcher? Ask a Chilean!
17.03.2015 01:50
Never have I witnessed a gap between the mainstream media and the public quite like the last twenty-four hours since the death of Margaret Thatcher. While both the press and President Obama were uttering tearful remembrances, thousands took to the streets of the UK and beyond to celebrate. Immediately this drew strong condemnation of what were called "death parties," described as “tasteless”, “horrible” and “beneath all human decency.” Yet if the same media praising Thatcher and appalled by the popular response would bother to ask one of the people celebrating, they might get a story that doesn't fit into their narrative, which is probably why they aren't asking at all.
I received a note this morning from a friend of a friend. She lives in the UK, although her family didn't arrive there by choice. They had to flee Chile, like thousands of others, when it was under the thumb of General Augusto Pinochet. If you don't know the details about Pinochet's blood-soaked two-decade reign, you should read about them but take care not to eat beforehand. He was a merciless overseer of torture, rapes and thousands of political executions. He had the hands and wrists of the country's greatest folk singer Victor Jara broken in front of a crowd of prisoners before killing him. He had democratically elected Socialist President Salvador Allende shot dead at his desk. His specialty was torturing people in front of their families.
As Naomi Klein has written so expertly, he then used this period of shock and slaughter to install a nationwide laboratory for neoliberal economics. If Pincohet's friend Milton Friedman had a theory about cutting food subsidies, privatizing social security, slashing wages or outlawing unions, Pinochet would apply it. The results of these experiments became political ammunition for neoliberal economists throughout the world. Seeing Chile-applied economic theory in textbooks always boggles my mind. It would be like if the American Medical Association published a textbook on the results of Dr. Josef Mengele's work in the concentration camps, without any moral judgment about how he accrued his patients.
Pinochet was the General in charge of this human rights catastrophe. He also was someone who Margaret Thatcher called a friend. She stood by the General even when he was in exile, attempting to escape justice for his crimes. As she said to Pinochet, "[Thank you] for bringing democracy to Chile."
Therefore, if I want to know why someone would celebrate the death of Baroness Thatcher, I think asking a Chilean in exile would be a great place to start. My friend of a friend took to the streets of the UK when she heard that the Iron Lady had left her mortal coil. Here is why:
I'm telling [my daughter] all about the Thatcher legacy through her mother's experience, not the media's; especially how the Thatcher government directly supported Pinochet's murderous regime, financially, via military support, even military training (which we know now, took place in Dundee University). Thousands of my people (and members of my family) were tortured and murdered under Pinochet's regime—the fascist beast who was one of Thatcher's closest allies and friend. So all you apologists/those offended [by my celebration]—you can take your moral high ground & shove it. YOU are the ones who don't understand. Those of us celebrating are the ones who suffered deeply under her dictatorship and WE are the ones who cared. We are the ones who protested. We are the humanitarians who bothered to lift a finger to help all those who suffered under her regime. I am lifting a glass of champagne to mourn, to remember and to honour all the victims of her brutal regime, here AND abroad. And to all those heroes who gave a shit enough to try to do something about it.
I should add here that I lived in Chile in 1995, when Pinochet had been deposed but was still in charge of the armed forces. I became friends with those who were tortured or had their families disappeared, so Thatcher's connection to Chile strikes a personal note with me. I also understand, however, that similar explanations for "why people are celebrating" could be made by those with connections to Argentina, apartheid South Africa, Indonesia, Belfast, Gaza or Baghdad. The case could also be made by those in the UK affected by Thatcher's Pinochet-tested economic dictates who choose not to mourn.
It also matters because the forty-eight hours after a powerful public figure dies is when the halo becomes permanently affixed to their head. When Ronald Reagan passed away, a massive right wing machine went into motion aimed at removing him from all criticism. The Democrats certainly didn't challenge this interpretation of history and now according to polls, people under 25 would elect Reagan over President Obama, even though Reagan's ideas remain deeply unpopular. To put it crudely, the political battle over someone's memory is a political battle over policy. In Thatcher's case, if we gloss over her history of supporting tyrants, we are doomed to repeat them.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with loathing Margaret Thatcher or any other person with political influence and power based upon perceived bad acts, and that doesn't change simply because they die. If anything, it becomes more compelling to commemorate those bad acts upon death as the only antidote against a society erecting a false and jingoistically self-serving history.
Or to put it even more simply, in the words, of David Wearing, "People praising Thatcher's legacy should show some respect for her victims." That would be nice, wouldn't it? Let's please show some respect for Margaret Thatcher's victims. Let's respect those who mourn everyday because of her policies, but choose this one day to wipe away the tears. Then let's organize to make sure that the history she authored does not repeat.
GHF