Margaret Thatcher

I have been listening to the radio all day and people here either love Margaret Thatcher or vehemently oppose and hate her. She is hated mostly because of her policies up north where she is blamed for taking away a lot of the industries and reducing the power of trade unions and leaving many without work. The negative effect of it all is claimed to be still felt today. People up north hate her, even if they weren't even born when she was in office. Some friends of ours who are a very young couple (in their mid 20s) from up north can't say enough bad about her. They were probably only babies when she was in office but you would think from the way they talk they knew her personally and can't stand her. I think a lot of their hatred for her comes from their parents. The Falkland war that she involved the country in is also very controversial and brought up by those who oppose her policies. I have no real opinion on the woman either way.  I have just found the many conversations at school pickup and drop off and on the radio very enlightening. 

She is also blamed for the increase in chavs (if you don't know what that is, click on the word and read the link) in this country.  I have heard people so mad and angry at her, you would think she was prime minister yesterday (she was in office in the 1980s).  

I also heard a lot of opposition to her state funeral today too. Many people complaining that she shouldn't have one and that it was costing the country 10 million pounds and was too excessive. The last prime minister with a state funeral was Winston Churchill. On the radio, they were telling people to boycott the funeral. Not to show up even to protest (though most people agreed that a funeral was not a place to protest anyway). They were encouraging people to try and keep the numbers down on the street during the procession so it would make a bigger statement of how the country feels about her. However, I don't think that plan worked since I saw the streets were lined with crowds of people. Charles saw the whole funeral procession from his office window since he works right by St. Paul's cathedral where the funeral was held. Here is the picture he took from his window of the gun carriage carrying her coffin on the way to St. Paul's.

I am certainly not making any kind of statement here, for or against her. I have just found the whole thing quite interesting and wanted to share.