Maggie Thatcher is dead

[topbananas]

as a Scot, not too upset at all

http://news.sky.com/...es-after-stroke

Baroness Thatcher, Britain's Iron Lady, has died after suffering a stroke at the age of 87.

Her children Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother had died peacefully following a stroke this morning.

Speaking to Sky News, spokesman and friend Lord Bell, who announced her death, said: "We’ll never see the like of her again. She was one of the great prime ministers of all time and transformed people's lives."

He described the former prime minister, a grocer's daughter from Grantham, as the greatest leader of the Conservative Party with the exception of Winston Churchill.

He said: "She was just a fantastic person – extraordinary charisma, very focused, loved her country, loved being in government and dedicated her life to making people’s lives better …I think history will remember her very kindly."

Prime Minister David Cameron paid tribute saying: "It was with great sadness that I learned of Lady Thatcher's death. We've lost a great leader, a great Prime Minister and a great Briton."

Mr Cameron, who was meeting EU leaders in Spain, will return home early and is expected to arrive back in the country this afternoon.

A statement from Buckingham Palace said: "The Queen was sad to hear the news of the death of Baroness Thatcher. Her Majesty will be sending a private message of sympathy to the family."

Downing Street announced that she would receive a full ceremonial funeral with honours at St Paul's Cathedral.

Lady Thatcher, Britain's first and only woman prime minister, had become increasingly frail and was suffering ill health in recent years.

She suffered several small strokes in 2002 and was advised not to accept further public speaking engagements.

Her increasingly frail condition when she was seen - especially after the death of husband Denis in 2003 - led to frequent bouts of speculation about her health.

However, MPs and friends who saw her regularly said she remained alert and interested in politics, and she was not known to have deteriorated notably recently.

She was admitted to hospital shortly before Christmas where she underwent an operation to remove a growth from her bladder but was allowed to return home before new year.

Prime minister between 1979 and 1990, she has been credited with transforming a nation in one decade, putting Britain back among the leading industrial nations of the world.

She became loved and loathed in equal measure as she crushed the unions and privatised vast swathes of British industry, as she led the Tories to three election victories.

She was nicknamed the Iron Lady by a Russian journalist in 1976 for her opposition to Soviet communism. It is a moniker that stuck, and which privately she was thought to enjoy, and was the title of a film in which Meryl Streep took the title role, which was released in 2011.

She was also memorably described by the then French president Francois Mitterrand with the back-handed compliment that she had the "eyes of Caligula and the mouth of Marilyn Monroe".

But perhaps the defining moment of her career will be the decision to send a taskforce to the Falklands on April 2, 1982 after Argentina invaded.

The former Labour prime minister Tony Blair said: “Margaret Thatcher was a towering political figure. Very few leaders get to change not only the political landscape of their country but of the world. Margaret was such a leader. Her global impact was vast.

"And some of the changes she made in Britain were, in certain respects at least, retained by the 1997 Labour Government, and came to be implemented by governments around the world.

"As a person she was kind and generous spirited and was always immensely supportive to me as Prime Minister although we came from opposite sides of politics.

"Even if you disagreed with her as I did on certain issues and occasionally strongly, you could not disrespect her character or her contribution to Britain’s national life. She will be sadly missed."

Former Conservative prime minister Sir John Major described Baroness Thatcher as a "true force of nature" and a "political phenomenon".

He said: "In government, the UK was turned around under - and in large measure because of - her leadership.

"Her reforms of the economy, trades union law, and her recovery of the Falkland Islands elevated her above normal politics, and may not have been achieved under any other leader."

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said: "Margaret Thatcher was one of the defining figures in modern British politics.

"Whatever side of the political debate you stand on, no-one can deny that as prime minister she left a unique and lasting imprint on the country she served.

"She may have divided opinion during her time in politics but everyone will be united today in acknowledging the strength of her personality and the radicalism of her politics."

Despite her toughness, few will forget the pictures of Baroness Thatcher leaving Downing Street for the last time with her husband, Sir Denis, and tears in her eyes.

Lady Thatcher believed in hard work. The daughter of grocer Alfred Roberts she achieve academically and went on to gain a degree in Chemistry at Oxford University, where she became president of the university's Conservative Association.

On leaving she worked as a research chemist but in February 1951 she was adopted as Conservative candidate for Dartford and at a dinner that day she met the wealthy and divorced businessman, Denis Thatcher. They married later that year.

He supported her during her unsuccessful campaigns for the seat and during her studies to become a barrister. She qualified in 1953, the same year she gave birth to twins Mark and Carol.

[Offensive Threat]

I actually saw her once. Outside a international trade office in Prague.Completely by chance we were walking by and asked a British camera man what everyone was waiting around for and he said the British Prime Minister is expected to leave the building in a few minutes so we waited and saw her. That was in the fall of 1990 when we were backpacking across Europe.

Very few people have left as big of a mark on the world as she did. Quite a life.

[G.K. Chesterton]

Francis Urquhart > Margaret Thatcher.

[Canuckian92]

Her accomplishments as a PM were average at best.

[Sapper]

Her accomplishments as a PM were average at best.

[zombieksa]

In all honesty though, Rest in Peace Mrs. Thatcher. The Iron Woman.

[nucklehead]

Lady. The iron lady.

meanwhile random tweet by: #nowthatcherisdead

has cher fans in mourning...

[Buggernut]

[Scottish⑦Canuck]

I don't know a single person here who liked her, and I'm not upset about it myself. I won't celebrate her death as some are doing though.

Social media is covered with posts from people my age or younger who weren't even born during her term as Prime Minister. It's like it's become fashionable to abuse her.

[Wetcoaster]

In 2010, the University of Leeds and Woodnewton Associates carried out a survey of 106 academics who specialised in British politics and/or British history since 1945 and ranked Thatcher (1979–1990) Number 2 behind Clement Atlee (1945-51).

In 2004, the University of Leeds and Ipsos Mori conducted an online survey of 258 academics who specialised in 20th-century British history and/or politics and Thatcher was Number Four behind Atlee, Churchill and Blair.

In December 1999 a BBC Radio 4 poll of 20 prominent historians, politicians and commentators for The Westminster Hour produced the verdict that Churchill was the best British Prime Minister of the 20th century, with Lloyd George in second place, Clement Attlee in third place, Herbert Asquith in fourth place and Thatcher in fifth place.

[canucks since 77]

Meh.

[morrissex95]

Francis Urquhart > Margaret Thatcher.

[Humble Rodent]

[Jaimito]

http://youtu.be/32cUL6LvsNM

[Imuzi]

For her hand in the Hillsborough disaster I ain't too sad about her finally croaking

[aeromotacanucks]

Argentina is "happy" about this...

maybe now they (Argentina) shut up about Falklands....

[DonLever]

While she may be hated, subsequent British PMS did not reverse her policies. And that includes Tony Blair, the Labour PM.

The power of Unions were not restored nor were British Businesses hampered by higher taxes.

The economy of Britain was practically bankrupt before she arrived. Thanks to her, Britain is now in better economic shape than many of her fellow countries in the EU.

[canucks since 77]

[nucklehead]

I would agree - and although I strongly disagree with her party politics and what she did to workers - her mark on this planet for women and feminism is undeniable. She furthered the image that women could lead a country and could lead an army. How she is remembered now that she is gone will be left to the History books - but the doors she opened to female politicians seeking office is without question one of the better things she will be remembered for.

[DonLever]

London neighbourhood throws party for Thatcher's death

AFP

London, April 09, 2013

Hundreds of people on Monday took to the main square in Brixton, an area of south London which suffered serious rioting in the 1980s, to celebrate the death of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Holding notices saying "Rejoice -- Thatcher is dead", around 200 people

gathered in the neighbourhood, a hotspot of alternative culture, and toasted her passing by drinking and dancing to hip-hop and reggae songs blaring from sound systems.

"I'm very, very pleased. She did so much damage to this country," said one man brandishing an original newspaper billboard from 1990 announcing Thatcher's resignation.

Others scrawled "Good Riddance" on the pavement.

"We've got the bunting out at home," said Clare Truscott, a woman in her 50s wearing a sparkly beret and holding a homemade sign reading "Ding dong, the witch is dead".

"I'm from the north, where there were no jobs, where the industry was rapidly disappearing, and her policies ensured it went more quickly."

Brixton was the scene of fierce riots in 1981, two years after Thatcher became prime minister.

Carole Roper, a full-time carer in her 50s from north London, said: "We're here to celebrate her death."

Sipping from a can of beer, she insisted: "I don't think it's vindictive -- it's not so much about the death of Thatcher but what she has done, the policies she introduced to this country.

"Compare the coverage to that when Chavez died -- she's being eulogised. It's been wall to wall coverage on the BBC but she did nothing to help the poor people of this country."

Meanwhile, in the Scottish city of Glasgow more than 300 people gathered to hold their own impromptu "party".

Anti-capitalist campaigners shouted, "Maggie, Maggie, Maggie" while the crowd replied "dead, dead, dead".

The crowd also broke into a chorus of "So long, the witch is dead" while drinking champagne.

Thatcher, the controversial "Iron Lady" who dominated a generation of British politics and won international acclaim for helping to end the Cold War, died following a stroke on Monday. She was 87.