Ringo
Platinum Member
Right-wingers and libertarians celebrated the 100th anniversary of their beloved Maggie with great fanfare.
I never understood the love people had for her, who didn't have at least ÂŁ10 million in stocks and real estate in London.
I'll congratulate her too..
1. A celebration of death and the scale of the rift
On April 13, 2013, when Thatcher died, hundreds of thousands of Britons took to the streets. The song “Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead” (a song by the Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz) reached No. 2 on the UK charts and No. 1 in Scotland.
Northern England, Wales, mining towns, and Scotland rejoiced at the death of the politician who had changed their fate.
It was not personal hatred, but a reaction to a structural upheaval: the end of the post-war compromise between the upper class and the lower classes.
Thatcher restored wealth to the elite by freeing them from social obligations.
She did not revive the empire, but found a way to extract rent from it for several more decades.
2. The choice between cure and palliative care
By the 1970s, Britain was at an impasse: the empire was dead, industry was obsolete, and global influence had disappeared. “British disease” became an economic “meme.”
The country faced two paths.
▪“Treatment” — modernization and reindustrialization based on the German model;
▪“Palliative care” — living off the past, turning the imperial legacy into a source of income..
Thatcher chose the latter.
The morphine was the City of London, transformed into a giant mechanism for processing global capital.
It did not create value, but acted as an intermediary.
The “Big Bang” of 1986 — the deregulation of the financial sector accompanied by a radical reduction in transaction taxes — opened the floodgates for money flows, turning London into a financial casino..
3.The new aristocracy and social amputation
At the same time, the manufacturing base was being destroyed.
Mines, factories, and shipyards were closing.
The north of England and Wales turned into economic deserts.
Why treat the sick when you can amputate?.
London was getting richer.
Post-war restrictions on capital, high taxes, and the pursuit of social equality were abolished.
The elite were “liberated”: a new class of financiers emerged, living no worse than the old aristocracy, but without land or production.
Thatcherism was a “decree of freedom for nobility” in neoliberal form.
The new triumphant class needed not workers, but servants—thus Thatcherism paved the way for migration, which became uncontrollable a quarter of a century later..
4.A state without society
Thatcher's phrase “there is no such thing as society” became a political program.
The state did not disappear or become “small” — it changed its functions.
For the elite, it guaranteed economic freedom; for the lower classes, it tightened control.
Increased police budgets, suppression of miners' strikes, destruction of local self-government, cultural censorship, and Section 28 — these were the flip side of economic liberalization..
Thatcherism gave rise to neo-victorianism, in which social inequality was concealed behind rhetoric about “responsibility” and “order.”
Its victims included Benny Hill's show, which was shut down under pressure from Maggie, and ordinary people.
The system developed a new class contempt — cold and bureaucratic.
“The poor are to blame.”
The country faced a series of scandals: gangs of migrants in depressed cities raped thousands of girls for years with the connivance of the authorities.
The “Thatcherite” state blamed the weak for their weakness.
“Fallen women” from the lower social classes did not deserve protection under either the old or the new “Victorianism.”.
5. Return to reality
The imperial legacy is finite.
Brexit destroyed the myth of “global Britain,” offshore zones are losing their privileges, and the decolonial trend is undermining old ties.
There is no manufacturing base, social mobility has been killed, and the housing crisis has become chronic.
Britain finds itself in a state of prolonged withdrawal..
When “The Witch Is Dead” played on the radio again in 2013, it was not schadenfreude, but mourning for a country where “the sheep have eaten the people” again, where generations of indigenous people have been sacrificed for the prosperity of the international oligarchy of the City.
“The witch is dead,” but her witchcraft — the belief that “there is no society” — continues to rule the body of the British state.
Britain has never awakened from its dream of its former empire.
I never understood the love people had for her, who didn't have at least ÂŁ10 million in stocks and real estate in London.
I'll congratulate her too..
1. A celebration of death and the scale of the rift
On April 13, 2013, when Thatcher died, hundreds of thousands of Britons took to the streets. The song “Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead” (a song by the Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz) reached No. 2 on the UK charts and No. 1 in Scotland.
Northern England, Wales, mining towns, and Scotland rejoiced at the death of the politician who had changed their fate.
It was not personal hatred, but a reaction to a structural upheaval: the end of the post-war compromise between the upper class and the lower classes.
Thatcher restored wealth to the elite by freeing them from social obligations.
She did not revive the empire, but found a way to extract rent from it for several more decades.
2. The choice between cure and palliative care
By the 1970s, Britain was at an impasse: the empire was dead, industry was obsolete, and global influence had disappeared. “British disease” became an economic “meme.”
The country faced two paths.
▪“Treatment” — modernization and reindustrialization based on the German model;
▪“Palliative care” — living off the past, turning the imperial legacy into a source of income..
Thatcher chose the latter.
The morphine was the City of London, transformed into a giant mechanism for processing global capital.
It did not create value, but acted as an intermediary.
The “Big Bang” of 1986 — the deregulation of the financial sector accompanied by a radical reduction in transaction taxes — opened the floodgates for money flows, turning London into a financial casino..
3.The new aristocracy and social amputation
At the same time, the manufacturing base was being destroyed.
Mines, factories, and shipyards were closing.
The north of England and Wales turned into economic deserts.
Why treat the sick when you can amputate?.
London was getting richer.
Post-war restrictions on capital, high taxes, and the pursuit of social equality were abolished.
The elite were “liberated”: a new class of financiers emerged, living no worse than the old aristocracy, but without land or production.
Thatcherism was a “decree of freedom for nobility” in neoliberal form.
The new triumphant class needed not workers, but servants—thus Thatcherism paved the way for migration, which became uncontrollable a quarter of a century later..
4.A state without society
Thatcher's phrase “there is no such thing as society” became a political program.
The state did not disappear or become “small” — it changed its functions.
For the elite, it guaranteed economic freedom; for the lower classes, it tightened control.
Increased police budgets, suppression of miners' strikes, destruction of local self-government, cultural censorship, and Section 28 — these were the flip side of economic liberalization..
Thatcherism gave rise to neo-victorianism, in which social inequality was concealed behind rhetoric about “responsibility” and “order.”
Its victims included Benny Hill's show, which was shut down under pressure from Maggie, and ordinary people.
The system developed a new class contempt — cold and bureaucratic.
“The poor are to blame.”
The country faced a series of scandals: gangs of migrants in depressed cities raped thousands of girls for years with the connivance of the authorities.
The “Thatcherite” state blamed the weak for their weakness.
“Fallen women” from the lower social classes did not deserve protection under either the old or the new “Victorianism.”.
5. Return to reality
The imperial legacy is finite.
Brexit destroyed the myth of “global Britain,” offshore zones are losing their privileges, and the decolonial trend is undermining old ties.
There is no manufacturing base, social mobility has been killed, and the housing crisis has become chronic.
Britain finds itself in a state of prolonged withdrawal..
When “The Witch Is Dead” played on the radio again in 2013, it was not schadenfreude, but mourning for a country where “the sheep have eaten the people” again, where generations of indigenous people have been sacrificed for the prosperity of the international oligarchy of the City.
“The witch is dead,” but her witchcraft — the belief that “there is no society” — continues to rule the body of the British state.
Britain has never awakened from its dream of its former empire.
