Bill Carmichael: Great working class heroine

THE “parties” organised to celebrate the death of Baroness Thatcher ended in violence, thuggery and, in at least one case, a full-blown riot.

Surprised? No, neither am I. Apparently nothing demonstrates your devotion to social justice more than putting a brick through a window and looting a charity shop. A virulent outbreak of TDS (Thatcher Derangement Syndrome) was always to be expected on the death of the former prime minister, and the reaction this week was drearily predictable.

Within minutes of Lady Thatcher’s demise being announced, the internet was full of vile and abusive messages – frequently from people who weren’t even born when she was last in power and who clearly had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Although expected, it was still shocking. But unpleasant as it is to probe into the darkest recesses of sick and twisted minds, we should still make some attempt to understand this disturbing phenomena.

What is it about Maggie Thatcher that turns even the most mild mannered lefty into a hate-filled, foam-flecked, swivel-eyed lunatic?

One clue lies in the language. Fashionable progressives who would normally blanch at the thought of anyone using politically incorrect language have been quite happy in the last few days to describe Britain’s first female prime minister as a witch, a hag and a bitch, alongside utterly revolting sexual taunts against an elderly grandmother that for decency’s sake cannot be repeated here.

I am afraid what we have here is old fashioned misogyny – the ancient fear and hatred invariably expressed by weak and inadequate men when faced with powerful and talented women. She emasculated the swaggering bullies of the Left and they’ve never forgiven her for it.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Lady Thatcher requires no eulogies – her record stands for itself. She routed the insurrectionist trade unions, defeated the IRA, helped free millions in eastern Europe from the yoke of communist oppression and transformed Britain’s moribund economy. Not a bad CV.

Oh yes, and she also warned of the dangers of rampant welfarism and the catastrophe of the euro. In other words, she was pretty much bang on the money every time. As an interesting aside, she also rescued the Labour Party from irrelevance by helping to vanquish the loony lefties such as Ken Livingstone and Tony Benn who had made the party completely unelectable.

But I think the left’s loathing of her has a deeper reason – and that’s to do with her relationship with the working classes who famously helped her to three resounding general election victories.

By allowing council tenants to buy their own homes, Lady Thatcher was responsible for the biggest transfer of wealth in favour of the working classes in British history.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

With the money they saved in rent, many of those new home owners went on to buy shares in the privatised utilities and make a tidy profit. I know this because my father, a shop steward on the Liverpool docks, was one of the millions of beneficiaries.

In 11 short years, Lady Thatcher did more for the working classes than the Labour Party, the trade unions and the Marxist academics have ever achieved between them before or since. She is beyond all doubt a great working class heroine. Her famous victories and shining achievements are a constant reminder of the left’s impotence and miserable failures. That’s why they hate her.

I like to think that if Lady Thatcher had been able to witness the demented maniacs of the left futilely spewing their deranged abuse she would have been quietly amused.

As one of her closest friends, the MP Conor Burns, said: “They hate her because she won.”

And even in death they couldn’t 
defeat her.

Related topics: