Opponents and critics celebrate her passing
As Britain learned the news that the “Iron Lady” had died, not everyone was in mourning.
A quickly rising 180,000 people had “liked” the isthatcherdeadyet.co.uk website, which had been updated with a large block-capital “yes”.
The site encouraged visitors to party, provided a soundtrack, and linked to a Twitter feed with the hashtag #nowthatchersdead, which attracted a swift stream of dubious jokes, celebrations, and recriminations, along with some confusion that it actually read “now that Cher’s dead”.
“Margaret Thatcher’s dead. This lady’s not returning,” said isthatcherdeadyet. The phrase is a play on words of her remark “the lady’s not for turning”, made in a speech in 1980 at a conference to those in her own Conservative Party who were urging her to moderate her radical, right-wing policies.
Those policies, credited by some with modernising Britain, alienated many, who saw her as a destroyer of jobs and traditional industries.
The vitriolic words being hurled 23 years since she stepped down showed that many had not forgotten and not forgiven.
“Best news I have had all year,” said one commentator on social website Facebook, who said he was a former miner.
A bottle of milk was placed on the doorstep of Thatcher’s home in Belgravia, a reference to her policy of scrapping free milk for primary school children while head of education in the 1970s, which earned her the moniker “Thatcher the milk snatcher”.
Trade unionists tweeted they were heading to the pub, while others said they were chilling champagne and asked “where the party” was. Fliers have appeared around in London in recent days declaring there would be a party in Trafalgar Square, a traditional centre for celebrations and protests in the capital, on the Saturday following her death.
