MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
The Iron Lady and I!
Mercopress correspondent Harold Briley knew Margaret Thatcher well, here reminiscing on fifty years of reporting her activities for half a century as a BBC Political, Latin America. Defence and East Europe Correspondent. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesThank you Harold.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 02:02 am - Link - Report abuse 0Dear Harold, Thatcher is not only about the Malvinas Islands. She is much more but it would seem you'd rather no touch the following topics:
Apr 12th, 2013 - 02:11 am - Link - Report abuse 01. She symbolises the lack of generosity and kindheartedness of a certain brand of entrepreneurial Protestantism.
2. She symbolises cheap and dangerous patriotism at the rotting end of empire.
3. She symbolises the victory of ill gotten gain over profits from hard sustained labour.
4. She symbolises the destruction, by fair means and foul (but mainly foul) of workers rights to defend themselves in the workplace.
5. She symbolises the spread, like a virus, of the destructive ideology of the Chicago school through all the establishment's forums from Davos to G8.
6. She symbolises the military industrial complex and Mutually Assured Destruction, with Reagan taking us to the brink of war with a first strike policy she supported.
7. She symbolises the loss of Britain's position as a leading industrial power.
8. She symbolises the way British people became defenseless against exploitation, with millions of people in the British living increasingly off shitty low paid part time jobs.
9. She symbolises the victory of identity politics over social justice. A woman presiding over the impoverishment and oppression of a whole nation.
10. She symbolises the loss of national sovereignty to the United States, with US listening stations and military bases dotting the archipelago.
11. She symbolises the cultivation of the council house buyers, the I am alright jack fuck you brand of Britishness and the end of affordable council housing.
12. For Thatcher there was no such thing as society because she was busy her best to destroy it. Especially in the North of England.
13. Thatcher symbolises the end of One Nation Tory-ism and the beginning of an even more horribly divided set of islands.
14. Thatcher symbolises the victory of the watery dark selfish mean spirit of many British people over their tolerant generous kind better selves.
Marvellous piece from the venerable Harold Brierly. Deserves more thanks. Fair and balanced observations, without rancor, from a commentator who was in the rarest of positions: - astride the UK, the islands and Argentina. Having read this potted history of the conflict, I would like to read his thoughts on the direction of Anglo-Argentinian relations in the future.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 02:26 am - Link - Report abuse 0“BBC chief refuses to ban Margaret Thatcher death song”
Apr 12th, 2013 - 03:36 am - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9988527/BBC-chief-refuses-to-ban-Margaret-Thatcher-death-song.html
'Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead' Reaches Top 5 In The Charts After Margaret Thatcher's Death”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9988527/BBC-chief-refuses-to-ban-Margaret-Thatcher-death-song.html
Wow Marcos!
Apr 12th, 2013 - 04:02 am - Link - Report abuse 0Tell us more please! You are so clever and wise! How do manage to find such illuminating articles and then provide such insight into the world today!
Mercopress, please give Marcos a job, he is probably one of the best researchers living today!!
@ 2 Helber Galarga
Apr 12th, 2013 - 04:05 am - Link - Report abuse 0So you don't like her then! And most of the points you make are just products of your stupid imagination and are just not facts.
@6
Apr 12th, 2013 - 04:37 am - Link - Report abuse 0well Gordo (de m.....)...
rather than accuse me of stupid imagination deal with each point individually and provide your side of the story or your own opinion.
if you are too damn lazy than Fark off
There is a growing public revulsion at the inappropriate scale of this funeral for a woman who did so much damage to Britain.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 05:04 am - Link - Report abuse 0marcos,
Apr 12th, 2013 - 05:47 am - Link - Report abuse 0Spell binding insight ..... sorry but you forgot the link! can you forward please?
Cheers
Argentina was beaten by a woman and their macho pride still can't take it. Argies are just a bunch of plonkers.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 06:39 am - Link - Report abuse 0Misinformation and lies from TMBOA propaganda machine
rivetting post #10.... just rivetting.....
Apr 12th, 2013 - 06:43 am - Link - Report abuse 0any other groundbreaking contribution to this thread?
@ 2 HG
Apr 12th, 2013 - 06:52 am - Link - Report abuse 0Now you blame the Protestants for working hard and making you look bad?
There are plenty of other countries & groups that work hard and make you look bad as well - so don't single out the Prods.
And as for suggesting that the UK was still an industrial leader in the late 1970s! The only industrial charts we led by then were for days lost due to Industrial Action (and I'm in a union). We might have sparked the industrial revolution but in the 60s and 70s the unions and management failed to cooperate sensibly and so it all went East.
Marcos is only repeating what he hears the minority of hte people in the UK saying, he should know, he lives here, he does not need to research it, he's living it. Though you will never get him to admit it.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 06:52 am - Link - Report abuse 0He lacks the once thing that Thatcher had in abundance, courage!
The minority can complain all they like. The funeral will go ahead as planned.
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
Apr 12th, 2013 - 06:57 am - Link - Report abuse 0Following the death of world class politician St. Margaret of Finchley I have decided to rename Argentina. From today its new name in english is Thatchertina. Please use the correct new name from now on in your postings.
Very good article. Mrs Thatcher fully vindicated in her actions. Argentina losing the war saved many more 1000s of lives through the ending of the Junta rule. You argentine posters can't bare to admit this, that Mrs Thatcher sorted out your nasty leadership.. Jesus Christ, had Argentina got the islands, the Junta would have disappeared the kelpers and you posters would be listening out for the knock at the door and would be wondering if you'd ever see your parents again. And with the baby thefts, you 30-somethings may even be wondering if your parents are truly your parents.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 07:01 am - Link - Report abuse 0I hated Nicholas Ridley, a horrible MP. Close to the end of conservative rule, a large pot of government money was available to be distributed to local councils. Each council had to write to him by a certain time to win a share of the pot and Somerset County Council duly wrote off. The council, in an effort to save money, used a 2nd class stamp (approx £0.30) to save on postage and demonstrate their money saving credentials but their letter arrived 1 day late so horrid Nick threw out their application. That stamp effectively cost the council £90,000.
@Helber Galarga
Apr 12th, 2013 - 07:42 am - Link - Report abuse 01. Better to symbolise that than the apparent generosity and kindheartedness of a certain brand of profligate catholisism.
2. Better than the bankrupt nationalism of a country still in “conquista del desierto” mode.
3. Incorrect, she symbolises the latter, profits from honest hard work.
4. More like a fair distribution of rights between workers and their employers.
5. Destructive? I don’t think so. The UK went from economic basketcase – the “sick man of Europe” to one of the worlds strongest economies.
6. Si vis pacem, para bellum. It kept the peace and contributed to dismantling the vile and oppressive communist system in eastern Europe.
7. On the contrary. The UK is still a leading industrialised power. More than 20% of the British economy is accounted for by manufacturing. She just rebalanced the economy, quite successfully. See point 5 above.
8. There were many more living off “shitty, low paid” jobs before she arrived. If the working class in the UK were so filled with unbridled joy, why did we have the winter of discontent?
9. Not the victory, but a rebalancing. Impoverishment and oppression of a whole nation? Are you barking mad? Much richer after she left and when she arrived, and peoples don’t re-elect the same leader 3 times.
10. What evidence do you have for “US listening stations and military bases dotting the archipelago”. That’s just a fantasy. Loss of national sovereignty? Possibly now, but not under Thatcher, and I think you are confusing Washington with Brussels.
11. Or from the other end of the stick a chance to break out of the poverty cycle and better oneself and provide better opportunities for ones family.
12. You seem to forget that society is made up of individuals. And the North of England was stuffed well before Thatcher arrived on the scene.
13. Horribly divided? That was before Thatcher, the winter of discontent being a kind of climax. The UK is far more united now than it has ever been.
14. Thatcher symbolises the vict
@ 7 Helber Galarga(¡hijo de su madre!)
Apr 12th, 2013 - 08:43 am - Link - Report abuse 0I will just endorse everything that J.A.Roberts @ 16 has posted!
By the way, what has Protestatism got to do with anything? Even the (Catholic and Argentine) Pope had the generosity to send a message of condolence.
Mrs T getting rid of the Industrial Development Certificate which prevented businesses starting up in the South of England energised the South and reversed the decline. The Big Bang got rid of the old farts and energised the City of London. Consequently making the South one of the richest areas in Europe. Meanwhile Arthur Scargill was trying to shut down Britain by blocking coal supplies whilst asking for continuous double digit (at one point 35%) pay demands. Miners were called out on strike without ballots and in the end got their reward, closure of uneconomic pits and out of date smokestack industries.RIP a great Prime Minister. She made many mistakes but revived Britain and trounced the despicable Rgs. Enjoy your death dance #2, she was the scourge of scroungers.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 08:51 am - Link - Report abuse 0“”“”Argentina was beaten by a woman and their macho pride still can't take it. “””
Apr 12th, 2013 - 09:24 am - Link - Report abuse 0I suspect that this at the core of their bitterness.... very good point indeed and well worth repeating.
@8
Apr 12th, 2013 - 09:40 am - Link - Report abuse 0Some people are going to be annoyed about spending so much on MAGGIES funeral but heho it is the minority. You see, the population are allowed to have their voices heard, not like in some countries, that was what MAGGIE was about.Freedom of speech, like the Ding Dong thing, its called DEMOCRACY.
Ding dong-song top 5 in charts?
Apr 12th, 2013 - 09:48 am - Link - Report abuse 0You guys are SURE it's the minority?
Hahahahahaha!!!
#2
Apr 12th, 2013 - 10:01 am - Link - Report abuse 0“entrepreneurial Protestantism”
What the hell is that ? I understand both words individually but what is the link?
I could just as easily say entrepreneurial catholicism.
When the Conquistadores left Spain for the new world, they did so in the name of the Holy Roman Catholic Church and they were certainly entrepreneurial !
Correct me if I am wrong but you give the impression that you HATE the UK and all who sail in her. Any particular reason that this has affected you personally or is it just a particular political slant.
JA , don't let the truth get in the way of Helber's stories . If the pendejo traga leche wants to believe everything he/she is told in Campora School , so be it
Apr 12th, 2013 - 10:17 am - Link - Report abuse 0After all , if Maggie was as bad as HG says , how come she was re- elected three times ?
Cristina has to go into hiding ( again) to avoid questions about the lack of flood defences in La Plata . They are also concealing the true casualty figures so as not to have to release govt emergency relief funds .
Her mother is OK though , she was helicoptered to the presidential residence at Olivos .
The rest ? Typical Kirchnerite response : Que se jodan and we'll blame Macri .
Glass of milk anyone ?
Just to put things straight, Argentina hates anyone who has the guts to put them in there place. Maggie had the the guts.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 10:33 am - Link - Report abuse 024-- says it all! As for the charts - clearly Argies have yet to learn that most of the “score” these days is from internet downloads etc - only needs a few to do it repeatedly and the figures get distorted- hell Argies should know plenty about distorting reality- its their national pastime!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apr 12th, 2013 - 12:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Marcos - Funeral Costs £10million - well seems a pretty fair deal since she recouped £75BILLION over the years as a result for her EU Policies.
How are you getting along with your Almirante Irizaar? - hear that after 6 years and $100million repairs and probabaly a similar amount in hire of other ships, or more she is still a long long way away form operating?
Shall we compare Value for Money spent?
Marcos : “The BBC refuses to ban” . Exactly , because the UK is a free country where the state broadcaster tells it as it is , not what the government want you to see & hear like TV Publica that lies on CFK's behalf all day .
Apr 12th, 2013 - 12:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Only the deadbeat wasters disliked Maggie because she made them work.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 12:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Others did not like a woman, a Conservative at that, deciding where the country was going.
The Poll Tax was a fair tax and the wasters did not like the idea because of having to pay their share of the services cost. The Scots especially.
I agree with Faz and the clearout gave me my step up to the top tier of management and brought forward positive changes in the businesses I was responsible for.
What a shame the UK has since been managed by a complete bunch of cnuts, irrespective of political colour.
@27:
Apr 12th, 2013 - 03:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0'The Poll Tax was a fair tax and the wasters did not like the idea because of having to pay their share of the services cost. The Scots especially.'
Could you elaborate on your comment above regarding the Scots please?
@2
Apr 12th, 2013 - 04:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Hear it from somebody who was there at the time:
First of all, Maggie restored some pride to the UK by confronting left wing socialist extremists who were bringing the country down to it's knees much like what the Bolivarians are doing in S.A.
She re-energized the economy by privatizing lame duck nationalized industries making them more efficient & profitable
She stood up to the miners, power workers, engineering unions to name a few who were blackmailing the country with their excessive wage demands
She helped hundreds of thousands out of poverty & enabled them to buy their own homes for the first time in their lives
She ended the culture of state dependancy making people stand on their own two feet & taking responsibility for themselves
She was instrumental in bringing down the iron curtain by opening up communication lines with Gorbachev
She was instrumental in ending apartheid by opening up communication lines with De Klerk & Botha
And last but not least she had the ' pelotas' to stand up to the military junta who invaded a peaceful island nation & not only did she win the war but it also helped to bring down a brutal dictatorship for which the RGs should be forever thankful
Now then, what did CFK do?.......................hmmmmm..............................
Oh yeah, she increased inflation to around 30% per year, she introduced import controls creating shortages in manufacturing, she introduced dollar controls creating a massive parallel market, she created state capitalism by taking over the central bank, pension funds & YPF, she's picked fights with the U.S., U.K, E.U., U.N., I.M.F., F.I., Scioli, Macri, Moyano & even the pope, she hid behind the Campora in times of national crisis like the Once train crash & the La Plata floods
And last but not least, she whined about the Falklands incessantly until everyone got tired of her including B.K.Moon & the Pope.........absolutely NO COMPARISON!!!
The ill tax was to make everyone pay their fair whack of local taxes, it was a good idea and was introduced in Scotland first. I don't really understand what the objection to it is. It's like the present hyperbole about the so called bedroom tax. It's not a tax at all, just removal of some housing BENEFIT from those receiving it who are sitting in public housing with spare rooms in an effort to incentivise these people to move to more appropriate subsidised housing. Too many people in Britain still see taxpayers as somehow owing them a living and all sorts of perks. 875,000 refusing to go for disability benefit interviews proves there are still thousands of scroungers out there living off the rest of us who work hard and pay taxes. Maggie was no friend to them.
Apr 12th, 2013 - 04:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0#28
Apr 12th, 2013 - 05:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I was about to say the same but I will let your question stand as it is. The usual snide comments surfacing again - except no reference to Galloway and Salmond as yet.
Helber Galarga
Apr 12th, 2013 - 06:12 pm - Link - Report abuse 0They are not facts,
They are just your hatred for everything British,
And you know it,
Like her or hate her,
She achieved in what CFK has failed to do,
Maggie liked action
CFK likes to talk,
You started a war,
She beat you,
That’s a fact,
And you have never forgiven her; anything else she may or may not have done in the UK is of no concern to Argies but the brits,
But your hate and the hate of others is no more than fear,
Yes fear, other wise you would not have waited until she was dead to insult her.
///////////////////////
by the way,
on the grapvine,
maggie has just punched chavez on the nose and tossed him of cloud nine
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
just passing it on like
28 Escoses Doido
Apr 12th, 2013 - 07:13 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Of course. And for Clyde15 it was not a snide comment: you are showing your (undeserved) inferiority complex again.
The Scots had the poll tax 12 months before everyone else and could, if they could put aside their usual blaming of the sassenachs, had shown the weaknesses, as they saw them, in a positive manner in order to develop it for the benefit of all the useful members of society.
The poll tax SOUGHT to make every mature person pay their way for community services instead of putting the burden on those who owned or rented housing. The existing system was to be abandoned.
What on earth was wrong with that?
Whilst I am better off than most people because I worked hard all my life and rose to be a director of a GEC company and then started my own businesses all from a working class background why should I pay any more to support the lazy bastards who at the time lived the life of Riley on the benefits system?
I cannot understand why anyone who has served his country as Clyde15 has or holds down a difficult job as yourself (I have worked in the oil industry as a terminal engineer in Nigeria) would want to part with their money for what many would see as the dregs of society.
I am NOT castigating those who are genuinely disabled or who support others and cannot work, BUT I am castigating ALL the lazy bastards that you know damn well ‘worked the system’.
To all who comment on here,
Apr 12th, 2013 - 09:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I have 2 facts and some advice
1 ) The falklands will always be british
2 ) Maggie was great for the uk and the world
The Advice ... GET A LIFE
2 more facts:
Apr 12th, 2013 - 09:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 01) CFK´s time is numbered
2)Devaluation of the peso soon
more advice....GET DOLLARS
I thought this was intersting - especially coming fom The Guardian
Apr 12th, 2013 - 10:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/12/margaret-thatcher-world-not-around-us
@33 Chris:
Apr 12th, 2013 - 11:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I too served in the Armed Forces. (10 years)
Bear one thing in mind here, the population of England is ten times that of Scotland, so I'd imagine there are around ten times the amount of 'wasters' there that there are in Scotland. (given that there are many Scots wasters in England, and also many English wasters in Scotland)
I don't disagree with your views, but please bear in mind that we are not all 'wasters' - Just people who are as proud of their heritage as you are of yours.
Personally I have no inferiority complex as a Scot, nor do I know any Scot who has.
Are we not straying off topic a little?
I take it we both feel the same way about the Falkland Islands?
The Helber Galarga view of the World ....
Apr 13th, 2013 - 10:20 am - Link - Report abuse 01. Latin Catholics are the kindest people in the world , Anglo Saxons by their very nature are bad . After all , they actually believe in work and reward for the individual effort .
2. Anglo Saxon nationalism is bad , but Latin American nationalism , which is effectively fascism , is good
3. Profit from hard work is evil .
4. Trades unions take precedence in the workplace .
5. All international trade is bad
6. Soviet and worldwide communism should have been allowed to prosper and expand
7. Britain should still be mining coal and making steel that no on e wants at completely uncompetetive prices , in order to please the trades unions
8. People should be paid what they think they are worth , not what they actually are worth .
9. Governments that drive their people into the dirt get re elected , time and again in Argentina , so it should happen to everyone else as well
10. The UK is part of the continental shelf of the US and the UK is really called the Jefferson Islands and London is actually called Port Washington
11. Private property is theft , everyone should just do WTF they like , like pikeys . How can politicians retain their hold over the electorate if they are allowed to better themselves.
12. We need society . Otherwise , who would we rob ?
14. “ Primero yo ” is OK for argentines , but we expect better from the Brits , because we have a dirty great chip on our collective shoulders and actually admire them but we cannot bring ourselves to say so .
37 Escoses Doido
Apr 13th, 2013 - 04:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Thank you for your reply but I have to say that when I had corporate responsibility for three manufacturing plants (albeit on the same site) along the M8 corridor the term worker for those who were employed there was a joke and their effort far below any of the other employees in the 31 other plants in England and N.I. (none in Wales). I never said all Scots were wasters, that would be completely wrong as well as racist.
The term sassenachs is also a term of derision whereas Scot is not (in my experience). Furthermore there has been throughout the Industrial Revolution many fine engineers and scientists from Scotland who have contributed greatly to our society.
And don’t even start on the Regiments of Scotland that various governments have destroyed or emasculated, it makes my blood boil as I have the highest regard for such regiments and their soldiers.
However, the facts remain as they are with the poll tax in Scotland.
And yes, our views on the Falklands are clearly EXACTLY aligned, though I might be tempted to be a little more vociferous with some of the lamentable argies / Malvanistas.
Wooooopeeee taxes
Apr 13th, 2013 - 06:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Two thing are certain in life
Death and taxes,
Lets not venture down this road chaps
Everybody pays tax,
Poll tax-window tax-toilet tax-road tax- human tax –
Train tax-car tax – curtain tax , gun tax , land tax,
Ect ect ect,
Apparently we even had a poll tax riot in the early 1300s and the leader
On marching to London was hung,
We had taxes when the romans, were here,
Even bodica /Boudica /paid taxes,
The Vikings and Saxons forced us to pay taxes,
Even the Britons [me] was forced to pay taxes,
And the Celts, we even had to pay woolly mammoth taxes
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Meanwhile back in the 21st century,
Let join together and TAX CFK,
You know it makes sense.lol
united we stand===devided our enemies win..
@38
Apr 14th, 2013 - 12:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0LMFAO.........you must have read the Campora manual for trolling English news sites!!!
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