I have a discussion session with some of the youngsters in my local church every Sunday, and the most recent topic I raised was what they thought of Margaret Thatcher.
The overwhelming response I got was silence, with a ‘Who’s that?’ look on their faces. Now, while the current generation clearly doesn’t give two hoots about who Margaret Thatcher is or what she stands for, for those a bit older it’s a very different story.
The mainstream media have done their best to convince us that she was one of the greatest political leaders of the modern age. But I know enough to be aware that such channels are controlled behind the scenes by those who profited most during Thatcher’s tenure as British prime minister.
If she was such a great leader, then why did so many Britons rejoice over her death? Why did so many not spare their words in condemning the role she played in British politics? “We’ve been waiting for a long time to hear the news of Baroness Thatcher’s demise and I can’t say I’m sorry,” said trade union leader Chris Kitchener, blaming her for causing “untold damage to the mining community”.
He added: “I don’t think Margaret Thatcher had any sympathy for the mining communities she decimated, the people she threw on the dole and the state she left the country in. I honestly can’t think of anything good I can say about Margaret Thatcher.”
Indeed, however reverently her name is handled in the media today, Thatcher was surely the most divisive and controversial prime minister in British history. The ordinary British people, whose lives she shattered while at 10 Downing Street, hated her with a passion. On the other hand, those who benefited from her free market policies that enriched the wealthy and impoverished the poor, and who accepted her racist and oppressive ideology, continue to sing her praises.
Thatcher’s policies towards Africa, and especially South Africa, were overwhelmingly imperialistic. I suppose if she had her way she would not have said no to re-colonising the continent. She was a long-time apologist for the apartheid regime, and she even had the audacity to dismiss Nelson Mandela as a terrorist.
But now that she’s gone, her death reminds us of the mortality of mankind, and that no matter how powerful some people can be, we will all end up the same in the end. At the same time, the things that men and women do can live on long after they’re gone – whether for good, or what many believe in Thatcher’s case, for bad.
Olajide Jatto is a software engineer and writer based in Dublin.
