Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead?

As news of Maggie Thatcher's death hit the world, my Facebook feed went mental.

As I reading through everyone's comments, I couldn't help but notice a couple of trends.

The most popular status update among Brits was:

DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD.

Then from the non-Brits there was:

RIP MARGARET THATCHER.

Interesting, ne.

Now, without getting overly political about all of this...

There were a coupld of my male American friends which, in addition to RIP, said that all women should "bow down and show some respect" to her.

My reaction?

You're joking, right?!

I don't want to sit here and say that Americans don't understand the real effect that this woman had on our country, but I can't help but wonder if they really know the full extent of what happened.

The only possible respect that I can show her, is pat her on the back for being the first, and only, female PM. I'm not a Tory anyway and the harm that she caused our country cannot be justified. I will never understand the logic behind her policies and I found her actions to be truly disgusting. BUT, I have to hand it to her - she did what she said she was going to do. Even though I abhor what she did, she said she was going to do it, and then actually carried it out. A rare trait in many PMs.

As one of the most divisive political figues ever, from what I've been observing, she seems to have quite a favourable image outside of the UK. I'm not quite sure why....I can only put it down to a lack of understanding? I don't know. 

Something else which interested me was people's reactions to the movie "The Iron Lady". Again I noticed that Brits deemed it a shit movie or just "OK", yet my friends from other countries said it was brilliant and amazing. Again, I'm not sure why, but if it's down to Meryl Streep - well, that's a given because she's an amazing actress. But it doesn't make the film brilliant.

On a personal level, I was more than umimpressed. As an opposer to everything that ghastly woman stood for, I watched the movie thinking that FINALLY we  could see what thinking laid behind those policies. Instead, we were given a pitiful story of her mental demise. NOOOO!!!! Speaking only for myself, I wanted to see more of the POLITICS. I wanted to see her though process. I wanted to at least be given the option to try and understand what she did. 

But no.

We were just given the story of her pathetic existence after resigning.

Grrrrrr.....

Having said all of this though, I'm not sure that it's right to celebrate her death with status updates like "Ding dong the witch is dead". I mean, despite the societal effects her policies had and the harm that she caused, she certainly was no Mugabe. Or Hitler.

I have to share my friend's update because I think she's hit the nail on the head.

"I can despise the legacy someone left, and the harm that they did to the social fabric of my country. I found her ideals and actions abhorrent. That doesn't mean I'm going to celebrate a human death as if England had just scored in a world-cup final."

Amen to that, girl!

xoxo