from Richard Lutz
If the death of Margaret Thatcher and her impending (expensive) funeral has done anything in Britain, it is to re open the unending debate: Whither Britain?
We have had it before: Princess Di’s death comes to mind.
But the Maggie debate, which is a week old now, is a big one. She split the country until her political demise two decades ago. And in her death, she has split it again. Now, that’s power beyond the grave.
Ed Miliband did a competent job of sounding statesmanlike in the weird reconvening of Parliament to eulogise Mrs Thatcher. He paid tribute to a woman who led this country but reminded many that she alienated a good deal of Britain.
But after all the high minded ideological debate, two issues stand out; one light fodder and another pretty nefarious and downright ugly.
Let me explain for our American cousins who continually have to be reminded that life exists east of Connecticut. Mrs Thatcher backed Pinochet, de Botha and the fierce nuclear armaments industry back in the ’80s. She was a conviction politician who you either hated or admired.
Many considered her an horrendous icon of UK affairs. So when the Wizard of Oz song ‘Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead’ recently hit the BBC 1 radio charts, well, it has to be asked if this is the right way for a public media giant to act. The most recent newsbreaker is that the new BBC boss Tony Hall, still getting his feet under his desk, thinks it is distasteful. But he won’t ban the song’s drive up the charts. Shock story, then, in this era of instant history: 74 year old song might hit Number 1.
A second headline as this country takes a deep breathe and awaits the multi million pound funeral to be attended by such international luminaries as Jeremy Clarkson and Joan Collins:
The re-emergence of Sir Mark Thatcher.
He is the former PM’s only son, a burden she carried to her grave. His job description at age 59 could be defined as Failed Manager of Dubious Projects. He was a bungling rally driver (he got lost in the Sahara); a shadowy broker in mega arms deals (helped by his powerful mother) and, most appallingly, found guilty in a South African court for his involvement in the failed overthrow of the ruling government of Equatorial Guinea.
He received a four year suspended sentence for that howler. And because of his guilt as a mercenary, he was banned by the US government to enter the States to see his kids from his first marriage.
Anyway, he hasn’t been banned from the country that his mother led. So Sir Mark is back in the frame as chief mourner. He will remain Sir Mark, by the way, because his mother ennobled her husband Denis as an hereditary baronet. Basically, Sir Mark picks up all the baubles and clutter of the Ruritanian British lineage system..and then can scurry back under the nearest rock that will accept him and his dubious past (thought to be southern Spain or Gibraltar depending on what you read).
There, he can come up with more ludicrous and inept schemes and not worry too much about the UK public gaze.
Or at least one sector of it anyway.
His second marriage is to a relative of Lord Rothermere. He owns The Daily Mail, a paper built on insufferable narrowmindedness, hatred of anything new and numbskull crawling subservience to power and money.
Right up Sir Mark’s street, I would guess.