thatcher - Blogs - Depth Psychology Alliance2024-03-29T13:38:57Zhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/thatcherA nation's mother issues? On Thatcher & UK reactionhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/a-nation-s-mother-issues2013-04-16T00:30:00.000Z2013-04-16T00:30:00.000ZEsther Waldronhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/EstherWaldron<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9142443860,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}9142443860,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="615" class="align-full" alt="9142443860?profile=original" /></a></p><p>The news of the death of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher is stirring strong feelings. </p><p>On the one hand are the platitudes from public figures including an epitaph from her political descendant, current prime minister David Cameron declaring that she <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9985455/David-Camerons-tribute-to-Margaret-Thatcher-in-full-Let-this-be-her-epitaph-that-she-made-Britain-great-again.html" target="_blank">made Britain great again</a>. On the other hand we're seeing an angry backlash from a public that regards such talk as a whitewash: the most conservative of national newspapers, the Daily Telegraph, was forced to <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/apr/09/telegraph-shuts-reader-comments-thatcher" target="_blank">shut its comments section</a> within hours of the news of her death breaking, such was the avalanche of abuse with which the paper was inundated; there was a gathering to <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/13/margaret-thatcher-protest-trafalgar-square" target="_blank">celebrate her death</a> in Trafalgar Square on Saturday (<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/12/margaret-thatcher-protests-weekend-thousands" target="_blank">two decades in the making</a>) and the likely cost of the funeral is being criticised (guestimates have reached <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/15/downing-street-thatcher-funeral_n_3084334.html" target="_blank">£10 million</a>).</p><p>The roll call of Thatcher's time in office includes the waging of what is still seen by many as a needless (Falklands) war, the shameful treatment of the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/09/margaret-thatcher-miners-society" target="_blank">mining communities</a>, the destruction of <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3067563.stm" target="_blank">trade unions</a>, the introduction of the disastrous <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9980361/Margaret-Thatcher-Refusal-to-back-down-on-poll-tax-that-cost-the-leader-dear.html" target="_blank">poll tax</a>, economic conditions that caused the 1980s <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/linton-kwesi-johnson/margaret-thatcher-inner-city-riots_b_3081167.html" target="_blank">riots</a>, even a denial of the very concept of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepublic/2011/jul/11/big-society-no-such-thing-as-society" target="_blank">society</a>. </p><p>Politically I lean to the left, not least because my childhood was marked with the economic suffering of a provincial working class family under the Iron Lady's rule. Even so, I wonder: if Thatcher been a man, would these and her other policies have evoked quite the same levels of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/08/little-sympathy-margaret-thatcher-opponents" target="_blank">vitriol</a> that we're still seeing now? Is it in part because she was a woman?</p><p>Take free school milk as an example. When Thatcher was in power, the Treasury suggested stopping <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2000/uk_confidential/1095121.stm" target="_blank">free milk</a> being distributed to schoolchildren; Thatcher was vilified for it (hence her still being known as 'Thatcher the milk snatcher'). On a symbolic - ie, depth - level, a matriarch was seen not to be nourishing children but to be taking milk from them. A recipe for trouble.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.stpauls.co.uk/documents/news%20stories/btoos.pdf" target="_blank">funeral takes place this Wednesday April 17 at 11am</a>. While the public cannot attend, they can line its route. There is talk of people <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/14/thatcher-funeral-protesters-police" target="_blank">turning their backs</a> on the coffin and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/13/dont-upset-margaret-thatcher-mourners" target="_blank">public disturbances</a>. While not a state funeral, the funeral will take place at St Paul's Cathedral with military honours - that means a gun carriage, effectively putting the funeral on a par with that of Diana, Princess of Wales. And today we learned that the chimes of Big Ben will fall silent as a mark of respect for the first time since Winston Churchill's funeral in 1965.Clearly, feelings are running high.</p><p>Perhaps we are seeing mother issues that will not be easily laid to rest?</p><p></p></div>