Thatcher, Monckton and Pinochet

OK, I can appreciate that criticism of Margaret Thatcher upsets some people – not speaking ill of the dead or something. Trouble is, one has to choose. A lot of people were hurt by Thatcher’s policies. And she supported some atrocious regimes which were responsible for the suffering, and yes death, of many people.

So, to ignore the bad, and especially to make sweeping claims that Maggie Thatcher was a “champion of the people”, fought for “liberty and democracy,” and “destroyer of tyrannies,” you are actually speaking very ill of many dead. trampling on their memory.

We should not be afraid to mention she was on the wrong side of history when she supported South African apartheid, as the poster above indicates. And frankly, as someone who knew many of the Chilean refugees who came to New Zealand in the mid 1970s, I was extremely offended by her support for the Chilean dictator Pinochet, and don’t think her memory should be sanitised to remove that crime against humanity.

Have a look at Why Would Anyone Celebrate the Death of Margaret Thatcher? Ask a Chilean for more on her support for Pinochet, who was responsible for the torture, death and disappearance of thousands of Chilean democrats.

But we have a more direct link with Maggie Thatcher and her passing at the moment. The ultra conservative Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, who we have described here as the “Potty Peer,” is currently on a New Zealand speaking tour, “The Freedom Tour.” Telling us about the greenie, communist, fascist, tyrannical conspiracy to form a one world government, through the United Nations, and with the help of climate scientists. As he tells it, he and Mrs Thatcher were great pals, and he has written up her obituary on Facebook and the ultra conservative Free Republic (see Lord Monckton writing about Margaret Thatcher). He starts:

It will be from heaven that Margaret Thatcher, the greatest friend the United States ever had, will observe the now-inescapable disintegration of the dismal European tyranny-by-clerk whose failure she foresaw even as it brought her down.

Margaret was unique: a fierce champion of people against government, taxpayers against bureaucrats, workers against unions, Us against Them, free markets against state control, privatization against nationalization, liberty against socialism, democracy against Communism, prosperity against national bankruptcy, law against international terrorism, independence against global governance; a visionary among pygmies; a doer among dreamers; a statesman among politicians; a destroyer of tyrannies from arrogant Argentina via incursive Iraq to the savage Soviet Union.

Much of the rest is really about Christopher Monckton, and what a great bloke he is. He loves to talk about himself, although I would have thought that was bad taste for a eulogy.

He finishes with:

It was not hard to see why Margaret and Denis Thatcher were the most popular couple among the old stagers working at 10 Downing Street since the Macmillans. Now they are reunited; and I pray, in the words of St. Thomas More, that they may be merry in heaven. They have both earned it. Let her be given a state funeral. Nothing less will do.

The Potty Peer seems to have very naive, even childish, religious beliefs. Does he picture Maggie chatting with Dennis on a cloud in heaven? Perhaps he actually includes Pinochet in that picture? And sees himself as part of that merry little group some time in the future?

I am sure he doesn’t include either Nelson Mandela, or Salvador Allende –  the democratically elected president of Chile overthrown by Piochet in 1973.

Similar articles