Saturday, 13 April 2013

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

The legacy of our the late Maggie Thatcher is now ensuring she will live in perpetuity in the history of UK politics. Even in death she has managed to create a stir. This time it is because her supporters have protested against a chart hit from being played in full on the BBC.  It is of course "Ding Dong The Witch is Dead" and it has become a massive download hit on the internet. As internet sales now count this song is fully representative of what the public consider to be contemporary music. Publicly this song has so much backing it is now a hit, yet a small group of Thatcher supporters think it is inappropriate. If this is the case then I can not help why did these opposing supporters not create an alternative hit by purchasing an different song. There quite clearly is not as much support as publicly they acclaim there is. Ding Dong the Witch is Dead, therefore will not be played in full by the BBC, they will play only a few seconds of the song.  The BBC is bowing down. In retort I expect there will be a few complaints from those people who believe it should be playing the entire song, personally I am considering where I stand on this issue. Tory voters will state there is a small minority of people who are rejoicing at her passing, but this can not be true otherwise Ding Dong the Witch is Dead would not of be where it is now.

Maggie Thatcher was not the iconic image of what a powerful woman should be. She was the first woman Prime Minister, an achievement. How she presented herself as a leader was tough but exceptionally divisive. I ask was it necessary to be a person who talked down on people, who demeaned them and came across as a bully?  Maggie manipulated the female vote for her own needs, to get herself voted in. She hoodwinked women using gender as an issue, playing on their naivety not on her politics. Many women voted her in just because she was female and they wanted to show the country a woman could do better.  Now a great many women have regretted they did so, Thatcher's policies ripped apart the nation as they accentuated the class divide.  Further the currying favour with the notion we live in a classless society, we don't. Society by it's very nature will always be class driven and those classes will change, as it is a concept with cloud like manoeuvrability, the wind blows it from one place to another. To an extent, Maggie was an opportunist, she was in the right place at the right time, but she did work hard to be there and to be in the seat of power. Famously she said she lived of only four hours sleep a night. Keeping up with politics is a 24 hour job, or rather 20 hour job. No other politician is said to have been as informed as she was. Pity she was not informed of the devastation and poverty she caused the lower and working classes.

So Ding Dong the Witch is Dead has just as valuable and iconic a place in contempary history as does the passing of the Iron Lady, the two are compatible and useful in understanding two sides of a coin.

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