I'm on the mission impossible, which means that the missionary position in politics is from now on outlawed ! ... "
Margaret Thatcher on her first day in office
In order to unscramble some eggs the leader gotta have some balls ... "
Margaret Thatcher
The calling out of political correctness a blind leader of a country " a visually impaired leader " won't save it from falling in to a pit ... "
Margaret Thatcher
I would prefer to be called an Iron Lady, rather than be called a spineless wimp ... "
Margaret Thatcher
Don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs ... "
Margaret Thatcher
Got Milk ? ... "
Margaret Thatcher in 1971
Not even the Milky Way could be taken for granted ... "
Margaret Thatcher in 1971
The more iron has a leader in his will the more durable he/she is ... "
Margaret Thatcher
Radical times demand radical actions ... "
Margaret Thatcher
Only dead terrorists have the right to remain silent ! ... "
Margaret Thatcher
I can't help to spit nails when just thinking about Trade Unions ... "
Margaret Thatcher
Relatively often people confuse mith with the Queen, but it never pisses me off ... "
Margaret Thatcher
You cannot make an omelet without breaking some balls ... "
Margaret Thatcher
Socialists laid a bad egg by trying to kill capitalism that lays the golden eggs ... "
Margaret Thatcher
Socialism is in no way a curate's egg ... "
Margaret Thatcher
We are not amused ... "
Margaret Thatcher reacting to to the news that Falklands were occupied by Argentina
Occupied Falklands were the thorn in my balls ... "
Margaret Thatcher
Actions speak louder than words ... "
Margaret Thatcher on Mai 2. 1982 - the day the Argentinian cruiser " General Belgrano" was sunk on her orders
I didn't torpedo the peace negotiations by sinking of Belgrano, I simply saved human lives ... "
Margaret Thatcher
Every middle ground position is a not so nice try to jump over the abyss in two steps ... "
Margaret Thatcher
Diplomacy is something reserved for pussies ... "
Margaret Thatcher
I'm neither the wicked witch nor Lady Macbeth of English politics, but someone gotta wear the pants in England when others wearing skirts ... "
Margaret Thatcher
The distasteful word " compromice " is not in my vocabulary ... "
Margaret Thatcher
I'm happy as a dog with two dicks ... "
Margaret Thatcher on June 20. 1982 when the Argentine forces finally surrendered and peace was declared
Falklands were my Toulon ... "
Margaret Thatcher
Politics is the art of the impossible ... "
Margaret Thatcher
To kick Osama bin Laden's ass was on my bucket list ... "
Margaret Thatcher on Mai 2, 2011
Every middle ground position is a slippery slope to hell ... "
Margaret Thatcher on her deathbed on April 8. 2013
The history wouldn't dare to scrap me ... "
Margaret Thatcher on her deathbed on April 8. 2013
Being an Iron Lady 24/7 for eleven straight years is a burden heavy enough to break even the camel's back ... "
Margaret Thatcher on her deathbed on April 8. 2013
Don't Cry For Me, Argentina ... "
Margaret Thatcher on her deathbed on April 8. 2013
I hope I didn't over-egged the pudding, did I ? ... "
Margaret Thatcher's proposed epitaph to herself
***
I'm glad that Mrs. Snatcher didn't snatch the Crown ... "
Queen Elisabeth II
Baroness Thatcher is a unique fusion of Iron Lady and Maid of Orleans ... "
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
You gotta have some balls to be a female PM in England ... "
Winston Churchill
When it comes to saving England, Maggie is Balls Deep ... "
Denis Thatcher , the First husband
In order to iron out all major national problems the Iron Lady gotta be hot 24/7 ... "
Charles, Prince of Wales
Baroness Thatcher is indeed a living proof that in fact England is a nation of shopkeepers ... "
Napoleon Bonaparte
Rust in pieces ... "
Labor party eulogy to Margaret Thatcher
The iron will of the Iron Lady made her the single biggest widowmaker in Argentine's history ... "
General Belgrano's captain, Hector Bonzo
Gotcha ! ... "
Argentine President Cristina Kirchner on April 8. 2013 - the day Margaret Thatcher died
Ìàðãàðåò Òýò÷åð: èç íåñêàçàííîãî ...
http://www.stihi.ru/2013/04/10/1517
Liliputins. What the hell is this ?
http://www.stihi.ru/2012/08/18/5368
Notes:
___________
You Can't Unscramble Scrambled Eggs
____________________________________
once you cracked the eggs and scrambled them up in the frying pan, well you are done.
So before you unleash your "cracked and smashed eggs" into that skillet, remember once out, they are out there, scrambled for eternity.
Ñòàðîãî íå âåðíåøü
Ðàçáèòóþ ÷àøêó íå ñêëåèøü
×åëîâåêà íåëüçÿ ðîäèòü îáðàòíî
Cëîâî íå âîðîáåé - âûëåòèò íå ïîéìàåøü
Êðÿêíóëà óòêà, êîãäà åå ñúåëè
×òî ñ âîçà óïàëî, òî ïðîïàëî
***
You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.
___________________________________________________
something that you say which means it is difficult to achieve something important without causing any unpleasant effects
Twenty jobs will have to be cut if the company's going to be made more efficient. But you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.
See also: breaking, egg, make, without
Cambridge Idioms Dictionary, 2nd ed. Copyright © Cambridge
You cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs.
__________________________________________________
Prov. In order to get something good or useful, you must give up something else. Jill: Why do they have to tear down that beautiful old building to build an office park? Jane: You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs. Alan: We may make more money by raising our prices, but we'll also upset a lot of customers. Fred: You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs.
See also: breaking, cannot, make, without
Ëåñ ðóáÿò - øåïêè ëåòÿò
Wo gehobelt wird - fallen Spaene
***
Omelette
"You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs." (and variations)
Commonly attributed to Stalin - http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=stalin+omelette -
I'm thinking that this is apocryphal -- anybody have a source? -- 201.37.230.43 15:36, 7 August 2009 (UTC)
Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914) wrote this phrase in "The True Conception of Empire" in 1897, "You cannot have omelettes without breaking eggs; ..." It was written in regards to the colonization of Africa.
It seems that Lazar Kaganovich actually said that:
Walter Duranty said that in the New York Times, when the kremlin exterminated about 10,000,000 Ukrainians during the kremlin's Genocide - called Holodomor.
By WALTER DURANTY, Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES The New York Times, New York, March 31, 2009, Page 13
But---to put it brutally---you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs, and the Bolshevist leaders are just as indifferent to the casualties that may be involved in their drive toward socializaton as any General during the World War who ordered a costly attack in order to show his superiors that he and his division possessed the proper soldierly spirit. In fact, the Bolsheviki are more indifferent because they are animated by fanatical conviction.
http://www.artukraine.com/old/famineart/duranty.htm
I've been told it was an age old proverb from Amsterdam. No source on that unfortunately. PizzaMan (talk) 07:05, 3 April 2012 (UTC)
***
teach your grandmother to suck eggs (British & Australian)
to give advice to someone about a subject that they already know more about than you
You're teaching your grandmother to suck eggs, Ted. I've been playing this game since before you were born!
***
over-egg the pudding (British)
________________________________
to spoil something by trying too hard to improve it
As a director, I think he has a tendency to over-egg the pudding, with a few too many gorgeous shots of the countryside.
***
thorn in my balls
___________________
A term used to express annoyance
You are becoming a real thorn in my balls!
angry, pissed off
***
spit nails
________________
(American & Australian informal) also spit chips/tacks (Australian informal)
to speak or behave in a way that shows you are very angry
He was spitting nails when he saw what had happened to his car.
Cambridge Idioms Dictionary, 2nd ed. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006. Reproduced with permission.
***
Balls Deep
_______________
To describe a situation, event or person that is highly notable or deserved of much recognition.
Skater:"Dude that jump was Balls Deep"
"When it comes to building a Deck, Chris is Ball's Deep"
balls deep, notable, recognition, deserved
***
Margaret Thatcher was the greatest British PM since Winston Churchill,
says John Howard
Herald Sun (Melbourne) 10th April 2013 | The Honourable John Howard OM AC SSI, Former Prime Minister of Australia
She has been Britain's greatest prime minister since Winston Churchill. As leader of the Conservative Party in Britain she has been the most successful of all in the past 100 years. It should be remembered that Churchill led a coalition national government during World War II.
The real measure of Margaret Thatcher's greatness was that she brought about profound change domestically and internationally.
The British economy was in a downward spiral when she won office in May 1979; Britons were working a three-day week; uncollected garbage piled up in the streets of London; the all-powerful trade unions effectively ran the country and Britain's influence in world affairs was dwindling rapidly. She changed this by restraining government spending, removing legal privileges enjoyed by the unions, privatising government services and building a society focused on enterprise and effort.
By the simple device of allowing tenants of state-owned houses and flats to buy them, she built a powerful property-owning democracy.
There can be no greater testament to the wisdom of Margaret Thatcher's curbs on the power of trade unions than the decision of her Labour successor, Tony Blair, to keep the changes Thatcher had made. He knew that they had been in the interests of Britain, and he was eternally grateful that she had brought them in
Several people have asked me what I think of those in Britain who have openly celebrated Margaret Thatcher's death.
My reply has been that it is a commentary not just on their poor taste but, more importantly, a mark of the lasting influence of the late former prime minister.
No one celebrates the death of political figures who have made no impact on the society of which they were part.
***
Happy as a dog with two dicks
______________________________
A phrase used when a great sence of self achievment has been reached, or one is seriousley happy.
Thats's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind. I tell you, I'm as happy as a dog with two dicks .
Neil Armstrong, 21st July 1969
***
Gotcha ! and I gotcha are relaxed pronunciations of "I've got you", usually referring to an unexpected capture or discovery. Gotcha is a common colloquialism meaning to understand or comprehend
Gotcha (Kurzform vom englischen Got you! (Got Ya) „Erwischt!“) ist:
eine beruehmte Schlagzeile der britischen Tageszeitung The Sun anlaesslich der umstrittenen Versenkung des argentinischen Kreuzers ARA General Belgrano im Falklandkrieg
***
kill the goose that lays the golden egg
___________________________________________
to destroy something that makes a lot of money If you sell your shares now, you could be killing the goose that lays the golden egg.
***
a curate's egg (British)
____________________________
something which has both good and bad parts
Usage notes: A curate is a priest. There is a joke about a curate who was given a bad egg and said that parts of the egg were good because he did not want to offend the person who gave it to him.
Queen's College is something of a curate's egg, with elegant Victorian buildings alongside some of the ugliest modern architecture.
***
lay an egg
______________
1. Lit. [for a hen, etc.] to deposit an egg.
Old Red stopped laying eggs, so we stewed her for Sunday dinner.
2. Fig. [for someone] to do something bad or poorly; to perform poorly on stage.
I guess I really laid an egg, huh? The cast laid an egg in both performances.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
lay an egg (American informal)
to fail to make people enjoy or be interested in something
Our first two sketches got big laughs, but the next two laid an egg.
Cambridge Idioms Dictionary, 2nd ed. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006. Reproduced with permission.
***
to have no balls
__________________
when someone doesn't have the guts to do something.
When someone has "balls" in that context, it means that they have courage or guts. So when it's used towards a female, it simply means that she has bravery. I suppose it is a little sexist, implying that males are more courageous than females (not true though).
Urban Dictionary uses this example: "Dude, you must have some major balls to do that."
So don't get confused when it's used for a girl because it means the same thing. :)
***
balls
_________
testicles. Also used in the singular as ball
ÿéöà,òåñòèêóëû
to have balls
Meaning: áûòü ðåøèòåëüíûì, ñìåëûì, ìóæåñòâåííûì, êðóòûì; áûòü áîéöîì, îðëîì, íàñòîÿøèì ìóæ÷èíîé ( ìóæèêîì ) ( Þ.Ñ.)
" but it took stamina, which she had plenty of, and guts "
bravado, courage; GUTS. In this sense, "balls" still means "testicles," but "having balls" implies bravado. Having large "balls" or many "balls" implies even more bravado. (The "having testicles" = "bravado" relationship exists in other languages, e.g. "tener cojones" in Spanish.)
You've got balls to do something like that!
That dude must have enormous balls!
You've got a lot of balls showing your face in here.
See more words with the same meaning: brave.
to break ( bust) someone's balls
___________________________________
break (someone's) balls and break (someone's) stones; bust (someone's) balls; bust (someone's) stones
1. Sl. to wreck or ruin (someone); to overwork someone; to overwhelm someone. (Potentially offensive. Use only with discretion.) The boss acts like he's trying to break everybody's balls all the time. No need to break my balls. I'll do it!
2. Sl. to kid or tease (someone). Don't sweat what I said—I was just bustin' balls. Hey, relax, he didn't mean it. He was just breakin' your stones!
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American
***
Lady Macbeth is a character in Shakespeare's Macbeth (c.1603–1607). She is the wife to the play's protagonist, Macbeth, a Scottish nobleman. After goading him into committing regicide, she becomes Queen of Scotland, but later suffers pangs of guilt for her part in the crime. She dies off-stage in the last act, an apparent suicide.
***
Wearing The Pants
_____________________
The act of dominance in a relationship with a significant other. The member of the relationship wearing pants will have total control of the other person. Also see pussy whipped
Goat: So wanna come hang out with me and the guys?
Sacktap: Nah, I gotta go out with my girl.
Goat: Dude, what are you doing? Start wearing the pants.
2.
Wearing the Pants
_______________________
Wearing the pants refers to the more dominant person in a relationship and one who showers their boyfriend with more love than the he could ever even begin to imagine bestowing upon her. Normally the person who makes the first move at the furniture shop, tells the other person that their dad was once their little brother's soccer coach, etc, wears the pants. Wearing the pants has absolutely NOTHING to do with the actual size of the pants being worn.
Since I always make important decisions in my relationship, put my foot down, and make our plans, I, obviously, am wearing the pants.
***
iron something out
________________________
1. Lit. to use a flatiron to make cloth flat or smooth. I will iron the drapes out, so they will hang together. I ironed out the drapes.
2. . Fig. to ease a problem; to smooth out a problem. (Here problem is synonymous with wrinkle.) It's only a little problem. I can iron it out very quickly. We will iron out all these little matters first.
See also: iron, out
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
iron out something also iron something out
to solve all problems that are still left
The two sides need to keep talking until they iron out their differences.
Etymology: based on the literal meaning of iron out small folds in cloth (to use a small, heated device to make cloth smooth)
See also: iron, out
Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2003. Reproduced with permission.
***
Ïàìÿòè Ìàðãàðåò Òýò÷åð
________________________
Âëàäèìèð Áóêîâñêèé(â áëîãå Ñâîáîäíîå ìåñòî) 09.04.2013
Èñòîðè÷åñêàÿ ðîëü Ìàðãàðåò Òýò÷åð ñîñòîèò â òîì, ÷òî îíà ïåðâîé ïîêàçàëà, êàê äåìîíòèðîâàòü ñîöèàëèçì. Âàöëàâ Ãàâåë êîãäà-òî ìíå ãîâîðèë: óäèâèòåëüíàÿ âåùü - íàïèñàíî ñòîëüêî êíèã î òîì, êàê ïåðåéòè îò êàïèòàëèçìà ê ñîöèàëèçìó, íî íåò íè åäèíîé êíèãè î òîì, êàê ñîâåðøèòü îáðàòíûé ïåðåõîä. Âîò êàêîâà áûëà ìå÷òà ÷åëîâå÷åñòâà îá ýòîé äóðàöêîé èäèëëèè.
Òýò÷åð ïðèøëà ê âëàñòè, êîãäà â Àíãëèè áûëà ïîëíàÿ ðàçðóõà. ß âñïîìèíàþ çèìó 1978-79 ãîäîâ - Winter of discontent. Ñâåòîôîðû íå ðàáîòàëè, áîëüíèöû íå ðàáîòàëè, ìîðãè è êëàäáèùà íå ðàáîòàëè, âñÿ Àíãëèÿ ñòîÿëà. Áûëà âëàñòü ïðîôñîþçîâ - íàñòóïèëà òà ñàìàÿ äèêòàòóðà ïðîëåòàðèàòà. Èíôëÿöèÿ çàøêàëèâàëà çà 18 ïðîöåíòîâ.
Íàðîä îçâåðåë - è ïðîãîëîñîâàë çà ñàìîãî ðàäèêàëüíîãî ÷åëîâåêà â òîãäàøíåé àíãëèéñêîé ïîëèòèêå.  íîðìàëüíîå âðåìÿ Òýò÷åð âðÿä ëè âûáðàëè áû - äàæå â êîíñåðâàòèâíîé ïàðòèè îíà ïðåäñòàâëÿëà ìåíüøèíñòâî. Íî â êðàéíåé ñèòóàöèè íóæåí áûë ÷åëîâåê, ó êîòîðîãî õâàòèëî áû âîëè èñïðàâèòü ñèòóàöèþ.
È îíà íàâåëà ïîðÿäîê: ñëîìàëà õðåáåò ïðîôîñþçàì, îòðåãóëèðîâàëà ýêîíîìèêó è íàøëà ñïîñîáû äåìîíòèðîâàòü ñîöèàëèçì. Ýòî âåäü îíà èçîáðåëà èäåþ ïðèâàòèçàöèè - äî íåå íèêòî ýòîãî íå ïðîáîâàë è íèêòî îá ýòîì íå ãîâîðèë. Äî íåå êîíñåðâàòîðû ïðèõîäèëè ê âëàñòè ïîñëå ëåéáîðèñòîâ è ðàçâîäèëè ðóêàìè: ñ ýòèì íè÷åãî íåëüçÿ ñäåëàòü, you cannot unscramble the eggs. Íî îíà íàøëà ñïîñîá "ïðåâðàòèòü îìëåò îáðàòíî â ÿéöà".
Åå çíà÷åíèå íåîöåíèìî íå òîëüêî äëÿ Àíãëèè - ýòîò ïðèìåð ïîäåéñòâîâàë íà âåñü ìèð, è íåîáõîäèìîñòü âåðíóòüñÿ ê ðûíêó ñòàëà îáùåïðèçíàííîé. Äî íåå ÷àñòíàÿ ñîáñòâåííîñòü ñ÷èòàëàñü ÷óòü ëè íå ïðîêàçîé. "Âñå çëî â ìèðå îò ÷àñòíîé ñîáñòâåííîñòè", - ãîâîðèëè íàì ñîöèàëèñòû. Ìû-òî, ïîæèâøèå â Ñîâåòñêîì Ñîþçå, ïîíèìàëè, ÷òî âñå ýòî ÷óøü, íî çäåøíèå ëþäè íå ïîíèìàëè! ß ïîìíþ, êàê â ïðåäâûáîðíóþ êàìïàíèþ Òýò÷åð îáúÿñíÿëà, êàê åé óäàñòñÿ, ñîêðàòèâ íàëîãè, îáåñïå÷èòü íîðìàëüíîå ôóíêöèîíèðîâàíèå ýêîíîìèêè: îíà ÷åðòèëà äâà ïèðîãà è âòîëêîâûâàëà, ÷òî ìàëåíüêèé êóñîê áîëüøîãî ïèðîãà áîëüøå, ÷åì áîëüøîé êóñîê ìàëåíüêîãî ïèðîãà. Âñÿ Àíãëèÿ ñèäåëà è ÷åñàëà â çàòûëêå.
Âàæíî, ÷òî îíà ïîêàçàëà óñïåøíîñòü ðûíî÷íîé ýêîíîìèêè êàê ðàç â òå ãîäû, êîãäà ñîâåòñêàÿ ñèñòåìà áóêñîâàëà, íàðàñòàë åå ñòðóêòóðíûé êðèçèñ. Ýòî áûë êîíòðàñò - íå êàïèòàëèçì çàãíèâàåò, à ñîöèàëèçì.
 ìåæäóíàðîäíîé ïîëèòèêå îíè ñ Ðåéãàíîì ðàáîòàëè â ïàðå. Îíè ïðîâåëè ìîäåðíèçàöèþ âîîðóæåííûõ ñèë, ÷åì âûçâàëè íåîáõîäèìîñòü ãíàòüñÿ çà âñåì ýòèì, à ãíàòüñÿ ÑÑÑÐ óæå íå ìîã - îí è òàê äûøàë íà ëàäàí. Ñîâåòñêèå ðóêîâîäèòåëè âäðóã ïîíÿëè, ÷òî áåçíàäåæíî îòñòàþò â âîåííîì îòíîøåíèè, à äëÿ íèõ ýòî áûëî ñìåðòè ïîäîáíî - îíè ñòîÿëè òâåðäî äî òåõ ïîð, ïîêà ïîëìèðà èõ áîÿëîñü è òðÿñëîñü. À êàê òîëüêî ïåðåñòàëè áûòü ðåàëüíîé óãðîçîé - âñå êîí÷èëîñü.
 êðàõå ñîâåòñêîé ñèñòåìû Ðåéãàí è Òýò÷åð ñûãðàëè îãðîìíóþ ðîëü.
***
bloody -minded Britain
Sink it !
wicked witch
***
Owen Jones
Sunday 16 September 2012
Not all socialists want to dance on Margaret Thatcher's grave.
I want her to go on and on
Despite the manifest failures of Thatcherism, talk of celebrating her death is futile. Concentrate on building an economy that works for working people
Few things drive the right-wing press into self-righteous apoplexy more than Thatcher-hate. It was on display at the TUC conference last week, where T-shirts pledged that trade unionists would “dance on her grave”. On Saturday, it was reported that some Liverpool fans – finally vindicated over the sickening travesty of Hillsborough 23 years on – were chanting “we’re gonna have a party when Maggie Thatcher dies”. Several Facebook groups are dedicated to organising festivities for just that eventuality.
Personally, I dread Thatcher’s death. It will be a nightmarish blend of the hysteria that followed Princess Diana’s tragic accident and a month-long political broadcast for the Conservative Party. “She put the ‘great’ back in Great Britain,” our impartial media will lecture us; those who dissent will either be purged from the airwaves or demonised as spiteful lefties. Senior Labour politicians will feel obliged to join in the serenading of a PM who, in many cases, laid waste to the communities they represent. I hope she goes on and on.
But the right refuses to understand why, more than two decades after she was deposed, Thatcher is still despised by a large chunk of the population. As far as they are concerned, it is nothing more than spite from a hate-filled left, still furious at being comprehensively defeated. It speaks of the “sheer nastiness of a certain kind of leftie”, as the Tory MEP Daniel Hannan put it recently. “I remember the sense of despair, the conviction that Britain was finished” before Thatcher came to office, he added. Well, at least Britain is flourishing now.
A reasonable right-winger would accept that her 11-year rule opened up the greatest divisions Britain has experienced in modern times. Whether or not they regard that as unavoidable, they would realise that Thatcher-hate is just one manifestation of it. Perhaps if a Labour government had reduced the prosperous middle-classes of the Home Counties to mass unemployment and poverty, and stockbrokers desperate to save their livelihoods had been chased by police on horseback through the City of London, they would understand the bitterness. Thatcher hate is not kneejerk anti-Toryism: after all, there will be no champagne corks popping when John Major dies, and there was no bunting on display to celebrate the deaths of Ted Heath, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Macmillan or Anthony Eden.
Thatcher is reviled by some not just because she crushed the left, the Labour movement and the post-war social democratic settlement. It is because she did it with such enthusiasm, and showed no regret for the terrible human cost. A war of sorts was fought in the 1980s, and the vanquished – as is often the case – were left with unquenchable bitterness: my own family among them.
The year I was born in Sheffield, unemployment had reached 15.5 per cent, or nearly four times higher than when Thatcher marched into Downing Street. My parents watched a flourishing city devastated, and at such speed. My mother recalls the once-thriving industrial suburb of Attercliffe, with its foundries with arc furnaces and the flicker of flames as you passed. Within 18 months, it was reduced to ruin: the buildings demolished, leaving deserted wasteland surrounded by weeds and fences. When Thatcher came to deliver a speech at Sheffield’s Cutlers’ Hall in 1983, my eldest brother was among those throwing eggs. During the miners’ strike, my father was at Orgreave days before the infamous Battle; with mounted police chasing miners across fields, it looked like a medieval battlefield. Heavily pregnant with my twin sister and I, my mother saw convoys of police vans heading to Orgreave, an army against the enemy within.
Britain’s industrial ruin was unavoidable, Thatcher’s apologists argue. Industry was inefficient and crippled by union bullyboys: Thatcher’s Chancellor Geoffrey Howe told me he “often questioned the suicide note of much of British industry”. But it was sabotage. First, the abolition of exchange controls allowed the City to thrive at the expense of other parts of the economy. Then they allowed the value of the pound to soar, with interest rates hiked to 17 per cent, making borrowing – crucial for manufacturing – prohibitively expensive.
Sir Alan Budd advised the Thatcher government and feared they “never believed for a moment that this was the correct way to bring down inflation”, but rather it was a highly effective means of increasing unemployment, “an extremely desirable way of reducing the strength of the working classes”. Working-class communities were trashed – and, in some cases, never recovered – because of an ideological crusade.
Reflecting on the miners’ strike a few years ago, even Thatcher’s right-hand man Norman Tebbitt accepted that “the scale of the closures went too far”, with the result that “many of these communities were completely devastated”. As Jack Straw noted last week, Thatcher’s government needed “the police to be a partisan force” during such industrial upheaval, creating a “culture of impunity” in the police force. At Orgreave – with the support of the mainstream press – the miners were blamed for the Battle, until years later the police force was forced to cough up hundreds of thousands in compensation. And it was the same force – dubbed “Maggie’s Boot Boys” – that smeared those who had died because of their own incompetence and contempt for working-class people at Hillsborough.
According to Thatcher’s champions, she fixed our “broken economy” and unleashed an era of prosperity. Odd, then, that Britain’s most sustained period of growth and increasing living standards were the three decades after the war, with their high taxes on the rich, strong trade unions and state interventionism.
Since Thatcher unleashed the era of low taxes, weak unions and free markets, growth has been lower and less equally distributed, and we have had three dramatic recessions. Our current predicament has everything to do with New Labour’s failure to unpick the financial deregulation Thatcher pioneered. “You weren’t even alive then,” Thatcherite acolytes lecture a largely anti-Thatcher generation, the first since the Second World War to face a worse lot than their parents, with few prospects of getting an affordable home thanks to her mass sell-off of council housing. A new generation of leftists represents a backlash against the demoralisation of their routed parents.
But while Thatcher-hate is understandable, it is futile. Celebrating the prospect of her death has become an admittedly macabre substitute for the failure to defeat Thatcherism. The Iron Lady will die knowing her legacy is stronger than ever. It will only be worth celebrating when Thatcherism is finally purged from this country, and a Britain run in the interests of working people is built. Then we really can rejoice.
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By Andrew Osborn
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will not invite Argentine President Cristina Fernandez to Margaret Thatcher's funeral next week in a snub likely to deepen a long-running diplomatic dispute over the Falkland Islands.
Thatcher, 87, who died on Monday, led Britain at the time of the 1982 Falklands war ordering her armed forces to repel an Argentine invasion of the contested South Atlantic archipelago which Argentina calls Las Malvinas.
Just over 30 years later, memories of the conflict remain raw and Fernandez has mounted a campaign to renegotiate the islands' sovereignty, lobbying Pope Francis on the issue and rejecting a referendum last month in which Falkland residents voted to remain a British Overseas Territory.
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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND TO THE SINKING OF THE BELGRANO
By Desmond Rice.
We have the act itself (the sinking of a ship), as well as the end to be gained (keep the British government in power and torpedo a peace initiative) and the circumstances surrounding it (an attack outside the exclusion zone in an undeclared war).
The History of the south Atlantic conflict The War for the Malvinas Ruben Moro 1989, p.165.
The ARA General Belgrano was an Argentine Navy cruiser which was controversially sunk by a British submarine during the 1982 Falklands War as she sailed away from the conflict zone. 323 people died, mainly young sea cadets.
Originally a US Navy cruiser, launched in 1938, the ship survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and was decommissioned from the US Navy in 1946. In 1951, the ship was sold to Argentina. In 1956, the ship was renamed ARA General Belgrano after a hero of the Argentine war of independence.
On April 26th, 1982, the General Belgrano, accompanied by two destroyers, left the port of Ushuaia in southern Argentina. On April 29th, the Argentine task group began patrolling South of the Falkland Islands. On the following day, the ship was detected by the British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror which gradually closed over the next day. On May 2nd, HMS Conqueror fired three Mk 8 mod 4 torpedoes, two of which hit the Belgrano.
With the ship holed, no electrical power, and unable to pump out water, the Belgrano soon began to list to port and sink towards the bow. Captain Hector Bonzo therefore ordered the crew to abandon ship using the seventy-odd rubber dingys.
Tragically, the Belgrano’s two escorts did not know that something had happened to the Belgrano and continued on a westward course. By the time that the escorts realized something had happened to the Belgrano, it was already dark, the weather had worsened, and the Belgrano’s life rafts had been scattered.
Consequently, even though Argentine and Chilean ships did rescue 770 men over the next two days, 321 members of the Belgrano’s crew died. In early editions on Tuesday May 4th, 1982, Britain’s The Sun newspaper led with the infamous headline “GOTCHA”: ”Our lads sink gunboat and hole cruiser”. When news began to emerge that the Belgrano had indeed been sunk, with a large number of casualties, later editions of the Sun led with the more sombre headline “Did 1,200 Argies drown?”
THE CONTROVERSY
The sinking of the Belgrano became a cause c;l;bre for anti-war campaigners in Britain. This was for a variety of reasons, including the ship being well outside the 200 mile (320 kilometre) Total Exclusion Zone that the British had declared around the Falklands, because the ship was on a westerly heading at the time it was attacked, and because a Peruvian peace proposal was still on the table at the time of the attack.
Was the sinking of the Belgrano justifiable under international law?
Some argue that, the ship being outside the British-declared Total Exclusion Zone would not affect this analysis, since the British Government stated on April 23rd, that ‘the approach’ of any warship or aircraft ‘which could amount to a threat to interfere with the mission of the British forces in the South Atlantic’ would encounter an ‘appropriate’ response. The Belgrano was neither ‘approaching’ the task force and was it a ‘threat’? That statement was put out while the British task force was still travelling South, as a warning that any approaching aircraft etc might be shot. Once the Task Force had arrived, it then announced on 28 April the Total Exclusion Zone – and, that would have superceded an earlier statement. War was not declared, that is why these definitions were important.
Some Argentine Views
on May 3rd 1982, Argentina’s Foreign Ministry released a statement, that the sinking of the Belgrano was “at a point at the 55 ; 24 ‘south latitude and 61 ; 32; west longitude. That this point is located 36 miles outside the area maritime exclusion set by the government of Great Britain. Such an attack is a treacherous act of armed aggression.’
Was it? Debate has raged on this issue, mostly misinformed due to the torrent of British MOD fabrications. This website will enable you to have that calm debate you always wanted to, but based on correct info.
Let’s hear a statement by Alicia Pierini, Ombudsman of the City of Buenos Aires on April 25 2005:
“The Argentine ship was away from the area of ;;belligerency, not navigating towards it and not even close to any British units: so it could not have been any threat or danger to the United Kingdom. Torpedoing it was, quite simply, a war crime, through the disproportionate and illegitimate use of force in violation of the rights of those who fought then. Why would Britain have designated the exclusion zone – thus drawing the boundaries of war-theater – if it was immediately to be violated? “
Political analyst Rosendo Fraga expressed the following cautious view, immediately prior to Lawrence Freedman’s Official History appearing in 2005:
The debate over whether the British attack took place within the international rules to be respected in conflict or outside, is controversial. Probably resolving the issue will be the function of legal historians, politicians and diplomats. The reality is that the cruiser was sunk by breaking rules, but the international community seems to have taken over the matter, not mostly sharing this view. For Argentines, the idea that the cruiser was sunk in violation of the rules will remain as a manifestation of the Argentine claim to sovereignty, though the world does not share this view and only historians can give a more definitive opinion about it.
Vice Admiral Juan Jose Lombardo, in an interview published in the NATION March 31, 2001 said this:
“I gave the order to attack on 1 May. When the British force set out to land would be the key moment of danger and their whole strategy would be to defend people who disembarked. Then they put all their elements, including submarines, to defend that position. That was the moment when we had to take the opportunity to do something. It was time to think about a transport strike, a damaged ship [?]. But, three groups of attack open to the West to wrap and search vessels were lost [?]. Six hours, after I send a new message to Allara (the head of the fleet of sea) landing there, that because of serious danger to their ships, they should retire? “
Six hours after the abortive Argenine attempt to attack, on May 1st, he gave the order to retire. That is important as a statement by the man who was the Commander-in-Chief of the Argentine South Atlantic Theatre of Operations.
In 1994, Argentina added its claim to the islands to the Argentine constitution, stating that this claim must be pursued in a manner “respectful of the way of life of their inhabitants and according to the principles of international law.” It would be strange if also in 1994 the Argentine government conceded that the sinking of the Belgrano had been a “legal act of war?” The evidence heard at the Belgrano Inquiry – here summarised – offers an alternative view. You decide.
It would have been a legal act of war if the Belgrano had either the intention or the capability to threaten Britain’s Task Force. Did it? That depends upon what its mission was. Arguments of ‘military necessity’ for sinking have a logistical problem: had it been perceived as a threat to the Task Force, that would have happened on May 1st, while it was sailing East, towards the Task Force. That didn’t happen. Only after it had turned round and had been sailing East, for 11 hours, away from the fleet, was it sunk.
Thirty Years Later …
January 2012: The sky is darkened with the lame ducks of Britain’s Falklands policy coming home to roost.
The UK is now re-violating the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which it did thirty years ago by bringing ships such as HMS Sheffield, armed with nuclear depth-charges, into the conflict. South America is a nuclear-weapons free zone. Britain has announced in January 2012 that it was sending a nuclear-armed destroyer, HMS Dauntless, to the South Atlantic region.
America has put out a humiliating-for-Britain policy statement alluding to ‘Los Malvinas,’ i.e. using the Argentine word for the Falkland islands, and describing the British occupation of it as ‘de facto’ – and that means, in contrast with de Jure. De Jure means occupation by right, de facto just means, they’re there because they’re there. One British conservative analyst called this statement, ”hugely insulting to Britain.” The US has affirmed:
This is a bilateral issue that needs to be worked out directly between the governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom. We encourage both parties to resolve their differences through dialogue in normal diplomatic channels,
adding that “we recognize de facto United Kingdom administration of the Islands but take no position regarding sovereignty.”
Fox News reported that the Obama Administration was backing Argentina over the U.K. in the Falklands dispute. The Organization of American States earlier this week adopted a declaration calling for negotiations between the UK and Argentina over the “sovereignty” of the Falkland Islands. While the U.S. delegation did not speak in support of the measure, it ultimately joined a consensus adopting it.
That basically puts the negotiating situation back to where it was in January-February 1982, before the war broke out…
Prime Minister Cameron accused Argentina of being ‘colonialist’ in its demands for sovereignty over the Falklands. In response, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner told Mr Cameron to re-read his history books. Prince William is being posted to the islands as an RAF search-and-rescue pilot next month – a move Argentina attacked as ‘provocative.’
In response the South American trading bloc, Mercosur, is closing its ports to all ships flying the Falklands flag. Britian’s Foreign Office has closed half a dozen embassies in Latin America in recent years, to minimise the danger of receiving subversive opinions from foreign capitals. If oil is found in commercial quantities it will be difficult for any company to exploit it without the assistance and co-operation of the Argentinian mainland.
Argentine protesters have burnt the Union flag outside British Embassy in Buenos Aires in rage over Cameron’s pledge on Falklands, urging their government to sever diplomatic links with London
Former head of the British army General Sir Michael Jackson said that it would be impossible for the British military to confront Argentina in case a military confrontation takes place over the sovereignty of the Malvinas islands. “What if an Argentinean force was able to secure the Mount Pleasant airfield? Then our ability to recover the islands now would be just about impossible,” said Jackson in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph.
Likewise the head of the Naval task force in the Falklands War has warned that defence cuts mean Britain can now do “precisely nothing” to prevent Argentina retaking the islands. the Royal Navy no longer has aircraft carriers, has lost its force of Harrier jump jets and seen its warship fleet cut in half over the last decade. General Sir Peter Whiteley, a former commandant general of the Royal Marines, said: ‘If the Argentines decided to invade again we could never consider trying to take them (the Falklands) back because of our lack of naval resources.’ And Surgeon Rear Admiral Ralph Curr, the Royal Navy’s former medical director-general, added: ‘There’s no way we could defend the Falklands or re-engage the Argentines if it all happened again.’ In the Telegraph’s view, Britain can do ‘nothing’ to prevent Argentina retaking Falkland Islands.
Argentine asserts sovreignty over Falkaland Islands http://www.presstv.ir/detail/231772.html March 2012
The Argentine senate has unanimously voted for a measure asserting the South American country’s “legitimate sovereignty” over the disputed Malvinas Islands. The draft document, known as the “Ushuaia Declaration,” was adopted ahead of the 30th anniversary of the war between Argentina and Britain over the islands, also known as the Falklands.The declaration also rejected “the persistent colonialist and militarist attitude of the United Kingdom” and warned against the “militarization” of the Malvinas. Britain has deployed its most sophisticated warship, HMS Dauntless, and a nuclear submarine to the South Atlantic to prevent Argentina’s possible counter-move. Tensions have been mounting in recent months over the South Atlantic islands, with the UN calling on Britain to discuss decolonization, but the UK has so far refused to do so.
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Politics is the art of the possible.
Otto Von Bismarck, remark, Aug. 11, 1867
German Prussian politician (1815 - 1898)
nicknamed The Iron Chancellor
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take someone or something for granted
to expect someone or something to be always available to serve in some way without thanks or recognition; to value someone or something too lightly. I wish you didn't take me for granted. I guess that I take a lot of things for granted.
See also: grant, take
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
take somebody for granted
to not show that you are grateful to someone for helping you or that you are happy they are with you, often because they have helped you or been with you so often One of the problems with relationships is that after a while you begin to take each other for granted.
See also: grant, take
take something for granted
to expect something to be available all the time and forget that you are lucky to have it We take so many things for granted in this country - like having hot water whenever we need it.
See also: grant, take
Cambridge Idioms Dictionary, 2nd ed. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006. Reproduced with permission.
take somebody for granted
to fail to appreciate someone When your own children are growing up, you tend to take them for granted, and then, suddenly, they are grown up. Politicians seem to take voters for granted, except when they face a serious challenge.
Usage notes: usually said about someone who is not appreciated because you think they will always be available
See also: grant, take
take something for granted
1. to fail to appreciate the value of something So many of us take clean water for granted.
2. to accept something as true without questioning or testing it We take it for granted that our children will be better off than we are. Opposite of: not take anything for granted
See also: grant, take
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How Margaret Thatcher became known as 'Milk Snatcher'
________________________________________________________
Margaret Thatcher was Education Secretary in 1971 when Edward Heath’s government was facing a bleak economic future.
The Conservative government had to find substantial cuts to meet election pledges on tax. Removing free school milk for the over seven’s became the most notorious saving introduced. Edward Short, then Labour education spokesman said scrapping milk was ‘the meanest and most unworthy thing’ he had seen in 20 years.It earned Mrs Thatcher the nickname, Milk Snatcher, and haunted her throughout her career. In 1985 she was refused an honorary degree from Oxford University because of her education cuts. After the war under Clement Attlee the 1946 Free Milk Act was passed providing one third of a pint to all children under the age of 18. Previous research had linked poor nutrition, low income and underachievement in schools and milk was identified as a key food that could help alleviate the problem. However since then the entitlement has been steadily eroded.
In 1968, under Harold Wilson, the Labour government scrapped free milk for secondary school pupils. After Thatchers cuts, subsidies were introduced to allow schools to provide milk but most of these were cut in the 1995 Budget.
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Got Milk? (stylized as got milk?) is an American advertising campaign encouraging the consumption of cow's milk, which was created by the advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners for the California Milk Processor Board in 1993 and later licensed for use by milk processors and dairy farmers. It has been running since October 24, 1993. The campaign has been credited with greatly increasing milk sales in California[1] though not nationwide.[2] Got Milk? is one of the most famous commodity brand and influential campaigns in the United States.
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" There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil. The man who is wrong still retains some respect for truth, if only by accepting the responsibility of choice. But the man in the middle is the knave who blanks out the truth in order to pretend that no choice or values exist, who is willing to sit out the course of any battle, willing to cash in on the blood of the innocent or to crawl on his belly to the guilty, who dispenses justice by condemning both the robber and the robbed to jail, who solves conflicts by ordering the thinker and the fool to meet each other halfway. In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit. In that transfusion of blood which drains the good to feed the evil, the compromise is the transmitting rubber tube.”
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
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We are not amused
___________________
Meaning
A quotation, attributed to Queen Victoria.
Origin
This supposed quotation was attributed to Queen Victoria by Caroline Holland in Notebooks of a Spinster Lady, 1919. Holland attests that Victoria made the remark in 1900, but supplies no details of the circumstances. Other reports have suggested that the line wasn't an example of the 'royal we', but that Victoria was speaking on behalf of all the ladies present at court.
The remark "We are not amused" is attributed to her but there is no direct evidence that she ever said it,[95][199] and she denied doing so.[200] Her staff and family recorded that Victoria "was immensely amused and roared with laughter" on many occasions.[201]
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Nation of shopkeepers
___________________________
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The phrase "a nation of Shopkeepers" ("une nation de boutiquiers") is a phrase made famous by Napoleon to describe the United Kingdom.
"L'Angleterre est une nation de boutiquiers."
—Napoleon I
This phrase can be translated from French to English as:
"England is a nation of shopkeepers."
—Napoleon I
Although the description was often seen as a disparaging one, Napoleon claimed that it was not intended to be so, but was merely a statement of the obvious fact that British power, unlike that of its main continental rivals, derived from commerce and not from the extent of its lands nor its population. [1]
The phrase, however, did not originate with Napoleon. It first appears in The Wealth of Nations (1776) by Adam Smith, who wrote:
"To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers."
—Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations[2]
Smith is also quoted as saying that Britain was "a nation that is governed by shopkeepers", which is how he put it in the first (1776) edition. It is unlikely that either Adam Smith or Napoleon used the phrase to describe that class of small retailers who would not even have had the franchise.
The phrase may have been part of standard 18th century economic dialogue. It has been suggested that Napoleon may have heard it during a meeting of the French Convention on 11 June 1794, when Bertrand Bar;re de Vieuzac quoted Smith's phrase.[3]
The phrase has also been attributed to Samuel Adams, but this is disputed; Josiah Tucker, Dean of Gloucester, produced a slightly different phrase in 1766:
And what is true of a shopkeeper is true of a shopkeeping nation.
Napoleon was correct in seeing the United Kingdom as essentially a commercial and naval rather than a land based power, but during his lifetime it was fast being transformed from a mercantile to an industrial nation, a process which laid the basis for a century of British hegemony after the Battle of Waterloo. Although Britain had half the population of France during the Napoleonic Wars, there was a higher per capita income and, consequently, a greater tax base, necessary to conduct a prolonged war of attrition. England's economy and its ability to finance the war against Napoleon also benefitted from the Bank of England's issuance of inconvertible banknotes, a "temporary" measure which remained from the 1790's until 1821.[4]
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Margaret Thatcher 'weeped at the end of her bed' over Falklands War casualties
MARGARET Thatcher wept tears at the end of her bed after hearing news about the casualties in the Falklands War, a new biography reveals.
By: Dion Dassanayake
Published: Mon, April 22, 2013
Margaret Thatcher wept after hearing HMS Coventry and the Atlantic Conveyor had been hit in 1982
Baroness Thatcher had to be consoled by husband Denis after being told ships HMS Coventry and the Atlantic Conveyor had been hit in May 1982.
According to Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography by Charles Moore, her husband used his experience in the Second World War to comfort her.
An extract published in The Telegraph reveals Lady Thatcher cried out: "Oh no, oh no! Another ship! All my young men!"
The first part, Volume One: Not For Turning, reveals Baroness Thatcher's sense of betrayal at Washington endorsing the Peruvian peace plan.
Lady Thatcher had to be consoled by husband Denis after being about casualties in the Falklands war
Oh no, oh no! Another ship! All my young men!
Margaret Thatcher in an extract from her forthcoming biography
The former Prime Minister wrote an angry letter to Ronald Regan about the development but had to tone down the language as 'did not dare' send it.
Mr Moore wrote: "When she came to write her memoirs, she decided not to mention it because of the sour taste it left: she wanted to give a more positive account of her relations with Reagan."
The former editor of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph had unprecedented access to Lady Thatcher's private and official papers.
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