Thoughts

I remember this individual's vile government. Divide and rule. Demonise people. The Trades Unions. Let us not forget that in the Nineteenth Century people worked long hours in dreadful and often dangerous conditions, for pitifully low wages. The financiers and businessmen who owned and funded the businesses were (and are) the backbone of the Tory Party. In short, the Unions were born because of the way that working people were being treated by Tories.
In the early days, the Unions did a huge amount to improve the lot of the working man. Yes, I said man, because after the First World War the Unions did everything they could to stop women from taking 'men's' jobs. By the Eighties they were a bit of a dodo, but were still a safeguard against people being mistreated at work. The person in the picture was having none of it. She shut down those parts of the country that had not voted for her. They were working-class, industrial areas, with strong support for the unions. She demonised both the Unions and the people whose industries had disappeared. She was callously indifferent to the appalling poverty she had created in those areas, and channelled tax cuts towards the better-off.
Then she demonised homosexuals for daring to demand equal rights. I was one of those who demonstrated outside parliament to try and get the same rights as so-called 'normal' people. The Government started a campaign to vilify homosexuals. We were blamed for AIDS. The campaign was relentless. It was a disgrace. Because of the lack of any rights whatsoever, there was nothing that one could do to defend oneself. One royal princess famously said that it was a massive 'own goal' for mankind. How did she know that? Was she a fucking doctor or epidemiologist or something?
Most of the national press was totally complicit in all this. They published shameful and sensationalist headlines. They mislead the public and created hysteria. They compared that woman to Churchill. She was the Iron Lady. Anyone she happened to dislike was fair game for the press.  They were rubbished. They were the lowest of the low. They were troublemakers, and therefore probably disloyal to the country.
The next target was the disabled when the Poll Tax was imposed on the country. The television news broadcast utterly revolting images of disabled people being dragged away in their wheelchairs and being manhandled. And of course the next target was poor people after they also demonstrated, even rioted against the Poll Tax. They were rubbished. They were the lowest of the low. Luckily the Death Penalty had already been abolished. Those were frightening times.
Now we have the present incumbent of that high office, and the first Tory to hold that office since the aforementioned woman. He's determined to pick up where she left off. The Unions are all but dead. Homosexuals have full equality under the law (for which we have to thank the European Union, who would have fined the country if it did not enact the directive). That only leaves the disabled and the poor to contend with. The government has already started imposing vicious cuts to disability benefits. It is soon to abolish (but not in name) working tax credits for low earners. It has also just given the better-off some healthy tax cuts. This time, though, it does not have the media on board, and has been called to account for its actions.
To my memory Tory governments have always been about 'divide and rule'. They have always been about self-interest and the interest of the moneyed classes. They have always been about increasing wealth at the expense of the poor. Why on earth do people vote for them? Are they really that stupid? Do they really have such short memories?
All this was going round and round in my mind when I woke up around half past three this morning.
By the way I don't wish death on anyone, whatever they have done. I must admit though that I was pleased when she did die. In fact I celebrated with a special dinner. But nothing will take away the pain and disgust I still feel when I think about the Eighties.