A very proper send off

And so we bid farewell to 'the Iron Lady' in an entirely proper and suitable manner.  The military element was entirely right because she took the military to her heart and after the Falklands they returned her feelings.  It was also entirely right that there should be some protests along the way because they reminded us all of her battles on the 'home front' which absolutely had to be fought and won.  The ragged rabble of protesters stands as a sad memorial to their utter and complete defeat.  I am strongly averse to worshiping politicians but every once in a while one comes along and earns the right to be respected, if not loved.  Thus it was with her.

My last comment on this sad occasion is to note the small, mean-minded and truly 'stoopid' behaviour of the White House menagerie.  No-one expected Obama to turn up but to refuse to send even a token member of the current administration just about sums up their lack of political acumen.  The President's first action on entering the White House was to send back a former gift of a bust of Winston Churchill.  Now, in a gesture of solidarity with his socialist worldview he declines to attend the funeral of Mrs. Thatcher.  In this "brave new world" we are entering in which more and more political shifts are occurring I am surely not the only one who is rethinking my hitherto automatic pro-Americanism.  That sort of totally unnecessary poke in the eye from a sharp presidential stick only  confirms my doubts and nudges me to consider British options for the future.

 

Comments

[Jon]

Yes, despite the media hype the funeral route had the right balance of support and protest.

Not very classy of Obama.

[backofanenvelope]

The English state started about 1200 years ago. First we beat off various Scandinavians. Then for a thousand years we had one main enemy - the French. Then, at the beginning of the 20th century we made a terrible mistake - we allied ourselves with our main enemy. We then suffered a hundred years of assorted wars, which we won, but which ruined our country. For the last 50 yeas we have compounded our mistake about the French by joining in various American wars.

You are right - we need a change of direction. No more American wars and no more French wars. A policy simple enough for the next prime minister - some chap called Millibund.

[dearieme]

Realistically, England as a non-fleeting entity was founded in 1066.

[Arthur]

During this past week it's almost as if Maggie were back here with us, completing her devastation of the Left, though it was really the self destruction of the left. From the mob which has long lost the ability to reason at all, to the malign BBC and the remnants of the defeated army of has-been politicians it has been a week of self humiliation and destruction. It has been a valuable time of learning for the young, able to watch the Left explode in a mist of ordure. Lifting the rest of us above it all, has been the Bishop of London's address and the funeral itself.

[Backofanenvelope]

Dearieme. Call me an old romantic, but I think the English state started with Alfred the Great, first King of the Anglo-Saxons. That makes it about 1200 years.

[Whyaxye]

"The President's first action on entering the White House was to send back a former gift of a bust of Winston Churchill"

Is this true? What a shit that man is...

[dearieme]

You're an old romantic. Alfred was King of Wessex.

[David Duff]

'W', herewith the story of the returned bust:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/9436526/White-House-admits-it-did-return-Winston-Churchill-bust-to-Britain.html

Arthur, you touch a point I had noticed, that is, how utterly pathetic and futile the so-called 'hard' Left look and sound today - entirely due to 'that woman'!

Wessex is England, DM, all the rest north of the M4 is simply captured territory!

Jon, Obama couldn't spell 'classy'!

[backofanenvelope]

Alfred was the first king to call himself "King of all the Saxons". By the way, I did say that the English state started 1200 years ago; not England. I am not sure how old the M4 is, but I think Wessex was that bit south of the Thames. I shall carrying dreaming of England, the English and the English language. The one that Merkel and Hollande have to use to talk to each other.

[Able]

I commented on an American site debating the rights and wrongs of the American political establishments reluctance to show any sign of respect on Lady Thatchers passing. The general response was, with the occasional exception of disgust at the 'leftist' democrats hypocrisy (honouring Chavez for example), 'so what, she wasn't American' (whilst overlooking the fact that they would be rightly upset if we did exactly the same thing to them for one of their, vanishingly rare, 'greats').

Those things sum up current America for me. The insularity (even now reading a US paper you would be hard pressed to notice anything happening outside CUS - almost as if their maps are still blank, marked 'here be dragons'), the almost wholesale left bias of media and politicians (including the Republican party), the lack of any even vague memory of history (that which hasn't been rewritten with Americans as the heros/saviours, and preferably 'lefty' types at that), with a silent (majority?) who may disagree (often strongly) but who don't hold the powerful positions and rarely voice their 'misgivings'.

As such, much like here in certain aspects. But a miscalculation, as from my experience even the apolitical and the 'soap set' are 'mighty pissed' at this snub. It'll be interesting to see if it has any long term effect, especially since our own establishment would, on the whole, like to have done just the same thing, but didn't dare.

Much like yourself I don't hold with the 'cult of personality' in whatever form (politician/actor/musician/or someone who can run fast or kick a cows bladder better than anyone else) but this was not 'not showing respect', this was blatant and offensive 'disrespect', a considerably different kettle of fish, and with much more serious consequences (even if they are nothing more than the further poisoning of relations).

[David Duff]

Indeed, Able, it is somewhat akin to a grain of sand which, in the event, proves to be one too many and the load is ditched. I think we have to be careful because likes and dislikes should play no large part in international affairs and anyway, Obama's replacement might be very different. However, it was a useful indication of the political, and I think, personal, antipathy on the part of the current administration towards Britain. I intend to write more on this because it goes further, I think, than just one black man's ex-colonial antecedents turning him into a Brit-hater.

[Jimmy Glesga]

David. Obama has a lot on his plate. He has to consider his Irish terrorist(PIRA SUPPORTING) Democratic! right wing Catholic vote and other things like Islamic terrorism in Catholic Boston. Give the man some space David it is a fickle old world. And then he has to be a friend of Argentina!
Old Maggie did a good job on the PIRA and Argies.
Just reading an article the other day where some Irish blame Maggie for killing the hunger strikers. The fact that they were not on strike and they voluntarily starved themselves has not penetrated their tick brains. Cromwell seems like a good bloke to me now!

[David Duff]

Jimmy, to govern is to choose. Obama, from his choices, has made it quite clear that he bears this country no good will whatsoever. Well, so be it, he's not the first and certainly will not be the last. Unfortunately, I suspect that his views now infect large parts of the Democrat party and our own 'Ministry-for-Foreigners' needs to take that into account.