'Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead' could reach number one in UK following Margaret Thatcher's death
Source: The Guardian
Lady Thatchers death could propel The Wizard Of Oz track "Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead to the top of the charts.
Those who saw her death as a cause for celebration have prompted a download surge for the track.
Within 24 hours of the former Prime Ministers death, the song had risen to number 9 in the iTunes best-sellers chart. It reached number 2 on the Amazon singles download chart.
Sales figures for Monday, released by the Official Charts Company, showed that the song had already made it to number 54 in the rundown used by Radio 1.
Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead-could-reach-number-one-following-margaret-thatchers-death-8566042.html
'
Auggie
(31,060 posts)mercuryblues
(14,491 posts)The creators of a website called Is Thatcher Dead Yet? set up in June 2010 have been receiving threats on Twitter after the death of the former prime minister.
Jared Earle, a computer adminstrator, and Antonio Lulic, a musician, created the site which until Monday carried the simple message "Not yet" in large black letters and a sentence saying, "But when she is
do you want to pay for her funeral?", linking to a Guardian comment piece from December 2011 in which the left-wing writer Sunny Hundal argued that "privatising Margaret Thatcher's funeral would be a fitting tribute to her legacy" .
On Monday, after Margaret Thatcher's death was announced the site was changed to say "Yes", adding: "Margaret Thatcher is dead. This lady's not returning." It also asked readers: "How are you celebrating? Let us know using the #nowthatchersdead hashtag on Twitter, or get to one of the parties near you on Facebook." It also offered a Spotify playlist "for the occasion", adding "Enjoy!"
<snip>
He pointed out that the site does not and never has carried adverts, and that there are no plans to, despite its viewers rocketing from almost nothing in the preceding days to almost 400,000 on Monday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/apr/08/is-thatcher-dead-yet-website
htuttle
(23,738 posts)When I read that yesterday, I immediatedly thought if Cher died it would be the only thing that would knock Thatcher off the front page.
frylock
(34,825 posts)posting 'Ding Dong!' on his Facebook wall.
Warpy
(110,900 posts)The only posts that defended the old bag were from Americans who were too young to know what that foul woman did.
Another poster surfed through the boards and came up with a handy dandy list:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She supported the retention of capital punishment
She destroyed the countrys manufacturing industry
She voted against the relaxation of divorce laws
She abolished free milk for schoolchildren (Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher)
She supported more freedom for business (and look how that turned out)
She gained support from the National Front in the 1979 election by pandering to the fears of immigration
She gerrymandered local authorities by forcing through council house sales, at the same time preventing councils from spending the money they got for selling houses on building new houses (spending on social housing dropped by 67% in her premiership)
She was responsible for 3.6 million unemployed - the highest figure and the highest proportion of the workforce in history and three times the previous government. Massaging of the figures means that the figure was closer to 5 million
She ignored intelligence about Argentinian preparations for the invasion of the Falkland Islands and scrapped the only Royal Navy presence in the islands
The poll tax
She presided over the closure of 150 coal mines; we are now crippled by the cost of energy, having to import expensive coal from abroad
She compared her fight against the miners to the Falklands War
She privatised state monopolies and created the corporate greed culture that weve been railing against for the last 5 years
She introduced the gradual privatisation of the NHS
She introduced financial deregulation in a way that turned city institutions into avaricious money pits
She pioneered the unfailing adoration and unquestioning support of the USA
She allowed the US to place nuclear missiles on UK soil, under US control
Section 28 (preventing discussion of homosexuality in schools and allowing anti-homosexual teaching)
She opposed anti-apartheid sanctions against South Africa and described Nelson Mandela as that grubby little terrorist
She support the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and sent the SAS to train their soldiers
She allowed the US to bomb Libya in 1986, against the wishes of more than 2/3 of the population
She opposed the reunification of Germany
She invented Quangos
She increased VAT from 8% to 17.5%
She had the lowest approval rating of any post-war Prime Minister
Her post-PM job? Consultant to Philip Morris tobacco at $250,000 a year, plus $50,000 per speech
The Al Yamamah contract (Saudi arms deal - complete with backhanders)
She opposed the indictment of Chiles General Pinochet
Social unrest under her leadership was higher than at any time since the General Strike
She presided over interest rates increasing to 15%
BSE
She presided over 2 million manufacturing job losses in the 79-81 recession
She opposed the inclusion of Eire in the Northern Ireland peace process
She supported sanctions-busting arms deals with South Africa
Cecil Parkinson, Alan Clark, David Mellor, Jeffrey Archer, Jonathan Aitkin (all were investigated or imprisoned)
Crime rates doubled under Thatcher
Black Wednesday Britain withdraws from the ERM and the pound is devalued. Cost to Britain - £3.5 billion; profit for George Soros - £1 billion
Poverty doubled while she opposed a minimum wage
She privatised public services, claiming at the time it would increase public ownership. Most are now owned either by foreign governments (EDF) or major investment houses. The profits dont now accrue to the taxpayer, but to foreign or institutional shareholders.
She cut 75% of funding to museums, galleries and other sources of education
In the Thatcher years the top 10% of earners received almost 50% of the tax remissions
21.9% inflation
Cant say Im deeply grief stricken by her death!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So there you have it, a one stop Thatcherism education.
Now dare to defend her, even to moan about those of us who are glad she is finally gone.
Stealing.
Warpy
(110,900 posts)It was just too good to sit where it was. It needed to get out.
truebrit71
(20,805 posts)....too good not to...
frylock
(34,825 posts)Lone_Star_Dem
(28,158 posts)I'm also going to borrow this and spread it about. I'd forgotten several of her greatest "accomplishments" to be honest.
HipChick
(25,485 posts)Gave up...they can stew in their ignorance in adoring this woman
Warpy
(110,900 posts)There is nothing like pointing out what that horror actually did in office to pop that fantasy bubble of "great and powerful woman world leader when so few were out there."
I paid attention. I despised that woman with every fiber of my being since a woman that bad is inevitably going to make it more difficult for competent women with functioning moral compasses to come after her.
She bit and clawed her way up the ladder and then burned it.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Best comment I read so far, off Twitter.
Canuckistanian
(42,290 posts)A lot of those things are news to me.
I knew there was a valid reason I never liked her.
raccoon
(31,089 posts)Auntie Bush
(17,528 posts)He just sang the praises for MT on his show. What a great conservative she was...bla. bla, bla. I felt like throwing up!
Adenoid_Hynkel
(14,093 posts)"Tramp the Dirt Down" also back on the charts
rocktivity
(44,555 posts)And here's another oldie but goodie:
rocktivity
xocet
(3,870 posts)All the tracks in this video are quite good.
"The Fletcher Memorial Home" starts at time index 14:30.
The Fletcher Memorial Home (Waters)
Take all your overgrown infants away somewhere
And build them a home, a little place of their own.
The Fletcher Memorial
Home for Incurable Tyrants and Kings.
And they can appear to themselves every day
On closed circuit T.V.
To make sure they're still real.
It's the only connection they feel.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, Reagan and Haig,
Mr. Begin and friend, Mrs. Thatcher, and Paisly,
"Hello Maggie!"
Mr. Brezhnev and party.
"Scusi dov'è il bar?"
The ghost of McCarthy,
The memories of Nixon.
"Who's the bald chap?"
"Good-bye!"
And now, adding colour, a group of anonymous latin-
American meat packing glitterati.
Did they expect us to treat them with any respect?
They can polish their medals and sharpen their
Smiles, and amuse themselves playing games for awhile.
Boom boom, bang bang, lie down you're dead.
Safe in the permanent gaze of a cold glass eye
With their favorite toys
They'll be good girls and boys
In the Fletcher Memorial Home for colonial
Wasters of life and limb.
...
http://www.pink-floyd-lyrics.com/html/fletcher-memorial-final-lyrics.html
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)xocet
(3,870 posts)zentrum
(9,865 posts)But Thatcherism lives on. We need, in addition to old age, a vampire killer.
tabasco
(22,974 posts)A real piece of shit.
maindawg
(1,151 posts)to be a Brit. I wax for the day we are rid of our own evil assholes. The expiration of evil is always sweet sucore. I envy our children who will live to the day they can know that these evil criminals are where they belong ...................
bananas
(27,509 posts)kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)UnrepentantLiberal
(11,700 posts)Gregorian
(23,867 posts)It was hilarious. This dj was blowing raspberries, playing Ding Dong the witch is Dead, and No No No Cat simultaneously. It was so fun to share in the happiness. He was also rattling off facts about miners and Pinochet over some heavy metal.
Now I know how the Munchkins felt.
NBachers
(16,999 posts)Rupert, come on down!
santamargarita
(3,170 posts)CincyDem
(6,281 posts)[link:|
Will Seth Myers have the guts to do a Chevy Chase on her.
Beacool
(30,244 posts)If there ever was an evil bastard, that was Francisco Franco.
Make room Frankie, Maggie is on her way!!!
Beacool
(30,244 posts)He was no better than Thatcher.
Freddie
(9,231 posts)And have to show "respect for the dead" no matter how repugnant the person was in life. I find the British attitude refreshing. "Millions will be at her funeral--to make sure she's really dead."
raccoon
(31,089 posts)when he was canonized.
Beacool
(30,244 posts)Europeans in general protest a lot more than we do here. I have family in Spain, France and Belgium. There's rarely a trip there that I don't encounter some kind of protest. Particularly in Spain and France.
We should do more of them here. maybe the weasels (politicians) would hear us more.
truebrit71
(20,805 posts)...to make sure she's really dead...
Beacool
(30,244 posts)The Daily Mail said that there'll be an honor guard from the Falklands at Thatcher's funeral, but that the president of Argentina wasn't invited. As if Cristina Kirchner would want to attend. What for, to spit on her grave?
Adenoid_Hynkel
(14,093 posts)for fear of being seen as mean.
When Reagan left office, he was the but of jokes and viewed as an inept boob. I remember the late nite comedians, even Jay Leno, having a field day with his idiotic 1992 RNC speech.
But the second he issued his announcement, Dems went silent. The GOP did not, and they launched the Reagan Legacy Project, a Grover Norquist astroturf effort to turn Reagan into their version of FDR or JFK. The myth-making and revisionism began and it's continued to the point that a lot of Dems buy into this idea that Reagan was some kind of bold leader. The insane idea that Reagan single-handedly won the Cold War, rather than luck out and get to preside over the collapse of the uSSR which began in the 70s, is now commonly accepted by too many.
Dems used to challenge Reagan's term - look no further than Al Franken 1995 book, which did a great job picking him apart. But no more.
By the time he died, the fictional Reagan was so entrenched, Dems were afraid to even slightly set the record straight on his joke of an administration, whose main accomplishments were gutting the middle class and sending the deficit through the roof.
Beacool
(30,244 posts)But that doesn't explain why people didn't go out on the streets as they have done now with Thatcher's passing. I think that we are just nor used to protesting in this country as much and as often as they do in Europe.
HoosierRadical
(390 posts)bobclark86
(1,415 posts)the Hallelujah Chorus... but this is good, too.
joanbarnes
(1,715 posts)rwsanders
(2,585 posts)xtraxritical
(3,576 posts)HoosierRadical
(390 posts)xtraxritical
(3,576 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,149 posts)She did raise the standard rate of VAT from 8% to 15% (which affects, proportionately, the poor more than the rich); she cut income tax, more for the rich than the poor (a more complicated picture, but she cut the top rate first from 83% to 60% at the start of term, and from 60% to 40% towards the end).
I don't think she ever tried to justify the VAT increase as 'supporting the NHS'. In what way do you think she did?
Response to Adenoid_Hynkel (Original post)
devilgrrl This message was self-deleted by its author.
MrSlayer
(22,143 posts)A Bach piece can become number one under the right circumstances.
This is perfect. I did a Facebook thing with the song.
BlueStater
(7,596 posts)Good for the Brits. Truthfully, I really don't know much about Thatcher as she was before my time but it's clear that A LOT of people didn't like her and they feel no need to act otherwise just because she's dead. I find that sort of honesty refreshing.