It's interesting - from the title on. I presume a comparison of basic vegetation growth with life in general; except the first stanza is basically negative and the other too are seemingly positive. And I do like poetry based on scientific reality - a great genre to explore and develop. But I'm puzzled as to your point in 'Golden Fibs' which BTW, is a great title.
Comment is about Golden Fibs (blog)
Original item by Graham Ramsden
Does this contribute to a poetry site?
Comment is about Let us bury the hatchet (blog)
Original item by Tommy Carroll
Thank you for the comment Cynthia. I absolutely agree with you. It sometimes takes another eye to see it. I'm going to amend it accordingly and repost.
Comment is about Traces of you (blog)
Original item by Andy Ainsworth
It is good, I agree. IMO, with its capturing brevity, take out the word 'the' and the commas. 'From nights that punctuate' has a pushing-forward power diluted by 'from the nights that punctuate'. Small point, but worth considering; I found it a hard lesson myself - scrapping small words from prosy lines to poetry. And it doesn't always apply - just mostly.
And welcome to WOL. It's a great site.
Comment is about Traces of you (blog)
Original item by Andy Ainsworth
Epitaph for Thatcher's funeral.
If the Left cannot manage to be Right
Then the Right will always be Left.
Comment is about Wordsworth's Ode to be read aloud at Thatcher's funeral (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
You are always worth reading - easy to follow with a cogent point to make.
Why not take out the 'Or' before 'If you're black or white or red'. IMO, it's a trip-up and really not needed.
Comment is about Citizen's Lament (blog)
Original item by Yvonne Brunton
Hello Pete - I go along with writing "off the cuff" as it were. Often too much thinking at the outset can interrupt the "flow". However, once the main body of the poem is set down, it is a good idea to go through it - and more than once - to see if some judicious "editing" might improve the odd word or line. Nothing wrong in that. The theme of "Shadows" is touching - and its execution is excellent. One of my recent favourites on this site.
Comment is about Pete Slater (poet profile)
Original item by Pete Slater
Are you psychic - that this poem just preceded Margaret Thatcher's death? And then it was open season on such poems. I enjoyed the military beat - could hear the bootfalls and the rattling drum.
Comment is about Entropy Song (blog)
Original item by Freda Davis
Chris - thank you for your considered comments on my post "Thatcher - In Passing" - both content and style. The "Sick Man Of Europe" tag remains with those of us old enough to know those times and the seemingly endless days of confrontation and strikes are still strong in the memory, with one industry after another slowly dying from within; and from without, as newly emerging economies offered competition we couldn't hope to match. We had to change, adapt or die. Go back a couple of centuries...to the glory days of our famous stage and mail coaches - eventually faced with oblivion as the various railway companies - with parliamentary backing - arrived to offer mass public transport. What, do you suppose, happened to the huge numbers of people reliant on the coaching trade? Was the PM of the day rubbished and were there efforts to bring the country to a stand still? Inevitably, as so often happens in progress, the mighty railways saw their own days numbered with the growing freedom of the private motor car and then the motorway. I ask - did they "destroy" this country or even parts of it - or were they necessary to secure the place of the country in the modern world? Ironically, the railways via the TSV/Eurostar, have since regained some new relevance/importance. Maybe, in time, our industries may also achieve some resurgence. What goes around, comes around. In the meantime, we should continue doing what we do best - invent, create, co-operate and sell! Cheers.
Comment is about Chris Co (poet profile)
Original item by Chris Co
Hya MC
Thank you for your obs on Shadows, noted about the rhyme. The problem is, I don't really think, I just write. When it's done ... it's done. Might have to start thinking though, hope it doesn't hurt TOO much. ;0)
Delightful is a delightful comment to make ... ta "Q" very much.
Cheers
Pete The Bus Driving Poet.
Comment is about M.C. Newberry (poet profile)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
Measured and considered, I admire the even-handed style that offers a view from both a personal and a general perspective - albeit essentially from a particular geographical(and political?) viewpoint. The adoption of "working class" as if it were a term solely descriptive of a certain employment and location may be challenged insofar there were many who also came within that remit but were supporters of the Lady and were trying in often lonelier less public/physical circumstances to make a future for themselves.
I'm sure this would be well received in performance.
Comment is about Ripples of Detriment (blog)
Original item by Ged Thompson
Delightful! This shows how the best comes from
things closest to genuine feeling.
On a point of rhyme - in view of the consistency elsewhere, I would have been tempted to avoid "as hard as you try" and gone
for something like "You can't catch those
shadows soon lost to sight".
But that's just me.
Comment is about SHADOWS. (blog)
Original item by Pete Slater
Hi Ged,
Some fantastic lines that hit the mark, not least;
Quote
When the lifeboat came unstable and you feared we’d all go down
You chucked us out, and looked on coldly, as the north began to drown
Unquote
My favourite is this;
Quote
So I’ll wish you Gods speed on your journey and pay you my respect
Show you working class compassion from a place that once you wrecked
Unquote
I like that for a number of reasons, the flow of the line and language is excellent, but also because it avoids being sanctimonious. There's no idea of superiority, rather in showing compassion, you afford her the one thing she never afforded you or anyone else from Liverpool, the North, Scotland, Wales, mining towns, steel towns, automotive workers, or those on their uppers. That's not mere humble pie. That is a juxtaposition that affords humanity whilst simultaneously highlighting precisely what she did - clever and intellectually satisfying to my mind.
To try and add something critical, to what is a very good piece of writing; I did notice one small technical point which might be worth addressing;
In the lines below, because of the number of syllables and scansion - I think the intended end rhyme of the second line in the couplet misses out;
Quote
Perhaps you thought it proper and in sound mind made your choices
Utilitarian motives maybe? Deafend you to the poorest voices
Unquote
I think this is easily corrected via a little play with the lines/language. Other than that I like the use of deafend and utilitarian in the context. Utilitarian is very appropriate because she definitely thought she was right and must therefore have counternenced acceptable losses. Deafened is right - becuase she couldn't listen to people.
In some respects your poem and Laura's poem on this are like bookends, similar in political outlook, but very different in how you have both viewed Thatcher.. Both are legitimate, powerful and personal.
I'll look forward to hearing you read this.
Best
Chris
Comment is about Ripples of Detriment (blog)
Original item by Ged Thompson
Kenneth Eaton-Dykes
Sat 13th Apr 2013 11:05
It's sad to see the negative`reaction to Maggies medicine and its side effects on the sick man of Europe.
It would have been (inevitably) administered sooner or later, by what ever party in power.
I saw one grateful ex Miner on TV recently
who is now a Nature Warden, saying, "It's the best thing that could have happened to me"
Comment is about THATCHER - IN PASSING (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
I never used to like him till he re-invented himself and rocked with laughter. I think it was the Why Why Why Delilah legacy...
I remember seeing him at one of those 'party in the park' things in London and he was brill - knocked spots off everyone else. He has that stage presence that unifies an audience and makes them smile - a bit like Freddy Mercury.
Enjoyed the poem Greg - it's good to read something light for a change.
Comment is about Jones the Voice (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Hya John
My grandkids have rejuvinated me, not that I really needed it but as you say .... happy days indeed.
Cheers
Pete The Bus Driving Poet.
Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)
Original item by John Coopey
I would really like to hear this performed. The feeling I have is more of sadness and despondency than enjoyment - but that is becomes it evokes so much that came to signify the Thatcher years and her legacy.
Obviously I didn't know about the personal, but the personal links entirely to the universal, because so many people suffered in related ways.
Clearly it is a very powerful piece.
I have spoken recently about personally preferring to attack Thatcher and Thatcherism on a non personal basis. I have preferred to attack the damage of policies and legacy alone.
But I have great sympathy for people who feel they wish to go further due to how they have been affected. I have a respect for people - for each individual and their personal wish and need to speak in their own language and on there own terms.
For this reason
I agree with the sentiments of your poem. Understand and feel - yes this is right to say this, even if it wouldn't be the way that maybe I could express myself.
Well written.
Best
Chris
Comment is about Dear Margaret (blog)
Original item by Laura Taylor
I have not danced on her grave.
Though; If she thought about coming back, I'd park on it in my car.
Ok bad joke aside. We can hammer the policies and the legacy without remotely getting personal.
Here are two words people;
Augusto Pinochet.
Thatcher was a personal friend of the Military Junta leader. He visited the Thatchers each year, bringing Margaret as he did both chocolates and flowers. Of him she said he defended and represented democracy.
The connection and that last statement makes me physically sick;
For those that are not fully aware of the Pinochet regime - below I include the overwhelming evidence against him.
People need to read some of what went on here - bare in mind this was a close personal friend of Thatcher. It was Thatcher who helped Pinochet escape Spain's attempted extradition on human rights charges.
Don't skip the link below - read some of the extracts of what happened to people - read some of the suffering and then think on. She had dinner with him each year and were personal friends - what on earth does that say for her!!! ?
http://www.usip.org/files/resources/collections/truth_commissions/Chile90-Report/Chile90-Report.pdf
Another two words;
Pol Pot.
His Khmer Rouge - she supported it at one juncture. She was also against the Vietnamese invasion of the country that liberated millions from from being treated as cattle and saved maybe hundreds of thousands from their impending death. Pol Pot's regime having murdered a third of the entire Cambodian population.
Yet Thatcher is supposed to be a great stalwart and defender of democracy? Pleeease!
Another three words
Hillsborough cover-up.
I have read Sir Bernard Ingham's letter to a Liverpool fan. You can as well.
http://www.anorak.co.uk/353664/sports/margaret-thatcher-and-hillsborough-her-press-secretary-bernard-inghams-letter-to-a-disgusted-liverpool-fan.html/
Thatcher knew about the Police cover-up. She knew about that which is euphemistically referred to as 'police mistakes'. And her and her government deliberately conspired against the dead in order to deny natural justice.
Another two words;
Poll tax. Nuff said.
Socially she was disastrous.
Trickle down economics has proven to be an economic fallacy. Market reforms were needed and to some significant degree she got that right - but not at the speed and severity they were imposed which in effect resulted in a self created recession.
Industries that could have been put into managed decline- via funds from privatizations and north sea oil could have eased many people and communities into re-training. Instead entire communities perished, people spent lives sliding into hidden unemployment via incapacity benefit etc. The cure killed many of the patients! I don't think it does any good to talk of a cure if you were one of the people, the communities that ended up dead or of a wasted life.
She sought confrontation - she divided the country. It needn't have been that way.
The unions were at fault too, greatly. At least some of them were. But confrontation to the degree she employed only polarized them further, put people into trenches, made people more dogmatic. It guaranteed a mess - especially when any fool could see how dogmatic the likes of Scargill was.
People do forget all that unions won for the common man. People forget too easily and have replaced all the good with one image. An image from the 1970s of bins not being emptied, or of power cuts, or the shortened working week. But every common man and woman working to this day owe the unions a debt of gratitude. That debt is enormous and not up for debate (objective reality and a fact). We should not lose sight of that, just because of some militant idiots in the 70s and 80s.
Right now Thatcherism is alive and well, even if she is not.
Look at Michael Gove, look at what is happening to the teachers and see how they have been subjugated and limited. See how their ability to teach has and continues to be hampered. A lot of that goes back to Thatcher and the unions being broken.
It wasn't good for the unions to have been broken. Too much power was one thing and yes it needed to be limited.
But what we have been left with? The unions having no real power and the idea that the unions are that 70s/80s image in the mind of the public...that has really hurt the balance of power in industrial relations. It has placed too much power in the hands of government and big business. And the results are far from good. This in no small part is thanks to Margaret Thatcher.
Was she evil - no. She didn't need to be. She was a leader of conviction who didn't listen to others including her own cabinet.
When Thatcher got it wrong - she got it disastrously wrong.
No dance - no need. But really John? The idea, especially in these times, that one could vote conservative?
That would be far worse than any dance...
Comment is about Schadenfreude (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Do you know Tommy - I've forgotten - but I think it was Ms Rachel Bond who read it out - so maybe she can fill you in. It was good - but I felt the message was a bit lost by trying to shock too much - they were probably looking for a reaction.
cheers
Ian
Comment is about Tommy Carroll (poet profile)
Original item by Tommy Carroll
Hi Ian- :o) what CRASS lyric was that please?
Comment is about Ian Whiteley (poet profile)
Original item by Ian Whiteley
at WOL in Wigan on Thursday - a young lady read out a CRASS lyric
just saying :-)
Ian
Comment is about Let us bury the hatchet (blog)
Original item by Tommy Carroll
BBC4 is such a great channel, particularly on Friday nights. Sir Tom Jones tonight ... duets from the 60s with Stevie Wonder, Janis Joplin, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis. Wow!
Comment is about Jones the Voice (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
You're right, Greg. We enormously underestimated her. There is a halo effect (perhaps not quite the right phrase in her case) with Prime Ministers. Seldom do they look the part until they are in office. She was a classic example. She never looked like a threat to Heath - but was. She never looked to have any leadership qualities - but did. And I say all this with a deep dislike of the woman.
Comment is about The Winter Gardens (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
No, I've never attended a union conference, John. I was always editing the reports from them back in the office, a backroom boy. I thought 25% inflation was great; in three years in the late 70s my first mortgage more or less disappeared. I decided to re-post this to get on the bandwagon, and partly because it seems to be surprisingly neutral about Thatcher. My fb postings about her this week have been anything but. I think I'm trying to suggest in this poem that the left and the unions totally underestimated what she could do to them, and that was partly because of her gender.
Comment is about The Winter Gardens (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
A vivid walk down memory lane, Greg. Were you assigned to report there? I once manned a stand there with a set of oiks, one of which (the boss's son) asked me, "So what does TUC stand for?".
Inflation at 25%, interest rates at 15%, hocked up the the eyeballs at the IMF, the Social Contract in tatters, minority government. It could have been the Weimar Republic all over again. I reckon we got off light with Thatcher!
Comment is about The Winter Gardens (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
I was drawn to this, Mike, by its title.
"Moonlight and Roses" was my mother's favourite song although I never knew it until she died and my dad told me.
I really like some of the short lines and quick images - "aromatic smile" and "dance of rapport".
Comment is about Moonlight, Roses and You (blog)
Original item by Mike Hilton
My girls are 25 and 23, Pete.
But when I dream about them they're little again.
Happy days.
Comment is about SHADOWS. (blog)
Original item by Pete Slater
Laura,
Of course I could always agree to disagree with you most agreeably :)
You were not to know that I spent thirty five of my forty years in industry as a union official (shop steward, secretary, national executive member)
What I mean by `big softies` is that the great majority of British trade unions - apart from those industries I mentioned - were the most un-militant bunch you could imagine. They had been softened (bribed if you like) by a velvet glove treatment in the full employment years after the war.
The miners were faced (after many of the pits had been already closed) by the virtual shut down of the rest of the industry, and in that situation the Angel of Peace himself would have gone on strike.
The pits were closing due to cheap competition from abroad - as were the factories
A national ballot on strike action wasn`t held and the strike was not universal. Because of this the country was torn between sympathy for the miners and the fear that a small section was undemocratically holding a legally elected government to ransom. (The miners had already brought down Heath`s government in 1974.)
The myth that Thatcher destroyed all those jobs is like the present myth that Brown and the Labour party (on their own) brought about the world-wide credit crunch (some power, eh!) The undeveloped world is coming into it`s own and and we have to change. It looked like the City of London and finance might do it but you see what`s happened lately.
(The idea that Britain (apart from the E.E.C. could become a major trading nation again on its own is (in my opinion)ludicrous.
Thatcher`s victory in the Falklands war was very popular in almost the whole country. I can understand why so many, in those `sick-man-of-Europe` days were so elated, but, to me, a fight over a wind-swept sheep farm in the South Atlantic was a long way from our glory days in 1939.
To me, the worst result of Thatcher was to start that tacit transfer of the unemployed on to social security and benefits which has continued to create the shameful underclass which exists in Britain today...How reforms (which were started under Labour) will turn out I don`t know - but almost anything would be better than what we have now. What is needed is a viable earning system which allows the poorest to exercise their self-respect. I can`t see it happening until the earnings of the lower jobs are brought nearer to those of the `untouchable` middle class.
Thatcher herself gloried in confrontation so it`s not surpring that so many people wish to `confront` her memory.
Graham,
As someone who (only once) had to persuade a large number of those reluctantly vociferous `sheep` to stop work....it can`t be done by wasters.
And I can tell you, there`s nothing so soul-renewing as a good, justified, whole-hearted, successful strike (no matter how much trouble you had getting them there)
Comment is about Schadenfreude (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Is it really possible to be perfect? There are so many questions to be asked. And... the main one is: What is it to be perfect?
Comment is about I'm Not Perfect (blog)
Original item by Shirley Smothers
I'm struggling to express my feelings on this. The word arse comes to mind, with an exclamation mark. Ho hum...
Comment is about Wordsworth's Ode to be read aloud at Thatcher's funeral (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Liverpool fans chanting When Maggie Thatcher Dies v Sunderland
http://youtu.be/37Cmzvt549Y
Liverpool fans pre-match away at Wigan 2013 Thatcher song
http://youtu.be/NtwavcblPzo
I hope she became aware of her dying
I hope she became aware of her senility
I hope she died in pain
I hope she died in fear
Comment is about Schadenfreude (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Anyway....
.....that's what I think.
Comment is about Schadenfreude (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Thatcher's greatest strength was her greatest weakness M.C. She led on her convictions. That made her dynamic - be that dynamically right or dynamically wrong. The poll tax was dynamically wrong like most of her social policies. Politically speaking she lived by the sword and died by the sword. The poll tax is as much hers as anything - she would not have been pushed into anything - both of us should know that truth.
The Lady wasn't always right - to me and many others that could be one of life's greatest understatements. I have to laugh ironically.
Politics aside - you've put your thoughts together well and the poems rolls along quite well. You've always got a very good musicality to your verse. You clearly have a ear for the line.
One thing I do feel quite strongly about, is that people should not be subject to verbal personal abuse on the basis of their political convictions. Debate should always remain on point politically or in this context speak about poetics.
Blogging a poem should result in critique and feedback on the poem and not if at all possible stray into the personal. If people stray beyond they will find themselves in arguments that generate more heat than light.
We can disagree - totally disagree politically even. Though I see your politics as moderate right rather than anything extreme and I'm a left winger. What I wont do is call you a bunch of crap. On that note Mike who I probably politically have much agreement with; needs to apologise to you or leave the discussion - which ever he finds the easier on his conscience.
Best
Chris
Comment is about THATCHER - IN PASSING (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
http://mikkimarie.deviantart.com/art/And-That-s-Wrong-364542914
I wanted to give credit to the poem "And That's Wrong" that inspired this one.
Comment is about I'm Not Perfect (blog)
Original item by Shirley Smothers
Very good poem. The imagery is rich. I could see and feel her emotions.
Good writing.
Shirley
Comment is about She Rides (blog)
Enjoyed reading and hearing this the other night. I would have commented prior, but have been up and down with ill health.
I keep reading things I like and then failing to comment...
Anyway a lot of truth ringing out in this. I also liked your neighbour of the beast poem too - very enjoyable punch/last line
Best Chris
Comment is about Fields Of Carbon & Blood (1984) (blog)
Original item by Ian Whiteley
I seem to remember a big scandal about helicopters - was it Westland - I think Heseltine resigned over it. The failure to support or subsidise the last English producer of them.
I'd agree that we had no chance of competing with the East in low level manufacturing. I just find it sad that we can invent such great things but not reap the benefits of manufacturing them.
Comment is about Schadenfreude (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
I disagreed most strongly with the selling off of council houses - and ironically that seems to be the one thing that most people praise her for.
Yes, it did allow some people to own their own homes, who might not otherwise - but those houses weren't replaced and sold at knock down prices. National assets were pissed away - leaving us with one big housing mess. Social housing was supposed to be for those in need, not those who could afford to buy.
I lived in the South at the beginning of it all. I can remember work colleagues (who were already comfortable) buying their parents' council houses as investments - the markets were guaranteed to go up there - it was such easy money.
I could never understand the fact that subsequent governments continued the policy. Clearly ALL politicians will do anything to get the popular vote.
The price of housing in the South is so exorbitant now I believe the policy is to rehouse asylum seekers and those who can't afford the bedroom tax, in poorer Northern towns - like that's going to do the North/South divide any good.... I'm surprised they haven't yet found a way to saw through the Earth's core and set us adrift into the North Atlantic.
I'd never heard about that sickness policy but it does figure.
Rant over :)
Comment is about Schadenfreude (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Thx for the feedback on the 'Nothing Left' poem. We differ greatly politically...but I do appreciate some of your political points and have left a long windy comment on the poem's blog.
I wish I could write in a more laconic style outside of poetry - but prose writing is not my forte. Hope the explanation of my political feeling comes across and you can see why I feel as I do.
Ta muchly for reading and commenting.
Best
Chris
Comment is about M.C. Newberry (poet profile)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
Hi Nigel.
Thank you for your comment on "A Letter to Myself". Now if I will only follow my own advice.
Thanks,
Shirley
Comment is about Nigel Astell (poet profile)
Original item by Nigel Astell
Thx for the feedback on the poem 'Nothing Left'. I've sent a pm to you on Facebook.
Best
Chris
Comment is about Ged Thompson (poet profile)
Original item by Ged Thompson
Thx for reading and feedback guys - v much appreciated.
I guess the vitriol isn't there becuase I wrote this last summer, as much in sadness as despondancy at the legacy of Thatcherism. I couldn't really be bothered with her as a person. I found the personal far less relevant and just not the focus of my concern, which was those that suffered as a result of her political actions and influence - which continues to this day.
I personally choose not to speak ill of the dead - in terms of personal comments. Just not my thing. I prefer to speak of the policies or the effects of them and keep it less about personality or of the person. That said I do recognise the rights of others to take a less charitable view. Some people ink an eye for an eye with her and I do have some sympathy for that view, especially from those worst affected by her time in government.
A the time of writing this poem I was (still am) worried about the next generation and how children may or may not be taught... teachers having little 'say' in matters. Whilst I know that the current situation is not that of Thatcher's making, but rather that of Michael Gove and the Condems, Thatcher's influence and Thatcherism exists in the changes she made to the unions.
It seems when people hear unions, they immediately conjure up images of the clash the miners in 84. While thatnis part ofnthe history and it's own case of rights and wrongs, it isn't everything. Thatcher broke the unions across the board and that is what - to this day - allows for many questionable policies.
Teachers need to have a say in the curriculum, need to be able to teach children as they have qualified to do. Thatcher took their voice away, Gove applies his policy and the children reap the benefit if it goes ahead (sick joke I know).
Thinking on all this caused me to reflect on the ghosts of other industries, hope and dreams..something I barely touched upon. Glad that came through somehow Ged.
M.C First of all I like the verse you have written, even if I differ in my politics - well written and interesting, Obviously - we're never going to agree politically - that simply isn't possible because Thatcher was the most divisive leader in this countries history and I despise the policies she inflicted upon this country. The unions had their faults, they needed reform too and yes this country did need to regain its competative edge and spirit. But the speed and scale of the reforms were not justified. They condemed entire sections of society to the rubbish pile. Socially her policies caused appaling suffering to great swathes of the country. Her policies threw many out of mental health institutions onto the street. And pushed people into unemployment in their millions via a self generated recession. She willfully president over the deliberate sabotage of various industries in order to break the unions - that is what saw many out of work and many communities destroyed.
Changes could have been made in a fare more humane way. Industries in decline could have been put into a managed delcine. The fact is they weren't they were in no uncertain terms sabotaged for political purposes to move more quickly to a freer market.
We also have the fact that Thatcher sold off the family silver very cheaply via privatisation. And started the home buying scheme which raised capital and helped to limit social housing stock that we lack to this day. All this is before we even consider her reputation as a defender of democracy whilst simultaneously being a personal and political friend and supporter of Augusto Pinochet - a vile leader of a military junta. The man who over-through the democratically elected leader of Chile and causing him (Allende) to commit suicide. Pinochet went on to barbarously murder and suppress an entire country. In fact it was Thatcher who helped prevent Pinochet's extradition to Spain on human rights charges. Thatcher said that Pinochet was a defender of democracy - that is utterly sickening. Would she have said that to a parent of one of the disappeared, still looking in the shadows 30 years later for a child that one day never came home? I wonder did she contemplate such things at the dinners she shared with Pinochet? Did she consider the dead when she accepted his chocolates and flowers each year? Thatcher also supported Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge at one point and was against the Vietnamese invasion that removed the genocidal leader from power. Of course then we have Hillsborough and her governments deliberate cover-up. I have read Sir Bernard Ingham's letter on her behalf to a Liverpool fan. It tells you all you need to know of her thoughts on football fans. It tells you that she knew about the cover-up from the start. Her attempted scheme of identity cards for football fans again tells you what she thought of football fans. We could go on to talk of her considering the abandonment of the city of Liverpool altogether - something Heseltine thankfully persuaded her away from with his considerable powers of oratory and one nation conservative approach.
So forgive me if I have to disagree with any pro Thatcher stance. I do so in a non dogmatic way accepting that appropriate union, market place and industry reforms were required. Just not as she went about it.
Hey Ian - nice to hear you read last night and say hello. I really enjoyed your poerty and also you poem on this subject.
Ged - ripples of detriment is a great image - you own it now. Definitely one to put to use. Glad the sinister/haunted nature of this came through. It really helps to know that worked somehow.
Thx for reading my waffle.
Comment is about Nothing Left (blog)
Original item by Chris Co
<Deleted User> (6895)
Fri 12th Apr 2013 18:04
theres life in the
'not so young dog yet',eh Brian.xx
Comment is about (blog)
Original item by BRIAN EVANS
<Deleted User> (6895)
Fri 12th Apr 2013 18:01
good advice,
especially the last two lines Wez.xx
Comment is about Cycles (blog)
Original item by Wez Jefferies
<Deleted User> (6895)
Fri 12th Apr 2013 17:57
My dad always said to me "never let anyone tell you when you can work or not". He was in a trade union and hated every minute of it. He hated being one of the sheep being bullied into action for very little else by gobby wasters who had taken control and did little work themselves.
Another thing he always said was "no matter who's in power boy, you'll always have to work".
Comment is about Schadenfreude (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
The Twisted Goblin
Powder white
patchy hair
squinting eyes
shameful serpent
elephant ears
prominent do-gooder
racist heart
blind faith
religlous obedience
world wide
faithful followers.
Comment is about Ghandi's Racism (blog)
Original item by Stockport WoL
JC - thanks for the courtesy, especially as I can appreciate your own situation - both physically and career-wise. No one can doubt the achievements and importance of unions. Regrettably, a great industry was taken for a one-way trip by less than honest political leadership. I have a friend here in town - retired from London Transport (mechanical side) and he is scathing about the prevalent union leadership in his old job - no names, no pack drill!
Personally, I accept being abused as a sign of a paucity of worthwhile argument from the abuser.
Cheers.
Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)
Original item by John Coopey
Cynthia Buell Thomas
Sat 13th Apr 2013 17:05
Good one, Michael - strong, brutally honest and well-structured. Gripped immediately, the reader follows you through the conversational dialogue and emotional actions. The repetition plays well to underscore the despair of the brief encounter.
Comment is about Spent (blog)
Original item by Noetic-fret!