TONY MCMAHON

How the SNP put the Conservatives into power

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:29:51 -0400

Two parties brought the Labour government of Jim Callaghan to its knees – the Liberals and the Scottish Nationalists. Both might have ended up wondering if they’d done the right thing. The SNP was furious at Callaghan for not pushing through Scottish…

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Peter Tatchell, Michael Foot and Margaret Thatcher

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 12:17:17 -0400

Peter Tatchell – the prolific human rights campaigner – first came to national prominence as the Labour candidate in a by-election held in Bermondsey, south London, in 1983. If ever an episode in politics revealed the prejudices and bigotries of the age,…

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David Bowie - it wasn’t always adulationWell, for most of...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:08:58 -0400

David Bowie - it wasn’t always adulation

Well, for most of the time it was adulation in the 70s and 80s but Bowie wasn’t immune to criticism…

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1982 – what issues gripped the left?View Post

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:48:35 -0400

1982 – what issues gripped the left?

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1982 - what issues gripped the left?The first term of Thatcher –...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:47:24 -0400

1982 - what issues gripped the left?

The first term of Thatcher – 1979 to 1983 – was many things politically but never dull. For the…

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Observing the 80s - Sussex Uni looks back at AIDS, the Falklands, etc

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 08:41:40 -0400

Sussex University is compiling an online archive of news and ephemera from the 1980s called ‘Observing the 80s’ – a joint project between the Mass Observation Project, the British Library Oral History Collections and the University of Sussex Library.…

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Video of Thatcher's hearse going past

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:09:45 -0400

As I stood in the Strand, central London, she drifted past…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YqaeRCrdR0&w=604&h=370]

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My photos from Thatcher’s funeral todayI was on the Strand...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:53:57 -0400

My photos from Thatcher’s funeral today

I was on the Strand and while it might have been five deep in Whitehall or near St Paul’s, there…

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London reacts to Maggie in 1979

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:43:35 -0400

London and the south east had a swing to the Tories in 1979 that was 50% higher than the rest of the country. The GLC was already in Tory hands under the leadership of Horace Cutler. He was looking forward to a close working relationship with Thatcher…

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Pete Wylie on Margaret Thatcher - in music

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 06:02:22 -0400

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcXi-VYy_Yw&w=604&h=370]

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Elvis Costello on Margaret Thatcher - interview in 1989 plus song

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 06:00:30 -0400

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Znn5a-88tY&w=604&h=370]

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Malcolm X and Maggie Thatcher - a tenuous link

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 12:06:52 -0400

But not that tenuous! In 1964, the Tories fought one of the most odious elections in British political history. The seat of Smethwick was held by Labour’s Patrick Gordon Walker – tipped to be foreign minister in a Harold Wilson Labour government. Local…

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Jim Callaghan heckled during his 1979 election speech

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 11:51:17 -0400

A rather forgotten incident here when Pat Arrowsmith – veteran CND campaigner – heckled a beleaguered Jim Callaghan who had held on to his Cardiff seat in the 1979 general election but just lost the country to Thatcher and the Tories. She was shouting at…

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Don't upset the mourners!

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 11:39:03 -0400

Thatcher’s funeral will pass by my office on Wednesday and already the steel railings are going up along the Strand towards Aldwych where outside St Clement Dane’s church, her coffin will be transferred on to a gun carriage. Ahead of all this, the police…

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How Thatcher wanted to arm the police in 1981

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:13:46 -0400

In April, 1981, Brixton exploded into a fury of rioting, which then abated. But this would prove to be a lull in the storm. Because when the summer came, city after city across Britain went up in flames. The two most violent disturbances were again in…

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Thatcher Death Lie number five: Maggie was a complete Eurosceptic

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 09:47:28 -0400

Who do you think made these very pro-European statements:

Britain does not dream of some cosy, isolated existence on the fringes of the European Community. Our destiny is in Europe, as part of the Community.

The European Community is a practical means by…

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Glenda Jackson sticks the boot into Margaret Thatcher

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:42:57 -0400

Glenda Jackson sticks the boot into Margaret Thatcher:

An amazing speech by veteran actor Glenda Jackson against Margaret Thatcher

Glenda Jackson lays into Margaret Thatcher

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:37:47 -0400

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDtClJYJBj8&w=604&h=370]

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General Pinochet has tea with Margaret Thatcher

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 08:55:18 -0400

Watch the video and let your jaw drop as Thatcher tells Pinochet that he brought democracy to Chile!!!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbUeX-tCZRs&w=604&h=370]

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Thatcher Death Lie number four: All opponents of Thatcher were terrorists, Luddites or defeatists

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 08:51:37 -0400

There is an argument developing among journalists who have known nothing but the Thatcherite consensus that:

There was no alternative but to embrace the free market path

Free markets equaled individual empowerment

Those who opposed Thatcher were Luddites…

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