On days like today one is supposed to be respectful of the dead. Whatever one’s views, we are told, we are supposed to put aside our differences and mourn the deceased. Well, I for one refuse to be a hypocrite; I refuse to stifle my conscious and dance to the Tory tune. To hell with respect, to hell with thatcher! We just watched as thousands lined the streets in reverence to a woman who ruined lives and livelihoods; who destroyed industries and with them the towns which relied upon them; who said there was no such thing as society.

That means, by the way, exactly what the left took it to mean, despite Richard Chartres’ fatuous protestation that that wasn’t what she actually meant. Thatcher, like those on the right in general, perceive humanity as a collection of individuals: everyone should care only for themselves, greed and selfishness are good, and the poor and week are so through their own ineptitude, and therefore should be left to starve. Chartres’ crap about Thatcher actually valuing interdependence is no more than the rewriting of history; an attempt to make an essentially heartless woman seem more caring. If she really believed in society, why did she do so much damage to the welfare state? Why did she lower tax and nurture a greed-is-good culture in the banks, thereby sewing the seeds of our current crisis? Why is her name synonymous with greed, selfishness and everything bad about capitalist neoliberalism?

For it is, and thus to see this woman who did so much harm being lorded and praised, given a state funeral costing ten million quid at a time when those on benefit are starving, makes me feel sick. Frankly, I’m disappointed there weren’t more protests. This country is hurting right now due to the tories, so to see the arch tory get such a send off, as if she did no harm, sickens me. I would simply have thrown her body into the river.