Never have I witnessed a gap between the mainstream media and public opinion quite like the first 24 hours since the death of Margaret Thatcher.
While both the press and President Barack Obama were uttering tearful remembrances, thousands took to the streets of the UK and beyond to celebrate. Immediately, there were of what were called "death parties," described as "tasteless", "horrible," and "beneath all human decency""
Britain
When a political leader dies, it becomes compulsory to lie about their record.
While much of Britain openly rejoiced at the death of Margaret Thatcher, the media snapped into reverential mode, giving over hours of airtime and several thousand miles of column inches to representatives of the ruling class to solemnly recite myths about her achievements.
This wouldn鈥檛 matter so much if, like Thatcher, these myths were dead. But they are still shaping our policies.
No 鈥榚conomic miracle鈥
Sinn F茅in President Gerry Adams commenting on the death today of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Comedian and socialist Mark Steel addressed a protest against cuts and privitisation at Sussex University on February 12. Students at Sussex University have been occupying the university's conference centre since February 6 against the university's outsourcing of key services.
The British government's controversial back-to-work programmes lay in tatters after the Court of Appeal ruled their regulations unlawful on February 12.
Three judges unanimously ruled that the regulations which most of the schemes have been created must be quashed.
The ruling is a huge setback for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) whose flagship reforms have been beset with problems from the beginning, with campaigners and unions accusing ministers of effectively introducing forced labour.
Britain is a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. But despite its international legal obligations as signatory to this and other human rights conventions, the reception granted to those knocking on Britain鈥檚 door in hope of protection is far from welcoming or humane.
In fact, Britain appears to be doing everything in its power to keep its doors tightly closed to those often referred to as 鈥渟croungers,鈥 鈥渢errorists,鈥 鈥渆conomic migrants,鈥 or other 鈥渂ogus鈥 refugees hiding behind a smokescreen of asylum 鈥 adding deadbolts by the day.
In Peter Watkins' remarkable BBC film, The War Game, which foresaw the aftermath of an attack on London with a one-megaton nuclear bomb, the narrator says: 鈥淥n almost the entire subject of thermo-clear weapons, there is now practically total silence in the press, official publications and on TV. Is there hope to be found in this silence?鈥
The truth of this statement was equal to its irony. On November 24, 1965, the BBC banned The War Game as 鈥渢oo horrifying for the medium of broadcasting鈥.
Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class
By Owen Jones
Verso updated 2012
300 pages, $15:00
鈥淚t's not the existence of classes that threatens the unity of the nation, but the existence of class feeling,鈥 an official British Conservative Party document stated in 1976.
Indeed, abolishing classes was the last thing on the mind of the Tories' new leader at the time, Margaret Thatcher. She merely wanted people to forget which class they belonged to, says Owen Jones in Chavs.
About 200,000 people marched in London, Glasgow and Belfast on October 20 against the austerity programs of British Prime Minister David Cameron's government.
The trade unions that called the actions put the numbers of participants at: London 150,000, Glasgow 10,000 and Belfast 10,000. Marchers were of all ages and backgrounds 鈥 trade union members, students, families affected by cuts to health and social services and women's rights advocates, among others.
Women and girls are among the hardest hit by the anti-working-class policies of Britain鈥檚 Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.
A report published in The Guardian earlier this year showed that rising taxes and cuts to social spending have hit women three times as hard as men.
Women aged 50-64 have been hit hardest by rising unemployment since the coalition came to power. It is up 31% compared to an overall rise of 4.2% in the country (to 2.6 million people).
Dial M for Murdoch: News Corporation & the Corruption of Britain
Tom Watson & Martin Hickman
Penguin Books 2012,
360 pages, 锟20.00
This book provides much needed background information to the Levenson inquiry, which investigated the phone hacking scandal of Rupert Murdoch-owned newspapers and its cast of characters.
Twenty-three years too late, the real truth is finally being told about the Hillsborough disaster of April 15, 1989, which killed 96 football fans and injured hundreds more.
A new 354-page report, released by the Hillsborough Independent Panel after accessing more than 400,000 pages of secret documents, has implicated the police, media and British government in what has been described as 鈥渢he biggest cover-up of British legal history鈥.
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