Paracelsus

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"The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher" short story in the Guardian

Last Saturday's edition of the London "Guardian" carried in its weekend edition an imaginary short story by author Hilary Mantel entitled "The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher"( who died last year of natural causes despite being targeted for assassination by the IRA during the NI "troubles").

Several( actually two newspaper columnists both writing in traditionally Conservative newspapers)- today's Daily Mail and Times have criticized the publication of this story coming so soon after the late Prime Minister's death abnd likely to upset her grieving family).

Whilst I agree that it IS a bit in poor taste, what are the likes of Libby Purves(in the Times) and Stephen Glover ( in the Mail) seriously implying? That nothing could or should be written about a deceased(irrespective of by natural causes or assassination) politician other than the most hagiographic until the last member of their family has died? To my mind, the response to this (imaginary and arguably tongue in cheek) account of Mrs Thatcher's assassination sums up much of what I consider to repellent amongst the political Right- its manifest hypocrisy. The Daily Mail a few years ago published an imaginary account of Tony Blair's trial before the Hague-based International Criminal Court on war crimes charges relating to the Iraqi war( and Blair was still alive at the time of writing when it was published). Assassination by an IRA sniper(aided and abetted by a middle class woman with a suggestive similarity to Ms.Mantel herself) for Mrs Thatcher would have been a comparatively quick and painless process than standing trial on war crimes charges by a former British PM- the humilation would have indescribable!

Politics, let us never forget, to quote the late US President Harry S.Truman is a rough and tumble business- "if you can't stand the heat, then get out of the damn kitchen!"

I should declare my prejudice here( I was and am no more a fan of Mrs Thatcher than I was of Ronald Reagan )but when I heard of their deaths, I just commended their respective souls to God and asked Him to comfort their families in their hour of need-neither being tempted to crack open a bottle of Babycham or declare a day of mourning!

Anybody else think as I do?

Terry

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