BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded

Subject: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: The Pooka
Date: 05 Jul 02 - 09:30 PM

I know I shouldn't do this, but I can't resist. What say you, BritCats? Is there a song in here, somewhere?? (See, tryin' to masquerade as a Music Thread... :)

(July 5, Reuters) A man accused of knocking the head off a statue of the former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher did it because she "endangered the world," a prosecutor said in court. Paul Kelleher, left, walked up to the two-ton marble statue in London's Guildhall on Wednesday and decapitated it with a cricket bat and an iron pole, the prosecutor, John Gilbert, said. He said Mr. Kelleher, a theater director, had told the police that he had done it because "he blamed Thatcher for promoting capitalism and endangering the world."

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: GUEST,MarkS
Date: 05 Jul 02 - 09:33 PM

Yet another charming British eccentric!

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Jul 02 - 09:42 PM

Well, they could just strap her head underneath her arm, leaving us to chorus:

With her head, tucked underneath her arm,
She walks the bloody tower,
With her head, tucked underneath her arm,
At the midnight hour!

CN

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: The Pooka
Date: 05 Jul 02 - 10:02 PM

HAHAHAHA

...And John Major cries, "Don't drop it in the soup!"...

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Jul 02 - 10:44 PM

YEAH, BABY!!! BLOODY MARVELOUS! LOL!!! It's good to see there's still a few blokes out there who have the chips to sieze the cow by the horns (so to speak) and make a po-litical statement that has TEETH!

*(Deliver the above statement in best Austin Powers imitation voice...)

It makes me want to shag someone just thinking about it! YEAH! Oh, BE--HAVE....!

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Les Jones
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 02:47 AM

Deeply afraid of the sexual content of the last thread, but what a fantastic example of one artist improving the political content and power of the work of another!

As for songs, I seem to remember

Poor old Admiral Nelson is no longer in the air
toora loora loora loora lay
On the (?) day of June in Dublin City Fair
toora loora loora loora lay

Could be time for a re-write

---

Click for "Nelson's Farewell"

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Les Jones
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 02:51 AM

Sorry to go on, but could this start a trend?

More examples please.

That Pavoroti, a great singer, but he doesn't like it when you join in the chorus.

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 07:01 AM

Well when they were doing this to the statues of Stalin and so forth that was seen by the Western Press generally as a first rate thing.

It looks a lot better with the head off lying beside the body. Seriously, it looks a better work of art, much more visually interesting. Sticking it together again will be the real vandalism.

I thought it a shame he couldn't finish the job with a cricket bat, as a symbol of how antagonistic her whole style was the the dafter and more agreeable aspect of Engishry. Though I suppose that appropriate for the Iron Bar Lady to use the iron bar.

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: mooman
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 07:18 AM

A great improvement indeed!

Well done that artist!

mooman

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: The Pooka
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 11:54 AM

McG. of H., yeah I liked the choice of weaponry too. And the alleged headsman, Kelleher, being himself a theatre director. Good theatre, there.

Les Jones, yes again, 'twas the tragic fate of poor Admiral Nelson's statute that I thought of immediately upon seeing the news item. Different context & politics, to be sure; but it gives us *songs* to butcher umm I mean, imitate...Off went Maggie's head in London, down came her noggin all-a'tumblin'...

Lady Mag she stood in marble cold, in Guildhall's splendor high,
And all across old London town she cast a crooked eye,
She thought "The British love me, immortalized in stone,
Except that stupid working class, bloody Reds right to the bone."

(Well, speaking of improving on "art" -- Come on the 'Cat, fix it 'up.)

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Terry K
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 12:27 PM

So, are we saying that acts of mindless vandalism are OK after all? Who pays for the repair? And if it's the council, who has to go without what, because the money was used for the repair?

Just a thought.

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: mooman
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 01:19 PM

Not at all Terry! The mindless vandalism she carried out on the UK and its citizens was totally inexcusable. And every UK taxpayer is still paying for the repairs today.

Best regards

mooman

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Les from Hull
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 01:27 PM

'Clicky ba' turned in my hand!'

It was probably an act of mindless vandalism putting the statue up in the first place. Not just Thatcher, anybody. I just don't agree with this cult of the individual at all. You just end up having to smash them when you find out what they were really like.

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: The Pooka
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 02:09 PM

Vandalism it was; mindless it wasn't. Mindful, targeted, aggressive civil disobedience. Ro-bust :) protest. Perhaps this errant boyo Kelleher, if convicted of course, can be made to pay for, or contribute to, the repair??

Re "are we saying...": this threadstarter, at least, ain't saying anything, really. My wife, an artist, would guillotine me for advocating destruction of any artwork. (Yeahyeah, the Taliban & the Buddhas, etc.)

Ambivalently but truthfully, I said up top, "I know I shouldn't do this, but I can't resist." OK, Confession: I was (a) mischievously amused by the story, and then (b) trolling for Mudcat British Leftie response. Fergive me Fadduh. I admit it - this gentle Yank had been (shocked, I tell you, shocked! but) perversely titillated by the sheer ferocity of our 'cross-the-pond cousins' views re Lady Milksnatcher, personally, as expressed in past threads I've seen. Guess I wanted another fix of good ol' civilized British Isles Biles.

I also did, and still do, like the musical possibilities. Many songs have approvingly, distortingly, and sometimes humorously commemorated a Hell of a lot worse crimes than this one, y'know. I sing some of 'em. So do you, I bet. Doesn't necessarily make us terrorists. Just singers. (Granted, in my case the mere threat of song produces terror in the audience...)

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 06:01 PM

So was it mindless vandalism pulling down the Stalinist statues? That wasn't legal either, except retrospectively.

I saw apicture of the beheaded statue, and it really does look a lot better aesthetically. I think I'd probably say that if it was someone I admired.

I wonder if the Venus de Milo didn't lose her arms accidentally either?

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 06:17 PM

Not to mention the dismantling of the Berlin Wall...MORE mindless vandalism! :-) You can always tell a person's basic political bent by how they react to these sort of things...

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: RangerSteve
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 06:47 PM

This has nothing to do with anything, but "Thatcher Statue" is a great tongue twister.

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: The Pooka
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 07:10 PM

Harhar yer right / I think it's quite relevant / she'th a woman of great thtature, thez I

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 08:07 PM

Well, he could have just put a milk bottle in her handbag

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Mr Red
Date: 06 Jul 02 - 09:15 PM

no skin off my nose

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Genie
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 01:18 AM

So Maggie now joins the ranks of Copenhagen's "Little Mermaid." Well, she's in good company.

Genie

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Les Jones
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 03:13 AM

Leftie bile hey? It's worth remembering that the Conservative Party got shut of her. Now, why was that?

Not because she stopped milk for school children or because she took unemployment to 4 million and broke the link between school and work ........ I could go on. No, they got rid of her because people were ready to chuck her and them out. Not bile, memory.

When folksongs are re-generated in the oral tradition the old songs may be lost but not destroyed, but I do like the idea of the passing on and adding to. Is this concept alive in other aspects of human experience?

The Watts Tower was built, I think by one man (help me here someone) but he certainly built on it over a long time. If we move from the individual to the communal and from the permanent to the developmental things become much more interesting

What about that , was it a blanket?, made from thousands of individual squares to commemerate victims of AIDS. I remember communally decorating curtains in the Co-op Hall in Chorlton, Manchester, UK with Woodcraft Folk.

OK, distruction is difficult but those Stalins and that wall had to go and in that context the Thather stature, commemorating exactly what???????, is much closer to Stalin than Buddha.

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 03:19 AM

what the hell did they majke a stayute ayf her for abnywae .john

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Les Jones
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 03:34 AM

lest we forget and let it happen again

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 03:42 AM

i thinj my spelling wassv no good last time, i wil try aain= why djid thety majke a stayue of here anyway.john

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Les Jones
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 04:22 AM

lest we forget and let it happen again. When you get first Deja vu, it's not really for the first time.

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Hrothgar
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 07:19 AM

She's had it easier than the statues of the bulls in the cattle city of Rockhampton.

Don't ask what the vandals have knocked off them!

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: GUEST,Argenine
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 02:50 PM

Well, here in Portland this summer some boys walked off with a whole cow! (They came forward through their attorney after all the news coverage and offered to return the brightly painted bovine and pay all restoration costs in exchange for avoiding prosecution.)

Arge

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: The Pooka
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 03:22 PM

Hahaha / well, re the bulls' crown jewels, Maggie's admirers might say she has a good set of those, herself... So might the Argentinians, come to think of it...

Les Jones, good & valid point re the Tories dumping, or at least distancing from, her. My (admittedly cavalier) reference above to "British Isles Biles" was not so much ideological, as cultural. I think--please correct me if wrong---that British political comment (rhetoric, polemic, whatever) tends to be more, shall be say, robust, and sometimes more *personal*, than some of us Americans are used to. If this is true, it's true on the Right as well. Of course people on the Left are more inclined to bitterly condemn *Thatcher* than Conservatives are, hence my "Leftie" usage. I'm a (moderate-)Leftie m'self. I'm not saying the criticism of her isn't *justified*. Only that it is (to me) sometimes remarkably *fierce* in its expression. And--like I said before--I *enjoy* it; that's why I posted the piece in the first place.

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 07:03 PM

I think that if Americans are less robust and personal in their political rhetoric than people in England and it's neighbours, that is probably a very recent phenomenon. If it's indeed true at all, outside the pages of the mealy-mouthed press.

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Mr Red
Date: 07 Jul 02 - 07:43 PM

John from Hull
She made enough statutes that we had to put up with.
One statute too many?

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 04:53 AM

Perhaps when Maggie kicks the bucket, a taxidermist could be engaged to provide a replacement for the statue. I'm sure that many people would like to see HER stuffed!

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Guessed
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 07:36 AM

first in the list would be most of her ex-cabinet colleagues
then they drooled (apparently) now they bay.
TAXI!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: SharonA
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 12:43 PM

Strange... Maggie stops the milk for the school children, and she's villified (IMO rightly so) and her statue is beheaded by a vandal.

But in the US, then-President Ronald Reagan suggested that ketchup and pickle-relish fulfilled the requirement for vegetables in school lunches – among other irresponsible policies – and half the country (the half that "selected" Dubya) seems ready to add his face to Mount Rushmore or something... arrgh.

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: GUEST,Brian
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 01:05 PM

Mindless vandalism? Yes, ruining a good rock to make a statue of her was mindless vandalism!

The silly bugger knocked the head off the wrong one!

I wonder how many more will take a pop at it before they do the decent thing and let it crumble?

Brian

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Les Jones
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 01:09 PM

OK Pooka, if your perception is that we get more personally unpleasant I must accept your judgement. I suppose not only did us lefties think she did bad things she was also very personally unpleasant on all kinds of levels.

But I would like to explore the other strand of this discussion and out of laziness re-enter part of my ealier post:

When folksongs are re-generated in the oral tradition the old songs may be lost but not destroyed, but I do like the idea of the passing on and adding to. Is this concept alive in other aspects of human experience?

The Watts Tower was built, I think by one man (help me here someone) but he certainly built on it over a long time. If we move from the individual to the communal and from the permanent to the developmental things become much more interesting

What about that , was it a blanket?, made from thousands of individual squares to commemerate victims of AIDS. I remember communally decorating curtains in the Co-op Hall in Chorlton, Manchester, UK with Woodcraft Folk.

Can we join in a more constructive way? Although I am still with those who feel the beheading was constructive and it has considerable historic precedence!

Cheers

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: The Pooka
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 01:59 PM

Les, I'm with you. The "mindful" vandalism can be expressive, not to mention funny; but the communal constructiveness is more positive and more powerful.

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: SlickerBill
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 02:19 PM

Elvis Costello might have written one of the best tunes about Maggot Thatcher; Tramp the Dirt Down on the Spike album. Wonderful tune.

Here in Canada we are still haunted by the Maggot clone brian Mulroney. Loves to pop up now and then to stick his nose (and ample chin) into public affairs, gushing on about the "free market" on behalf of the dozen or so multi-nationals he received directorships from following his performance as pm in the '80's. I wish someone had built a statue of that wanker so we could rip its head off its shoulders. (Mind you with the size of that git's noggin, there wouldn't be much statue left.) sb

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: The Pooka
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 02:55 PM

McGrath, you're usually correct and you may well be on this UK vs US "rhetorical" question. Mine is just an impression---and maybe I *am* going more by the "mealy-mouthed press" than the Amurrican People. I do note, with enjoyment, some pretty hot blisterings of Maggie--and now Mulroney even!--in posts above; but I grant that strong language & imagery is not limited to anybody's particular country.

SharonA, you're certainly right about Reagan. Who, I gather, not surprisingly was *quite* taken with Maggie T.

Les Jones - re the Watts Towers which you cited and asked about - according to the official website Click here they were "built singlehandedly by folk artist Simon Rodia." I've seen them; they're truly a wonder. For a site with links to good photos, Click here

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 03:31 PM

I wish I could remember the names involved, I think one was Agassiz... well, a statue of Scientist A is knocked over in a huge storm, ending up upside down, embedded to the neck (head first) in the pavement. Scientist B (the main rival in their endeavors) quips, well, I always thought [he] was better in the concrete than in the abstract...

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: Les Jones
Date: 08 Jul 02 - 07:14 PM

Look, I have to sleep, but bringing in Agassiz tempts me - especially to the realms of SJ Gould, god and whoeverelse rest his soul. The Republic of Egaliteria needs to be re-defined, and what about that communal blanket and the Woodcraft Folk?

Subject: RE: BS: Thatcher Statue Beheaded
From: An Pluiméir Ceolmhar
Date: 09 Jul 02 - 05:55 AM

Newly-weds in Ireland commonly received a present of "the Child of Prague" (the Christ child dressed as a king), which was believed only to bring good luck when the head had been broken off and stuck back on.

I have nightmares thinking of what might happen if they stick the head back on the Thatcher statue. Maybe the worst is still to come.