Is it just me or...

That was OFF line, not of, by the way!
Craig

Well, I think the threads would open up a lot more if we abolished the four-weeks-and-the-thread's-closed rule. Sorry if I'm being simplistic.

It would be great if we could resurrect discussions that ended years ago on this site. It'd be madness, but a sweet kind of madness.

What do we think about that Margaret Thatcher resigning, then? I never saw that one coming. Mind you, I was ten years old.

www.myspace.com/norwichfacetransplant

10 years old? You're kidding right?
I won't have it, Mac you're surely older than that, if not, good on you mate, many your age have forgotten those times and the aftermath.
Craig

Well, I wasn't paying much attention to her in the first place, except to note that my Mum hated her and Cilla Black loved her. So yes, I'm too young to remember a pre-Thatcher world, or socialism.

I remember seeing Soviet Russia and East Germany on the telly and thinking they looked like cool places, but now I'll never know. Best I can manage is the DDR museum in Berlin. It seems they had it ok back then, over there. They could drive Trabants and cavort naked on the beach, and everyone had a job. But it was the lure of Yves Saint Laurent aftershave that sent the wall crashing down.

www.myspace.com/norwichfacetransplant

Mac, I despised Thatcher too. But as one who visited Poland (later) and Berlin (West not East, I was not old enough, but parents visited East, step-mother was Berliner during WW11))in very early 60s I can assure you it was anything but 'cool'. It was horrific in fact. Poland, even in the early 90s (when I visited a Polish friend in Warsaw), was hugely depressing.

You romanticise things Mac, it's about time you did some deep(er) research.

http://www.ukauthors.com
http://www.ukapress.com

Did I mention I was given a Margaret Thatcher nutcracker for my birthday? Bought walnuts purely to outrage my Daily Mail reading step-father-in-law over Christmas. He was satisfyingly appalled as I clasped her by the ankles. Although I’m not sure on what level exactly – he just gasped then mumbled something about, ‘well, I think that Germaine Greer has a lot to answer for.’ ????

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www.fabulousmother.co.uk

I can't remember where I was when Kennedy was killed.

Well if you can't remember, don't say grassy knoll.

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www.fabulousmother.co.uk

Well, I for one would laugh my arse off if Britain became a Communist state. I'd jump in a Trabant down to Southend beach and cavort naked with little star-shaped Lenin badges on my nipples.

Capitalism is for puffs.

www.myspace.com/norwichfacetransplant

Does anyone remember Peter Cook on a chat show (possibly Parkinson) talking about getting into trouble at some East/West border? Something about cardboard shoes. It was years ago and I've never heard it since but it was hilarious. Maybe they didn't keep the tapes.

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www.fabulousmother.co.uk

How far can we go back on this? I told Alfred to remember to take the cakes out and stop poncing around with those bloody danes.

His father was just as bad.

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www.fabulousmother.co.uk

"They could drive Trabants and cavort naked on the beach, and everyone had a job."

I went to Eastern Germany a few years after re-unification. The people I was staying with had a big garage. I wondered what was in it.

It turned out to be about eight Trabants. I think every time they broke down you just had to leave them in the garage and pick up a new one.

Mmmm, Trabants...

www.myspace.com/norwichfacetransplant

OK - I will try and remove the 'closure of threads thing'.

Trapants.

Styx you were on the grassy knoll, I know this because I was holding Lee Harvey Oswald down as we did the deed, I'm surprised you can't remember, mind you we did pick you up steaming and you were the orignal fall guy!

Lou, have you really got Thatcher nut crackers? I'd love a set where did they come from, surely they must still sock em.

Mac, I was still pretty young when Thatcher was about, my mother wasn't socialist but she was daft enough, in her teens, that marriage lasted for life and had four kids before the old man made his excuses and left!

Obviously that makes the Styx comment untrue but hey who cares! No-one really believed we done for Kennedy did they?

We didn't did we Styx?

But seriously, I was always going to be an Oik, but her ideals seriously affected my siblings life chances.
I for one hope the old cunt gets a state funeral, if only to see if the English working class have still got the balls to raise a protest.

Oh and as an after thought, good to see you're watching Tom, even if it's only to correct our spelling. Where's the short stories adn can you please chat more?

Craig

I do pop by regularly, Moimo. I'm trying to put together another collection of stories for the future.

It was Debenhams of all places where David found the Thatcher nutcrackers. He'd tried other shops first but they'd sold out. Wonder what they'll come up with next year...

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www.fabulousmother.co.uk

Well I am old enough to remember living under a socialist government in Britain and I'm not talking about New Labour they are just champagne socialist and are frankly indistinguishable from the Tories.
If you had lived under through the Wilson/Callaghan years you would understand why Maggie Thatcher was elected.
I also visited East Berlin in 1981 and it was a desolate place and as far from the utopian ideal as you could get.
Capitalism sucks but until they come up with something better it will do for me.

Incidentally whether you love Maggie or hate her she doesn’t deserve to be called an old cunt.

I once had a cut out of Thatcher with a hole in the mouth and a box behind it - the idea was to ut your loo roll in the box and the sheets would be dispensed through her mouth. It didn't work - the roll didn't roll properly - but it must be worth quidzillions on ebay by now. I wonder where it went...

People think that because I sit on the economic right I must love Maggie. Bits of her policy and reform were good and well implemented, other bits were conceptually good but poorly implemented and other bits were awful.

I don't think I could ever forgive her for closing down so many grammar schools. It means places are so competitive, children have to be in the top 0.5% academically (places go to the top 1.4% of those who sit the exam which itself is probably only the top third of the overall range) to get in. That in itself isn't what grates me... it's the fact that people who don't live within distance of a grammar don't have that opportunity which I think all very bright children should be entitled to.

jude

I thought it was Labour who closed the grammar schools? The same way that it was Labour that abolished the assisted places scheme, that enabled poor children to go to private school?

www.myspace.com/norwichfacetransplant

Anyone remember the Mahdi displaying Gordon's head on a pike? We used to play together as kids, Charles and I. "Isn't it crap living in the olden days?" he used to quip. "If anyone chops my head off I want to be frozen until I grow a new one. But what do we know of cryogenics in these simple and innocent times?" We laughed until we stopped.

Of course, back then I was a fabulously wealthy heiress with an income of almost ninepence a year, an opium plantation and all the slaves I could eat. Happy days.

Whilst the move away from the grammar system was initially a Labour policy, more closed under Thatcher (first as education secretary, then as PM) than at any other time (which people are often surprised to learn).

jude

"Cacoethes scribendi"
http://www.judesworld.net

Whilst the move away from the grammar system was initially a Labour policy, more closed under Thatcher (first as education secretary, then as PM) than at any other time (which people are often surprised to learn).

jude

"Cacoethes scribendi"
http://www.judesworld.net

Moimo & 2Lou, I alluded to who were the real, culprits in my original My Life Oy Vey, reprinted below by kind permission of me. Please eat your computer after reading this. STYXBROOX, THE WORLD FAMOUS SEER AND MOUNTEBANK
----------------------------------------------------
Scene: The White House Banqueting Hall.
May 6th 7am. the morning after the Brit. election. A television flickers silently in the background. Two secret service goons with sunglasses stand to attention close by.
A figure is slumped with his head resting sideways on the table, He's surrounded by scattered pretzels, empty beer cans, some marshmallows and a bottle of Jack Daniels. he is drooling and his drool mixes with spilt beer on the table. It forms a rivulet of spit that drips onto the floor.
The figure is that of Dubya Bush. An aide rushes in with a large cup of coffee. He shakes the President vigorously.
Dubya. "unhhhh"
Aide. "Sir you wanted me to wake you with the result of the
election"
D. Jolts upright "Result? I won for Crissake!"
A. "No the election in Britain"
D. "I thought it was in Englerdom"
A. "Yes it's there as well"
D. "Would you make your goddamn mind up"
A . "They are one and the same sir"
Bush sighs and pours a Jack Daniels into his cup of coffee, he picks up a couple of marshmallows and puts them in. He downs the coffee in one, scoops out the marshmallows and shoves them in his mouth.
D. "Ok you got me, I'm too pooped to pop. Who in tarnation won whichever election?"
A. "It was Kennedy sir"
Dubya sprays out coffee and marshmallow all over the hapless aide.
D. "What - you telling' me that those bastards have got in over there?
I thought we had them all sh"
The aide immediately puts his hand over Dubya's mouth and whispers in his ear.
A. "Shhhh we may be being bugged"
D. "By who"
A. "By us sir". "And it's whom"
D. " Waddaya mean whom? Ya god dam faggot"
D. "Jesus fuckin' H Christ what are we gonna do? I know - Bumsfeltd get me Bumsfeltd, an' get me that Black chic, uhh Condominium Rice they'll know what to do"
A. "Uh I don't think we can interfere in another countries elections sir"
The piercing shriek of laughter that emanated from Dubya startled a pack of wolves in Wyoming.
D. "Yes we can yuh dumb motherfucker we do it all the time, whaddya think we're doing in Eyeraq"
A. "But England don't have any oil sir"
D. "Don't they? We better send 'em some"

A. "Shhhh we may be being bugged"
D. "By who"
A. "By us sir".

haha - touch of the Joseph Hellers there, Styx.

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www.fabulousmother.co.uk

I am now going to look for Thatcher nutcrackers. I'm glad you said the loo roll bit Tony, I was a bit worried till you pointed that out dreading something else!
Biggus, I understand the C word is quite strong, I do not use it too much, yet I use it to describe the honourable lady, so yes, I stand by my choice of word in describing such a lady.
More importantly, Tom, are we gonna get a preview?
Please.
Craig