I don’t recall the name of the American politician who said whilst dying of terminal cancer to his surrounding children, “never separate the words that you speak from the life that you lead.”

It is within this context that I write about the death of Margaret Thatcher this week. She cast a heavy shadow over most of my adult life. Coming from the north of England I witnessed the effect of quick deindustrialization. I will not repeat what has already and eloquently been written. I found this heart felt posting on the internet:

“For
The Miners
The Shipbuilders
The Steelworkers
The Old that Froze to Death
The Old that Couldn’t Afford Food
The Thousands Made Homeless

For
The North
The Disenfranchised Black Youth
The Lost Generation of Young
The Hillsborough families
The men dead in a conflict designed to win her an election
The men traumatised from the Falklands War
Northern Ireland

For
My mam and dad
My Grandparents
My brother
Every LGBT kid who committed suicide due to Section 28 in schools
The teachers
The victims of gaybashing which were never investigated due to pressure from her government
The gay men stitched up and banged up for being gay

For
The women of Greenham Common who were beaten and had their kids forcibly taken into care for no reason
The men and women assaulted in the Battle of the Beanfield
The men and women consigned to the scrapheap
The services that used to belong to all of us and now are badly run in the hands of the profiteering rich
The country that used to stand for social justice and created the National Health Service
The mentally ill thrown out on the children abused in care homes and ignored.

My final words on this matter:

Next Wednesday I will not celebrate the death of a frail old lady my dignity and social values tell me that is will be wrong. i will pause respectfully and remember the victims and the communities that were devastated. I will do whatever possible to live a life that counters the effects of her divisive government.

She holds no power over me for the future is ours and she may have the past, but the history I shall tell to my children and grandchildren.