Artist News

Morrissey provides further comment on Thatcher

By | Published on Wednesday 10 April 2013

Morrissey

Morrissey has commented further on the death of Margaret Thatcher, explaining why he was cautious of providing any official quotes on the former Prime Minister’s passing to the British press.

As previously reported, an article on Thatcher appeared on The Daily Beast website shortly after the ex-Tory leader’s death had been confirmed on Monday, purporting to be comment from Morrissey on the news. However, some have noted the article’s similarity with comments the singer made in an interview with Loaded published earlier this year, with the implication being that perhaps the Daily Beast comments were misrepresented as new opinion given the extra newsworthiness of The Smiths’ man’s existing sentiments. Neither Morrissey nor The Daily Beast have commented on the matter, though reading the two pieces side by side, they do seem more like the repetition of a well practised speech, rather than a rip off.

But anyway, this new statement. Writing via the True To You website, he said: “The difficulty with giving a comment on Margaret Thatcher’s death to the British tabloids is that, no matter how calmly and measuredly you speak, the comment must be reported as an ‘outburst’ or an ‘explosive attack’ if your view is not pro-establishment. If you reference ‘the Malvinas’, it will be switched to ‘the Falklands”, and your ‘Thatcher’ will be softened to a ‘Maggie’. This is generally how things are structured in a non-democratic society. Thatcher’s name must be protected not because of all the wrong that she had done, but because the people around her allowed her to do it, and therefore any criticism of Thatcher throws a dangerously absurd light on the entire machinery of British politics”.

He continued: “Thatcher was not a strong or formidable leader. She simply did not give a shit about people, and this coarseness has been neatly transformed into bravery by the British press who are attempting to re-write history in order to protect patriotism. As a result, any opposing view is stifled or ridiculed, whereas we must all endure the obligatory praise for Thatcher from David Cameron without any suggestion from the BBC that his praise just might be an outburst of pro-Thatcher extremism from someone whose praise might possibly protect his own current interests”.

Finally, he wrote: “The fact that Thatcher ignited the British public into street-riots, violent demonstrations and a social disorder previously unseen in British history is completely ignored by David Cameron in 2013. In truth, of course, no British politician has ever been more despised by the British people than Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher’s funeral on Wednesday will be heavily policed for fear that the British tax-payer will want to finally express their view of Thatcher. They are certain to be tear-gassed out of sight by the police”.

PS: If you are paying attention to these things, ‘Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead’ is currently at number two in the iTunes chart, and number one in the current UK Amazon MP3 sales list. The flurry to buy the track post-Thatcher’s death has been led by a Facebook campaign set up a while back, but which kicked into action after the former PM’s passing was confirmed on Monday. The original campaign suggested buying Ella Fitzgerald’s version of the ‘Wizard Of Oz’ song, fearing that the Judy Garland version from the film’s soundtrack was too short to be chart eligible, but chart bosses have said the 56 second track will count in this week’s official singles chart.



READ MORE ABOUT: |