Thatcher's Funeral - a new zine from Fistful of Books

semilog said:
That's factually incorrect.

44% of the popular vote in 1979. 42% in 1983. Pluralities are not majorities, large or otherwise.

"During her premiership Thatcher had the second-lowest average approval rating, at 40 percent, of any post-war Prime Minister. Polls consistently showed that she was less popular than her party. A self-described conviction politician, Thatcher always insisted that she did not care about her poll ratings, pointing instead to her unbeaten election record." [Wikipedia]
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The first-past-the-post system is the system we had and still have in the UK. The configuration of constituencies in the UK will always affect the results, but if the people didn't like that system, they should have voted for proportional representation when they had the chance very recently, but they voted against. (Yes, I know they voted against simply because it was Nick Cleggs idea, maybe that just shows the UK populace can't be trusted with a vote...;-) )

A government in office will *never* get good poll ratings in the UK, the UK population just hates whoever is in office, as it's the politicians who are to blame for every failing of their lives.

As an ex-UK resident, I often chatted politics with people, to be honest, I started to think that having vote should involve passing an exam...
 
mugent said:
A government in office will *never* get good poll ratings in the UK, the UK population just hates whoever is in office, as it's the politicians who are to blame for every failing of their lives.
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Yes. But as I mentioned above, Thatcher had the second-lowest average approval ratings of any PM in the post-war era. Even by UK standards she was loathed. The question is not whether Thatcher legitimately held office but rather whether, as you asserted, she was elected twice by "large majorities." That assertion is at odds with the record.
 
semilog said:
Yes. But as I mentioned above, Thatcher had the second-lowest average approval ratings of any PM in the post-war era. Even by UK standards she was loathed. The question is not whether Thatcher legitimately held office but rather whether, as you asserted, she was elected twice by "large majorities." That assertion is at odds with the record.
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When I say large majorities, I mean it in a electoral seats sense. The popular vote is fairly irrelevant in the voting system the UK has. Very unfortunate of course.
I doubt I ever would have voted for Thatcher, but the system the UK had put her there, just like it put all the others there, I don't really like the singling out of a Thatcher as somehow evil (I'm not saying you did), when leaders such as Blair did far worse things.
 
The OP was trying to show us his work and maybe sell a few copies, but the whole thread may get bounced for this kind of "discussion." That would be too bad for the OP, who did some very nice work there.
 
I should have realised that a post mentioning Thatcher would generate a heated discussion. To try and steer it back to the pictures and zine, here is the photo of the two gentlemen in bowler hats...

sar-photography-simon-robinson-24-hour-photo-_dsf8610-edit.jpg


You may have noticed that there is a third bowler hatted gentleman just behind. If you're very good and this thread doesn't get bounced I'll post a photo of him later on!

Cheers
Simon
 
Sejanus.Aelianus said:
I voted for Thatcher in 1979, as just one of the many millions who were suffering from the out of control trade unions at the time. She did exactly what we wanted, which was to challenge the unions' quasi-governmental status and restore the balance in this country.

The problem was that her success went to her head, as it has a tendency to do with some people. Instead of stopping and restoring balance to the country, she conceived a desire to change Britain's character entirely from a social democracy to a capitalist economy. In the process she destroyed the lives of hundreds of communities from Land's End to John O'Groat.

It is hardly surprising that many millions of people expressed pleasure at her demise and were angry at the use of public money to celebrate her life, something not done since the death of Winston Churchill.
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This is, IMO, a very good summary. Sadly, I too voted for her in 1979, but within a couple of years I was regretting having played even the tiniest part in getting her into power. We are still living with her wretched legacy.

I did not "celebrate her death" - I reserve that attitude for the very farthest extremes of despotism - but I certainly found the grovelling tributes to her somewhat nauseating.

Back to the OP... great set of shots, sar-photo! 🙂
 
So now i know what a zine is
"Zines are self-published, small-circulation, often nonprofit books, papers, or websites. They usually deal with topics too controversial ....."

love the image of the two guys in bowler hats, so very, um..English🙂
you planning on doing the George W. funeral?😉
 
Al Patterson said:
What kind of low class ignorant people are we raising today? You protest during their time in office, vote for the other guy sure, but to dance on their grave shows serious charachter flaws...
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Courage comes in many forms, and a good test for a democracy is whether one can do exactly that.

One thing is to protest the celebration of somebody's legacy (which a state funeral was) and to dance on somebody's grave is another (like on May 2nd, 2011). When the boogeyman is done with, people celebrate, others protest the celebration.

Democracy's hot potato is actually a roasted radish: hard to please everyone with it.
 
sar-photo said:
I should have realised that a post mentioning Thatcher would generate a heated discussion. To try and steer it back to the pictures and zine, here is the photo of the two gentlemen in bowler hats...

You may have noticed that there is a third bowler hatted gentleman just behind. If you're very good and this thread doesn't get bounced I'll post a photo of him later on!

Cheers
Simon
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I like that shot, and the framing/cropping (what was it shot with?)
 
To try and steer it back to the pictures and zine, here is the photo of the two gentlemen in bowler hats...
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I do apologise for my part in the hijack. 🙁

May I ask, how many of these 'zines you have made and how many copies of each? Rather a long time ago, I was involved in the production of small publications and they were a struggle to sell, even then. I'm curious as to whether or how you make it pay.
 
Al Patterson said:
If you cannot find respect for the resident of the office, then you don't respect the office.
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This point of view has always intrigued me. I see it a lot in US films/drama series, and didn't know if it was a view real people had, or was just invented for TV. I have always felt that a person should earn respect, and if say, Nixon did not earn respect, then he should not get it simply because he was elected into office.

Also, why should anybody respect the office? Politicians put together a system, maybe add some gravitas with a pseudo-military quality like in the USA, and respect naturally follows?

I'm not against the USA's form of government, and I'm not expressing a view on the quality of Presidents past or present. My only point is that politicians in the post don't deserve respect automatically, and the office itself does not deserve respect automatically.

Politicians are, in the UK, at least, public servants, it is they who should be calling us 'Sir' and 'Mr Electorate' or whatever, not the other way round, in my view.
 
Sejanus.Aelianus said:
I do apologise for my part in the hijack. 🙁

May I ask, how many of these 'zines you have made and how many copies of each? Rather a long time ago, I was involved in the production of small publications and they were a struggle to sell, even then. I'm curious as to whether or how you make it pay.
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This is my fifth zine and each is limited to 100 copies. I design them and create the digital version which is sent to printers - so the printing is all I have to pay for. There are a few shops that stock them but most of my sales are over the internet.

Cheers
Simon
 
Zines are self published, small circulation, limited edition booklets. They can contain text, drawings, pictures, photographs etc.

Cheers
Simon
 
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