In this super cartoon by Martin Rowson from Tribune, Gordon Brown‘s attempting to repair a monument to Margaret Thatcher with plaster. The statue is beyond repair, however, and it seems a hopeless task. An inscription on the base of the monument reads “She Vanquished The Miners And Brought Freedom And Prosperity” (oh, the irony!). A dog cocks its leg and urinates on the step, whilst a chav in a hoodie smokes a joint. The meaning seems clear enough… Mrs Thatcher‘s legacy lies in ruins, despite Gordon Brown’s futile attempts to preserve it. It’s the end of Neoliberal “conservative” laissez-faire capitalism as we know it.
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Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
The Gospel according to St Matthew 19.23-24
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A friend sent me a quote from an RTÉ show (no, I ‘m sorry, I don’t have a URL or video link):
According to leaks from the Royal Household Staff, more than once, The Queen and Thatcher had vociferous “discussions” on the PM‘s conservative “reform” policies. Her Majesty… who together with the Queen Mother had political memory and experience reaching back into the 19th Century… sternly argued for strong Trades Unions and social welfare benefits. The Queen Mum especially feared a return to the blight and poverty that these two movements had successfully stemmed. Both queens remembered the poverty of the pre-War time, especially that of the Welsh miners and Scottish urban dwellers. Furthermore, the Queen absolutely felt it was such poverty and exploitation that wrenched Ireland out of the UK and led so many Irish to repudiate the United Kingdom. The secession, in both queens’ opinion, would never have occurred if the necessary political and social reforms had been implemented. But Thatcher’s ideological precursors had scuttled that. And the high price was paid.
If Thatcher’s policies took hold it would be only years, maybe decades, the Queen said, before poverty and unemployment would haunt the land, virulent nationalisms would fester (including in England), and Scotland and Wales, too, would rise against the Union. She was right. Thatcher once howled, “That woman! Thank God, she isn’t allowed the vote. Why, she’d vote Socialist Labour! I just know it! Disgusting!”
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You can have rightwing punks such as Dropout Scott Walker and Miss Maggie… or you can have human beings like the Queen Mum. I’m certain that had he lived on, St Nikolai Aleksandrovich would’ve agreed with Her Highness… NOT Saggy Maggie. After all, he was a ROYAL (and a good example of the breed)… not a grubby counting-house mercantile sort (don’t forget, Saggy Maggie’s father ran a VERY modest grocery shop… it’s the source of her money-grubbing and philistine habits, to be sure). Orthodox people should know that St Aleksei Toth blessed his parishioners to join the Wobblies. So, on two grounds, all decent people should reject the godless nostrums of the Republican Party… firstly, it’s wrong to take bread from the workers and stuff it in the boodle bags of the oligarchs, as the Queen Mum observed. Secondly, it’s right to for working people to band together and fight for their rights, as St Aleksei recognised through his blessing.
God is NOT the Protector and Benefactor of the Wealthy… don’t forget, Our Lord Christ CHOSE to be incarnate in the family of a carpenter… NOT in a lawyer’s family… NOT in a priest’s family… NOT in a landowner’s family… NOT in a merchant’s family… do ponder that. I seem to remember something about a camel and an eye of a needle…
Barbara-Marie Drezhlo
Saturday 19 May 2012
Albany NY
Voices from Russia 
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