http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...argaret-Thatcher.html?ITO=1708&referrer=yahoo
So was Saxon all about getting rid of nu labour.
So was Saxon all about getting rid of nu labour.
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Who used as propaganda to get rid of Thatcher
- Thread starter Captain Shaw
- Start date
So was Saxon all about getting rid of nu labour.
It's in the Sunday Times as well, and it's not exactly news that the writers on the late 80s stories were anti-Thatcher (they were all young, and in the late 1980s being young and yet pro-Thatcher was almost as big an act of rebellion as punk had been 10 years earlier! Though admittedly, the head of the young conservatives at my Uni was a Who fan... and got sent up by the other Who fans).
The only interesting thing about this is why two papers have suddenly made a story out of it 20 years on...
Thatcher deserved it imo. That Who's writers tended towards the left, as does any writer and indeed, as does any intellectual (or really, any thinking person), was, I have always thought, common knowledge..
"Brezhnev took Afghanistan..
Begin took Beirut..
Galtieri took the Union Jack..
And Maggie, over lunch one day,
Took a cruiser with all hands.
Apparently, to make him give it back. " - Pink Floyd, Get Your Filthy Hands off My Desert
"Brezhnev took Afghanistan..
Begin took Beirut..
Galtieri took the Union Jack..
And Maggie, over lunch one day,
Took a cruiser with all hands.
Apparently, to make him give it back. " - Pink Floyd, Get Your Filthy Hands off My Desert
Happiness Patrol is weird-on one hand, it's a fairly tacky and very 80s serial with of course one of the most goofy WHO monsters ever, Kandyman. On the other hand, it's got a lot of social commentary. I think that's part of the reasons the McCoy era has often fared better than Colin Baker's, they often were satirical instead of run-of-the-mill or overly violent scripts. For instance, GREATEST SHOW IN THE GALAXY might seem like a goofy circus-oriented WHO, but it's actually partially about WHO, The BBC and it's fans (As represented by the geeky character), although not to the extent LOVE AND MONSTERS is.
Well very true, though any thinking person is a bit harsh. You have to accept the allure of "the established order of things" and this draws many professions (e.g. police officers) more to the right.
Of course in the end Thatcher was stabbed in the back by her own party who then proceeded to destroy themselves from within. Something Labour are now trying to repeat!
Somewhat simplistic really; let's face it most (not all) people do become more conservative over time (just ask Brown's cabinet)
Of course I bet all those writers who hated Thatch couldn't wait to queue up and vote for Tony Blair in 97.
Bet they all have nice houses too
Surprised the article didn't mention Fenric. What with evil British establisment figures and heroic Russian soldiers who join forces with the British troops at the end with the words 'workers of the world unite'
I'm a big fan of that record (indeed, it has two of my favourite songs of all time), but the idea that any thinking person is a leftist is insulting.
Lets face it, there are intelligent people occupying every colour of the political spectrum. You'll find highly intelligent people who think Stalin and Mao were brilliant leaders, same as you'll find smart people who'll happily vote for Nick Griffin and his odious band.
I've never been happy with the right/left never the twain should meet divide, it all seems very black and white to some people but I think the reality is more grey. The left have some good ideas, the right has some good ideas, the trouble is that all sides have very bad ideas as well.
I've never been happy with the right/left never the twain should meet divide, it all seems very black and white to some people but I think the reality is more grey. The left have some good ideas, the right has some good ideas, the trouble is that all sides have very bad ideas as well.
I don't see the big deal. The Daily Mail's just exaggerating things. Most shows take some stand, or knock the people in charge. Anyone lose count at the number of American and British shows that make swipes at George W. Bush over the last decade? Or The End of Time's not-to-subtle poking fun at the "Obama will save the world" attitude?
Shows do this all the time, and as McCoy says in the article, by the time Happiness Patrol aired so few people were watching Doctor Who - 3 million, proportionately speaking, is the equivalent of what Univision shows get in the US - that they could have included porn and no one would have noticed. Fewer still even know of the existence of that Turlough novel.
I gotta love the fact they're just noticing Happiness Patrol now, since we knew the month it aired back in 1987 that it was anti-Thatcher.
Alex
Shows do this all the time, and as McCoy says in the article, by the time Happiness Patrol aired so few people were watching Doctor Who - 3 million, proportionately speaking, is the equivalent of what Univision shows get in the US - that they could have included porn and no one would have noticed. Fewer still even know of the existence of that Turlough novel.
I gotta love the fact they're just noticing Happiness Patrol now, since we knew the month it aired back in 1987 that it was anti-Thatcher.
Alex
Harriet Jones' destruction of that retreating battleship in The Christmas Incident was very reminiscent of the sinking of The Belgrano during the Falklands War, but it was about 1/4 of a century too late to constitute any sort of serious topical criticism!
Not every sort of political content needs to be current.
^True - I assume they weren't setting out to use this scene to get rid of Thatch anyway! 
Perhaps I did go a little far
I still stand by the statement that most intellectuals tend towards that direction though..
Perhaps I did go a little far
In the immortal words of Stephen Colbert, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."
Just as an aside, check out the cool piece of art the Doctor Who News Page is using to illustrate its article on this tempest in a TARDIS:
http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2010/02/political-agenda-of-doctor-who.html
That would look great on an old-style Doctor Who novel!
Alex
http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2010/02/political-agenda-of-doctor-who.html
That would look great on an old-style Doctor Who novel!
Alex
When even the Captain of that ship admitted there was nothing wrong with sinking it, you have to wonder what all the fuss was about.
But on-topic, even The Clangers were overtly political at one stage, so why not? Isn't that what science fiction does? Gives us another place and time to discuss contemporary issues?
Re the Belgrano, an enemy battleship sank in time of war...whatever next! The argument was that it was steaming away from the islands at the time but it wouldn've taken minutes to turn around. The act basically confined the Argentinian navy to port and helped win the war.
Indeed, international law contains no provisions preventing ships from attacking or sinking enemy ships during times of war on the high seas just because its heading currently takes it away from the attacking ship or its territory. And then, of course, there's the fact that the General Belgrano was on a mission to engage in hostilities against Royal Navy ships.