Important Notice

This week we have seen one of the founding Dead Good Bloggers leave his post of Saturdays because of things that have been said with regard to the material he writes.

I have no choice but to respect his decision and wish Ash well with his radio show, teaching and all the other stuff he is doing to further his career as a published author. If any of us manage to have the career in writing he has had so far, we will count ourselves very fortunate indeed. Good-luck Ash from all of the bloggers on here, past and present.
This means the blog is getting more new blood with certain things needing clarification.
FIRSTLY, and this is very important, the blog has a different steering group and agenda from the Dead Good Poets. This is not saying that the blog is completely separate, nor does it mean that writers from the Society will not be asked from time to time to contribute work. It means that the rules and policy of the blog are not established by the Society’s steering committee. This will be handled by the four administrators who will be named in the coming days.
The bloggers have always tried to write on a theme every week and this will continue. There will be no editorial guidance to the writers other than keeping things within the law. This means no Homophobic, Racist and or Religious attacks. All bloggers may express an opinion which some people my find offensive however, it will be the considered judgement of all the members of the administration team as to whether or not it breaks these rules.
Comments, which can be freely left by anyone, should be reserved for critique. Commentators are allowed to express their opinions without recourse. Personal attacks on or against the blogger, and or anyone else within a comment will not be tolerated. Should any such comments be made and deemed to be overly aggressive or personal, the comment will be removed without warning. This will be the duty of the administration team.
Should anyone feel that something is breaching these regulations they must contact a member of the administration team for it to be considered and not retaliate themselves. These are not forums for points scoring. The blog is here solely to allow to writers to practise their love of words and for readers to be edified or entertained.
We ask that if you have a negative view based purely on personal taste express it as such and not try to dissect the piece because you just don’t like it.
I hope everybody will understand why I have felt it necessary to establish these point as we move forward with this award-winning blog and I hope that it keeps up the extremely high standards already set by those that have written before us.

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Censorship Ding Dong: The Divisive Witch is Dead.

The BBC looks to defy the national interest again today, insisting it will not be playing the song catapulted up the charts by the death of Margaret Thatcher.

After newspaper headlines of ‘Munchkin Fury’, ‘BBC Thatcher Song’ and the like, they’re pulling it but for a small clip, refusing to play any part in the seemingly peaceful protest and as such, probably sending sales through the stratosphere. They’ve done it before. The Sex Pistols owe a lot to censorship. Frankie said what again? Perhaps we should all just relax about the song and put a bit of perspective on the matter. ‘Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead’ can be seen as being perhaps a bit far. There are others who would argue it is not far enough. Whatever your opinion, it is less than a minute long and so begs the question, why didn’t they just say they'd play it as usual and stop it dominating the news.

What we have actually been fed is another distraction by wise old 'Auntie'. We’ve been gushed at over the Iron Lady. The lady not for turning. The woman so almighty and powerful she was ousted by her own side, detested by the other sides of the house and turned against even by the feminists. A female prime minister. Girl power, eh. There are those who will say Maggie was the greatest leader we’ve had since Churchill. She stood firm in the face of the terrorists. She took on miners who were “way out of line,” as I’ve heard said this week. She kickstarted the country…

In the interest of fairness I now get to say my bit. She was a savage. A person so intent on having her way that all else was disregarded. Never mind the men too old to ever again get a job- the industries must be closed down, one by one and with brutal impudence. Never mind the dictators she was propping up- they did a good bit of business on the side, who cares if they too would go down in the annals of tyranny. She could ride a good bit of roughshod, without seemingly any remorse for those on the other end of it and over the last week we've been fed just one line of the story- it is as if these things didn't happen. Right to buy schemes have been championed with no mention of the failure to 'restock' by housebuilding. Private sector business has been promoted so much I think the Conservatives can pull it from their adverts forever- the point has been made with no mention of the great divide these things created between the rich and the rapidly increasing poor.

Three million people unemployed is by no means a success story. Three terms in office, including a war win should leave the country in a better place, shouldn't it- not divided and ripping chunks off one another. We're feeling the pinch of the bank downfall now, they're getting loopholes to jump through. How the miners would have loved a tax break- only they'd have rather bloody paid it and had a job.

So ding dong. Battle has commenced up and down the country and with that, why shouldn’t people have the right to vote a song up the charts? A quick dance in the street is what I feel a lot of people will have wanted to do. I was briefly tempted, but for being at work in Poulton-le-Fylde, a place full of old Tories. There has been a considered attempt at glossing over the years of hurt and hate- the gushing tributes, the fawning as my father called it but there has been a name- a name so divisive it has been unspoken in many parts for twenty years, and now Voldemort is big news again.

There is grieving to be done, and they're welcome to it but a 10 Million Pound funeral has stoked the fires. Like the Jubilee, the Olympics and other great public occasions, I hope many poems are written, songs are re-recorded, and stories passed to children. Let the history books be balanced and the facts never forgotten. With the respect to her family that she gave to all of those like mine, the witch is dead I say.

Thanks for reading,
Shaun

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