Mick Jagger: Margaret Thatcher Street Celebrations Are Unseemly
Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones lead vocalist and frontman, gets no satisfaction from the street parties that have sprung up to celebrate Margaret Thatcher’s death.
The former UK prime minister, nicknamed the “Iron Lady” for her decisive leadership style, passed away Monday at age 87 from a stroke. Mrs. Thatcher, the then-leader of the Conservative Party, is the only woman to have served as the head of the British government.
Despite his ideological differences with her, former PM Tony Blair has expressed the same disapproval of the street celebrations by left-wing Thacher haters, saying that these parties are disrespectful and in poor taste.
In reflecting on the aftermath of Baroness Thatcher’s passing, Mick Jagger was careful to calibrate his comments so as to not alienate any portion of his fan base.
But he did agree with an interviewer that the street celebrations were slightly unseemly (i.e., inappropriate) and negative. According to Jagger, “I mean people can say what they like, but a street party? I thought that was a bit much. But I mean, you know, she is certainly a polarizing figure in English domestic policy. But she did make her mark. There’s no question about that.”
Commented specifically on Thatcher’s legacy, Mick Jagger added that with America, she orchestrated the end the Cold War, which he deemed one of the most significant events of his lifetime: “And then she was obviously a great ally of Reagan and their financial policies were somewhat similar and all that sort of thing. And the big thing was the fall of the Soviet Union and the satellite states of Eastern Europe, and that was the big event of the Reagan-Thatcher era. And she was a good ally for the U.S. in that particular end of game, the end game of the Soviet Union, which was a huge historical event not to be underestimated.”
Margaret Thatcher’s funeral is scheduled for Wednesday in London, and authorities are making security preparations in the event of civil unrest that might occur.
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