Dear Maggie death wishers,
This debate raises a rather interesting point about the way in which the
21st century British media addresses about death. Beyond Gordon Brown's
constitutional canoodling with Elizabeth Windsor, there are good practical
reasons for obituary writers to predict the deaths of public notables.
Excluding the recent rise of 'comment' columnists, the only section in the
main body of the onetime broadsheet press to have been allowed extra words
is obituaries. We are, so editors would think, obsessed with death. Thus,
whether Thatcher should be granted a state funeral - Heseltine and Howe as
chief mourners? - has become such a big story because death has become the
'quality' newspapers' salvation. Newspaper sales will rocket on the day
after her departure to the place that all rabid Conservatives eventually go.
Her passing, ironically, will represent their biggest payday in years.
So, some advice. If you want to earn a few extra pounds this summer, consult
the Death List 2008 (http://www.deathlist.net/?y=2008), choose your subject,
write a pre-emptive obit and send it off to the Times, Telegraph,
Independent...
Carl.
_________________________________
Dr. Carl J. Griffin,
Lecturer in Human Geography,
Queen's University, Belfast
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ant Ince
Sent: 16 July 2008 09:36
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Guardian Poll on Thatcher State Funeral
Excellent suggestion! for those unable to afford that asking price,
there is of course going to be a street party in Trafalgar Square, 6pm
on the Saturday after her return to the fiery pits from whence she came...
Ant
Dr Hillary Shaw wrote:
> We should contract it out, as she would want, - to Canada - to a place
> called Erie Beach, which boasts the world'a largest outdoor dance floor
> (funerals are usually out of doors, aren't they).
>
> Bury her under that, and charge £100 an hour to prospective dancers.
> The queues might still be rather long at that price.
>
> Hillary Shaw, newport, Shropshire.
--
Anthony Ince
Research Student
Department of Geography,
Queen Mary, University of London,
Mile End,
E1 4NS
www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/postgraduate/student/ince.html
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