Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016
I understand lawyers are looking into the matter
Laura K
18 Mar 2024
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has caused outrage by comparing Margaret Thatcher to Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden in a list of “unpopular public figures”. The museum compiled a list of contemporary villains in its section on British humour, but neither Hitler nor Bin Laden have found the comparison funny.
The museum is displaying a Spitting Image puppet of the emotionless automaton known as the “iron lady” which has left visiting children traumatised. A sign beside a Punch and Judy exhibit reads:
“Over the years, the evil character in this seaside puppet show has shifted from the Devil to unpopular public figures including Adolf Hitler, Margaret Thatcher and Osama bin Laden, to offer contemporary villains.”
A spokesperson for Hitler told me the comparison is “deeply offensive, given what Thatcher did to the Devil when she got to Hell”. Lawyers for Bin Laden are considering legal action, due to the reputational damage that has caused Al Quaida members to distance themselves from their former leader.
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Thatcher was Britain’s first female PM and she made history after her death by privatising the furnaces of Hell and snatching everyone’s milk. Her 13-year reign of terror on Earth was known as the most destructive in British history until Liz Truss surpassed her in just six weeks.
The Victoria and Albert Museum attracted criticism in 2015 for refusing to accept a selection of Thatcher’s suits and handbags, saying it collected only items of “outstanding aesthetic or technical quality” which was a mean way of saying Thatcher had terrible dress sense.
The museum’s comparison of Thatcher to lesser tyrants has prompted an angry backlash among the Tory MPs who oppose cancel culture. They unanimously agree the museum should be stripped of its funding as punishment for attempting humour - and political satire should be banned. I could not agree more.
Newspapers such as the Daily Mail, that once ran the headline: “Labour must kill vampire Jezza”, agree the museum is being irresponsible and could be putting the dead woman’s life at risk. Obviously, it’s fine to jeopardise the lives of MPs who are alive, but only if they have the wrong political views.
The politicians who laughed when British soldiers fired bullets at pictures of Corbyn are distraught by the museum’s lack of sensitivity. I think we can all agree that if the museum swapped the Thatcher puppet for a Corbyn one and changed the caption accordingly, that would be fine.
Sir Connor Burns, a Tory MP who complains that lefties are humourless snowflakes who hate free speech, raged:
“Whoever wrote that caption should be called out publicly for being a moron, or perhaps more usefully sent to read a Ladybird book of modern world history. It is sadly symptomatic of the woke, luvvie-dom nonsense that persists in our public institutions. They should be given a serious rap across the knuckles and a clarion instruction to grow up.”
A rap across the knuckles would not be considered violence, but mocking Hell’s highest ranking demon in a museum exhibit definitely is violence. This was explained by Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who once used Eminem lyrics to humiliate parliament’s most abused MP, Diane Abbott, on TV:
“Given the fact that MPs are now regularly receiving death threats, myself included, from extremists and others, this V&A exhibition is ill-thought and mendacious.
“They must live in a bubble, away from the real world, to think that it is rational to propose that a politician of the stature of Margaret Thatcher would equate to any of those mass murderers and vile human beings.
“This sort of idiocy begs the question about funding. It would be a good idea if those who thought of this did a hard day's work in among the rest of us, rather than sitting on their lofty perch, producing stupid ideas.”
Someone called Nile Gardiner, who masturbates nightly over pictures of Thatcher, added:
“Disgraceful from the Victoria and Albert Museum. It should be stripped of public funding.”
As you can see, everyone who matters agrees cancel culture is brilliant, now that we’ve reclaimed it from the left. Free speech only belongs to the people who share our political views, and using humour to undermine dead tyrants should be considered a form of terrorism. Hopefully, the Victoria and Albert Museum can be added to Michael Gove’s list of extremists, along with Greta Thunberg and Humza Yousaf
The last working-class hero in England.
Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018
Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
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