Cameron Ain’t Heavy. Thatcher Was

(Getty Images)

The Conservative Party is not as flint-hearted as it used to be. Asked at Prime Minister’s Questions about VAT on the Christmas single He Ain’t Heavy… – proceedings from which are going towards legal bills incurred by families of the victims of the Hillsborough Disaster – David Cameron promised that when George Osborne returns from the USA “there will be a decision that will go down well on Merseyside”.

The tradition of raising money from the proceeds of hit singles began in 1984, when Bob Geldof persuaded a galaxy of stars to come together and make Do They Know It’s Christmas? to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. The VAT on that single went to the treasury, Margaret Thatcher was unmoved even when lobbied directly by a delegation of MPs led by a personable young shadow trade minister called Tony Blair.

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• http://www.facebook.com/mike.koppe.16 Mike Koppe

  “…The Conservative Party is not as flint-hearted as it used to be…”

  Oh, I don’t know. They’re a bit more PR sassy, that’s all; although it’s hard to think of anyone as ruthless, cold-hearted and self-centred as Thatcher.

  We’re only half way through this government and they still have the opportunity to complete their dismantling of the welfare state and the NHS, something that even Thatcher shied away from!

• http://www.facebook.com/laboldno.7 Luke Ginge Bastiani

  Instead attempting to be popularist, amorphous and creative….which we know is not the case. Least we knew where we stood with Thatcher, unlike this lot.

• bobbellinhell

  Don’t be fooled by imitation / They’re still the stuff that ruined a nation

• nuthatch222

  cameron has modelled himself on thatcher and that’s to his eternal discredit. nothing original or pioneering about the guy. i’m bored. . .

• a_no_n

  we’re giving all the hisborough victims £15 from the treasury, but we’ve hadd to sell Great Ormond street Hospital to do it…It’s a big mcdonalds now isn’t that nice.

• http://www.facebook.com/mike.koppe.16 Mike Koppe

  Sorry, I didn’t realise Mrs T was so sensitive to the needs of the disadvantaged and less well off.

  I guess I’ll have to have a long hard look at myself and perform a bit of self-flagellation to compensate for all the ill feeling I’ve borne her all these years.

• AtkinC

  They are clones but at least Maggy had bottle, her actions were in your face. Whereas Cameron thinks the nation is thik, “Dont worry this country cant see my intentions”. Note to Cameron – Your thik.

• Sean L

  The very association of dispensing public funds with personal kindness is infantile tendentious nonsense. But cheap emotion is the stock in trade of journalism. Gordon Brown or call me Dave’s use or abuse of public funds is no more or less self serving than the bankers; that it’s for political credit rather than dollars or sterling doesn’t alter that. Flint-hearted my backside. The cost of merely *servicing* the country’s debt is currently 43 biillion. It’s unsustainable and an Argentinian or Weimar style collapse is on the cards and you’re encouraging it for a cheap headline.