Tomorrow is the funeral of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, who was Prime Minister in the U.K. from 1979 until1990. Zoologically she is best remembered as stopping the government money to London Zoo during her time as prime minister, they were given a final one off payment and told that was it, after that they would have to find their own way in the free market place, later, this resulted in the zoo nearly closing, interestingly about the same time as Baroness Thatcher left Downing Street in tears after being ousted by her own party. Two of her predecessors, however, during their time as Prime Minister were supporters of London Zoo, Winston Churchill visited, there was a lion named after him who he was particularly fond of, also Sir Edward Heath, who was very much instrumental in bringing the giant pandas Cha Cha and Ching Ching to London as a gift from the Chinese, and also took an interest in the animals while they were at Regents Park. Later Gordon Brown visited with his family, a good friend of Baron Paul of Marylabone, who has donated large sums of money to Z.S.L. . I cannot recall Margaret Thatcher or any members of her family visiting London Zoo, I can remember though the great upset when it was announced that the zoo may close, resulting in donations being sent to the zoo in amounts both great and small.
R.I.P. Margaret Thatcher.
- Thread starter TARZAN
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Gentle Giant
Well-Known Member
It was a one-off rescue grant of £10m from the Thatcher Government that saw London Zoo escape closure in the early 1990s and, despite claims by the Zoo’s Zoological Director that they struggle along without government funding, the Zoological Society benefitted from over £2m in Gift Aid tax rebate alone in 2008 (as well as more than £0.5m from the Mayor of London to cover the cost of school visits, plus Higher Education grants, Darwin Initiative grants, a rent-free site in Regents Park and more).
Baroness Thatcher made a private visit to the gorilla enclosure in September 2007.
The former prime minster stood in the zoo’s ‘Gorilla Kingdom’ as one of the silverbacks charged the glass screen behind which she was standing, unflinching.
Baroness Thatcher visits Gorilla Kingdom - News - ZSL London Zoo - ZSL
Baroness Thatcher made a private visit to the gorilla enclosure in September 2007.
The former prime minster stood in the zoo’s ‘Gorilla Kingdom’ as one of the silverbacks charged the glass screen behind which she was standing, unflinching.
Baroness Thatcher visits Gorilla Kingdom - News - ZSL London Zoo - ZSL
Wasn't it Chi Chi that was associated with Ted Heath?
Ching Ching & Chia Chia were a diplomatic gift from China (Chairman Mao Tse Tung) following a visit to there by prime minister Heath in 1974.
As he lost a general election early that year, i can't remember whether he was actually still PM by the time they arrived though!
'Chi-Chi' was well before Ted Heath's era. She (thought originally to be male) was purchased by the Zoo from animal dealer Heini Demmer, who had exhibited his Panda at several other European zoos prior to bringing her to London. I cannot remember offhand exactly how he obtained her but I think it involved some sort of animal exchange.
I think the one main legacy of Baroness Thatcher was in -comparison to her heir Tony Blair -was that she made Briton great again in the eyes of the world. Blair with his dogmatic attitude to regime change which he always denies was to make us loathed in some parts of the world and - sorry to our American friends- a puppet to the Bush presidency.
With Mrs. thatcher you know where you stood with Blair it was one thing to one person another to the rest, he also benefited from the foundations she laid down as did John Major, sadly "Prudence" Brown squandered it. Cameron appears to be following Blair by not grasping the notion politicians aren't meant to be loved they are there to do a job. Mrs. Thatcher realised that very early on.
I hope today's service goes off with out any further acts of supposed hatred to show the nation at it's most unedifying.
With Mrs. thatcher you know where you stood with Blair it was one thing to one person another to the rest, he also benefited from the foundations she laid down as did John Major, sadly "Prudence" Brown squandered it. Cameron appears to be following Blair by not grasping the notion politicians aren't meant to be loved they are there to do a job. Mrs. Thatcher realised that very early on.
I hope today's service goes off with out any further acts of supposed hatred to show the nation at it's most unedifying.
Obviously one panda was much the same as another to me in the '70s!
Zooplantman
Well-Known Member
Perhaps there is more to her legacy than reestablishing the wonderfulness of the UK
We are still saving British science from Margaret Thatcher : Nature News & Comment
We are still saving British science from Margaret Thatcher : Nature News & Comment
Thank you for your information regarding Baroness Thatcher's visit to London Zoo, I was unaware of this as it took place long after she was thrown out of Downing Street by her own tories, many of whom were sitting in St. Paul's today. She did not flinch at the sight of the gorilla, I do not find that surprising as she did not flinch when miners and their families had no income for a year, she did not flinch when she gave the order to sink the Belgrano in 1982 when it was outside the exclusion zone, visited London Zoo?, I do not know how she could have showed her face, albeit a very hard one.
Unless the communities happen to be in Iraq or Afgahnistan!
Personally, it's a plague on both extremes of the Thatcher debate as far as I'm concerned. She was not a saint (not least in her apalling nepotism where her wayward son was concerned) as one side would seem to want us to believe (and don't get me started on the level of funeral), and she was not pure evil as the other side would paint her either. Some of her actions were good and some bad, some were good with bad consequences and vice versa.
Only the very naive or dogmatic can deny that some good did not come from her actions or alternatively that no bad arose from her actions. I'll wager a number of those worshipping her love to moan about being "ripped off by utility companies" and a number of those cursing her now own their own homes due to them being flogged off cheap.
Politics is complex, if it wasn't we'd all do it and get it right.
There are many people here in the U.K. who are not sorry at the passing of Margaret Thatcher, I admit I could be described as biased living in an area that was severely punished by her during her time in office, if you were to go the former mining communities here in the North East and ask people's opinion I think you would be left in no doubt what sought of uncaring person she was. Yes, it is unusual for a former prime minister's death to be celebrated, I cannot recall this ever happening before, it even got to the stage during the year long miners strike in 1984/5 that the Royal family expressed their concerns at the civil unrest and families suffering great hardship, very rare indeed for royalty to get involved in political issues, but this is what happened.
Was it not the case with Chi Chi that she was destined to be sold to a zoo in America after her stint at Regent's Park?, however, at the time America had a ban on all goods entering the country from China, so she was unable to go. Granada television put up the money for her purchase after her popular appearances on Zoo Time, so she remained at Regents Park. And let us not forget her attempts to breed with the Moscow giant panda, Ann Ann, the labour prime minister at the time, Harold Wilson was very keen on this, in a way of cementing good relations with Russia.
My family are from mining stock, i was born and brought up for the first 37 years of my life on Tyneside,leaving in 1998 my family still live there one of my late uncles worked at westoe colliery and didn't believe in the strike he was forced to support, nor i suspect did a lot of other people the power of the NUM in those days was far to strong even for it's own members.
I was then working form Gateshead council, who along with all the other public service unions didn't really back the strike, that is why it failed, not due to Mrs. thatcher, but the lack of support from the working people who seeing the miners on a good thing a lot better than they were on declined to show Arthur Scargill and his comrades the vital support they needed to beat the democratically elected government. Ii is strange to that Harold Wilson who was elected from a mining county closed more pits than Mrs. thatcher, and the man then responsible was Tony Benn, who whilst giving up his title kept the money and large estate not far from me here in Essex.
NO politician is all good or all bad, I didn't like Blair but I wouldn't show disrespect at his passing.
I was then working form Gateshead council, who along with all the other public service unions didn't really back the strike, that is why it failed, not due to Mrs. thatcher, but the lack of support from the working people who seeing the miners on a good thing a lot better than they were on declined to show Arthur Scargill and his comrades the vital support they needed to beat the democratically elected government. Ii is strange to that Harold Wilson who was elected from a mining county closed more pits than Mrs. thatcher, and the man then responsible was Tony Benn, who whilst giving up his title kept the money and large estate not far from me here in Essex.
NO politician is all good or all bad, I didn't like Blair but I wouldn't show disrespect at his passing.
uszoo
Well-Known Member
Being a American and supporter of Ronald Reagan, may she rest in peace. I know many may not agree with her policies of privatization and anti- unionism but she saved the British economy for generations to come. England would be a failing state such as Spain and Greece if not for her radical reform. I know that many may not agree with her but she saved your national economy just as us presidents such as Ronald Reagan saved ours. Here in America we may have opposing views but we treat each other as human beings. The way many have treated her is like she was the devil this is just totally disrespectful. I am a republican but I do not wish any harm on any democrat as we all want to achieve the same thing we just don't agree what method we should use to get here.
As someone very wise (whose name I sadly can't find) posted on Twitter:
"I would never celebrate Thatcher's death, but I have often mourned her life."
A very driven and determined woman, and a trailblazer, but someone with whom I have almost nothing in common politically. A lot of what she did had to be done, and even it hadn't happened then it would have done before long, but the cold, heartless way she did things is why she is so hated in many areas, I think - from mines to milk to the Falklands, she seems to me (in retrospect, having been born a little under halfway through her premiership) to have displayed a striking lack of compassion in her public life.
One thing I do think - I don't think she'd have minded the whole 'Ding, Dong! The Witch is Dead' chart-storm one little bit. I have a feeling she'd have found it hilarious.
"I would never celebrate Thatcher's death, but I have often mourned her life."
A very driven and determined woman, and a trailblazer, but someone with whom I have almost nothing in common politically. A lot of what she did had to be done, and even it hadn't happened then it would have done before long, but the cold, heartless way she did things is why she is so hated in many areas, I think - from mines to milk to the Falklands, she seems to me (in retrospect, having been born a little under halfway through her premiership) to have displayed a striking lack of compassion in her public life.
One thing I do think - I don't think she'd have minded the whole 'Ding, Dong! The Witch is Dead' chart-storm one little bit. I have a feeling she'd have found it hilarious.
I often say something similar myself. Funnily enough it was the gulf "war" that made me realise that I had a lot in common with people on a different end of the political spectrum to myself (i.e. we all disagreed).
I think if more people realised/thought like this the politicians might try a little harder to create solutions to problems rather than spend time and resources scoring points off each other to retain their appeal to entrenched partisan voters. In my opinion one of the positive attributes Margaret Thatcher had was that, rightly or wrongly, she did what she thought was the right thing to do rather than try to appeal to everyone at the same time. Too many politicians today are terrified of failing the focus group tests and alienating/upsetting anyone at all -to achieve change (hopefully positive) there's always going to be losers, few accept this and (most) politicians continue to propagate the delusion that it's possible to create more for everyone with nobody (or hardly anyone at all) becoming worse off.
Blimey, I'm in a ranty mood tonight.
It comes back to the central paradox of democracy - the people are at once electing people to make complicated decisions for them and yet also wanting control over what decisions are taken. There's no easy solution.
It's one of the reasons I get frustrated with mainstream political journalism - a politician who never changes their mind in face of public opinion is called undemocratic, yet a politician who does is accused of weak-willed crowd-pleasing U-turning. We all want someone somewhere in the middle - strong yet flexible - not easily turned from their course, yet not completely incapable of compromise - so politicians are forced onto a perpetual see-saw.
This is ironic considering how shocked I was at the nasty mud-slinging that goes on in your elections.
Absolutely, on the nose. I could add more but I'll end up ranting for ages and risk coming across as an elitist, cynical, sociopathic idealist (at best) so I'm stopping now.
johnstoni.
Well-Known Member
Why is this here?