Nelson Mandela

Obviously there was some celebration on the demise of Margaret Thatcher.  Oddly she did inspire a lot of great music.  When British industry closed down in favour of the Kingdom of Spivs a lot of us had a lot of time on our hands to make music.  But this post is about Nelson Mandela.  I'm just wondering if those middle aged Tories who were young Tories back in the late 70s and early 80s will be polishing their 'Hang Nelson Mandela' badges and putting on their 'Nelson Mandela is a Terrorist' t-shirts and preparing to party?

Back then there was a mining department at Leeds University (remember mining!?) and you'd occasionally see me at a picket of job interviews.  Yeah I know, not exactly freedom fighting but better than doing absolutely nothing I like to think...If I remember rightly Rio Tinto Zinc were employing (white) mining engineers to go and live in big houses with swimming pools while the South African police gunned down (black) children for wanting to go to school.  That was when moderate Tories suggested that we 'engage' with South Africa - by investing in Krugerands and playing them at sport while supposedly telling them that this violent racism stuff wasn't really cricket apparently.  The phrase 'playing the white man' springs to mind.  At the time many saw apartheid as a bit weird but not really any of our business and there was a tendency to believe the authorities' stories that young black men were beating themselves half to death then throwing themselves out of office block windows when the police weren't looking.

We should admit that there was an element of 'wind up the lefties' in the young Tories, but they were the ones actively supporting the apartheid regime.  They remain a bunch of evil bastards if you ask me and I suspect that some of them are in the current government.  They effectively supported racial violence and gunning down children in the street. And when Nelson Mandela goes, which I hope is still some time away please beat up a Tory for me.  And for Nelson.  It's the only language they understand.