‘Milk-snatcher’s name replaced by MP and IRA prisoner
Madrid has marked the 40th anniversary of the death of IRA hunger striker by naming a plaza after him.
Sands died in 1981 in the Maze or Long Kesh prison while on hunger strike against the removal of ‘special category’ status – basically ‘prisoner of war’ status – from Irish Republican prisoners. While on hunger strike, he was elected as MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone.
And Madrid didn’t choose just any street to rename in Sands’s honour – the city covered the ‘Margaret Thatcher Plaza’ sign with one replacing the ‘milk snatcher’s name with that of Bobby Sands:
The move is reminiscent of the Iranian government’s decision to rename a street in Tehran after Sands, after the hunger strikes: the street on which the British embassy was located. Embassy staff had to move the building’s entrance to avoid having it as their address.
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The ‘rateable value’ of Bobby Sands plaza is bound to be higher and more venerated than that of Margaret Thatcher, the soulless woman who knew the cost of everything (especially when she subjected the woking class to it) and the value of now’t.
and I I bet Sir Keir’s eyes are on Madrid as well this week- hoping that the far right’s success there at the polls bodes well for his anti-Labour Labour party here.
Desperate is as Desperate does. Desperate times Sir Keir.
You just know Starmer’s going to condemn Madrid for doing this.
And the conservatives and unionist party celebrates the partition of Ireland and N east Ulster with a message of support from Johnson and the chief parasite the Queen.A travesty of justice was the hunger strikes with many interned without trial and yet acussed of being criminals for being Catholic and the enemy within who deserves nothing from the Ocuppier of the island of Ireland.Thank God and demographics that time is running out for the bigots and racist unionist population in maintaining the last outpost of the British Empire….Ulster..!
Ahhh, partition, the most BRILLIANT idea in the history of British diplomacy. It solved every problem in Palestine, Cyprus, the Subcontinent, AND Ireland. Creates utopias everywhere it’s done.
Thankyou for the guts and determination of Squawkbox to not let the one hundred years of partition of Ireland go by without the mention of one of the victims of British Empire Bobby Sands and thousands of other young Catholic lads and lassies interned without trial for basically being born Catholic and natives of the island of gerrymandered and partitioned Ulster one century ago and still carrys on for now…?c
Joseph
In 40 years of visiting friends in Ireland I would put money on them voting against reunification, snouts in troughs, not enough slopps to go around
The politicians 9ver there make the Mafia blush
On balance, Doug, I think that I agree. In over 40 years, and being very involved with, particularly, the North it seems to me that there are a few factors involved that make it very complex. There are socially liberal “Unionists” who see the South as being more modern in its attitudes and might like to unify. There are “Nationalists” who have come to regard the North as a gravy train and would want to keep it that way. And there are some who are younger who are really not that bothered either way. Then there is the question of whether the South would welcome such a hornets nest becoming their responsibility. The heart says a united Ireland. The head says it may be a long time.
“IN times of deceit,telling the truth is a revolutionary act” George Orwell…!
I had heard that she was a thirsty girl. My sources have gone to the great Venezuela in the sky. I was once a member of Streatham young Conservatives. They had the best Beano’s. I also gardened for one of her neighbours. People gossip, especially after they’ve had a few snorts. Could have been the sauce that loosened lips but as with everything it’s because of climate change, warming, or the next ice age. Sorry but now we know that it was a variant. XX
As a young man I spent an evening in a small audience of a dinner she sttended with Denis, Airey Neave and a couple of others (Don’t ask!!) . I swear to heaven across about 90 mins she consumed easily two thirds of a bottle of whiskey. “Perpetualy thirsty, Margaret Thatcher’s could knock em back the way VISA Inc. creams of a 90th of a cent from every dollar it handles in its numerous debit and credit payment systems – relentlessly and incessantly – it might make VISA Inc obscenely wealthy, but Thatcher just became another sad drunk with a chronic , and in her final days, an acute and terminal thiamine (vit b1) deficiency – dementia <my arse, she just drank too much.
Qwertboi, the symptoms of Korsakoff syndrome are very similar to dementia. However, among the upper echelons of society nobody suffers from Korsakoff syndrome, since it is alcohol related. Therefor, a diagnosis of dementia is preferred.
I
Worth noticing that the government of Madrid Autonomous Community is very right wing, that the Major of Madrid as a member of the PP is right wing too.
That even Spanish right wingers prefer to have a square named after Bobby Sands rather than Thatcher says it all.
I was just thinking how Far Right British Politics moved if it makes a Right Wing Madrid, appear to do something that is considered Far Left in nature by the British and Worldwide Peoples!
Skellyknelly, what do you mean by “Worldwide People” ? The Anglophone world?
To your other point, as a European (non British) I would say that British politics are indeed very right wing. Corbyn’s manifesto of 2017 in European continental political circles wasn’t particularly left wing, rather a conservative social-democrat one…
The PNV for example that in the European Parliament is a founding member of the ALDE group (same group as Macron La France en Marche) could have endorsed the 2017 Labour Manifesto.
All the People.
Yes, you are right Jeremy Corbyn was never anything other than Centre Left. He is a Democratic Socialist, that is Centre Left.
Where the “Far Left” Jeremy Corbyn comes from is when Thatcher’s Boy Blair came in as leader he immediately started dragging the Party Right, Thatcher/Reagan’s Neoliberalism is not Liberal nor Centre/Centrist, it is Conservative verging on Neoconservatism.
The Neolabour Party Tory Spin Factory, Blair/Mandelson/Campbell made a Pact with the MSM Empire. Blair sold his soul to Murdoch and Murdoch/Blair made The People of The Sun to target the “Working Class” while Mandelson/Campbell focused on the Upper Middle Class and Wannabe Champaign Socialists with The People of the Sun in Lambskin aka The Guardian and hence dragged them so far Right, that they occupy their rightful Neoliberal seats right where Thatcher used to sit.
All those Thatcherite Neoliberal Neolabour Party Tories believe that they are “Centrists/Centre Left” on the Political Landscape, They are not They are Thatcherite Neoliberal PURE Tories.
I will leave you two quote to internet search to rest my case:
“Don’t you Dare to get Cold Feet!!!”
and
“We are not the party of people on benefits, Labour will be tougher than Tories on benefits”
By dragging all those people so deep into the Right, but still making them believe that ‘they’ are “Centrists/Centre Left” they created a “”Far Left” “Jeremy Corbyn”” and Democratic Socialist UK Labour Party and Supporters.
Yes, it could’ve been worse. They could’ve called it Alexei Navalny Plaza! 😀
Does anyone have any sort of Idea what Left/Right of Politics actually means any more!? I saw an Article today that 2 ‘Far Right’ Boogaloo Bois admitted working with Hamas, I thought that’s not very Far Right!? Looked them up, Many George Floyd protesters are Boogaloos and the Boogaloos don’t look anything like ‘Far Right’!?
Boogaloo Bois, Proud Bois and Antifa are almost ‘packaged in the same tin’ by the MSM, I can’t figure it out!
Are they confused, are the MSM Confused/Lying, What is going on, it is driving me mad! If they are Far Right, how dare they make themselves look like someone I would strike up a conversation with in a pub! They are supposed to look like The many Tommeh and Kateh Clones, The Karens and Darens! People who I would leave the pub if the talked to me!
What does Left and Right even mean!? Have we finally entered the Era of Politics of The People, where we have The People FOR The People and The People for The Elites!?
Have we been sucked in so deep by the nightmare of 2015 to 2020 that we did not notice the entire Political Landscape Change? Are we too focused on the Left Wing and The Right Wing when we should Unite, because we need both wings to fly, if we were to defeat The Establishment/The Elites/The Machine?
I don’t know any more! I do know there is Political Unrest a vibration, like bees, among The People of the World, the only risk is do we have a goal an end result, no point a global revolution but no idea what to do after! I think that Decentralised/Open Source Government and Economy sounds like a good Idea, not BitCoin that will just end up with a continuation of Capitalist Greed, Desire and Envy, an economy of no money Only NEEDS are met not WANTS. WANTS are a side effect of Capitalism, Commercialism, Materialism. I don’t mean make thing ugly and unappetising, design and choice would still be available but not as competition, as equal. Rated by the People’s Choice, that really is all that Capital is, it is a rating of approval turned into a Collectable Desirable.
I am sure Modern Human Society could work very well without Capital and Capitalism, without Borders, without Arms and Military, without Wars I am so sure there must be a way.
I guess we will soon find out as the few Billionaire Capitalists who need us, to buy their crap, have pushed so many of us into poverty that we can’t afford and hence no longer need or desire what they want/NEED us to buy from them. They’re shooting themselves in the foot! I hope I can keep a few molecules stuck together and float bellow the Ozone to observe this event when it happens! After that the Universe can do with my space dust whatever it wants to!
Close to the Sagrada Familias in Barcelona is the Michael Collins pub, if you want tickets for Barcelona match go there
Nationalism is ‘Left-Wing’? Times they are a changing but oh the irony of a Bobby Sands plaza in Madrid & not Barcelona?
Michael Collins was a stockbroker.
Eire is welcome to Northern Ireland – and the UDA & UVF. Can’t say I like Thatcher or Sands – putting it mildly – but the EU are clearly not our friends, as Jersey also demonstrates. We are back to realpolitick and hardball.
Jersey is an unusual one, along with Guernsey, IoM etc. It is not part of the UK. Was it ever in the EU? If it was, did it vote to leave? No points being made here. I shall search for some clarification.
Similar set up as Gibraltar, under the crown, but self governed, we had a crown appointed governor, but our own government in Guernsey, I guess all offshores’ will work in the same way. Citizen wise we were still considered British Citizens, you could get either a Guernsey Passport or UK Passport, but both are UK Citizenship.
Not invited to vote.
I will always support any removal of that evil woman legacy and anything named after her… She doesn’t deserve recognition or respect in my book.
Michael Foot denounced the hunger strikers and an elected delegate was sent to visit Bobby Sands and told him he was wrong and wouldn’t get any support. As Labour today would. On Bobby Sands death the youth in Iran made street signs around the embassy to replace Winston Churchill street with Sands Street.
Can we have a street named Zaghari-Ratcliffe?
That would be the Embankment then.
sorry, Vauxhall Cross