Director Ken Loach on Margaret Thatcher Funeral: “Let’s privatise her funeral. Put it out to competitive tender and accept the cheapest bid. It’s what she would have wanted
I was planning on talking about whisky, but Ken Loach was more interested in talking about the end of capitalism. Loach is a legendary filmmaker in British cinema, known for his gritty, brilliantly crafted dramas like "Kes," "Poor Cow," and "My Name is Joe." He is also an unapologetic leftist, something of a rarity these days. His films are in turns touching, troubling, and occasionally funny, but they are all rigorously from the point of view of the working class. This week, following the death of Margaret Thatcher, Loach issued a fiery full-throated indictment of Britain's first female prime minister, which garnered headlines and turned into an Internet meme. "Margaret Thatcher was the most divisive and destructive Prime Minister of modern times. Mass Unemployment, factory closures, communities destroyed -- this is her legacy," he wrote in a statement. Thatcher famously steamrolled that country's labor unions, while privatizing its numerous state-owned companies. It's not surprising that they didn't exactly see eye to eye. After rattling off some of her failings -- like having tea with Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet, calling Nelson Mandela a criminal, and generally making life miserable for Britain's working class -- Loach ends his statement with a blistering, meme-worthy punch line. "How should we honour her? Let's privatise her funeral. Put it out to competitive tender and accept the cheapest bid. It's what she would have wanted."