Sometimes History Has Some Delicious Coincidences...

Tucked neatly into this coverage of the "mixed response from the British public"over the death of Margaret Thatcher:


We find this at about 1:17 in:

 So today a rush of UK downloads of the Wizard of Oz song, Judy Garland's "Ding Dong The Witch is Dead."

And this is from the AP:

The BBC is in a bind after opponents of Margaret Thatcher pushed the song "Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead" to the top of the British charts in a posthumous protest over her divisive policies.

The online campaign to drive the "Wizard of Oz" song to the No. 1 spot on the U.K. singles chart was launched by Thatcher critics shortly after the former prime minister died Monday of a stroke at age 87.

As of Friday, the song was No. 1 on British iTunes.

You can hear a snippet of what our British cousins are downloading here.  And here are the lyrics.  It's the part of the Munchkin "Operetta" that begins:

Ding Dong! The Witch is dead. Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch!
Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead.
Wake up - sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed.
Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead. She's gone where the goblins go,
Below - below - below.

And ends with the Coroner saying:

As Coroner I must aver, I thoroughly examined her.
And she's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead.

That's what they're downloading over there in the UK to celebrate the death of the staunchly conservative, staunchly anti-communist Margaret Thatcher. (I guess the Iron Lady wasn't completely well-liked over there.)

But do you know who wrote those words?  It was a famous lyricist named E. Y. Harburg - and here's the delicious part:

In Hollywood, Yip Harburg wrote lyrics for numerous film musicals during the 1930's and 1940's. His most famous work was The Wizard of Oz (1939, with Arlen). In this classic, Yip conceived the integration of song and script, wrote the recitative for the Munchkin "operetta," and wrote the lyrics to all the songs, including the Academy Award-winning "Over the Rainbow." He was also the final script editor and made significant contributions to the dialogue. In 1962 he and Arlen scored the animated feature Gay Purr-ee (now a video classic featuring the voice of Judy Garland). From 1951 to 1961 during the House Un-American Activities Committee investigations and the McCarthy hearings Yip was “blacklisted” for his political views from film, television and radio. [Emphasis added.]

He also wrote the lyrics to this Depression-era anthem.  A fitting commentary, perhaps, on some of the economic damage inflicted by the union busting Thatcher:


Yip Harburg died in 1981.  And thirty years later, I guess he gets the last word on Lady Thatcher's demise.

Margaret Thatcher

My friends on the Tribune-Review editorial board wrote this:

The death Monday at age 87 of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has spawned countless words of praise. But none of them can match her own words, which are the most fitting tribute to the “Iron Lady”:

To which they appended some interesting quotations from Lady Thatcher.

Of course they left some stuff out.

Like her acceptance of Climate Change (which the braintrust has been trying - and failing - to undermine for years) and the credibility of the United Nations (which the braintrust called a "dictator-loving, human rights-ignoring world body" only a few weeks ago).  Here is what then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said in 1990:

May I begin by thanking Heads of Agencies and Organisations for sponsoring this Second World Climate Conference, and indeed all those connected with it. It is a most important event for all our countries and I wish you success in your endeavours.

Mr. Chairman, since the last World War, our world has faced many challenges, none more vital than that of defending our liberty and keeping the peace. Gradually and painstakingly we have built up the habit of international cooperation, above all through the United Nations. The extent of our success can be seen in the Gulf, where the nations of the world have shown unprecedented unity in condemning Iraq's invasion and taking the measures necessary to reverse it.

But the threat to our world comes not only from tyrants and their tanks. It can be more insidious though less visible. The danger of global warming is as yet unseen, but real enough for us to make changes and sacrifices, so that we do not live at the expense of future generations.[Emphases added]

Then there's her views on socialized medicine - of the veddy British variety, the NHS:

I believed that the NHS was a service of which we could genuinely be proud. It delivered a high quality of care - especially when it came to acute illnesses - and at a reasonably modest unit cost, at least compared with some insurance-based systems. [Emphasis added.]

Whah? Who is this socialist that's proud of the liberty-sucking guv'ment run hospital that'll surely pull the plug on your granny??