Margaret Thatcher; Why a One Minute Silence Won't Happen

Dave Whelan

Sir John Madejski

Dave Whelan, Chairman of Wigan Athletic, and Sir John Madejski, his counterpart at Reading have both called for a one minute's silence before each football match on Saturday to pay homage to the memory of  Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the first, and only woman Prime Minister of the UK. My first take on this, is that these gentlemen have not learned the lesson of keeping politics out of football. When other former Prime Ministers passed away, James Callaghan, Harold Wilson and Ted Heath to name but three, there were no calls for a minute's silence and, to my knowledge none was observed before the games on the Saturday following their deaths.

Despite what most of the UK press would have the rest of the world believe, Margaret Thatcher was not a universally liked person or Prime Minister in the UK, and did not endear herself to the average football fan. Her stand on a football club's customer was to treat all as criminals and the football grounds of the 1980's reflected her viewpoint. Whilst a few football clubs took on board the Tory clamour to have identity cards for every football going person in the UK, Luton Town in particular, every football stadium in the country became tantamount to a prison camp when fencing was put up to cage in the supporters on the terraces. The conditions at these out of date stadia were dreadful and the fencing was an effective barrier for preventing supporters from spilling onto the pitch, whether intentionally or accidentally. This could only lead to disaster and the fencing at Hillsborough was a significant factor in the 1989 tragedy when 96 Liverpool supporters, prevented from escaping the terraces when the Leppings Lane end of the ground became overcrowded, lost their lives.

It is a nature of the beast that all UK governments are minority governments being enfranchised by a "first past the post" voting system. When Thatcher came to power in 1979, there were just over 41 million people in the UK eligible to vote. With a turnout of 76% only around 31 million voted. Of that turnout, the Conservatives were given just under 44% of the vote or around 13.5 million votes. With these figures, approximately only a third of the eligible voters wanted a Conservative government leaving 66% of the  electorate either voting against Margaret Thatcher or not bothering to vote at all. Within two years of the Tories claiming "Labour isn't Working", the dole queues had doubled from the 1979 figure and Margaret Thatcher was the most unpopular Prime Minister in history. This blog could discuss the pro's and cons of Thatcherism, but that would probably lead into an essay the size of a novel, but suffice it to say, the Iron Lady was not popular among the majority of football supporters in the 1980's.

A one minute silence before the game on Saturday? It won't happen.