Unlikely support for the proposition that the BBC's chart show should play "Ding Dong The Witch is Dead" if it gets to Number 1 on Sunday arrives today from Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP. Farage is right of course. If you believe in freedom of speech you have to accept things you find offensive. Although I think it's tasteless to mock a person's death (and cruel when they have children who can't be held responsible for the parent's shortcomings), stopping the BBC from playing the record is far worse.
It's worth reminding ourselves that the BBC wouldn't play the Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen during the Silver Jubilee of 1977. That was craven. Also that Mrs Thatcher herself censored the words of Irish Republicans at the height of the Troubles. That was just stupid as well as wrong, because broadcasters merely got actors to read out their words. I hope common sense prevails on Sunday. We should be free to assess what people do and say.
The nouveau Judy Garland fans are celebrating prematurely anyway. The Witch may well be dead, but her ideas are still stalking the land.
Incidentally, fact fans might like to look at a very informative piece by Jeremy Warner in the Torygraph here listing ten myths about Thatcher, which will interest enthusiasts and detractors alike.
P.S. Predictably, in its efforts to avoid offending anyone, the BBC ended up making a right Horlicks of "Ding Dong The Witch is Dead". On its chart show the song featured only as a ten second clip in a news item; whereas the Thatcher lovers' riposte - The Notsensible's I'm In Love With Margaret Thatcher - was played nearly in full. I find it very hard to understand how the Corporation's management can make such a bollocks of this. They merely had to say, "The chart show reflects what records people are buying. That's all", and wait for the Tory attacks to go away. As it is they have made themselves look partial as well as censorious. One despairs.
