to hate Gideon even more after seeing him crying at Thatchers funeral?

[ssd]

detest that man, he cries at a funeral like this then goes back to ruining lives

utterly hate him

Criticising someone for crying at a funeral is pathetic.

That's a lovely story, YouTheCat, but Botha died in 2006, and Gorbachev is too infirm to travel (so sent apologies), so it's unfortunately not true.

Was June Whitfield there? I have no idea. Why the fuck was Katherine Jenkins there though?

Re the crying, I'm with Pag. Criticise his politics, name, background - fine. But to mock his grief at a funeral is a step too far.

I shall have to tell her she's been fed porkies - she's a journalist.

I wasn't sure about Botha (could have googled) but I didn't think June was the sort to attend.

Of all the tories I despise him the most.

Love that she's a journo!
Was she getting Botha mixed up with FW de Klerk - who did attend?

Thinking about it, June is probably the type that was there. I suspect she's true blue, and she's about the right age...

It's expressing anger about something valid. Something that is happening now, to us, to people we care about

I think his tears were real. Its a strange thing but people tend to have buckets of empathy for people just like them, some people lack empathy for people unlike them, some have it for everyone and others lack it totally.

I have never doubted that Georgie Peorgie is human. He isn't what you call a thinker, I don't think he will ever realise the harm he is doing because he will never come face to face with the human face of it, he isn't one of us. Thatcher no doubt went to her grave having no idea of the destruction she caused.

This is what you get when you combine class with lack of intellect. He illustrates perfectly what is wrong with our whole social system.

Is it against Godwin's Law to remember that Goebels was known for his lachrymose tendencies too?

Dawndonna then why not have a thread criticising his policies, rather than him crying at a funeral?

"But to mock his grief at a funeral is a step too far"

His mock grief is a step too far.

Less jeering and smugness when implementing divisive policies may just have helped people feel sorry for him when mourning someone equally divisive.

Could have been De Klerk - I'd forgotten about him.

Youthecat
BMW, were you even old enough to vote when Thatcher was in power?

Yes. First voted 1976. Started work HMRC 1975, so in my 34 year career worked under Labour and Conservative so have seen it all from both political parties in respect of my work.

Thanks for asking......

I think that what people are objecting to is the fact that the tear looked fake and crocodile like. If it looked like real grief then I for one wouldn't mock.

And btw don't assume GO is stupid, he is certainly not and knows exactly what he is doing, which makes him all the more chilling. If you have him down as stupid he will get away with even more.

shabba at your Dads excellent week!

He was also doing the starey-eyed thing that I used to do when I was little to make more tears come out. If you keep your eyes wide open without blinking for a few minutes, voila! Tears. Gideon knows. I used to do this when I wanted a new Keypers or to stay up and watch Boon.

Arf at mocking grief/mock grief

Gawd, I am aware it sounds holier than thou which is why I say I m uncomfortable rather than have a go at anyone else.
But it is uncomfortable to me.
I just can't whine about a lack of empathy and kindness, about a society attacked through disinterest and selfishness and then display exactly those traits myself . I just can't. It's as if people are gleeful behaving in exactly the manner they claim to depise.
I can't do it. I want to be better than them.

And 'this is what real grief looks like' stuff irritates the crap out of me. Grief doesn't look like any one thing. I suspect I looked bored during my dads funeral. I just wish people were all kinder. How else do we get a kinder society other than by being so, even to wankers.

Those weren't tears. His eyeballs were sweating.

Just because it was incongruous with his public image doesn't mean it wasn't a real tear. How on earth can any of us ever know whether it was real or fake, it is hardly worth debating. Mocking someone for displaying emotion at a funeral is a new low I think, regardless of the policies his party are pursuing.

why is he called Gideon? apart from my confusion it gave me the creeps I think he had make up on his face looked streaky , he actually made me shudder

Teakozy. Sweaty eyes, heh heh!

It's one weasley-faced bastard crying at the death of another weaseley-faced bastard. I think that's the thing rattling everyone. You could see the gimlet-eyed determination on his face as he looked heavenward (she ain't up there, Gids) as if he was saying to her "I. Will. Finish. Your. Work." Twat.

'Never seen so many tossers assembled in one place in my life.'

Very true.

Gideon's grief may have been genuine, who knows. But I think the point most posters make is that it's ironic to see him so moved and looking quite human and empathetic when he's usually just a hard-faced, thoughtless, uncaring scumbag. And when there's no chance of him being so moved by any of the heart-rending stories about people walking 10 miles each way to pick up emergency provisions from food banks. In Britain. In 2013. He should be dying of shame all day every day instead of smugging off like he does.

Sam Cam pees me off no end - she walks and waves and looks like a scared little girl. Act like a grown woman FFS - take some lessons from the wonderful Miriam Gonzales Durantez.

Gideon's his real name mrsjay. He didn't like the name and took the name George when he was 13.

I don't know whether he's changed it officially or whether it's still an assumed name.

'Criticising someone for crying at a funeral is pathetic.' - Couldn't agree more. In any case, who knows why people cry at a funeral? It is not necessarily linked to the funeral you are attending, it could be a memory of someone else or some other private loss that triggered it and not actually anything to do with Mrs Thatcher. Oh and I dislike George Osborne as much as the next person but would not criticise him for crying at a funeral.