It was never going to take long for football to become part of the Thatcher death row. Almost any big media story that involves stupidity, mawkishness, and tribal loyalty will inevitably be sucked into the national game. On Monday, Manchester United decided not to stage a minute’s silence for Mrs T – no surprise there – and now it’s turning into a nationwide fight. Some football people want to honour the Iron Lady, but the FA is reluctant. Reading FC chairman John Madejski has called for a tribute ahead of his side’s game against Liverpool FC, but the Liverpudlians so despise Thatcher that they will find the idea too offensive to even consider. Up north, there’ll be lots of talk of her failures over Hillsborough and her contempt for the working class. Meanwhile, down south, lots of fans will be pretty keen on honouring her and will take offence at those who won’t. The poor officials caught in the middle are forced to blather about ‘respect’.
It’s all so puerile. And the funny thing is that the football spat is just an extension of the infantile political debate around Maggie. For the last two days, the so-called left and so-called right have been busy trading blows over ‘her legacy’. Senior politicians are forced to blather about ‘respect’. The political issues may be important, but they are secondary. Many of the young people celebrating her death have no idea what they are celebrating and anyway the differences between Labour and Conservatism are as nothing compared to the 1970s. But we desperately want to be part of something. We need a side to cheer and an enemy to hate. We’ve become a nation of political hooligans. The difference now is that millions of Brits care passionately about football all year round – whereas politics only excites us when somebody dies.
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