Free How I Killed Margaret Thatcher by Anthony Cartwright Page B

person?
    She’s not kind. She doesn’t care about people.
    She’s selfish.
    Exactly, she’s very selfish.
    If we doh think the same as Margaret Thatcher why’s her in charge? Why doh we have somebody in charge who we do like?
    Well, some people like her. I’d have thought Johnny would’ve gone through all this with you.
    She smiled as she said this. She knew that Johnny wanted there to be a revolution and she thought it was a ridiculous idea. I wanted to say, Does Dad like her ? Then if she said, no, I could have said, Why did he vote for her, then? and if she said Yes, I could ask why. If I had said that, though, she would have realized that I listened to them talking in the kitchen while I sat on the stairs above them. My mum put the iron down on the ironing board.
    That’s why we have an election. So people can decide who they want. The people picked Margaret Thatcher as prime minister. Why am yer so interested in this, Sean?
    What people?
    All the people vote. Different areas vote for MPs. Margaret Thatcher’s party the Conservatives have got the most MPs so she’s prime minister. Some people doh think the same as us. Some people am different to us. Don’t worry about it.
    Like the gypos?
    Don’t you dare say gypos! I doh want to hear you saying that word!
    She pointed her finger right in my face; this was one step away from getting a whack.
    I said I was going to the Paki shop once because I’d heard Paul say it and thought it sounded good. My mum slapped me and as I tried to duck her engagement ring cut my eyebrow and blood spattered red on the kitchen lino. My mum burst into tears before the blood hit the floor. I still have a tiny scar. I never said it again.
    You can call them gypsies. I don’t want you repeating what you hear other people say.
    She says this all the time.
    Actually, I have heard my dad call them gypos when he was washing the car, talking to a neighbour of ours called Mick, but I think I’d better not mention it. He’d said it about the Robertsons, so maybe that was different.
    Like the gypsies then?
    No, not like the gypsies. I don’t suppose they voted. They might not be able to vote.
    I thought everyone could vote if you’re over eighteen. You told me.
    You have to be registered.
    This is complicated.
    I doh know why yome so worried about it, Sean. It’s nothing for you to worry about. I’m gonna tell Johnny and yer grandad to stop talking about politics, putting ideas in yer head.
    What about Jermaine’s dad?
    What about him?
    Maybe he likes Margaret Thatcher.
    What?
    You said not everybody is the same as us. And the Campbells.
    She starts to laugh.
    Oh, Sean. I shouldn’t have thought Jermaine’s dad or the Campbells was that keen on Margaret Thatcher. They’m West Indian, black, it’s not different. You might hear some people say that they’m different, though. I’m talking about people that think differently, not people with a different coloured skin.
    But who, though?
    Who what?
    Thinks different to us?
    Well, Margaret Thatcher, for one and yer uncle Eric. You heard all the fuss.
    And my dad, I want to add.
    Am we rich or poor?
    Are we rich or poor? Why are you asking this now? I’ve told you, no more politics.
    Would you say we’m rich or poor?
    I’d say we’re very lucky.
    Rich, then?
    No, Sean, not rich. We’re not rich, no; just richer than we used to be. Ask your grandad, but no more politics.
    She was thirty that year. My dad got Johnny to do a picture of my mum for her birthday. He used pastels and she looked happy in the picture, like when she’d stand in the kitchen on Crow Street and sing along to the radio. She was too embarrassed to put the picture up. My dad had to put it up in the garage. I don’t know what happened to it afterwards. We have old photos. There’s one that maybe Johnny used as a model that shows her turning her head, standing