RIP Nelson Mandela

[SiHart]

The incredibly inspirational South African, Nelson Mandela has died.



RIP.

[Nyder]

Now that truly is a legend in our lifetime. RIP Mr Mandela

[Dirk Gently]

That is sad but not unexpected news. He was a great man & showed to millions that keeping faith in what you believe is the way to go, no matter what is thrown against you.

He will be missed & venerated by millions of South Africans I'm sure.

R.I.P Nelson.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

RIP Madiba.

[dalekkiller]

Goodbye Madiba.

[Rob McCow]

He was a true icon and although he's gone now, what a survivor.

RIP

[dalekkiller]

If you want to know how a number of Tories thought of Mandela Terry Dicks gives you a goof flavour

Many of his former colleagues in the FCS didn’t want to speak. But I did contact an authentic voice of Tory backbench pro-South Africa opinion from the 1980′s: one of Thatcher’s ardent fans, MP from 1983 to 1997, Terry Dicks.

‘Black terrorist’
He’s currently a Conservative councillor on Runnymede council. Mr Dicks was unapologetic about calling Mandela a “black terrorist” who was “kicking (Thatcher) in the face” when the South African leader failed to meet her on his first trip to London after being freed back in 1990.

Talking to Terry Dicks gives you a flavour of how some Tories saw the apartheid regime and Mandela back then.

He said: “(Mandela) was just a terrorist, no different to the Irish terrorists, perhaps no different to the ones we’re fighting now … a terrorist is a terrorist … and if they (the apartheid regime) had wanted to they could have executed him, seriously, and then you wouldn’t have had all this fuss of ‘I lived 27 years in prison.’”

Mandela was “no different from … people like al-Qaeda, no different from bin Laden,” Mr Dicks said when I spoke to him just a few months ago. He said he felt he was speaking for “quite a few” Tory MPs back in the 1980s and that some would share such thoughts on trips to South Africa funded by the South African government but would be more circumspect than him in speaking their mind in public.

- See more at: http://blogs.channel4.com/gary-gibbo....9y0LyL51.dpuf

Terry Dicks is a ****

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]