Thatcher death fuels charity site

The death of Margaret Thatcher has triggered the launch of an online fundraising scheme, dubbed ‘Don’t Hate, Donate’, designed to channel donations to charities dealing with those most affected by her policies.
The site has been ready for a while but only went live yesterday following the news of the former Tory leader’s death, at the age of 87.
The website encourages individuals to “be the society Thatcher said didn’t exist” and donate to seven different charities, ranging from the Hillsborough Justice Campaign to Stonewall and the International Centre for Transitional Justice.
Alex Higgins, the London teacher and activist behind the website, said that it has no means of tracking donations, but that nearly 18,000 visitors had come to the site in the less than 24 hours since news of Thatcher’s death.
“Basically I despaired at the prospect of media coverage after Thatcher’s death both ignoring those who suffered under her Government and focusing on people celebrating her death – something that will be used as a cudgel against the left in Britain for a long time.
“I tried to think of a way of turning that around and getting people to turn their anger and bitterness into something much more productive,” Higgins said.
The charities featured on the website were chosen because of their work with “the people her government hurt”; they represent child poverty, victims of South African apartheid, miners’ families and other causes.
Higgins said that the campaign is careful not to gloat over Thatcher’s death, but rather to focus on redressing what the campaign argues is the negative legacies of her 11 years in power.