'Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead' closer to number one spot following Margaret Thatcher's death

Lady Thatcher’s death could propel The Wizard Of Oz track "Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead” to the top of the charts. Those who saw her death as a cause for celebration have prompted a download surge for the track. Within 48 hours of the former Prime Minister’s death, the song has entered the official UK chart at number 10. It is expected to climb higher as a result of a Facebook campaign being set up to encourage sales.

The Facebook group, encouraging people to download the "Witch" song to get it to number one, already had 664 members and was originally set up back in July 2007. The BBC said it would decide whether to play Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead during Radio 1's top 40 countdown when places are finalised this weekend. In a statement it said: "The Official Chart Show on Sunday is a historical and factual account of what the British public has been buying and we will make a decision about playing it when the final chart positions are clear."

The Independent – Official Facebook Group

Thatcher government toyed with evacuating Liverpool after 1981 riots

Margaret Thatcher's closest ministers came close to writing off Liverpool in the aftermath of the 1981 inner-city riots and even raised the prospect of its partial evacuation, according to secret cabinet papers released on Friday.

They told her that the "unpalatable truth" was that they could not halt Merseyside's decline and her chancellor, Sir Geoffrey Howe, warned her not to waste money trying to "pump water uphill" and telling her the city was "much the hardest nut to crack".

The cabinet papers released by the National Archives under the 30-year rule reveal Thatcher's closest advisers told her that the "concentration of hopelessness" on Merseyside was very largely self-inflicted with its record of industrial strife.

The Guardian