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Published 16:05 22 Sept 2016 BST
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Each year, various student causes, agendas and interests come together in one place during Freshers' week, when a plethora of societies and clubs convene to try and recruit the latest batch of first-year students. The atmosphere is generally good-natured and vibrant, as college-fresh kids embark on a fresh new adventure of discovery and growth.
That said, there's nothing quite like good old-fashioned undergraduate mither.
At the Manchester’s Welcome Fair, things quite literally came to a head when 'Manchester Conservative Future' decided to adorn their stall with a life-size cutout of Margaret Thatcher. As you can imagine, it was something of a polarising move...
The Mancunion report that a number of freshers were happy to pose with the soulless figure, no doubt for ironic selfies and Whatsapp snaps. But others were far less enamoured with a 2D representation of what they perceive to be evil incarnate. In fact a couple of left-wing renegades decided to take matters into their own hands.
Lauren McCourt and Freya Blake, who proudly describe themselves as 'revolutionary socialists', did what many would love to do and beheaded the cardboard Maggie in an act of political sabotage. Perhaps they were inspired by Mancunian icon Morrissey's 1998 song 'Margaret on the Guillotine':
"The kind people Have a wonderful dream Margaret on the guillotine..."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsq3H_6XuFA In a statement, printed in The Mancunion, the pair explained:
"We thought it was an ethical choice. We grabbed her and ran. This Tory grabbed me really hard and screamed in my face, "What the fuck are you doing". I turned around and screamed, "Get the fuck off me you Tory scum". Then Lauren ripped off the head of Thatcher, we stamped on it and ran..."In all resulted in a rather sorry sight - a thoroughly peeved off young Conservative standing beside a headless Thatcher. It wasn't long before the tragicomic photograph was being shared around the internet... https://twitter.com/MattTurner4L/status/778913654091681792 https://twitter.com/ShineJob/status/778922616727875585 https://twitter.com/Q_Sloth3/status/778745187942096897 https://twitter.com/Nozza_/status/778694337341206530 https://twitter.com/DanielNothing/status/778696549316501505 https://twitter.com/clairefp_/status/778723680327049216 https://twitter.com/littlebrowndawg/status/778921812189151232 Amidst such lack of sympathy, Luke Dyks, Chair of Manchester Conservative Future, responded:
"As a group we are really dismayed that people would damage our property like this, not just for its monetary value but [we believe] that we have a right to free speech around campus. There was no need for this theft."We'll leave you to decide whether it's a case of mindless vandalism, or just necessary cuts.

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