Ditch the Witch versus Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

Over in the Old Country, those not remembering Baroness Thatcher with happiness have been promoting the old song "Ding Dong! The witch is dead" – forgetting for the time being their manners and the old advice to speak not ill of the dead.  I have not heard anyone pointing out the lack of common decency in this, let alone crying that it is a misogynistic attack on a woman. Instead, I have seen commentary to the effect that, despite her being the first female British PM, the Iron Lady was no feminist (and thus her gender was irrelevant). Presumably, then, labelling her as a witch, and rejoicing over her death, is "alright", at least in lefty circles.

Here in Oz, meanwhile, a year or more ago some unhappy munchkins notoriously waved placards bearing slogans such as "Ditch the Witch", when calling on our own tin-eared PM to go away (others referred to her in still more derogatory language, implying she had an unseemly relationship with the then leader of the Greens – a man uninterested in women). This, in contradistinction to the mockery of Thatcher, was apparently deeply hateful and misogynist; and Gillard herself has played the gender card against "that dreadful man" (as a close female relative of mine refers to Abbott, unconscious of her own gender stereotyping of the Leader of the Opposition).  Apparently such a verbal attack upon our Labor Prime Minister is an unconscionable act of gender aggression.

Is it simply that Thatcher was of the right wing, and this means she is fair game for mockery on the part of her left wing foes – whereas Gillard is of the left wing, and thus it is vile wickedness on the part of her right wing opponents to use similar words against her? This no doubt implies that the media takes a left-wing slant on these issues: imagine that!