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Noel Gallagher has clarified comments he made about former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in a Sunday tabloid published today (February 5).

The High Flying Birds man took to his blog at NoelGallagher.com to explain he was "outraged" that the Mail On Sunday had implied he was of the opinion that "the years spent under the rule of that soon to be dead granny, Maggie Thatcher, was good for the soul".

In the Mail On Sunday interview the ex-Oasis man blamed New Labour and the current Coalition for falling standards.

He said:

Under Thatcher, who ruled us with an iron rod, great art was made. Amazing designers and musicians. Acid house was born. Very colourful and progressive. Now, no one’s got anything to say. 'Write a song? No thanks, I’ll say it on Twitter'. It’s a sad state when more people retweet than buy records.

Noel, recipient of NME's Godlike Genius award at this year's NME Awards, added: "There was a work ethic – if you were unemployed, the obsession was to find work. Now, these kids brought up under the Labour Party and whatever this Coalition thing is, it’s like, 'Forget that, I’m not interested. I wanna be on TV'. It was a different mindset back then."

However, he clarified the comments in his blog, stating: "I've read the story and I must say it's very misleading; any great working class art, fashion, youth culture etc came to be IN SPITE of that woman and her warped right-wing views and NOT BECAUSE of them."

Gallagher concluded: "Also for the record, on the day that she dies we will party like it's 1989. Just so you know."

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