What Do I Think About Margaret?

When Reagan died, there was an outbreak of collective amnesia in the US about how divisive he was ...

Reagan rolled back the State, took on the Unions and acted on some foolish assumptions about the universal good of the free market, just like Margaret did, but he did it all with a genial smile on his face. Margaret hectored, badgered and bullied her way through the same agenda. In doing so, she brought about her own downfall. An event I watched with sorrow, Did she really deserve such self-serving betrayal?

I am not a Thatcherite, by any means, but I abhor the outbreak of hatred at her death. She did what was right in her own eyes, and that is the best that can be expected of anyone.

I regret that she personified the triumph of idealism over pragmatism. I am sad that she appeared to be a friend of Pinochet and an enemy to Mandela. I fear that, in overseeing the destruction of British manufacturing, she brought about the end of any real possibility of a recovery from the current recession that will restore any pretence of an economically equitable society. I suspect that her manner of working politics accelerated the break-up of the Kingdom... .

But I also wonder where our Kingdom would be, if Margaret hadn't faced down and castrated the power of the unions, or sent the armed forces to rescue the Faulkland Islanders?

More than a necessary evil though - she was a remarkable and principled woman who should be given her semi-state funeral with a good heart. She deserves it.