I think where you live in England tends to colour you view of the lady. My southern friends used to say throughout the 80's, what recession...?

There was no hard drug problem before Thatcher. No beggars on the street. that was mainly because she closed down the mining industry and the mining villages became citadels of the drugs trade. they had always been places where the police thought twice before sailing in - and it provided some kind of alternative economy.

I don't think she planned to break the power of the unions. I think it just happened out of dumb luck. She was bloody useless at running the economy. Unemployment was a natural consequence. When nobody had jobs - people were in a weaker bargaining position.

There must be some reason why things got better after we got rid of the tories.Maybe Brown is just a better than lamont, Major and clarke were as chancellor. Its hard to figure out what she did achieve and what was going to happen anyway.

Can't say i liked her handling of the hunger strikers. They wanted a set piece like the 1916 rising with martyrs and thatch gave them it on a plate. sin Fein has never looked back electorally. Neither did I like her way with sacking anybody who disagreed with her - Hesseltine and sadly MacGregor - the best Education secretary in my lifetime.

I think if there was anything i admired it was her handling of the media. Hard to imagine these present tales of of the unacceptable getting out of a war zone. I admired her adroitness in debate - she made Kinnock sound like a verbose idiot - even when he had something valid and important to say.