My personal thoughts re Maggie and the Falklands War. It is a long-exploded myth that it was Maggie's personal "handbagging" which led to victory. With most ministers (including John Nott, the Defence Secretary) vacillating and considering accepting Galtieri's fait accompli, the service chiefs, particularly those of the Royal Navy, gatecrashed her office and said in effect, send everything we have listed in Janes to take those islands back. Otherwise, there is no reason to keep the Royal Navy in being.

During the war, she did perform as a Churchillian tory leader is supposed to, but at the end of hostilities, many people (including many in the army who I knew) disliked the triumphalist attitude. Such petty acts as not including any personnel who had been visibly wounded in the victory parades, sent entirely the wrong message. Instead of, "We sent soldiers to fight far away. Here is what it cost. We believe for that for principles of democracy and sovereignty, it was worth paying. Agree or not as you wish, but these servicemen embody your right to do so", the message seemed to be "We have proved that we had bigger cojones than Johnny Gaucho. We salute those who did not cop a bomb or a bullet. They are winners The rest, requiring more men to carry them off the battlefield, are losers. Those who complain are sore losers."

Oddly enough, I believe that she had qualities that we don't ever notice in her purely public image. Her husband was a charming, self-deprecating patrician who took in good part his cruel lampooning (by John Wells and Richard Ingrams). Her home life seems to have been perfectly happy, although her son is not perhaps a good advertisment for it.

Overall though, I never liked her combative style, and her pig-headed persistence in courses which were obviously unwise, and divisive.