John -I don't know why Thatcher doesn't bother you. if i were Scottish, I'd be pissed off that Cameron was starting his programme of cuts off in Scotland and Burnley - places where he has no real mandate to rule. just like Thatcher started off the poll tax in Scotland. History repeats itself.

What really used to piss me off about Thatcher was that if you talked to people in safe Tory seats, they'd say - recession -what recession.

Certainly there was never an attack on the manufacturing communities like it - before or since. 28% of manufacturing industry destroyed in a period of twelve months. And within a short time - hard drugs for sale on every street corner, homeless begging on the street.

Then there was the sectarian business. thatch and tebbit saying as many inflamatory things as they could manage. Did that not bother you?

i always loved your country ever since I got to study for two years with the late Arthur Marwick when he was head of history at the Open University. I did summer schools in stirling.

The Thatcher years were the most determined and sustained effort to shit on Scotland since the Highland Clearances. you obviously feel different. I don't get it.