MGM - if you lived in a tory constiuency - or most of the south - you can have simply no idea of Thatcher and how she is viewed.

I can think of only the bubonic plague, or maybe the Duke of Cumberland post Culloden, who excites a similar reaction in people normally quite measured in their reactions. Maybe Cromwell in ireland.

Try to get a hold of this. there were these communities of hard working, not terribly well educated people No money had been spent on educating them, and in truth by the time they were fourteen the boys knew they were going down the pits, the girls knew that the lucky ones were going to marry miners. Lots of ther industries and businesses depended on these pits.

Thatcher comes along. No real plan for redevelopment. She doesn't say she is going to close all the pits down (she wouldn't have got elected if she had stated her intention) - although this is clearly the intention.

She closes the pits for whatever reason.

In double quick time, communities and families break up People see their kids (who would have had mortgages and families) begging on the streets, preyed upon the hard drug selling criminals. Cheap booze and the television with a Chinese torture of drip drip dripping images of affluence into the living room do the rest. watch the jeremy Kyle show for the amusing results.

In a way, i'm glad for you that you don't get it. But these are the communities that you sing about in your trad folk songs Trimdon Grange, byker Hill, etc. Show them some respect.