I think almost the worst thing about the Thatcher years that it legitimised an arrogant vicious personalised style in political discourse, and I think that is reflected in the way this thread has gone. Every time you time you turned on the radio there'd be some politician sneering and strutting and totally humourless.

Thank God she's no longer there, and that way of thinking has gone with her for the time being anyway. Honestly, it's bad enough, but it really is different.

But to pretend that all that was just down to Thatcher, and that there is some cathartic value in going on about her now is is missing the point.

I think it was a pretty sick time, but I see her as a symptom of the illness rather than the cause. "I hate this bloody headache" is an understandable thing to say at the time - but once you've recovered it's a rather futile sort of thing on which to waste your curses.

Incidentally, I've always thought it was remarkably prescient of Bob Dylan to write Maggie's Farm ten years before the Tories accidentally made Thatcher the leader of the party.