Nice to see the thread's got civilised again. :)

I will disagree with Gareth though. She was not/is not "evil" - that's plain silly. The problem with that "appalling woman" (a description I *do* agree with! *g*) is that she was & is a narrow-minded ideologue, with no bloody imagination whatsoever.

Ideology is all very well in theory, but when it's rigidly & unbendingly applied in practice it invariably turns out as a disaster. She was incapable of accepting that her policies weren't right & never had the wit to understand how much harm she was causing. A small-minded grocer's daughter, yes! Evil? Naaah!