Ah, yes--"three times prime monster of England". One of the few times when such a smug little-englander statement gives no offence to Scots, Welsh or Irish people. If 70% of English people think of her as a decent woman--never mind a decent prime minister---then it says little for the character of the English people. Having said that, I know the English people better than that. Most of them know just what Thatcher was. She even drove the TORIES into chucking her out! She came very,very close to breaking up the UK. And perhaps that achievement would have been one of the better results of her despotic tenure. She destroyed the reputation of a union leader who suggested she was about to "close twenty collieries". She branded him a liar. She then proceeded to close practically ALL of the coal industry. She blatantly--and brutally-- used Scotland as a testing ground for her abominable "poll tax", almost waking the Scots finally to the fact that they were---and are---the dumping ground for every variety of crap that the British government or MOD felt should be safely out of London and the home counties. Think Dounreay, think anthrax on the Hebrides, think uranium tipped ammunition fired into the Solway, think commando training grounds, think low-flight "training". Oh, yes, Thatcher was much-loved---in many boardrooms, in the good ole US OF A, and extolled to the high heavens in the Telegraph, the Times and every editorial in the Murdoch muck-heap for her heroic stand on behalf of nuke weapons [WMDs??], which she even had the gall to fit into a special sermon in the church of England! Her pompous appearance on the dais to lord it over the victory march past after the Falklands scrap reminded me vividly of the posturings of Mussolini. I have been as guilty as any in remarking what a wonderful successor Tony is. Well,I'll admit there are many similarities; but I think we'd have to cross the Atlantic to the heroic figures who fought and won over the post man and some odd home-guard types in Grenada, or who listened to god and bravely assaulted the WMD-wielding Iraqis.
I reckon "I detest the woman" would have been enough. I had a little time on my hands-----