I'm sure Backwoodsman and myself and anybody who lived through those times in a mining community don't really have much time for Thatcher apologists.

You'd think even less of her - if you'd seen the way she used inflation to cut your allownces by 30% and you were supporting a disabled person.

But even so, her suffering does me no good and it doesn't give me threepence back on the bottle for all the years she polluted.

I'm genuinely sorry for her predicament now, and I wish her family well in the trials that lie aheaad. If you've known suffering first hand, you don't wish it on anyone else.