I agree, Joe, though his "power" seemed forever compromised. There's a nice piece on Obama's legacy in the Saturday Guardian. I don't understand how to make links to such things but a good google should get you there.

Stanron, that is just utter revisionism. Simplistic in the extreme. There is no way that a miners' victory would have ended democracy and you know it. That's almost as bad as Mother Teresa saying that abortion was the biggest threat to world peace. On top of that, I'd suggest that Thatcher was more than happy to see Heath wallow in his inept handling of the miners. Can't argue that the miners adopted brilliant tactics, but the very fact we can talk about tactics in an industrial dispute into which the government waded demonstrates a failure of the government to engage with its workers in a constructive dialogue. Which is their job. And if you don't think that Maggie hated trade unions, try explaining away the mass of anti-trade union legislation that she instigated.