I find it a bit sad that we don't seem to be able to have any thread associated with British politics that doesn't involve "Thatcher bashing". No, she wasn't perfect, and towards the end seemed to lose her way, but in 1979 she was just what this country needed. You lot seem to have short memories; don't you remember the "English disease", the "Winter of Discontent", "Red Robbo", the IMF pulling Dennis Healy off that plane (I speak loosely) in the latest of many "Sterling Crises", not being able to take more than 50 quid on holiday, inflation at nearly 30%, etc, etc? We were a basket-case, the laughing-stock, certainly of Europe, probably the world.

The current strength of the economy, that allows George Brown (foolishly, in my view) to pour more money into health, education, social services, etc, is her legacy: do you imagine that, with "more of the same" in 1979 and afterwards, we'd be where we are now? If you think anything (manufacturing, the list of infrastructures above, etc) has suffered in the last 20 years, it would now be much worse if Mrs Thatcher hadn't been.

And why, I wonder, do you all seem to think that she would have reacted so differently to today's crisis than Tony Blair has (your implication is that she was a warmonger). She certainly took us to war with Argentina: which one of you thinks that was unjustified? And she supported Bush père with troops and materiel when Iraq invaded Kuwait; again, was that unjustified? Just remind me in what way she was a warmonger, please.

Mrs Thatcher did things. What she did (reducing the power of the unions, de-nationalising etc) might not have suited your liberal inclinations, but did increase general wealth, and that's a pre-requisite for the improvements to all the other areas you deem so important. Her successors seem to have had as little success in the latter. TB has been in power now for four and a half years; do hospitals, public transport, education, social services, etc, show any improvement in that time? I think not; the reverse, if anything. That's because improving them is not just a question of pouring money in; but to do anything else requires political balls. And that brings me back to my previous post in this thread (and also to the subject of the thread), because, so far, Tony Blair hasn't shown that he's got any.

Standing back, waiting for the explosion...