I wasn't actually comparing Thatcher to Bin Laden. In fcat I was contrasting them, as a way of challenging whether that remark of Giok really stands up. If really it is appropriate to "admire in anybody" the "ability to be true to (their) beliefs, right or wrong", the logic of that has to be to admire that in Bin Laden or in Hitler.

Well, maybe it is possible to distinguish between the actual beliefs and the ability to be true to them. That's why I put a question mark in my reply.

As I said earlier, I don't go for seeing Maggie Thatcher as the person to carry the responsibility for everything that happened in her time. People elected her. She didn't come to power through an army coup like Pinochet. If there is blame - and I think there is - it rests on a lot of people, those who voted for her, yes and those who drove them to vote for her. And also those who have consistently refused to reform the voting system so that a fanatical minority could never achieve overwhelming power.