BE - your comments remind me of some of those US commentators who, after September 11, were bemusedly wondering "Why do people hate us?".
Doesn't the level of vitriol and contempt in this thread tell you something about the effect the woman had on this country? Sure, there aren't many reasoned arguments as to exactly why she was such a socially divisive and malign influence on the UK, but the visceral comments from the posters should be as eloquent. Look where many of them come from - parts of Britain where the employment prospects were virtually destroyed during her tenure, in pursuit of a misguided monetarist policy adopted only by Pinochet's Chile.
I'm one of the fortunate ones - I was lucky to work for a right-wing newspaper group throughout the Tories' reign, and I never had it so good. Others didn't.
Remember Corby, Consett, the miners' strike...? Those aren't just numbers; they're people and families. Some 15 years on, some of those who were kicked onto the scrapheap are "lucky" enough to work in call centres and do other McJobs.
Others have been repeatedly processed through inadequate training schemes designed, it seems, merely to massage the unemployment figures.
Bitter? I thought the thread was a model of restraint!