RIP Margaret Thatcher

When Nixon died I didn't follow the usual "don't speak ill of the dead" bit, but Thatcher wasn't Nixon.

Whether you agreed with her or not you knew that she had core beliefs and integrity and she would follow them even as people rioted in the streets. Nor was she all bad - I can think of a few good things that happened on her watch.

The sad part is that today is when her body died. From what I understand her mind went years ago, to the point where she didn't recognise anyone around her. In many ways today was a mercy.

Goodgulf

What a bitch. The world is still trying to recover from her and Regan's screwups. People should be dancing in the streets.

Guy

Tough old bird? It was during the Thatcher government that the cane was abolished. Around the same time, a caning Tory MP was exposed in the gutter press, and duly sacrificed for the good of the party. Ironically, Thatcher was kicked out by her own party. Who can forget seeing her leaving Downing Street in tears?

Looks like some people are indeed proving me wrong. Pity...

Rather dismayed by the negative comments on the late MT. The fact was that anybody in business in the late 70's would know that the UK was rapidly going down the tubes. (Remember the NYP headline "Goodbye Britain! It's been nice knowing you!"). She reversed the seemingly inevitable demise and restored the country's self respect.

Yes there were many things that I disagreed with, but overall she saved the country, and we could hold our heads up high again.

We're getting into that political argument - proving just how controversial and divisive she was. So if she rescued the country - and in some senses she did - she also set it on a downward spiral in which civil society was deliberately destroyed and a generation spawned who saw all controversy and politics in terms of their own self-interest or at most their immediate family's. That there were already trends in that direction demonstrates how she could have such an impact; but much of the damage was avoidable, as was the deliberate destruction of mining communities in order to get at the undoubtedly overweening and collectively selfish NUM.

Rest in Peace, Margaret; you were a role model for all women. I was proud of you when you were elected, the first western leader of the free world. You served your country and inspired all women to follow their bliss.

RIP Baroness Thatcher of Kestever, Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter.

I remember her from the Falkland War and from being the only lady among the European prime ministers.

When she got a statue in bronze in the Houses of Parliament 2007 did she say: " I might have preferred iron - but bronze will do - it won't rust."

The thing about Margaret Thatcher was her conviction politics, having made up her mind on the direction to take she would not deviate from this nor allow any wavering from her ministers. A bit different from current politicians who surrounded by advisers, think tanks etc still do not seem to have a firm opinion on anything except the need to try and be all things to all men(women). I know which I prefer, does anyone really think that the likes of Cameron, Osborne, Milliband, Brown etc would have coped with the turbulent and changeable world that greeted Mrs Thatcher when she became Prime Minister, I think not!

Although I would never rejoice in another human beings death I have a small grain of sympathy with the bloggers point of view. What annoys me is all these never ending obsequious tributes every time you switch on the radio. I have never detested any politician as much as I detested her. She wasn't great or magnificent she was just a mean spirited old woman. As you say may she R.I.P.