As leaders go, I thought she was one of the best, showing real grit and determination. She would take counsel, but her conclusions and decisions were hers, and she would stand by them.
And I remember being appalled at the cowardly way she was ousted from office by little men who weren’t fit to clean her shoes.
But she was a peculiarly English politician, who had damned little regard for any other part of the UK. The Scots, Welsh and Irish have a very different attitude to her, and the fatal damage her policies inflicted on whole communities and ways of life.
Almost everything she did was to benefit the south east of England, including squandering most of the North Sea Oil revenues on rejuvinating a sick 1970s London.
I can also remember the seething anger and resentment she instilled in parts of the UK, as demonstrated by these Elvis Costello lyrics from the song ‘Tramp the Dirt Down’…
Well I hope you live long now, I pray the Lord
your soul to keep
I think I’ll be going before we fold our arms
and start to weep
I never thought for a moment that human life
could be so cheap
‘Cos when they finally put you in the ground
They’ll stand there laughing and tramp the
dirt down
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