Vocal Voices

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22067155

She died peacefully this morning following a stroke. She was 87.

That's a great shame, but not unexpected. Probably one of the best politicians in my lifetime, and a huge cut above those in Westminster today.

I sincerely hope the left-wingers will repress their glee, but I doubt it .....

A strong leader. An admirable woman. Our greatest post-war PM. R.I.P.

I agree, there has not been a decent Prime minister since.. She was a one off with a vocation, which is more than can be said for the poor excuses
for MP's and Prime ministers since. Rest in Peace Maggie..

I've never voted Tory, but did respect Mrs Thatcher as a strong leader with the courage of her own political convictions. There have been some truly nasty comments out there today, especially on Facebook. Some respect for the dead is in order I think........

RIP x

Some of the comments - on the various news pages, and (as Kaz said) on FB are truly vile . I'm not big on politics but from what I see she achieved things. Yes she p*ssed off a lot of people in the process, but tough times require tough measures and she was one of the few who had the gumption to follow through.

She never was out to win the Mrs Popularity contents - she was there to run a country and that she did.

RIP Mrs Thatcher

I truly do not know how to gauge her.

She took on the Unions, a task that needed doing, but ruined manufacturing industry in the process. She rolled out the Poll Tax, as fair way as any IMO, but rolled it out so badly it helped ruin her. She was certainly strong willed, but not strong enough to be a 'Lady for turning' when it was the right thing to do.

She will go down as one of our best PMs, but only just.

RIP Maggie.

I was elated when Margaret Thatcher became the first woman Prime Minister in 1979. She certainly showed the glass ceiling could be shattered. It energised many women into believing in themselves in a world managed by men. Perhaps that's why so many horrendous twitter comments are from males.

I love men as they are but in the world of business and politics respect and space for women was limited then. The other female from that era I respected and admired was Barbara Castle. Not for her politics but for her determination in a world dominated with male opinions and control.

Maggie was the right person at the right time to turn around a country which was, fairly rapidly, going down the drain driven by people who had no clue as to how an economy would run, but were determined that the destruction of "social class" would mean that they got as much pay as anyone or, preferably, a bit more.

Our laws, economy and society needed to grow up and move on. This she did and did admirably for a long time. Yes people were hurt, but then many of those had been hurting the entire economy for a long time. What I find most telling is that nobody is telling the true story. That the pain of 11 years of Thatcherism is still felt today. After 13 years of Labour almost none of that pain was washed away. That Blair and Brown were even more wary (scared), of the unions, than Thatcher was.

We had a Lady PM who cleaned the economic house, painfully I admit, but comprehensively. She brought more wealth to the poorest workers in our community by the rebates to the sale of Council houses and positioned the UK, kicking and screaming all the way, to be competitive in the 21 century.

As for the Falklands? I'm absolutely black and white about this. If you pick up the staff or war, don't be surprised if it comes back to smite you. Britain told Argentina that if they sailed into the 200 mile exclusion zone their ships would be destroyed. Britain did NOT say they would be destroyed IN the exclusion zone, just that they would be destroyed.

Those who took 14 year old boys and shot them in the foot, in their trenches, so they could not run away, did not deserve to win a war of that kind. As the Scots say, hell mend them.

She was a great Lady who took up the mantle of government at a very low time in the history of the UK and she gave the UK back growth, wealth and power. If the divide between poor and rich is larger now than in 1991, then we must ask Tony Blair and Gordon Brown why that is, not Maggie Thatcher.

May she rest in peace.

There is a concerted attempt by a lot of the media to accentuate the positives and eliminate the negatives.

Maggie did some very good things, but she also did some terrible things, lest we forget.