Margaret Thatcher

Polarizing conservative Prime Minister of Great Britain who, like Ronald Reagan of the United States and and others including Canada's Brian Mulroney, rode a right wing wave through a decade that saw massive economic tumult and subsequent boom as well as the dismantling of the Soviet Empire due to its unsustainable bloat. Her strong-willed ways and steely political personality took her through the glass ceiling of British politics to become the first woman to lead the country. It was also the cause of her downfall as England tired of her toward the end of her third term as Prime Minister. As tributes pour in today, it's likely you will hear that alternately that she saved England from the depths of despair and that she drove the country into the ground. Such is political life. She had apparently been in ill health in recent years and had dropped out of the public spotlight long ago. I was a little surprised this morning to learn that she hadn't passed away a while ago.

Thank goodness the English don't share the disgusting American habit of turning every cold body into a saint...into magnifying every perceived positive quality and ignoring every fault. . . But if you can look past the obligatory positive chirps coming from over the pond - you can hear the swelling noise that sounds something like "good riddance." And American gop retards don't even remember that Thatch was pro-science and pro-climate change. . .she's held as an idol by those with strange memories who fondly remember senile ronny. Marge had a few shining sparkles of ideas - but her ideas have been roundly rejected by most in her own country. And dying in England (normally) doesn't give you the free ride it gets you in the States. (unless it's Di)

Whoops, I thought she had died already. I don't delight in the death of anybody, but she was a pretty Polarizing political figure from what I understand. A very conservative Prime Minister, from the way I'm Told it. But she's no more ultra-conservative than Bush or Obama. Let's face it, the Western world has swung Far- right in the last 30 years or so.

Champion of the 1% club, the "Iron Twat" could best be described as Reagan with tits.

great news

Damn you, Austin Powers... "Baseball... cold showers... Margaret Thatcher naked on a cold day! MARGARET THATCHER NAKED ON A COLD DAY!"

Briefly dated Taylor Swift in the 80s

Her main weakness as a leader was her driven single-mindedness, which in some respects served her well in the cutthroat world of politics, but also could be defined as stubbornness. Indeed, Thatcher was a self-righteous, ideologically driven revolutionary. By the time of her removal after the poll tax scandal, she had become profoundly divorced from common sense. Her policies inflicted problems on a lot of industries and a lot of communities due to her monetarist economic policies, the influence of which are still being felt today. Thatcher certainly did financialize the British economy and transferred public equity slash-and-burn style into private hands rapidly and with little consideration of value or the downstream consequences. For example, the British electricity industry is hilariously now largely owned by French state-owned companies. Given what flowed into the coffers from asset sales and North Sea oil discoveries (the latter being the real reason why the British eco... Read more

America will be happy to trade Obama for Thatcher

She was able to prove that the Lady can drive the World politics, not just follow it.

An inaugural member of the Hibernian Hating Hall of Fame, and a bane to the so called 'lower' classes in her own country. Horrible person.

She was an unfunny joke who raised unemployment to over 3 million while using the election slogan "Labour isn't working" when unemployment was a "mere" 500,000 under them. Sold off social housing stock and cut down social housing building. There must surely be a particularly hot place in hell for that woman. I hope her wig and her false teeth give her hell first tho, she deserves to suffer a bit before the Real Thing. What goes around comes around, I hope.

The Iron lady, real nasty piece of work, hated the Irish, hated the working man & woman, hated herself..the IRA blew her toilet from under her while she was reading tom & jerry comics at the conservative convention. she landed two floor below......should be buried in ready mix concrete!!!

shes the reason england is a second rate country (militarily, britain is behind france, the leading military power in western europe) probably the worst leader britain has had since the middle ages.

Truly dreadful. A total waste of time. The U.K. lost ground steadily while this rightwing idiot was pulling the levers. Gave way to that other imbecile, Major, and started the continuum of lameness that is currently maintained by Handjob's fist puppet, Tony Blair.

Her virulent destruction of the welfare state enraged the poor and the punk rockers alike. Some great punk was made in protest of this neo-fascist dictator.

evil anti-Irish tyrannical despot...out of touch with common folk.

Johnny Roulette hit the nail on the head. This woman was nothing more than a cowardly murderer. "Iron Lady?" I doubt she wasn't that "Iron" when the IRA came narrowly close to killing her at a hotel she and her fascist party were staying at. Who cares if she was Europe's first Woman Prime Minister? She supported Fascists, was a Fascist and she was a cowardly murderer.

She did have authoritarian convictions - but her contempt for the poor earns her the title "Major League A.....e".

The Iron Lady rules.

I can't wait til Judgement Day.

Scarily large hair. First woman prime minister of the U.K. Did a pretty bad job. Im not saying Tony Blair is doing any better in fact hes terrible bu thats not he point. She did almost nothing.

This evil woman showed us that women were equal to men, even when it came to torturing and pillaging the Irish.

i can safely say i have never hated anyone so intensely or so bitterly as i hate this woman

A great model for uncaring, aggressive forms of human behaviour. Does not appear to have any empathy with humanity. A very bad example followed, unfortunately by other politicians around the world who also suffer from the same lack of human vision.

Thatcher was a fierce opponent of socialism/communism. The comment from "edf" tries to link her to Hitler (socialist) and Stalin (communist) by way of Pinochet -- an unscrupulous man that butchered equally evil communist butchers. That's obviously absurd. Thatcher believed in the tenets of classical liberalism a la Locke, Burke, Hayek: she's a wonderful role model. Interesting that the greatest female leaders come from far outside the feminist movement...

Thatcher admired Pinochet who admires Hitler who was (until 1940) an ally of Stalin. There - they CAN in fact, all be linked into one sentence. I think that Thatcher was the 80s Hitler only, obviously, without all the murder and genocide. To say that Thatcher is a role model for all women is to take it a bit too far - she was a manipulative, unsympathetic, irresponsible, uncompassionate, reckless, brutal bitch - not really what I admire in a woman, let alone man. The iron lady indeed. Stubborn and loathesome Thatcher - may she live in eternal sorrow and pain.

maggie's firm grip on the helm, with dennis behind her, eventually steered the ship on an unpopular course. that does not qualify her a bad captain

Agreat lady, with a back bone of steel.

Great role model for women.

I have mixed feelings for Baroness Thatcher; She did a lot of things I don't approve of during her time in office, and made redundant a lot of people, but you can't help admiring the determination she had to be the first female prime minister of Britain. I just hope there's a female President of America someday. Imagine a black female US President! That'd be a triumph over both sexual and racial discrimination.