To wonder if Mrs T would have been loathed less if she was a man?

[Lucyellensmum95]

I was a teenager in the Thatcher years, many of my school friends were the children of miners and they suffered serious hardship. Then there was the poll-tax, reposessions, etc etc....... So, im not saying she was great. But no worse than Tony Blair following bush blindly into iraq to look for non existent weapons of mass destruction, no worse than Cunty Cameron (who actually i dislike quite deeply because his incompetence and indecision is destroying our country), but I am sure that when he dies no one will be dancing on his grave, he will probably be long forgotten (hopefully - like a bad dream).

It doesn't matter which party is in power, there will be people who dislike them, people who like them.

I think it is wrong that Mrs T is to be given a state funeral, i thiought it was wrong that Diana got one - its a waste of tax payers money and well, a bit naff really.

Does anyone else wonder if it is because, regardless of her policies, she was a strong woman (no one can deny that) that people hold her up as such a hate figure - I think it is unfair. I didn't like her - but all this glee at her death is quite frankly, embarrasing.

[Lottashakingoinon]

I bow to no-one in my full on hatred lack of regard for Thatcher, but I have a nasty feeling you may be onto something there Lucy. I remember a woman Labour MP speaking after Thatcher resigned saying of course she was evil and divisive and all the rest of it but that there was something uncomfortably gleeful about the reaction of male MPs that would not have been there if Thatcher had been a man.

Oh well...

[AliceWChild]

YANBU. This dawned on me a few years ago. Depressing it took so long to spot it. Very useful to have a woman scapegoat on so many levels.

[Nancy66]

Yes, I believe she definitely would.

As much as people say they hate Cameron I can't see there being parties in the street and people banging on about their joy when he croaks.

[BoneyBackJefferson]

I am somewhat amazed that you think that anyhting that cameron has done and what blair did are anywhere near the scale of what thatcher did.

[niceguy2]

Yep, i'm glad I'm not the only one thinking the same.

I can't help but wonder if given prevailing attitudes of the time that the likes of Scargill and the other union leaders who were used to being King Cock around the country thought that the little woman would cave in.

[HollyBerryBush]

We can pretend society has moved on but it hasn't. On the whole men don't like powerful women, and women don't like them much either.

[CloudsAndTrees]

YANBU, I think it would be very different if she had been a man. For lots of reasons.

I certainly don't think that anything she did was worse than sending us into an illegal war for no good reason. I'm someone that thinks that Blair was a good PM on many things, but without a doubt, a war with Iraq was far worse than Thatcher doing things that needed to be done.

[LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726]

Yes, I think you're right, OP. It's disgusting really to scapegoat anybody but the unconcealed revelry in Margaret Thatcher's death is obscene. I keep reading such ill-formed rantings from people who don't even know why they 'hate' her. So sheeplike and embarrassing.

I also can't help feeling that standards of behaviour are plummeting... people used to keep their counsel where death and funerals were concerned, it was the 'done' thing. Those brakes aren't in place anymore it seems and, if idiots can blurt out whatever silly thoughts are in their heads for one person, they can and will do it against others too because code of decent conduct is either there or it isn't.

[Lemonylemon]

"I can't help but wonder if given prevailing attitudes of the time that the likes of Scargill and the other union leaders who were used to being King Cock around the country thought that the little woman would cave in."

Totally agree with that one. We're talking 20 years since she left Downing Street and 30 odd since she came to power. Things have changed a lot since then.....

I actually like the fact that she took them on.....

[Maggie111]

No you're wrong - she was in power for 3 terms and was the figurehead for a lot of poverty and civil unrest... Whether she was right or wrong for all that is different. I don't think it has sod all to do with being a woman.

Tony Blair and Cameron are still miles away from upsetting as many people.

It's probably more that she was a Tory than a Woman if anything.

[Nancy66]

Tony Blair dragged the country into an illegal war that a million people protested about not wanting - the biggest ever demo in this country.

He lied about the reasons for the war which led to the deaths of thousands. And god knows what the true story is behind the death of Dr Kelly.

I'd say he was far worse.

[gordyslovesheep]

Not to me - I dislike because of her actions and her policies and her legacy of selfishness - her gender has nowt to do with it - I dislike the current lot as much

[CloudsAndTrees]

Tony Blair and Cameron are still miles away from upsetting as many people.

As many people in this country maybe. But I expect all the people who lost their lives or their loved ones would have take the chance to be an unemployed miner over what they suffered any day.

[HollyBerryBush]

Blair is like the Teflon Man. Nothing quite sticks to him or that wife of his.

[dizzyhoneybee]

YANBU. I think there is some truth in what you say.

[thermalsinapril]

YANBU. Tory men get away with exactly the same kind of things all the time.

[PrincessFiorimonde]

I think Thatcher was a dreadful prime minister and that we are still living with the ghastly legacy of her premiership (e.g. deregulation of banks, sales of council housing and a ban on building new council properties).

Nevertheless, I've always thought there's a special level of vitriol reserved for her because she was a woman. I think Lottashaking put it well earlier.

[Tanith]

I don't think it's helpful to compare Prime Ministers, since they are in power under different circumstances.

Had Norman Tebbitt been Prime Minister at the time instead of Deputy, I believe he would have attracted exactly the same responses.

[Toadinthehole]

I think a man would have been loathed just as much, but probably in a somewhat different way. IMO because Thatcher was a woman, and had to face down a parliament full of men, she encouraged a sort of Gloriana cult like Elizabeth I that caused some of her male colleagues to develop a kind of crush on her. When she fell from grace, they were merciless as a result.

I live in NZ which endured the same reforms in the 1980s. If that government is reviled any less than Thatcher, it is only because people here are more likely to believe there was no alternative.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

There's a very interesting thread on this same theme in feminism.

[mindosa]

Nothing to do with being a woman, more to do with her policies

[inde]

For that theory to be correct you would have to explain why as many women hated her as men. I am male and the one think I liked about her being Prime Minister at the time was that she was a woman and proved that women where capable of doing the job. Previous to the seventies I think a lot of people thought that it was a man's job and always would be. Whether she did much for women or not we can't take that away from her. She proved to any doubters that a woman could do any job.

[Lucyellensmum95]

Maud - the feminists scare me :)

inde - that is an interesting response, but i actually find that women actually do very good job of disliking powerful women - jealousy?

Did she prove it though inde? She didn't do a very good job did she?

[HappilyChatterly]

I think when George W Bush dies there will be a similar reaction in America. They were similar in some ways, causing recession, against socialism,starting a war that was very polarising and very expensive for the country. Or to be a bit more objective, they were both loved by the right and held up as the saviours of freedom, and they were hated by the left and called evil, with blood on their hands.

So no, I dont think its because she was a woman, if anything I think that would cause people to take her less seriously.