So what politician from the other side do you secretly like?

sweetandtender - re Clegg - definitely would. Met him a few years ago - he is v cute in RL

My FIL stalwart Labour, so opposed to nearly all she stood for, but he is also a bigoted dinosaur man of his generation, and did say they had a problem with a woman prime-minister telling them what to do. But there were plenty who adored her, must have done as they kept voting her in, (my father for one - started a small business in that time, worked v hard & felt his hard work was rewarded).

Have posted this before, but worryingly where the ILs and dh's extended family live there are a lot of disgruntled Labour supporters who, when turning away from the Left, don't go to the Liberals but to the far right and the BNP. The BNP came a narrow 2nd in a swathe of local council elections there (Tory and LD vote remained at a steady low, but the Labour vote nosedived).

MINERS', I do apologise. There was more than one miner on strike

Lots of things, I expect: personality, forcefulness, her way of saying everything as if she knew she was exactly right, that hectoring tone which a lot of people just found got their backs up... Reminded them too much of their mothers, probably :)

Plus the decade being shaped by key conflicts like the miner's strike and the Poll Tax, on which it was difficult to be ambivalent and so which polarised opinion.

So what is it about Thatcher that evokes such strongly negative sentiment? Because she really does.

I think I'd better take back what I said about David Cameron. He's just that bit too slimy.

Also, unemployment went up under Jim Callaghan, but you don't find people calling him evil. "Not very good, but probably did the best job he could in trying circumstances" is what you usually hear about him.

I like Michael Portillo, he is a gent. Do you remember when he lost his seat at the same time David Mellor lost his - David Mellor was the one who got into a scandal involving sexual shenanigans in a Chelsea shirt. And David Mellor reacted with boorish ill grace to losing his seat, but Michael Portillo was charming.
I can't help having a soft spot for Boris, but I know I shouldn't. He's funny. Sometimes he means to be, sometimes he doesn't, but a politician who is entertaining has got to be some sort of asset. He's a living cartoon.
John Major I think is a nice man. I admire David Davis for voting against, and I adored Edward Heath's pronouncements which riled Margaret Thatcher so much all those years ago; they did a lot for the general merriment of the nation.
Another one - Matthew Parris (he's now a broadsheet journalist). He used to be a Tory MP - he took on a TV documentary assignment 30 or so years ago, while still an MP, to prove the Conservative assertion that living on the dole was not too bad. But he ran out of money before the end of the week, and found life on the dole much, much worse than he'd imagined, and had the grace to admit it. I admire him for that.
David Cameron seems an affable person, but I wouldn't be able to put out of my mind the hurt he's inflicting on people by the policies he's pursuing.
('He's a cheery old card,' grunted Harry to Jack/As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.
But he did for them both by his plan of attack.')

Winky, plenty on the Left have choice words for Scargill, my ex-miner FIL's hatred of him is equal his hatred of Thatcher.

I would like to meet Osbourne, preferably in a dark alley with no witnesses whilst carrying a baseball bat.

Yes, Ken Clarke and Michael Portillo here too - love him on The Moral Maze.

Ed Vaizey is quite cute

Winky - yes, but surely people can argue that her policies were misguided, if they want to, without resorting to the easy option of calling her "evil"?

"Sarah Palin - really, she exudes sexual power)"

Shudder. Does she really? She's such an ignoramus. And well, erm, stupid. Is that sexy?

Well, perhaps Thatcher is regarded as evil because of the poverty and unemployment that soared under her time as PM?

Urgh @Palin. I bet she uses feminine hygiene products. She looks the type.

There are so few Tories I fancy. Why is that?

Mm, maybe you have a point, but I've never heard anyone refer to him as "eeeeeeevil".

Oh, I'm sure the Right have plenty of choice words about Arthur Scargill, for example.

Only joking about George Osborne (but not about Sarah Palin - really, she exudes sexual power).

My perception as a non-affiliated person is that the Left tends to demonise the Right more than the Right demonises the Left. Look at some of the words people use about Thatcher: "evil", "witch", "cow", etc. You don't find the Right being anything like as vituperative about prominent left-wing figures. And I find all the stuff about what people are going to do when she dies (drink champagne, piss on her grave, etc.) deeply disturbing and really rather immature.

I think this demonisation comes about because it is, actually, impossible for some on the Left to imagine how anyone can hold right-wing views in a civilised society, the Left being more associated with altruism and morality. Therefore the only way to rationalise someone like Thatcher is simply to say she was "evil". This is nonsense, of course, but a lot of people seem to do it.

Sorry, that's a bit derail-y. Feel free to ignore...

none.

I understand that Hassled. Just thought I would take this opporunity to come out of the closet in relatively anonymous way.

Glad you agree though. I've had some very nice dreams about him indeed.

To answer the question correctly: Ken Clarke, John Major, David Davies, William Hague. Same old same old.

Boris.

Clegg's wife is fit. Clegg is a wimpy fag (as in 'public school', not homophobic abuse)

Well maybe his wife too :)