OK, girls, time to play counter-factuals (= history + some what if 's):
What if we still had the "good old days" when strikes were called immediately on an open "show of hands", with shop stewards calling the result whilst photographing the crowd for dissenters?
What if our economy was still based around a set of nationalised industries, none of which ever made a profit ( but which since having been privatised have overall emphatically done so)?
Most scarily, what if we had allowed the Soviet Union to scare us out of the Pershing Project, thus potentially swapping the collapse of the SU ( a good thing) for US decoupling from Europe (potentially a very bad thing)?
Mrs T's problem in public perception is peculiarily British & peculiarily class-ridden, and is based on her petit bourgeois roots:
To the <span class="italic">bourgeoisie</span> & above, she was a rather brassy counter-jumper, although one that some of them (mistakenly) thought they could use to their own advantage.
To those of the working classes who had no aspiration to better themselves, she was a threat to their soft access to state benefit (although she underestimated their tenacity...)
After all, if she was such a universally loathesome character, why was she so electorally successful in a reasonably democratic society?
Also, given the recent MP's expenses scandal, don't forget she refused to claim £19 for an ironing board for No 10 on the grounds she needed to buy a new one anyway: I'll forgiive a politician almost anything, just so long as they are honest... 