//Thatcher was a despotical tyrant who deliberately ruined the manufacturing base of this country,...//
Not a fan then, 10CS? :-)
I didn't directly benefit in the way you describe some did. However, TGL improved the lives of people like me no end. At least I could get up knowing that my dustbins would be emptied, the trains would be running and the leccy would not be cut off intermittently. I agree that the miners got a poor deal but in my view she did those communities a favour. Coal mining must have been one of the most soul destroying and unpleasant jobs known to man. Of course had Mr Scargill and his mates not tried to hold the country to ransom and bring down the elected government into the bargain the industry may have been run down in a more controlled manner. But time to move on, I think. She's been out of office for thirty years and we now have a different despotic government to contend with which is exercising far more despotic powers over a far greater number of people.