Today we have lost a part of our national identity with the death of Baroness Thatcher

I often think that you can judge a person by the people who dislike them just as well, if not better than, by judging them by their friends.

Consider, for example, what was said by Sinn Féin politician Danny Morrison in 1982:
"Margaret Thatcher is the biggest bastard we have ever known"
To be hated and feared by scum like the IRA is praise enough by any standard.

Nor was she a friend of the E.U. She believed that the role of the European Union (then the European Community) should be limited to ensuring free trade and effective competition and not as a means of centralising government. I cannot imagine that we would have anything like the problems we currently have with the European court of human rights were she still in power. Abu Qatada and his ilk would be long gone. She was certainly no friend of terrorists whatever their nationality or religion.

I cannot imagine the kind of mess that David Cameron and his bunch of milk sop, u-turning and half witted cronies would have made of the Falklands invasion in 1982. Margaret Thatcher was no friend of aggressive, bully boy tactics.

I have always considered that the increasing power and consequent demands of the trades union has played no small part in this country's economic decline. And Maggie was certainly no friend of unions. When she came to power 1979 29 million working days had been lost due to stoppages and strikes. By the time she left office in 1990 the number of days lost were fewer than 2 million. It is also significant that union membership fell by 25% in the same period.

Of course her support of the highly unpopular community tax was a mistake but, what the hell, nobody's perfect!

All said and done, I would say that Margaret Thatcher had a lot in common with Winston Churchill as Prime Minister. She was certainly someone you would want on your side in a crisis.

RIP Baroness Thatcher - much admired and already greatly missed.