Let me say right at the outset, I am not a political animal. I hold no political views or affiliations whatsoever. I firmly believe that whoever you vote for the government always gets in [and that is more true than some people realise!], but you would have to come from Mars not to know of the passing of Margaret Thatcher. Newspapers have had a field-day both for and against. For myself, having lived through the pre-Thatcher post-war years and the Thatcher years and since, I can only observe that she brought out the best of British and the worst.

For myself, when she was Minister of Education she made it possible for me to train and qualify as a school teacher with a young family of four daughters by creating Teacher Training Colleges for mature women students with children, whilst at the same time taking away my children’s free school milk. Thousands of families were able to get a foot on the property ladder in 1980’s by the Right to Buy discounts and no deposit for buying their own Council House whilst during the same period depriving others of their heritages and livelihoods.

She was our first [and only so far] woman Prime Minister, but she was no feminist and she was certainly no token woman – for that she has to be admired. She was an imperfect human, who made mistakes, but got quite a bit right – things we take for granted perhaps. Like Mark Anthony, I come not to praise her, I certainly wouldn’t judge her, what I do think though is that some respect should be shown if only for the family, the right due to all families in times of grief and personal and political views need not be paraded. Nuff said.