AS NEWS spread that controversial former prime minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher died on Monday, her supporters paid glowing tributes while her fiercest opponents celebrated.
Opinion was divided in Ellesmere Port – where she once visited the Ellesmere Port Conservative Club at its former Westminster Road home – too.
Ellesmere Port and Neston’s Labour MP Andrew Miller, who once drove a lorry of vital food supplies to the Lancashire families of miners at the height of Thatcher’s dispute with Arthur Scargill, said: “There is no doubt that Lady Thatcher was a formidable politician who will go down in history a very effective Prime Minister.
“As the first woman to hold the office, she overturned a lot of taboos about the role of women in public life. Aspects of her controversial career create mixed emotions such as the defence of the Falklands.
“At the same time, she will be remembered for the things she got wrong such as the Poll Tax where – like the current Government – she dismissed the public commitment to fairness in our society. We are still suffering from the botched privatisation of our key utilities with energy and water prices soaring, creating massive profits for many foreign-owned companies.
“Some of these observations may put me at odds with Conservatives. However, when she launched the single market campaign in her famous Lancaster House speech in 1988 she concluded by saying, ‘above all, it means a positive attitude of mind: a decision to go all out to make a success of the single market’ a sentiment with which I agree – it is a pity some of her Tory successors do not.”
Nicky Thompson, from Ellesmere Port, said: “Thatcher decimated the working classes, divided a country, and did her best to undo all post-war social progression. She will be mourned by a minority in this town.”
David ‘Spike’ Holmes added: “The fact she was so divisive is the best demonstration of her policies. To manage to generate the kind of hatred she does displays the obvious contempt she held for so many of the country.
“She represented the rich, and seemed to leave the rest to rot.”
But Angie Brazier, from Great Sutton, came out in support of Britain’s first woman prime minister.
She said: “Like all politicians Maggie Thatcher didn’t always get it right! She was also female which in a 70s male dominated environment made her job twice as hard! She was strong and determined and I have great respect for the Iron Lady. Shame on those who rejoice in her death.”
