One of my most cherished possessions is an inscribed miniature brass miner's lamp presented to me by the Notts NUM as a thank you for the work I and a few friends did during the strike. We would collect groceries donated by people in supermarket car parks and run them down to miner's clubs to be shared out amongst the striker's families. I made that trip three times a week for over six months and was glad to do it. There was real hardship among the mining communities and it just seemed like the right thing to do. You could safely say that I was no fan of Thatcher then and my opinion hasn't changed that much since. She was dismissive of all opposition and altogether too strident for my taste.

But she was an elected leader of a democratic country who kept on being elected and so must have had the support of a sizeable proportion of the electorate. Comparisons to Pinochet and other dictators are childish and unworthy of those who make them, and diminish the experience of those who suffered under real dictatorships.

And now she is dead. Whilst I cannot say that I will mourn her, the reaction of many on this thread is shameful. I have rarely seen such mean spirited bile masquerading as legitimate comment.

I apologise, I did check to see what had happened after the funeral, but didn't see anything that said she had been cremated.

Anyone bought Mrs Thatcher's new biography yet?

Can't see any need, given the amount of airtime afforded to Charles Moore recently

Met Titan in London yesterday. He was straight into Foyles to purchase it with pride.