Mandatory Thatcher Post

I learn that a post about the late Baroness Thatcher is compulsory (I was going to say mandaTory...)

Given my distaste for party politics, and my inability to disentangle in my own mind her many undoubted qualities from her many undoubted failings, I will restrain myself to two observations.

One is this - my favourite Mrs Thatcher Joke.  The scene is Chequers: she has the Cabinet seated around the table for lunch.

Waiter: Do you want the British Beef or the New Zealand Lamb, Prime Minister?
Mrs Thatcher: The British Beef, of course!
Waiter: And the vegetables?
Mrs Thatcher: They can have the Beef, too!

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The other is the observation that she and her husband inspired one of the monuments of modern British comic and political writing: the Dear Bill letters.

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May she rest in peace.