YOUR VIEWS

Margaret Thatcher by all counts has passed away. It is absolutely ridiculous to suggest she is having 10 million pounds spent on her. Britain is spending money on itself and giving the money to its citizens. Florists, street vendors, military personnel, police officers will all receive certain stipends from this remembrance service. Margaret Thatcher's memorial is in fact the nation celebrating itself and spending money on itself. Her legacy is indeed enshrined in history with or without the ceremony but for those British citizens who remember fondly and those who she ran afoul of; the remembrance is for them.

Allow yourself to consider, Prime Minister Thatcher's election and tenure was a water shed moment in British history. Like her or hate her she brought I precedented change for women in politics, for unions in Britain, for British citizens in any protectorate far from the homeland and for conservatives world wide. Sir, there is some very important lessons within her legacy and like all historical lessons if we do not learn from them we are destined to repeat the same mistakes no matter which side of the divide you stand on.

Margaret Thatcher's legacy and the victory for some and pain for others is well worth a hundred million pounds to once again reflect upon. No not for the deceased legacy for all of those of us still alive to ponder it and reflect upon it.

The cost is negligible, the lessons learnt are incredible.
Charlie Flynn

Dear Sir,

When I recall the Government of Margaret Thatcher it reminds me of a quote that Mr Harold MacMillan (the late Lord Stockton) said who was also a Tory. He said that if your country is in financial trouble you should not sell the family silver. This was in response to Mrs Thatcher selling off all the very lucrative utilities such as electricity, gas, water and railways. When she wanted to sell British Airways she had to pump taxpayers' money into it to make it worth buying.

Mrs Thatcher also shut many hospitals and then sold the land to developers for building. One of these developers was Barratts who gave her a house as a “thank you”.

The same government brought in the right to sell council houses. Many people I worked with took up this option to buy and later regretted it when things started to need repairs and they had to pay someone to do these repairs. In fact, some of the people tried to sell the houses back to the council, who refused to take them back.

The steelworks in Consett was closed down, like many industries were at that time, and many of the families who chose to buy their homes lost them as well as their jobs.

This is the legacy that Mrs Thatcher has left behind her. She could have put up a big notice at Dover saying that Great Britain was for sale to the highest bidder remembering that the Stock Market is open to everyone including our enemies.

Yours truly

C J Crane