Why Do They Still Hate Thatcher?

Back in the 1980s my British cousin used to sport a sign on her house: “Thatcher the Snatcher,” it said.

Now, as Lady Thatcher reaches the age of 81 the BBC is planning to run a play in which Thatcher is “shown as a bellicose drunk, demolishing whiskies and importuning other guests for refills.”

That’s odd, writes Simon Heffer.

I know Lady Thatcher and see her socially quite regularly. I have yet, in many such meetings, to see her drunk. She has never importuned me, or anyone else in view, for drink or any other intoxicating substance... In private and in public, she has always had exquisite manners, reflecting the strictness and decency of her upbringing.

The question is: Why do they hate her so, 16 years after she stepped down as prime minister of the UK, and especially why do they hate her at the BBC? Fortunately, Heffer now understands their rage. He can stop wondering.

However, last week a light was shone in on my ignorance. A long-time servant of the BBC explained to me, in a moment of stunning insight, why the Leftists in that organisation, and the Leftist contributors to it, are so bilious and angry even 16 years after Lady Thatcher left office: it is because they lost. They were wrong. They were humiliated.

And to top it off, after Thatcher left office the Labour Party swung decisively to the Right. So now all the Lefties can do is spit with rage and tell lies about her.

“Pity them,” says Simon Heffer.