Oh come on, I'm British and although she wasn't a perfect leader, she was damn good at what she did. The country needed a strong and capable leader, and someone who wasn't Labour (because look at what Labour were like back then, they only became half decent again with Blair and 'New Labour', and even then they screwed up after a while anyway...). Being a great leader is often completely at odds with said leader being liked. You can please some of the people all of the time, or you can please all of the people some of the time, but it's naive to think you can please all of the people all of the time. And most of the time, what's best for us as a country isn't necessarily what we want, and we need a strong and ruthless leader to do what's best for us, for our benefit in the long run. Oh, and I live in the North now, and it is absolutely thriving and bustling. Visit Leeds, Manchester, or York, among other places, to see what I mean.
As far as the Falklands go, that was a major morale boost and victory for this country, and regarding the whole Miner's Strike thing, I actually support the government's actions there. I'm all for trade unions, but unions have way too much power, and they are even now directly causing major problems for the UK economy. Strikes all the time, and every union around demanding higher pay and benefits when they seem to miss the single basic fact that this country cannot afford it. At all. I suffered myself the effects of strike action just last year, when the noble and great (note the sarcasm) bin-men of Leeds decided they shouldn't have to face the same cuts that everyone else was facing. Cue roughly four months of bins not being collected (and in a massively student-populated area, no less) in an action that the bin-men eventually lost anyway, to avoid cuts that they eventually succumbed to regardless. And this was entirely because the local council couldn't afford to pay them the same wages. Also note that the local bin-men get paid quite a large sum anyway compared to a lot of public sector jobs, they earn more than my dad (who earns around £30,000 a year and is a contracts manager for a building firm). Seriously.
So yes, the unions have too much power, and the government is doing nothing against that, nothing to tighten their hold and stop these outrageous actions and strikes and so on that the unions insist on to get their own way, to the detriment of everyone else. Margaret Thatcher, for all her faults, did plenty to prevent the unions abusing their power so much, and for that I feel she should be commended. I'm glad a biopic is being made of her, and I hope that it shows both sides, the good and the bad, in equal parts, but also shows that the hate people have for the Iron Lady is indeed misplaced. Either way, it's certainly a film I will gladly pay to see upon release.
