by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: July 03, 2007

Margaret Hilda Thatcher came to power in 1979, having to contend not only with the stigma of becoming Britain's first female Prime Minister, but facing the daunting and monumental task of beginning to clean off the slime and who knows all what which coated the country's collective being following more than a decade spent wallowing in a putrid, Socialist cess-pit - and yes, I am perfectly well aware that there was a previous and "alleged" Conservative administration within that same time period. The "Winter of Discontent" had seen power failures, refuse piling up in the streets, the dead going unburied - the horrific list was endless. The power of the Trades Unions had exceeded anyone's wild imaginings and the crippled country had been in the process of becoming un-governable.

It was a challenge no-one could have been blamed for shirking, but the "Iron Lady," as Mr Gorbachov would only much later Christen her (a term which I believe she despised/despises,) was "not for turning." She diligently set about polishing and cleaning: curbing the beyond excessive power of the unions; putting Argentina most firmly in its place when it challenged the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands; lowering the quite crippling interest rates; giving the ordinary man in the street the very real ability to own his own home that he would otherwise never have known; co-operating with her staunch ally President Reagan to build a strong and unified NATO alliance to stave off the threat of Soviet aggression and making it a more prosperous and safer world for us all to live in. In short, she very much put the "Great" back in to Britain.

It was one of the greatest honours of my life when I was fortunate enough to very briefly meet this wonderful lady while serving as a steward at her Prime Ministerial election address to Scotland during the 1987 General Election campaign. It is an experience I will no more forget than I will her contribution to our country. When - those scant, few years later - she was so ignominiously removed from power following a betrayal of Caesarian proportions, I was devastated not only for this wonderful lady on a personal level, but perhaps somewhat selfishly for myself and my country as a whole.

I truly and firmly believe that time has borne out the extent of the monumental folly committed that day by those un-named, yet shameful individuals...

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