Brushing the rust off the Iron Lady

Ahead of the centenary of her birth later this year, Margaret Thatcher's biographer explains why the legacy of our first female Prime Minister deserves an urgent reappraisal, especially among younger Britons

- By Iain Dale

IT'S amazing to think that you have to be at least 56 years old to have actually voted for (or against) Margaret Thatcher.

No one under the age of 35 was even alive when she was prime minister. And yet of all our post-Second World War premiers, her legacy reigns supreme and dominates many aspects of our society and politics today. For good or ill.

Sadly, today's youngsters are growing up being led to believe that anything wrong with Britain today is down to her and the changes she wrought over 11 memorable years in power between 1979 and 1990.

You wouldn't think there have been eight prime ministers since then, given most of them seem to escape the scrutiny her memory still has to endure.

Two years ago I had to have physio after breaking my hip, so I got myself a personal trainer in Tunbridge Wells. At the time Aaron, my instructor in question, was 25. When I told him what I did for a living, one of the first questions he asked was: "So, Margaret Thatcher. I've heard of her, but what did she do?" Given she was our first woman prime minister and the most famous since Winston Churchill, I was slightly taken aback. But Aaron is, I think, typical of a younger generation who are taught little about our country's modern history and the personalities who have shaped who we are as a nation.

And if they are taught about her, it's by a combination of Left-wing parents and teachers who judge her as the devil incarnate, failing to recognise any of her achievements.

People like an Italian friend of mine, Alessio, who is a keen young historian, but also, like many of his generation, are quite prepared to believe many of the myths that have grown up surrounding Mrs Thatcher's beliefs and motivations.