Bill Carmichael: Maggie: heroine of working class

Almost 20 years after she left office – and despite 13 years of

socialist rule since then – the Baroness is still regularly blamed for everything from our economic woes to the deepening inequalities in our society. If the milk goes off in the fridge overnight, I'm sure our Leftie friends could convince themselves that it's all Maggie's fault.

What this criticism lacks in reason, it more than makes up for in

hatred and bile, to such an extent as to be positively unhinged.

Only this week Left-wing Labour leadership contender John McDonnell revealed a poisonous little fantasy about murdering Baroness Thatcher. He later apologised and claimed it was a joke, but his comments were still applauded to the rafters by an audience of Labour and trade union members.

Perhaps what we see here is little more than an old-fashioned hatred of women? A simple question – would Mrs Thatcher be the subject of such loathsome abuse if she were male? Of course not.

There is something about intelligent, capable, strong-willed women that drives your average placard-waving, fist-clenching Left-winger entirely bonkers.

A similar phenomenon can be seen in the US where former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been subjected to a tsunami of vituperation that would be unthinkable if she were a man.

Such primitive misogyny in supposedly modern times is baffling. To understand it fully I suspect you would have to delve deep in the darker reaches of the Left-wing psyche – not a pleasant place to dwell.

But allow me to offer my own insight. My father, a stevedore and union shop steward, voted Labour all his life – and in return was mostly ignored, occasionally patronised and taxed to the hilt. In a lifetime of hard graft he received nothing from government – until Margaret Thatcher's Conservative administration invited him to buy his council house at a substantial discount because he was a long-term tenant.

With the money he saved in rent he bought a few shares in the utility companies – privatised by Mrs Thatcher – which he later sold at a modest profit. By the time he died, he was far from a rich man, but the assets he had managed to accumulate were largely thanks to Mrs Thatcher.

Millions of former council tenants in this country can say precisely

the same.

Any Lefty still reading should look away now, as otherwise I fear your heads are likely to explode – but the blunt truth is that Mrs Thatcher was responsible for the biggest shift in wealth towards the working classes in British history. Single-handedly, she did more for the ordinary working person than all the socialist governments, Labour Prime Ministers, trade union barons and Marxist academics combined.

That is why they hate her. It is pure guilt. She is a constant reminder of their own impotence and failure. So on behalf on my father and the millions of working people like him, can I say – all hail to Margaret Thatcher, a genuine working-class heroine.

Double standards

In the name of diversity, isn't it fantastic that Diane Abbott has received sufficient support to join the Labour leadership ballot?

Not because she is black or a woman, but because she is the only candidate that is in favour of selective education.

Actually, that isn't quite true – in fact, Abbott is only in favour of selection if you can afford to pay for it, as she does for her own offspring. As for the rest of us not fortunate enough to be on an MP's salary, Abbott reckons we should be forced to accept the sort of local sink comprehensive she decided wasn't good enough for her own family.

So with any luck in a few weeks' time we could have another hypocrite as Labour leader. No change there then.