Poll: Thatcher 'good for the UK'

Baroness Thatcher was a sharply divisive figure in life but after her death more Britons thought she was good for the UK than bad, a poll has revealed.

After her death, half (50%) of the 965 adult respondents to a Guardian/ICM poll yesterday said they thought the former prime minister’s contribution to Britain was a positive one.

Meanwhile, just over a third (34%) said she was bad for the country, the Guardian reported.

But among her admirers and detractors, opinion was strong.

A quarter (25%) of those polled thought she was “very good” whereas 20% of respondents thought she was “very bad”.

Just over one in 10 (11%) thought she was “neither good nor bad”, while just 5% said they did not know.

But the polling data appeared to give support to those who criticised Lady Thatcher for creating regional divides in the UK.

More than half of English respondents (55%) think she was good for the country compared with just 23% of Scots and 34% of Welsh respondents.

But Lady Thatcher’s position as Britain’s first and only woman prime minister brought her more consensual support.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents (62%) said she played an important role in “changing attitudes about the role in society that women can play”.

But just under a third (31%) said she did little to change gender relations because she “played by men’s rules”, according to the poll.

Whereas more women (64%) think Lady Thatcher changed societal attitudes than men, less than half (48%) of female respondents considered her overall record in power as a good one, compared with 52% of men.