Thatcher 'would win election today'

[Morris Onions]

Margaret Thatcher at her peak would sweep to power in a general election held today, according to an opinion poll for The Daily Telegraph.

The YouGov survey emphatically confirms the enduring political appeal of the country's first woman prime minister, who left office undefeated 18 years ago.

Baroness Thatcher comfortably surpassed Tony Blair when people were asked who they would pick to lead the country at the height of their powers if they had the choice. David Cameron, the Conservative leader, trailed far behind both - but was still ahead of Gordon Brown.

Almost two thirds of Tory voters said they would prefer Lady Thatcher to the current party leader.

Lady Thatcher, 82, is also considered, again by a long distance, to be the country's greatest post-war prime minister, well ahead even of Winston Churchill during his second term in office in the 1950s.

....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/07/nthatcher107.xml


Good grief!

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. The power of successful PR

I've seen people too young to remember anything about Thatcher themselves confidently say "Thatcher was the greatest peacetime PM we've ever had". And they'll have picked that up from the Torygraph, and the Mail, and so on.

What "the height of her powers" was may be a matter of debate. I suspect some think the Falklands, some think it was closing the mines via violent confrontation, some selling off nationalised industries to spivs for a song ... I can still remember singing 'Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead' in my car when I heard she'd resigned. Still got to be the highlight of her reign term, whether of not it was 'power'.