Skipper

People of my vintage, who survived the Thatcher years while working in the public sector, have a particular relationship to The Lady. It's a strange combination of fear and respect, rather like the feelings heavyweight boxers had for Mike Tyson during his non earbiting years of supremacy. Note the absence of any affection here. More recently we tend to think she is either totally bonkers or dead. But then she turns up somewhere, like to that ITN election party and it all comes flooding back: 'the horror, the horror'.

Yesterday she even managed to make an input into the political process. In the US, where she is still regarded in Republican circles as a cross between a reincarnated deity and Audrey Hepburn, she saw fit to write a letter in support of John Bolton, who is seeking ratification of his appointment as Bush's ambassador to the UN. Mr Bolton has a reputation of being viscerally opposed to the body to which he has been appointed as well as being a knee-jerk ideologue and bully to his staff. Mrs Thatcher couldn't see anything to worry about there: 'A capacity for straight talking rather than peddling half truths is a strength and not a disadvantage in diplomacy, particularly in the case of a great power like America.' She clearly sees Mr Bolton as a surrogate bearer of her own mantle.

I was more impressed by Republican Senator George Voinovich's comments on the proposed appointment: 'What message are we sending to the world community when have sought to appoint an amabssador to the UN who himself has been accused being arrogant, of not listening to to his friends, of acting unilaterally, of bullying those who do not have the ability to properly defend themselves'. Well said George and get back to the crypt Maggie.