The softer side to the ’Iron Lady’

The 'Iron Lady' may have been more vulnerable and isolated than many people understood according to the Professor of Parliamentary Government and Governance at the University of Sheffield. Professor Matthew Flinders, of the University's Department of Politics, shared his views on the Conservative politician, who was the UK's first female Prime Minister serving from 1979 to 1990, suggesting the Baroness may have had a softer side than many realised. Professor Flinders shared his own personal tribute to Margaret Thatcher who died today (8 April 2013) aged 87 after suffering a stroke. Could it be that far from the all-powerful 'Iron Lady' that Margaret Thatcher was actually a little more vulnerable and isolated than many people actually understood? Can it really be almost a quarter of a century since one of the most defining moments of my own personal political history? I can still remember the day as if it were yesterday. An A-level Politics seminar on the fifth floor of Swindon College; the 28 November 1990; a bright and clear day; and suddenly the door bursts open and someone screams, 'She's gone! It's over! She's gone!' Exactly who had gone and what was over were not immediately obvious to me but in a strange way they didn't need to be because at a deeper level what was obvious from the reactions of everybody around me was that a distinct chapter in British political history had ended.