Grantham in Lincolnshire has an interesting history. Newton went to school there. Turner produced several paintings of local scenes. During the last war, the town, set in flat countryside ideal for airfields, made a significant contribution to the bombing of Nazi Germany. In private, the most famous person ever to be born in the town might well have said: ‘jolly good thing too.’ Margaret Thatcher never found it easy to forgive what happened during the war.
A lot of people still do not find it easy to forgive her. Some locals are now complaining about a proposal to add laurels to their town by erecting a statue to this greatest of Granthamites. Apart from concluding that these critics are wrong, it is worth looking behind their list of supposed grievances.
Although it is true that some old-fashioned industries perished during her premiership, she cannot be blamed for globalisation, growing concerns about the environment – especially as regards coal – and the destructive effect of militant trade unionism over several decades.
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