ANYONE looking to start a ‘lively debate’ at a social gathering over the past 30 years needed only to say two words: Margaret Thatcher.

Describing the former Conservative Prime Minister, who died yesterday aged 87, as ‘divisive’ is like saying Adolf Hitler was ‘dictatorial’ – a statement of the bleeding obvious.

To her supporters, Baroness Thatcher was an inspirational leader who played a huge part in ending the Cold War, saved Britain from the grip of the trade unions and gave the country back its self-respect, partly by giving the Argentine junta a bloody nose in The Falklands.

To her critics, she was a killer of whole industries, an advocate of selfishness and greed – personal and corporate – and a tacit supporter of apartheid and other disreputable regimes.

What is indusputable is that Baroness Thatcher set the tone and shape of the Britain we live in today and influenced a whole generartion of up-and-coming politicans, from all sides, all over the world. Just look at Tony Blair’s New Labour and that is clear.

She also advocated a set of traditional values that many Britons today fear are being lost and, as a woman operating in a man’s world, shattered the glass ceiling at the very highest level.

Her connections with Oxford were strong, but not always harmonious, having graduated with second class honours from Somerville College and then being denied an honorary degree in 1985 by her alma mater.

But there is no doubt she had great affection for the city.

Whether that affection is reciprocated depends upon your point of view.

One certainty is that, for better or worse, she will not be forgotten here or anywhere else in Britain as she takes her rightful place in our history.