What if she dies before polling day? Would a Thatcher factor benefit the Tories?
In 2001, I worked in a constituency where the Tories were strongly tipped. People reported that the visit of Thatcher was pivotal. Unmotivated activists were reminded that despite their ambivalence about the government, there was a difference between the parties. Many voters felt the same, with the nice looking (if rather insipid) candidate for the tories acquiring a personality all of a sudden, and a personality they didn’t have much time for. Given the majority was incredibly small, it was one of many factors which definately made a difference.
But death is different. The vitriol that Imany still feel becomes more difficult to express with a pressure to show ‘respect’. We’ll see the dead unburied and rubbish piled in the streets, Thatch in a tank with a hanky for a hat, we’ll see Howard and the Tories projected into the position of official mourners with the statesmanlike demeanour that entails, with Blair also in shot, dancing to the Tory tune, and reminding some Labour voters of the uncomfortable fact that Blair has more admiration for a Thatcher than a Wilson or an Attlee. That’s my fear. My hope is we decide that particular past is a foreign country we don’t want to visit again.