The mixed legacy of Margaret Thatcher is being debated in conversation online, at coffee shops, and in the public forums after UK’s “Iron Lady” died following a stroke. 

There’s no debating that she transformed Britain in her 11 years as Prime Minister.  Whether that was for the better is another matter.

Free-market conservatives who say her restructuring of the economy left a more preposterous country in her wake revered her.  Current conservative Prime Minister David Cameron credited her for “saving” the country.

But detractors say it was the rich who got richer, and she threw opponents and the poor under the bus.  She adopted hard line positions against striking miners that weakened Britain’s unions.  The same attitude earned a pyrrhic victory when she failed to meet the demands of the Northern Ireland Hunger Strikers, turning the IRA into public heroes and boosting its membership and therefore extending the bloody conflict.

Critics also condemned her support for apartheid in South Africa and the fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet in Chile, saying she had a penchant for being on the wrong side of history.  Thatcherism became synonymous with heartless greed and indifference.  Her rule came to an end in 1990 after she tried to enact a poll tax, and people responded with rioting in London.  Her own conservative party decided she had stayed on too long, and she was replaced by the bland John Major.

She suffered from dementia in her final years, and her public appearances became increasingly rare, famously refusing to meet with US politician Sarah Palin in 2008.  Margaret Thatcher is survived by her two children, Mark Thatcher and Carol Thatcher, and her grandchildren.