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Another very clear and consise explanation, Lars…

In the end there appeared to be relatively few protesters out on the streets of London, far outweighed by supporters keen to express their respect and remembrance for a powerful leader and former Prime Minister.

So many comments have already been made, that it is difficult to say something new. I think though that I would like to add, that coming from a part of the UK where her emphasis on allowing the freer movement of both labour and capital, resulted in a near twenty year decline, I have always felt able to see “both sides” of her impact. It is with this knowledge, indeed – experience – that I say quite categorically her impact, though divisive, was powerfully for the good.

We forget the regular blackouts, resulting from inefficient State control of the Electricity Grid (CEGB). We forget the rampant and fickle destruction of incentive caused by secondary picketing and the overwhelming dread many public sector workers felt in heading to a job where a foreman could call “Strike!” for little apparent reason.

We do not forget the strife of honourable workers, determined to defend their rights, but whose time, whether they were accepting of this or not, was fast being chased down by the rolling waves of globalisation, rendering inefficient business redundant in the face of international competition…and we forget, at our peril, where we would be in that great counter-historical possibility, had we allowed Michael Foot to become our Premier. History has a way of righting itself, but in this instance the price would likely be our place in the twenties or thirties of GDP per head, instead of sixth or seventh – and far above this in the prestige and regard in which our international diplomacy and military prowess is held.

There are winners and losers in all games of participation, let us not lose sight of the significant raising of the board that Baroness Thatcher presided over, and those who followed her seek only to refine.

Women are in the ascendant everywhere. Men, with the demise of repetitive factory and manufacturing work, and the outsourcing of industry, have somewhat lost their way in the world. Men may earn more for the same work, we may occupy way too many spaces on Boards, but many of us secretly know women are naturally better professionals than we are. Women, with their superior “soft” skills, penchant for team work and innate diplomacy, are taking over the world.

The World, outside of the Church of England that is…

The notice for the right to ordane women clergy as Bishops came again to a vote in the General Synod yesterday. The Synod comprises three “Houses”; in order to pass, the vote needed a successful outcome in each of these three Houses. The Bishops approved the vote, but the Laity, sadly not. We are now in a position where the present Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and his successor, support a modernised principle that the Laity do not.

Churches, as with any other Institution, comprise their membership, and require of this membership an active, informed and participative process of engagement. How can the C of E not now be seen increasingly as the relic it is so swiftly turning into. Women deserve to be Bishops, and have earned the right, through centuries of missionary work, through outreach, and arguably their “husbanding” (not a misnomer) the Church through periods of turmoil. Women showing great clarity of purpose during recent trials of Faith. Challenges including the abuse cases littering Catholicism (can Priests now marry?) and the exodus from the C of E to the Roman church, of so many, during the original ordination of women clergy some twenty years ago.

As the present Archbishop noted: this is not going to go away. Can we wait another five hundred years for the Church to catch up with the rest of society? I’d say watch this space, yet the likelihood is, there’ll be little left to look at….