On the 100th birthday of Margaret Thatcher, Alys Denby reflects on what lessons she’s learned from the Iron Lady, and why her legacy remains relevant today…

My mother tells me that when I was about three, I asked her if a woman could be a doctor. She replied: “darling, a woman is Prime Minister!”. It can’t have been long after that she was ousted and replaced by John Major, whose impression barely troubled my early years. So it was Tony Blair who controlled the political events of my adolescence, but it is Margaret Thatcher who has always dominated my political imagination. And my enduring love of a pussy bow blouse.

This makes me unusual in many circles, but not among Conservatives. Indeed there was an exhibition of her clothes at this year’s party conference – preserved behind glass like the corpse of Lenin. But her (excellent) fashion sense is not the only way her ghostly........

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