Who broke Britain? Welcome to The i Paper’s opinion series in which our range of experts tackle this question and identify the individuals whose decisions caused the country’s biggest problems.

• David Cameron: The unlikely villain who casually killed the Conservative Party
• Tony Blair: A sincere deceiver who broke Britain’s trust on migration
• The Frenchman whose wild ideas poisoned our politics and economy
• Why are trains so bad in Britain? The answer begins with Ernest Marples
• Ed Miliband: the man to blame for the wreckage of this Labour Government
• Denise Coates: The queen of a 24/7 gambling culture that ‘destroys families’

I saw Margaret Thatcher in the flesh for the first and last time on 31 January, 2008. It was at a grand Guild Hall dinner celebrating “Great Britons”. Artists, pop stars, Olympians, CEOs, politicians, and financiers mingled graciously. Thatcher, dressed to the nines and then 82, was getting a lifetime achievement award. Ecstatic, beatific faces lit up as she stood up. For her devotees she is Brittania, a saviour of the nation, whose trident and shield symbolised her indomitability.

Personally, I have despised Thatcher since January 1978. Just hours after I had given birth to my son, she declared that people were afraid Britain might be “swamped by people with a different culture”. In her glory years, my animosity intensified as her fundamentalist neoliberalism and punitive policies ripped the fabric of our society. But, escorted to the stage by David Cameron, she seemed frail and vulnerable. I felt a pang of pity. Which she would have hated. Because she never had any, for the weak, helpless, or needy. Her time in office was defined by arrogance and certitudes, self-belief and recklessness. 

Margaret Thatcher broke Britain. The destruction was meticulously planned. The resulting follies, dust, scraps and shards are all still around us. As are the get-rich predators who gorged on the deregulated capitalist system and underfunded welfare state.

There is an alternative view. Iain Dale, the conservative journalist and broadcaster, and author of a new biography of the former prime minister, told me: “Margaret Thatcher restored a sense of national pride and renewal after decades of decline. She transformed an economy beset by strikes and inefficient nationalised industries into one which embraced enterprise and entrepreneurship, something which this Government should learn from. There have been only three transformational prime ministers since 1945. [Clement] Attlee, Thatcher and [Tony] Blair. She was a signpost, not a........

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