This may win the prize for most over-the-top tribute to Maggie

[LeftishBrit]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100210963/the-trendy-left-wing-gadflies-celebrating-margaret-thatchers-death-would-probably-be-rotting-in-the-gulag-if-it-wasnt-for-the-iron-lady/

Apparently we'd all be imprisoned in Siberia if not for the Iron Lady.

The person who put an end to old-style Soviet Communism was not Maggie, not Ronnie, but Gorbachev. Probably he came too late; the fanatical arms-racing and imperialist crimes and follies of his predecessors had already done a great deal to run their country into the ground. But perhaps if Ronnie and his pals including Maggie had given Gorbachev time to reform his country, and not insisted on getting everything they wanted as fast as possible, just maybe Russia would now be a democratic Europaean country and not the fiefdom of Mafia and similar crooks.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. The amazing thing is he's the son of Michael Young

Michael Young, Baron Young of Dartington (9 August 1915 – 14 January 2002) was a British sociologist, social activist and politician who coined the term "meritocracy".

During an active life he was instrumental in shaping Labour Party thinking, when secretary of the policy committee of the Labour party was responsible for drafting "Let Us Face the Future", Labour's manifesto for the 1945 general election,[1] was a leading protagonist on social reform, and founded or helped found a number of socially useful organizations. These include the Consumers' Association, Which? magazine, the National Consumer Council, the Open University, the National Extension College, the Open College of the Arts and Language Line, a telephone-interpreting business.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Young,_Baron_Young_of_Dartington

[Ken Burch]

2. Then again, Clement Attlee's grandson ended up becoming a Tory peer.

I still have no idea how THAT happened.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Well, two of St Ronnie's kids ended up as strong liberals - so such things happen

But yes, the regrettable decline of the Attlee line is one of the examples of what's wrong with hereditary peerages.

[Ken Burch]

4. The notion of "Labour peers" was always dodgy, wasn't it?

At some point, I'd expect you'd just get a little TOO fond of all that ermine.