I was saddened to see Aniello Capone’s request to see Finchley Memorial Hospital named after Margaret Thatcher (‘Name street after Margaret Thatcher’, Your Views, June 19).
Firstly, Margaret Thatcher preferred to live in Dulwich and Chelsea, but no matter. Aniello Capone says Thatcher “for all her faults, was a remarkable woman”. What truly is remarkable is that anyone would want a hospital lumbered with the name of a woman who had such contempt for ordinary people.
More worryingly Mr Capone says “by whichever means, rightly or wrongly, she propelled this country...”.
Do I really need to mention the hunger strikers, the destruction of entire towns with viable mines, the attempted murder of British industry, the sinking of the Belgrano, the contempt she had for feminism and academic life. I could go on but I won’t patronise your readers who already know who Margaret Thatcher really was.
How anyone can be so cavalier to say “by whichever means...” as if the end always justifies the means boggles the mind. What she has left us with (in the end) is a country that makes nothing, unless you count war and banking. My suggestion would be to rename it after an actual resident who liked ordinary people, like Spike Milligan.
Stephen O’Byrne
Miles Way, Whetstone
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