Then, of course, there is her place on the international stage. In her prime, and well beyond it, Lady Thatcher was a global shorthand for Britain, an icon of a nation newly unafraid to make the case for its values. Under her, this country counted for something once more. This was partly due to the strength of her partnership with Ronald Reagan. Although their relationship was occasionally frosty, not least over the American invasion of Grenada in 1986, the Soviet Union had no answer to their shared faith in the West’s military, economic and cultural superiority. Her work, not least in bringing Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev together, played an extraordinarily important part in ending the Cold War after 45 miserable years, and bringing liberty to Eastern Europe and well beyond. Even in the twilight of her premiership, she stiffened the sinews of her allies – especially Reagan’s successor, George HW Bush – in responding to Saddam Hussein’s unprovoked aggression in Kuwait. And while some may argue that Lady Thatcher was the leader who reluctantly took us into the Exchange Rate Mechanism, she also secured the British rebate from Brussels, and saw – and warned against – the flaws in the project of ever closer union more clearly than any of her rivals in Europe or at home. With every day that passes, her wisdom in this becomes more evident; it is a shame that the pro-Europeans within her party who helped to force her from office did not share it.