Still to break the Thatcher mould?

I caught up with Michael Portillo's programme on Thatcher's legacy last.

Generally the blogosphere is full of praise for the documentary which sought to establish Mrs Thatcher's legacy over her successors as leader of the Conservative Party.

Iain Dale calls it a "

gripping 90 minutes of political TV "

and says

His main theory was that the Party had still to recover from the way Margaret Thatcher was overthrown and that David Cameron is the first leader to look as if he can administer the necessary medicine

That was certainly the case and there was some brilliant double interviewing with Michael Howard which seemed to prove at least the first half of the sentance was correct.

Strangly conspicous from the interview was John Major,perhaps indicating that the rift over the "Bastards" comment has yet to heal

As to the second part of the thesis that Cameron is the first leader to bnreak put of the Thatcherite mould,Steve Richards writes an interesting piece in this morning's Independent,

Like the best evocations of the recent past, the film shone an unexpectedly bright light on the present. Gordon Brown and David Cameron should watch it. Tony Blair should get hold of a tape and reflect on what might have been.

And to Steve,Cameron and his party have yet to break the legacy

" Large sections of the party are still obsessed with Europe, immigration and tax cuts. Cameron knows that the message needs to be more rounded and less shrill, but he too cannot escape his past entirely, the years in which he first followed politics when Thatcher was the one walking on water. The over-excited way in which he and George Osborne described the pragmatic, reluctant nationalisation of Northern Rock as a leap back to the 1970s suggests that the voters have moved on more quickly from Thatcher than they have done.