Alter the numbers a little bit and the quote would work well in the council chamber in Southend!

She was an inspiration to me. Lots of people enter politics to try and change things for the better, many fail, some succeed in a small way, few manage it like Margaret Thatcher did.

I entered politics not to be liked (having been a football referee and a policeman before I entered politics I think I must be allergic to being liked!), but to try and change things for the better.

I was searching through the many quotes to use Thatcher’s words, and whilst I think there may be a slight over emphasis here (as I think bringing people with you on a journey is important where it can be done without compromising your beliefs) I think the following gives food for thought:

“Consensus: “The process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values, and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects; the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead.” What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner: ‘I stand for consensus?’”

If it all goes wrong, you take the blame. So if it does go wrong, you might as well have done it the way you think was right!

R.I.P. The greatest peacetime prime minister the UK ever had.