British PM leads Parliament tribute to ‘extraordinary’ Thatcher

UK: British Prime Minister David Cameron hailed Margaret Thatcher as an “extraordinary” woman who had revived the country's fortunes, at a special parliamentary tribute to thedivisive former leader Wednesday.

The Iron Lady's harshest critics stayed away in a sign of her bitterly disputed legacy. But still both houses were mostly packed, full of lawmakers recalled from their holidays after Thatcher died on Monday aged 87. “Let this be her epitaph: that she made this country great again,” said Cameron, a fellow Conservative.

He said Thatcher was renowned internationally for helping defeat communism during the 1980s and ending the Cold War.

“There are millions of people who know that they owe their freedom, in part, to Margaret Thatcher,” Cameron said. Supporters say Thatcher's free-market reforms made Britain stronger and hail her leadership during the 1982 Falklands War with Argentina. Critics, though, complain her economic policies and battles with the trade unions destroyed the livelihood of millions of Britons.

AFP