Thatcher hailed for changing world political landscape

LONDON - Loved or loathed in death as in life, Margaret Thatcher left no one indifferent, finding some of her most ardent admirers among her political opponents.

"Very few leaders get to change not only the political landscape of their country but of the world. Margaret was such a leader," said Tony Blair, the centre-left Labor leader who brought his own party back to power not least by heeding the lessons of "Thatcherism".

Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader whom she famously declared she could "do business with", said their mutual understanding "contributed to a change in the atmosphere between our country and the West and to the end of the Cold War".

Thatcher's warm relations with Gorbachev's direct adversary, US president Ronald Reagan, and their shared espousal of the free market and individual liberty, along with her readiness to provide a base for US nuclear missiles, gave Britain greater influence in Washington than it has normally enjoyed.

"The world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend," said US President Barack Obama.

"Here in America, many of us will never forget her standing shoulder to shoulder with President Reagan, reminding the world that we are not simply carried along by the currents of history - we can shape them with moral conviction, unyielding courage and iron will."

Pope Francis recalled, with appreciation, "the Christian values which underpinned her commitment to public service and to the promotion of freedom among the family of nations".

At home, Conservatives mourned the leader who set a free-market agenda in Britain and Europe and famously announced "there is no such thing as society" as she put individual enterprise and self-reliance before the state and the social safety net.

David Cameron, the prime minister who led the Conservatives back to power but without the absolute majority Thatcher enjoyed throughout her premiership, said: "We've lost a great prime minister, a great leader, a great Briton.

"As our first woman prime minister, Margaret Thatcher succeeded against all the odds, and the real thing about Margaret Thatcher is that she didn't just lead our country, she saved our country. And I believe she'll go down as the greatest British peacetime prime minister."