ANNA BURNSIDE - EVERY THURSDAY

KEIR Starmer has a point about Mrs Thatcher.

Typing this sentence does not bring me joy.

I am gritting my teeth while moving my fingers. But she was a huge presence with the dynamism that has been sadly lacking in recent prime ministers.

This doesn't mean she was not a disaster for Scotland and the rest of the UK. There's no doubt about that. The miners' strike, the poll tax, privatisation of BT and British Gas, the fire sale of council houses, sinking the Belgrano... all wrong, wrong, wrong.

What Starmer was admiring in his controversial article on Sunday was not what she did. It was her energy, motivation, and commitment.

What he actually wrote was: "Every moment of meaningful change in modern British politics begins with the realisation that politics must act in service of the British people, rather than dictating to them," That is the energy we need coming from 10 Downing Street.

It has been absent for 13 years.