However expected it might have been, the reality of Margaret Thatcher’s death triggered many of us to reflect yesterday. She shaped the country and, by doing so, she shaped all of us. That’s reflected in the number of Lib Dem bloggers who responded to her passing yesterday…

RIP Margaret Thatcher… and now for the pointless vitriol… (Mark Valladares)

… it’s been many years since she was Prime Minister, and a lot of the actions taken by her Government have stood the test of time. You might not like them much, especially if you were on the wrong end of them, but much of what was done needed to be done, and was never undone, even by a Labour administration with big majorities.

4 Prime Ministers; 1 US president ; 5 Statements on the Death of Lady Thatcher. (Richard Morris)

Margaret Thatcher RIP (Paul Walter)

To an extent I admire some of the work she did to reduce the power of the unions. I say that from the perspective of someone who lived through all the chaos of the 60s and 70s. I also admire her stance on the Falklands and Rhodesia -> Zimbabwe (the latter is often overlooked). That’s where any admiration stops, politically, I’m afraid. I am a “dead parrot” after all.

A few of simple thoughts on the passing of Mrs Thatcher. (Carl Minns)

It is notable that 23 years after she left Downing Street every Prime Minister and their policies have been, to some extent, measured by and compared to her and her legacy.

Margaret Thatcher is Dead (Jennie Rigg)

I am taking some time away from the internet – twitter, blogs, the lot – until it calms down. I have no wish to get in between people gleefully installing Thatcher Memorial Dancefloors and people pompously taking the moral high ground and sneering. I’ll wait till the next big news story is announced and the mayfly attention of the internet moves to that before I come back

On Margaret Thatcher’s death (Sam Phripp)

Whether her policies made us a less caring society, or whether there is no such thing as society at all – wouldn’t it be fitting that in death, we continue to prove that despite it all, we are people who care, who show respect and who try to forgive.

Thatcherism or Scargilism – No Choice, had to be Liberals (Alan Winters)

I found them both mad, and both very divisive leaders. So I joined the Liberals in alliance with the newly formed SDP, two parties working together.

Thoughts of the death of Margaret Thatcher (Stephen Glenn)

She wasn’t so much a feminist as a female who wanted equality because she was the best person for the job, knowing the costs involved for her and being prepared to pay them. She may have inspired many to get involved in politics (though not all of us on the side she may have wanted).

Under which Prime Minister and Party did Government spending increase most? (Iain Roberts)

We’ve had different Prime Ministers and parties running the country. We’ve had boom and bust, war and peace, the end of the cold war and the credit crunch. Unemployment has gone up and down, as has crime. And through all of that, overall Government funding has just carried on rising relentlessly.

Margaret Thatcher – humbug alert (Liberator)

Whatever you thought of her ideology, the key thing about Thatcher was that she had an ideology. She was a conviction politician with a clear vision of what she wanted to achieve.

Thoughts on the death of Margaret Thatcher (Jonathan Calder)

… two of the beliefs held by those who are crowing at Thatcher’s death are quite mistaken. The first is the idea that Britain in the 1970s was an Eden of neighbourliness and public spirit which her policies trashed. I don’t remember it quite like that. … The second false belief is that the changes of the 1980s were wholly the product of Margaret Thatcher’s wickedness. Yet as time passes we see more clearly that many of those changes were inevitable and happened in countries with very different leaders.

Thatcher: why celebrate? Her regime and her legacy are our own fault! (Jock Coats)

Ultimately, I cannot speak well of anyone who thinks they can rule others as all our leaders do. And I think it is the system we have that perpetuates the cult of leadership and makes it much, much, harder to change things we don’t like in society.

Death of Thatcher – a nation mourns (Dan Falchikov)

As someone brought up in Scotland in Margaret Thatcher 80s heyday it’s difficult to join in the eulogies emanating from her political successors (on all sides) south of the border.

Lord Bonkers pays tribute to Margaret Thatcher (Jonathan Calder)

The passing of an icon – please show respect (Chris Sams)

History will judge Margaret Thatcher’s and although it is worth giving a balanced view and not get to caught up in hero worship let’s keep it respectful and allow the family to grieve.

Considering Mrs Thatcher (Tim Oliver)

No revolution goes off without casualties, and there were plenty to be found on the streets and picket lines of Britain in those years. But this revolution puts Mrs Thatcher into that rarest of categories – a truly, properly, transformational politician.

RIP Margaret Thatcher 1926- 2013 (Andrew Page)

Had we on the left not grown so lazy about our addictions to the easy ways of state corporatism, she would perhaps have been less successful at so cruelly exposing their hollowness. … Was she truly a great leader? I’m not convinced; a great leader is able to take people with them

On the passing of Lady Thatcher… (Matt J. McLaren)

I hope that instead of focusing on a dichotomy of Thatcher-lovers vs. Thatcher-haters this nation can transcend these differences in perspective; appreciating a women who embodied our universal but all too infrequently noticed ability to shape the world around us according to our own freely-conceived conception of justice.

The day Mrs T died (8 April 2013) (Stephen Tall)

These are all the ones I’ve spotted on the Lib Dem Blogs aggregator. If I’ve missed yours out, or you publish it subsequently, please include the link in the comments below.

* Stephen was Editor (and Co-Editor) of Liberal Democrat Voice from 2007 to 2015, and writes at The Collected Stephen Tall.