Handbag Thief

Tim Adams writes:

Strange, though, that the policies [Thatcher] pursued, consciously or not, destroyed nearly everything her father held dear: the established order, stability, community. Can you see evidence of that destructive energy from the corner of North Parade [the Grantham street on which Thatcher grew up]?

The longer you stand there the more you can convince yourself that you can. There was once a pub over the road and a Catholic church. The pub has gone now (although there is another, desperate-looking one a few yards along – the Nobody Inn). The view now takes in a vast Asda and a Lidl. There is not a family-owned shop in sight.

In the absence of society, things can fall apart. Along the high street from the Methodist chapel in Grantham, every shop window these days carries a police notice: “Warning, handbag thieves operate in this area.”

At long, long last, is that the sound of the penny preparing to drop?