YouGov poll on attitudes to Mrs Thatcher shows sharp Scottish divergence

Here is the regional breakdown of the YouGov poll from a couple of days ago on public perceptions of Mrs Thatcher following her death. There won't be any great surprises here, except for those who persist with the absurd belief that the political centre of gravity isn't 'really' all that different in Scotland.

Thinking back to Margaret Thatcher's period as Prime Minister, do you think she was...

LONDON

A good or great Prime Minister 59%
A poor or terrible Prime Minister 23%

SOUTH (EXCLUDING LONDON)

A good or great Prime Minister 57%
A poor or terrible Prime Minister 26%

WALES AND ENGLISH MIDLANDS

A good or great Prime Minister 51%
A poor or terrible Prime Minister 29%

NORTH OF ENGLAND

A good or great Prime Minister 49%
A poor or terrible Prime Minister 35%

SCOTLAND

A good or great Prime Minister 30%
A poor or terrible Prime Minister 44%

Thinking about her period as Prime Minister, do you think Margaret Thatcher left Britain economically better off or worse off?

LONDON

Better off 62%
Worse off 27%

SOUTH (EXCLUDING LONDON)

Better off 50%
Worse off 29%

WALES AND ENGLISH MIDLANDS

Better off 46%
Worse off 37%

NORTH OF ENGLAND

Better off 43%
Worse off 41%

SCOTLAND

Better off 33%
Worse off 46%

A full 33% of the Scottish sample go the whole hog and describe Mrs Thatcher as a "terrible" Prime Minister, which is an extraordinarily high figure at this time of mourning when people are likely to be at their most generous. Scotland is also one of only two parts of the UK where a plurality does not regard Mrs Thatcher as the greatest Prime Minister since 1945 (the other is London, oddly enough). Incidentally, Tom Harris will be aghast to hear that Scotland is also the only part of the UK where Harold Wilson is regarded as a greater Prime Minister than Tony Blair! Gordon Brown is also ranked higher than Blair here, with a full 9% of the Scottish sample regarding him as the best post-war Prime Minister. He fails to attract more than 2% in any other region.

I caught a little bit of the re-run of the Thatcher and the Scots programme last night, and apart from the usual guff about our opposition to Thatcherism being a form of sexism, the bit that leapt out at me was Michael Gove (interviewed before becoming a government minister) earnestly insisting that the notion that the poll tax was "imposed" on Scotland a year early was a myth, because it was George Younger's idea, not Margaret Thatcher's. Erm, just one thing, Michael - when did Scotland elect George Younger as Secretary of State? Was he not, in fact, handpicked by Margaret Thatcher?

Doubtless whenever the East German puppet regime called in Russian support to quell dissent, Michael Gove regarded that as "a German solution to a German problem".