Ten years after the fall of the Iron Lady, STEPHEN LEWIS looks at the legacy of Thatcherism.

WHERE were you on the day Margaret Thatcher fell from power? I certainly remember where I was. I heard the news on the radio as I was driving to work in Bristol along the M32. I shouted so hard and punched the air with such delight I almost lost control of the car.

It is, believe it or not, exactly ten years ago today since Maggie was driven out of Downing Street for that last time, her eyes glistening with tears.

It remains one of the most memorable images of modern times. For the first time, the Iron Lady had displayed a touch of humanity - even signs of humility - in public. She was human after all.

Mrs Thatcher's departure fitted the mood of the times. She had presided over a brash and thrusting Britain characterised by consumerism, greed, unfettered private enterprise and the advent of the yuppie.

By 1990, however, attitudes were changing. The conspicuous consumption apparent during the Eighties had been overtaken by a growing interest in self-denial and spirituality. Thatcher's departure suited the beginning of the "caring, sharing" Nineties.

Love her or loathe her, ten years on her shadow looms almost as large as ever. Thatcher the woman may have been consigned to the history books: but not before first changing the social and moral fabric of British society more than perhaps any peacetime Prime Minister before or since. Just hours ago she blasted Tony Blair's "monumental folly" in committing 12,000 British troops and 70 war planes to Europe's new rapid response force.

In April 1999, Maggie's successor William Hague made a speech to mark the 20th anniversary of her election as PM. "Each new leader of the Conservative Party stands on the shoulders of giants," he declared. "And no giant is greater than Margaret Thatcher."

So what is the Iron Lady's legacy?

Depending on who you speak to, Maggie was the leader who restored British pride by whupping the Argies; freed British commerce from the shackles of public ownership; cut taxes; and laid the groundwork for a massive boom in the British economy.

Or she was the PM who laid the foundations for today's rail chaos by selling off the nationalised industries, including British Rail; destroyed the coal mining industry; more than doubled unemployment; and led Britain into its biggest recession since the 1960s.

Most famously, she brought the unions to their knees and gave power in the workplace firmly back to employers. The 1984 miners' strike ended in a Maggie victory and since then Britain has never been crippled by the kind of industrial action that brought down Jim Callaghan's Labour government.

The flipside of that may be the culture of work we seem trapped in today where ordinary British workers seem unable to say no to working ever longer hours. This in turn has a spin-off effect in terms of health and family life.

The first three years of Maggie's premiership weren't easy. It was only with victory in the 1982 Falklands War that she began to carry all before her and the Thatcher revolution really moved into top gear. By sending a British fleet to bash the Argies for having the effrontery to think the Falklands Islands were nearer Argentina than Britain she impressed the hell out of the Americans and demonstrated that Britain wasn't quite the spent military force that many had supposed.

The Belgrano incident, in particular, left a nasty taste in the mouth and the 'Gotcha' headline in The Sun will shame the nation till Judgement Day.

But at the time the nation loved it - and the victory virtually guaranteed her a long spell in power. She survived the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton in 1984 - an atrocity which increased her popularity.

A popular move included forcing local authorities to offer council houses for sale. But this had the effect of selling off most of the country's rented housing stock. When she introduced the poll tax she sparked riots and by the end of the 1980s her star was on the wane, even some of her close Cabinet colleagues were questioning her policies.

Many would say her greatest legacy today is New Labour.

Writing last year on the 20th anniversary of Thatcher's rise to power, Tessa Keswick, director of the Conservative think tank, the Centre for Policy Studies, said: "Margaret Thatcher made it necessary and possible for Tony Blair and Philip Gould to create New Labour.

"Her election victories proved she had a deep understanding of the mood of the British public in the late Seventies and mid-Eighties, and it became obvious to the Left that unless it embraced that understanding, it would be doomed to perpetual election defeat."

Ironically, it may have been Thatcher who forced the Left to shift to the centre, leaving today's Tories squabbling among themselves on the far Right fringe.