THANK goodness I don’t have to do this with Ed Miliband, I think, as I march forth into Bournemouth Square.

Unlike nondescript Ed, one flash of our picture of Margaret Thatcher is enough to set most people off.

“Oh God, that awful woman,” was the reaction from the first person I approached.

She didn’t want to talk, but Bournemouth scaffolders Duncan Carmichael, 35, and Keith Gray, 47, were more forthcoming.

“Thatcher Milk Snatcher, that’s what I remember,” says Duncan, quoting a much-yelled slogan referring to Maggie’s decision, when a minister in the Heath government, to axe free milk in schools.

“I was young when she came to power but she was right wing, wasn’t she?” he says. “She came across as having strong views on everything.”

Keith believes that some of her instincts may have been good but has little time for her flagship policy of selling off council homes.

“I bought my flat but lost it later and on balance, I don’t think so much property should have been sold off. You were always being encouraged to buy.”

Sarah, 52, who lives in Wallisdown, works with elderly people. “She’s not someone I think about now but the one thing she got wrong was selling off council homes, I feel it’s left some people homeless.”

Retired Josephine Connor has plenty of praise for Mrs Thatcher.

“I thought she was good for the country, she got rid of the union trouble, so I will be interested to see the new film, although I think they should have waited until she’d died.”

Mrs Connor, who lives in Bournemouth, agreed with Mrs Thatcher’s decision to go to war in the Falkland Islands, describing it as “more relevant than the wars we have had recently.”

Yes, she says, Mrs Thatcher did make mistakes. In the end, however, she says Mrs Thatcher is like Marmite. “You either love her or loathe her.”

Pensioners Daphne and Ronald McEntegart of Barton-on-Sea are staunch admirers of the Iron Lady.

“I don’t think much about her now but I’d like to see the film,” said Mrs McEntegart.

“I think she was a very good, strong Prime Minister. She certainly sorted out the unions. She did some good things and the main thing I remember about her was her strength.

“I think we could do with another female prime minister; women are bossier and get things done.”

Mr Ronald McEentegart recalled Mrs Thatcher’s iconic ‘Lady’s not for turning’ speech. “When you think about it, she was brilliant,” he declared.