Evidence is sought from her

They say that in the twilight of Sir Edward Heath's life his single desire was to stay alive just long enough to attend Margaret Thatcher's funeral.

Fate decreed differently. But far more distressing for Sir Edward must be the fact that he won't be around to see her apprehension on corruption charges and the final, lasting violation of her and her family's name:

Disclosing that US authorities were seeking aid from UK counterparts, a secret Home Office briefing says: "One visit to the UK involved a meeting with Mrs Margaret Thatcher.

"Evidence is sought from her about that meeting and her involvement in the alleged deception and violation of US criminal laws."

...

The revelations will be a body-blow to Lady Thatcher's reputation and dash Tory morale on the opening day of its crucial party conference.

If Lady Thatcher is found to have been involved in the alleged scam she could face a criminal probe in the US or even be banned from travelling to the country.

The investigation that has speckled the Iron Lady's surface with such acidic rust marks is Tom DeLay's indictment in Texas for what is effectively money laundering. This is linked to some pretty heavy charges against Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, ex-Christian Coalition boy-wonder Ralph Reed and many many others. It is a side-effect of the putsch with which the cro-magnon conservative movement took final, ultimate control of where the money goes:

In 2003, the Republican National Committee could claim that 33 of the top 36 top-level K Street positions were in Republican hands. Today, it's even closer to a clean sweep.

Corporations get their rewards. The oil and gas industry now gives 80 per cent of its campaign cash to Republicans (20 years ago, the split was roughly 50-50), and influence on this year's energy bill was a classic sting. American petrol can now contain a suspected carcinogen; operators of US natural-gas wells can contaminate water aquifers to improve the yields from the wells; the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is open to oil exploration - concessions all created by DeLay's inside track. And to provide ideological juice, there's a bevy of think-tanks, paid for from the same web of contributions, cranking out the justification that the 'state' and 'regulation' are everywhere and always wrong.

And this comes in conjunction with the Valerie Plame 'Traitorgate' proceedings, which is inseparable from the real reasons we went to war in Iraq which brings us to 9/11, the 2000 Florida election fraud and I think in some not-so-distant-way-at-all held together in a web of.... well of many things. Things that would blow our minds. But for now I'll crib from New Order: 'Power, Corruption and Lies'.

If this stuff is exposed, allowed to be exposed, then there will some kind of god-awful unravelling. I want to revel in the collapse. In seeing such a hateful pack of sewer snakes getting their just deserts, but it won't be a time of celebration. Not when we find out what has been done, what - somnambulantly - we have allowed to be done and the lengths to which these people are ready to go in order to survive.

How odd that Margaret Thatcher's final note, that coveted 'place in history' may be as peripheral roadkill. An ironic postscript to the great meltdown of the movement she once led triumphant in a time that now seems so distant.