ALL four contributions on the subject of how Oxford University might honour Margaret Thatcher (Letters, June 3) were small-minded and mean-spirited, just like her old university’s treatment of the former Prime Minister when it voted against her receiving an honorary doctorate back in 1985.
Two of these contributors, who claimed that she had a negative effect on the country and made England go downhill, weren’t even born when she came to office.
At least Somerville College, which the then Margaret Roberts had attended, had the decency to recognise the Prime Minister by making her an Honorary Doctor of Civil Law. This degree had since 1946 been conferred on all Oxford alumni who had held the office of Prime Minister.
No wonder one leading commentator recently wrote that “a manifest Conservative success lauded across the world was never quite good enough for the eminent academics and bureaucratic elite of Oxford University”. How many other products of Oxford have a global philosophy named after them? The whole episode continues to reflect badly on the image and reputation of the university.
DOROTHY FUDGE, Totton.
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