One difference between Margaret Thatcher and Gordon Brown is that famously Margaret Thatcher did not believe in U-turns.

BBC: NEWS | UK | UK Politics | David Davis speech in full

It might not be a feud to rival Heath vs Thatcher or Blair vs Brown but the row between Conservative MPs Nadine Dorries and Louise Mensch is in the tradition of great Westminster spats.

BBC: Dorries vs Mensch: Conservative MPs in Twitter spat

But a Policy Exchange poll suggested that people in the north hold Margaret Thatcher in higher esteem as a PM than Gordon Brown.

BBC: New report highlights north-south divide among voters

Boris now takes on the role once played by Michael Heseltine to Margaret Thatcher, Michael Portillo to John Major or Gordon Brown to Tony Blair.

BBC: Boris and the Olympic legacy made flesh

Even Gordon Brown, who as a young Labour MP wrote an anti-Thatcher polemic called "where there's greed", was delighted to welcome her on the steps of Number 10 when he became prime minister.

BBC: Baroness Thatcher

Alongside Gordon Brown in Westminster Abbey were former prime ministers Sir John Major and Baroness Thatcher.

BBC: Millions mark lost WWI generation

Instead, Tony Blair seems to have become more hostile to it either because he is accused in Britain of sacrificing the Thatcher money or, as France's Jacques Chirac suggested this week, because his chancellor, Gordon Brown, has insisted on a tougher line.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne