Sam Larcombe

Sam was runner up in HJI-Reed Youth Unemployment essay prize, his interests include unemployment, welfare and education

What if the opportunities afforded to a young Margaret Roberts had been different? What would happen to a Margaret Roberts born in 2013? Maybe a woman of Margaret Thatcher's mind would overcome these modern difficulties, but maybe she would not. The ladder of social mobility has been kicked away and how much potential, how many modern Margarets will we waste as a result?

Jacob Fritz

Sixth form student and ambitious young journalist

In what has been labelled as a step to encourage those from poorer backgrounds to attempt to attain places at highly ranked universities; it seems to me that the Conservative Government are effectively saying congratulations for achieving something that has been made considerably easier for the wealthy.

Andrew Harrop

General Secretary of the Fabian Society

Our study does not call for Labour to make a cast-iron spending pledge but quite the opposite. Flexibility is one of the most important tools in a Chancellor's armoury and should not be cast away lightly. Look at George Osborne, who has trapped himself by committing too firmly to his own 2010 plans and will not change his mind 'when the facts change'.

Robert DG Smith

Comment Editor of Impact Magazine

Whereas radicalism once polarised society between left and right, perhaps it is now apathy which polarises a society from its political class.

Paul Flynn

Member of Parliament, Newport West

Many sections of the media have been awash with extravagant praise since her death: some justified; most wild exaggerations. The Tories have tried to milk the Thatcher legacy to halt their present collapsing poll ratings.

Chris Dreyfus

Leadership Development Consultant

Death is a time to celebrate and give thanks for a life lived. No one can deny that Margaret Thatcher lived her life with passion and purpose. She has provided a strong role model for, not just Conservative values, but values which are universal if we are to build a society which encourages people to achieve their full potential.

Rori Donaghy

Campaign Coordinator at the Emirates Centre for Human Rights

When it comes to the UAE, British values whither when the temptation of untold riches is on offer. Certain politicians have grabbed all they can, be it for personal gain or departmental funds, and ignored abuses against British and Emirati citizens alike.

Tim Whitmarsh

Professor of Ancient Literatures at Oxford University, writer (private views)

The one Thatcher fact that all of the media have agreed on is that she was a 'divisive' figure. It doesn't take Pulitzer prize-winning journalism to work that one out, you might think, especially after the last week. But it's more than a statement of the obvious: in the hands of the right, it's quickly become part of the new mythology.

Soraya Kishtwari

Writer and freelance journalist

We're on the 14:06 train Brighton-bound. Outside the sky is a pallid shade of grey and a handful of snowflakes begin to float down. Spring is nowhere to be seen.

Nick Harkaway

Nick Harkaway is an author and commentator

This week, everyone believes in the hero theory of history. There are no great or pivotal moments, only great people moving the inert masses by force of personality.

David Trumble

Award-winning artist, cartoonist and illustrator

I saw not the frail, fallible woman, but the indelible, subjectively interpreted icon that cannot be so easily extricated from the world. The symbol cannot be destroyed.

James Ruddick

Author and broadcaster

The tributes to Margaret Thatcher have her endlessly depicted her as a conviction politician - but history will find the reality less consistent, more complex. Those who bother to drill down into the myth soon realise that she was as mutable and movable as any other politician, too often an empty vessel waiting to be told what to do and think, and always prepared to pretend the opposite of what she believed if it would get her to where she needed to go.

Jasmine Dotiwala

Producer, director, broadcaster, columnist

A room full of global and political leaders, sporting stars, music legends, business tycoons, Television and film celebrities - it could only be the annual Asian awards!

Claire Shropshall

Writer, arts lover and custard cream obsessive

It was only when I lived and worked in Honduras briefly aged 21 and suffered daily cat-calls, hisses and spitting from local men in the street, that something truly and irrevocably sank in. Being treated differently for occupying a female body wasn't just frustrating and irritating.

Matthew Reed

Chief Executive of The Children’s Society

The aim of the benefit cap, according to the government, is to promote fairness between working and non-working adults by targeting workless adults. But the reality is that it is children who will be paying the price.

Alastair Roderick

Research Fellow at the Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems

The curious thing about Thatcher was not so much that she was divisive, but that in a funny way she actually united people around the idea that politics and economics were important again.