A NORTH-EAST musician has defended his web page that asks people how will they celebrate former Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s death.

Antonio Lulic, the son of a Chilean exile who settled in Chester-le-Street after escaping right wing dictator General Pinochet’s regime, created the page with a friend earlier this year.

It is called Is Thatcher Dead Yet? After the title it announces “Not Yet’’ , adding “can’t be long now though... they’re keeping her in hospital.’’ It has a link to a new report about the 85-year-old’s condition in hospital where she is being treated for flu and a playlist of anti-Thatcher songs. It asks people to outline their celebrations on Twitter and Facebook.

Baroness Thatcher’s rule, from 1979 to 1990, saw the demise of many traditional industries, including mining and shipbuilding, the 1984 Miners’ Strike and the introduction of free market, antiunion policies.

Mr Lulic, 27, who now lives in Hackney, London, said she also supported General Pinochet, who seized power in a 1973 coup and went on to kill or torture many of his regime’s opponents.

He said he started the page after he and a friend were talking about Baroness Thatcher, who was known as the Iron Lady, and were unsure if she was still alive.

He said: “It isn’t as cruel and vindictive as some of her policies and actions in government. That was 11 years of people gradually learning to hate her. The response has been generally good, but I have had a few emails saying ‘you should be dead’. We are not wishing her dead.”

North-East Conservative MEP Matin Callanan said: “It is very bad taste. I am proud of being a Conservative but, personally, I respect the fact that people have a right to their opinion.

“A lot of people believe she did a very good job in rescuing a bankrupt country – including people in the North-East.’’ But Dave Hopper, secretary of the North-East Area National Union of Mineworkers, backed the website, saying: “We’ll be having a do, no doubt about it.

“You have to celebrate. She (Baroness Thatcher) did more damage to our communities than Hitler did. I have got no sympathy for her.”