[Tax-chick]

If by “having four boyfriends” he means she was screwing around around, that would considered scandalous in a lady of her generation.

[ClearCase_guy]

I often post that I feel morals have declined in recent decades. I say that college students today behave differently than they have in the past. And people on FR jump up and down and "inform me" that people used to have sex a long time ago, and that this is nothing new. I always aknowledge that, but still maintain that young people in 2013 are taking things to an extreme (the "hookup" culture, or "friends with benefit").

But back to Thatcher: If she had four serious boyfriends, but kept it very discrete, than that seems to adhere to the norms of her time. I think people did have sex in the 1940s. But if they kept it under the radar, it wouldn't be scandalous, and for people (us) to find out about it more than 50 years later probably shouldn't be scandalous either.

Barone seems to indicate that this falls into the "lies and omissions" category and that strikes me as needlessly judgmental.