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| This provoked a storm of public protest, earning her the nickname "Maggie Thatcher, milk snatcher", coined by '']''. Her term was marked by many proposals for more local education authorities to abolish ]s, of which she approved, and adopt ], even though this was widely perceived as a left-wing policy. Thatcher also defended the budget of the ] from attempted cuts. | This provoked a storm of public protest, earning her the nickname "Maggie Thatcher, milk snatcher", coined by '']''. Her term was marked by many proposals for more local education authorities to abolish ]s, of which she approved, and adopt ], even though this was widely perceived as a left-wing policy. Thatcher also defended the budget of the ] from attempted cuts. | ||
| After the Conservative defeat in ], she was promoted again, to Shadow Environment Secretary. In this job she promoted a policy of |
After the Conservative defeat in ], she was promoted again, to Shadow Environment Secretary. In this job she promoted a policy of abolis | ||
| However, she agreed with Sir ] that the Heath Government had lost control of ]. After Heath lost the ], Joseph decided to challenge his leadership but later dropped out. Thatcher then decided that she would enter the race. Unexpectedly she outpolled Heath on the first ballot and won the job on the second, in February 1975. She appointed Heath's preferred successor ] as her deputy. | |||
| ==As Leader of the Opposition== | |||
| <!-- Image with unknown copyright status removed: ].]] --> | |||
| On ], ], she made a speech in ] Town Hall in which she made a scathing attack on the ]. The most famous part of her speech ran: | |||
| <blockquote>"The Russians are bent on world dominance, and they are rapidly acquiring the means to become the most powerful imperial nation the world has seen. The men in the Soviet ''Politburo'' do not have to worry about the ebb and flow of public opinion. ], while we put just about everything before guns." </blockquote> | |||
| In response, the Soviet Defence Ministry newspaper ''Red Star'' gave her the nickname "The Iron Lady", which was soon publicised by ] world service. She took delight in the name and it soon became associated with her image as an unwavering and steadfast character. She acquired many other nicknames such as, "Tina" (from an ] for "There Is No Alternative") "The Great She-Elephant", "Attila the Hen" and "The Grocer's Daughter". The last nickname was derived from her father's profession, but coined at a time when she was considered as ]'s ally; he had been nicknamed "The Grocer" by ]. | |||
| At first she appointed many Heath supporters in the Shadow Cabinet and throughout her administrations sought to have a cabinet that reflected the broad range of opinions in the Conservative Party. Thatcher had to act cautiously to convert the Conservative Party to her ] beliefs. She reversed Heath's support for ] for ]. In an interview she gave to ]'s ] programme in 1978, she spoke of her concerns about immigrants "swamping" the UK, arousing particular controversy at the time, and it has been viewed as having drawn supporters of the ] ] back to the Conservative fold. | |||
| During the 1979 General Election, most opinion polls showed that voters preferred ] as Prime Minister even as the Conservative Party maintained a lead in the polls. The Labour Government ran into difficulties with industrial disputes during the winter of 1978-9, dubbed the ']'. The Conservatives used catchy campaign posters with slogans such as "Labour Isn't Working" (see) to attack the government's record over unemployment and what they perceived to be an over-regulated labour market. | |||
| The Callaghan government fell after a successful ] in spring 1979, and following the ], the Conservatives won a working majority in the House of Commons and Thatcher became the United Kingdom's first female Prime Minister. | |||
| ==As Prime Minister== | |||
| ===1979–1983=== | |||
| <!-- Image with unknown copyright status removed: ] --> | |||
| She formed a government on ], ], with a mandate to reverse the UK's economic decline and to reduce the role of the state in the economy. Thatcher was incensed by one contemporary view within the ] that its job was to manage the UK's decline from the days of ], and wanted the country to assert a higher level of influence and leadership in ]. She was a ] soulmate of ], elected in 1980 in the ], and to a lesser extent ], who was elected in 1984 in ]. It seemed for a time that conservatism might be the dominant political philosophy in the major English-speaking nations for the era. | |||
| In May 1980, one day before she was due to meet the ] ], ] to discuss ], she announced in the ] that "the future of the constitutional affairs of ] is a matter for the people of Northern Ireland, this government, this parliament ''and no-one else''." | |||
| In 1981 a number of ] and ] prisoners in ]'s ] prison (known in Ireland as 'Long Kesh', its previous name) went on ] to regain the status of ], which had been revoked five years earlier. ], the first of the strikers, was elected as an ] for the constituency of ] a few weeks before he died. | |||
| Thatcher refused at first to countenance a return to political status for republican prisoners, famously declaring "Crime is crime is crime; it is not political." However, after nine more men had starved themselves to death and the strike had ended, and in the face of growing anger on both sides of the border and widespread civil unrest, some rights offered to paramilitary prisoners under political status were restored. This was a major propaganda coup for the IRA and is seen as the beginning of ]'s electoral rise, as they capitalised on the gains made during the hunger strikes. | |||
| Thatcher also continued the policy of "]" of the previous Labour government and its ], ], believing that the ] of Northern Ireland should be at the forefront in combating ]. This meant relieving the burden on the mainstream ] and elevating the role of the ] and the ]. Another noticeable foible of Thatcher's was her refusal to call Cardinal ], the head of the ] in Ireland, by his preferred ], insisting on calling him "Cardinal Fee". | |||
| In economic policy, Thatcher started out by increasing interest rates to drive down the money supply. She had a preference for indirect taxation over taxes on income, and ] (VAT) was raised sharply to 15%, with a resultant rise in ]. These moves hit businesses, especially in the ] sector, and ] quickly passed two million. Interestingly, her early tax policy reforms were based on the monetarist theories of ] rather than the ] of ] and ], which the government of ] espoused. There was a severe recession in the early 1980s, and the Government's economic policy was widely blamed. | |||
| Political commentators harked back to the Heath Government's "U-turn" and speculated that Mrs Thatcher would follow suit, but she repudiated this approach at the 1980 Conservative Party conference, famously telling the party: "To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catch-phrase—the U-turn—I have only one thing to say: you turn if you want to; the Lady's not for turning". That she meant what she said was confirmed in the 1981 budget, when, despite concerns expressed in an open letter from 364 leading economists, taxes were increased in the middle of a recession. In January 1982, the inflation rate dropped to single figures and ]s were then allowed to fall. Unemployment continued to rise, reaching an official figure of 3.6 million — although the criteria for defining who was unemployed were amended allowing some to estimate that unemployment in fact hit 5 million. However, ] has suggested that, due to the high number of people claiming unemployment benefit whilst working, he doubts whether unemployment ever reached three million at all. | |||
| British defence budget cuts, applying in the ], coupled with Thatcher's disregard of the ] and the removal of the ice patrol ship Endurance, as well as immigration reform detrimental to the British citizenship rights of people in the ]'s few remnants—which some have argued was motivated by a desire to pre-empt a likely influx of people from ] after the approaching return of the colony to ]—provoked the arguably most difficult foreign policy decision of Thatcher's tenure. In ], an unstable military junta was in power and keen on reversing its widespread unpopularity, caused by the country's poor economic performance. On ], ], it invaded the ], known to the Argentinians as Islas Malvinas, the only invasion of a British territory since ]. Argentina has ] since an 1830s dispute on their settlement. Within days, Thatcher sent a naval ] to recapture the Islands. This led to the ], which Britain won, resulting in a wave of ] enthusiasm for her personally, at a time when her popularity had been at an all-time low for a serving Prime Minister. | |||
| This '''Falklands Factor''', as it came to be known, is regarded as crucial to the scale of the Conservative majority in the ], which represented a high point for the Conservative government of 1979-97. However, the economy was still in a deep recession associated with encouraging traditional heavy industries to come to an end. Continuing mass unemployment was explained as a consequence of this transition, implying it to be transitory, and alongside it new laws had given trade union members democratic powers to restrain militant union leaderships. Additionally, Thatcher's ']' policy, whereby ] residents were permitted to buy their homes at a discount did much to increase her government's popularity in ] areas. | |||
| ] and Margaret Thatcher at ].]] | |||
| The 1983 election was also influenced by events in the opposition parties. Since their 1979 defeat, Labour was increasingly dominated by its democratic socialist "left-wing" that had emerged from the 1970s union militancy, and in opposition its policies had swung very sharply to the left. This drove a significant number of right-wing Labour members and MPs to form a breakaway party in 1981, the ] (SDP). Labour fought the election on ], which proposed to abandon the British nuclear deterrent despite the perceived threat from a nuclear-armed Soviet Union, withdrawal from the ], and total reversal of Thatcher's economic and trade union changes. Indeed, one Labour MP, ], has called the party's 1983 manifesto "the longest ] in history". | |||
| Aiming to take advantage of the Labour split, there was a new challenge to the political centre, the ], formed by an electoral pact between the SDP and the ], aiming to break the major parties' dominance and win ]. However, this grouping of uncertain cohesion failed to make its intended breakthrough. The Conservatives won 42.4% of the vote, a slightly smaller share of the vote than in the 1979 general election. However, the split opposition, combined with Britain's ] electoral system—in which marginal changes in vote numbers and distribution often have disproportionate effects on the number of seats won — translated this vote share into a Conservative ]. Margaret Thatcher had won with a majority over the other parties of 144. | |||
| ===1983–1987=== | |||
| Thatcher was committed to reducing the power of the ]s but, unlike the Heath government, adopted a strategy of incremental change rather than a single Act. Several unions launched ]s that were wholly or partly aimed at damaging her politically. The most significant of these was carried out by the ] (NUM). However, Thatcher had made preparations long in advance for an NUM strike by building up ] stocks, and there were no cuts in ] supply, unlike 1972. ] tactics during the strike concerned ]: preventing suspected strike sympathisers travelling towards coalfields when they were still long distances from them, and a violent battle with mass pickets at Orgreave, ]. But images of crowds of militant miners using violence to prevent other miners from working, along with the fact that—illegally under a recent Act — the NUM had not held a ballot to approve strike action, swung public opinion against the strike — especially in the south and the moderate ] coalfields. The ] lasted a full year, 1984-85, before the drift of half the miners back to work forced the NUM leadership to give in without a deal. Having claimed that there was no long-term policy to decimate the coal industry and having assured those miners that broke the strike that their jobs were secure, the Tory government then went on to close all but 15 pits, before privatisation in 1994. | |||
| In June 1984, Thatcher controversially invited ]'s president, ], and foreign minister, ], to ] in an effort to stave off growing international pressure for the imposition of ] against South Africa, where Britain had invested heavily. The visit came just three months after four South African arms smugglers had been arrested in ] and charged with offences against the United Nations mandatory arms embargo which outlawed the export of arms to South Africa. The '']'' (Messrs ], ], ] and ]) were eventually granted £200,000 ] in May 1984 and were allowed by a ] sitting in ] to get their passports back and return to South Africa, on condition that they undertook to return to Britain for their ]. A fifth man, Professor ] of ] – a key player in South Africa's missile development program – was arrested at the same time as the ''Coventry Four''. But, according to ''The Guardian'' of ], ], Cloete's arrest was quickly followed by his release without charge on instructions from senior ] officials. As far as the ''Coventry Four'' were concerned, Pik Botha ruled that they would not attend their trial and thus South Africa forfeited the bail money in August 1984. (The ''Coventry Four'' affair re-surfaced on ], ] when '']'' published a letter – scathingly critical of Mrs Thatcher – from British diplomat, ], which was entitled ''The double standards on terrorism''.) | |||
| On the early morning of ], ], the day before her 59th birthday, Thatcher escaped from the ] carried out by the ] in ]'s Grand Hotel during the Conservative Party conference. Five people died in the attack, including Roberta Wakeham, wife of the government's ] ], and the Conservative ] ]. A prominent member of the Cabinet, ], was injured, along with his wife Margaret, who was left paralysed. Thatcher insisted that the conference open on time the next day and made her speech as planned in defiance of the bombers, a gesture which won widespread approval across the political spectrum. | |||
| On ], ], Thatcher signed the Hillsborough ], the first acknowledgement by a British government that the Republic of Ireland had an important role to play in Northern Ireland. The agreement was greeted with fury by Irish unionists. The ] and ] made an electoral pact and on ], ], staged an ad-hoc referendum by resigning their seats and contesting the subsequent by-elections, losing only one, to the nationalist ]. However, unlike the ] of 1974, they found they could not bring the agreement down by a general strike. This was another effect of the changed balance of power in ]. The agreement stood, and Thatcher "punished" the unionists for their non-cooperation by abolishing a devolved assembly she had created only four years before, although unionists have traditionally been in two minds about political devolution (see the "Home Rule" crisis that led to the ]), and the politicians most affected by the abolition of the assembly were the constitutional nationalists — not, it must be noted, ], which was not interested in a devolved assembly at that time, and would not be for many years to come. The Anglo-Irish Agreement therefore enraged the Unionists and alienated moderate nationalists, while doing little to reduce IRA violence. The British Government's intention may have been to solidify support from Dublin, although the Irish government had had reservations about some aspects of the peace process and continued to do so. | |||
| Thatcher's political and economic philosophy emphasised ]s and ]ialism. Since gaining power, she had experimented in selling off a small ] company, the National Freight Company, to its workers, with a surprisingly positive response. After the 1983 election, the Government became bolder and sold off most of the large utilities which had been in public ownership since the late 1940s. Many in the public took advantage of ] offers, although many sold their shares immediately for a quick profit. The policy of ], while anathema to many on the left, has become synonymous with ]. | |||
| In the ] Mrs Thatcher supported ]'s policies of ] against the Soviets. This contrasted with the policy of ] which the West had pursued during the 1970s, and caused friction with allies still wedded to the idea of détente. ] forces were permitted by Mrs. Thatcher to station nuclear ]s at British bases, arousing mass protests by the ]. However, she later was the first Western leader to respond warmly to the rise of reformist Soviet leader ], declaring that she liked him and describing him as "a man we can do business with" after a meeting in 1985, three months before he came to power. This was a start of a move by the West back to a new détente with the USSR under Gorbachev's leadership which coincided with the final erosion of Soviet power prior to the turbulence of 1991 and the collapse of the Union. Thatcher outlasted the Cold War, which ended in 1989, and voices who share her views on it credit her with a part in the West's victory, by both the deterrence and détente postures. | |||
| Also in 1985, as a deliberate snub, the ] voted to refuse her an honorary degree in protest against her cuts in funding for education. This award had always previously been given to Prime Ministers that had been educated at Oxford. | |||
| She supported the ] from bases in the UK in 1986 in defiance of other ] allies. Her liking for defence ties with the United States was demonstrated in the ] when she acted with colleagues to prevent the helicopter manufacturer ], a vital defence contractor, from linking with the Italian firm ] in favour of a link with ] of the United States. ] ], who had pushed the Agusta deal, resigned in protest at her style of leadership, and remained an influential critic and potential leadership challenger. He would, eventually, prove instrumental in Thatcher's fall in 1990. | |||
| In 1986 her government controversially abolished the ] (GLC), then led by left-winger ], and six ] (MCCs). The government claimed this was an efficiency measure. However, Thatcher's opponents held that the move was politically motivated, as all of the abolished councils were controlled by Labour, had become powerful centres of opposition to her government, and were in favour of higher public spending by local government. | |||
| Thatcher had two noted foreign policy successes in her second term. | |||
| *In 1984, she visited China and signed the ] with ] on ], which committed the ] to award ] the status of a "Special Administrative Region". Under the terms of the so-called ] agreement, China was obliged to leave Hong Kong's economic status unchanged after the handover on ], ] for a period of fifty years – until 2047. | |||
| *At the Dublin European Council in November 1979, Mrs Thatcher argued that the United Kingdom paid far more to the ] than it received in spending. She famously declared at the summit: "We are not asking the Community or anyone else for money. We are simply asking to have our own money back". Her arguments were successful and at the June 1984 Fontainbleau Summit, the EEC agreed on an annual rebate for the United Kingdom, amounting to 66% of the difference between Britain's EU contributions and receipts. This still remains in effect and occasionally causes some political controversy among the members of the ]. | |||
| ===1987–1990=== | |||
| By winning the ], on the economic boom and against a stubbornly anti-nuclear Labour opposition, with a 102 majority, she became the longest continuously serving ] since ] (1812 to 1827), and the first to win three successive elections since ] in 1865. Most ] supported her - with the exception of '']'' and '']''- and were rewarded with regular press briefings by her press secretary, ]. She was known as "Maggie" in the ]s, which inspired the well-known protest song "]!", sung throughout that period by some of her opponents. Her unpopularity on the left is evident from the lyrics of several contemporary popular songs: "Stand Down Margaret" (]), "Tramp The Dirt Down" (]), "Margaret On The Guillotine" (]) and "Mother Knows Best" (]). | |||
| At the 1986 Conservative party conference, Thatcher issued the statement that "Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay". Backbench Conservative MPs and Peers had already begun a backlash against the 'promotion' of homosexuality and in December 1987 the controversial ']' was added as an amendment to what became the ]. This homophobic legislation has since been abolished. | |||
| Many opponents believed that she and her policies had created a significant North-South divide from the ] to ], between the "haves" in the economically dynamic south and the "have-nots" in the industrial north. Hard welfare reforms in her third term created an adult Employment Training system that included full-time work done for the dole plus a £10 top-up, on the ] model from the ]. The "Social Fund" system that placed one-off welfare payments for emergency needs under a local budgetary limit, and where possible changed them into loans, and rules for assessing jobseeking effort by the week, were breaches of social consensus unprecedented since the 1920s. | |||
| In the late 1980s, Thatcher, a former chemist, became briefly concerned with environmental issues, which she had previously dismissed. In 1988, she made accepting the problems of ], ] and ]. In 1990, she opened the ] for climate prediction and research. . In her book ''Statecraft'' (2002), she described her later regret in supporting the concept of human-induced global warming, outlining the negative effects she perceived it had upon the policy-making process. "Whatever international action we agree upon to deal with environmental problems, we must enable our economies to grow and develop, because without growth you cannot generate the wealth required to pay for the protection of the environment" (452). | |||
| At ] in 1988, Thatcher made a speech in which she outlined her opposition to proposals from the ] for a federal structure and increasing centralisation of decision-making. Although she had supported British membership, Thatcher believed that the role of the EC should be limited to ensuring free trade and effective competition, and feared that new EC regulations would reverse the changes she was making in the UK. "We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level, with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels". She was specifically against ], through which a single currency would replace national currencies, and for which the EC was making preparations. The speech caused an outcry from other European leaders, and exposed for the first time the deep split that was emerging over European policy inside her Conservative Party. | |||
| The ], ] ] aircrash, known as the ], caused 270 fatalities – the largest peacetime loss of life in Britain. From the start, Thatcher's government treated the bombing as a criminal matter, requiring a judicial response rather than the setting up of a public inquiry into who carried out the bombing, and why. Early speculation was that the Lockerbie bombing was in retaliation for the shooting down in July 1988 of an ] airbus by the American cruiser ]. Later, the finger of suspicion was pointed at ], whose leader ] was known to have borne a grievance against the U.S. and Britain for the 1986 ] on ] and ], in which Gaddafi's adopted daughter was killed. In her otherwise comprehensive memoirs, published after she left office, Thatcher was to make not even a mention of the Lockerbie bombing. (For the trial of the two accused Libyans, see ].) | |||
| Thatcher's popularity once again declined in 1989 as the economy suffered from high interest rates imposed to stop an unsustainable ]. She blamed her Chancellor, ], who had been following an economic policy which was a preparation for monetary union; Thatcher claimed not to have been told of this and did not approve. At the ] European summit, Lawson and Foreign Secretary ] forced Thatcher to agree the circumstances under which she would join the ], a preparation for monetary union. Thatcher took revenge on both by demoting Howe, and by listening more to her adviser Sir ] on economic matters. Lawson resigned that October, feeling that Thatcher had undermined him. | |||
| That November, Thatcher was challenged for the leadership of the Conservative Party by Sir ]. As Meyer was a virtually unknown ] MP, he was viewed as a ] candidate for more prominent members of the party. Thatcher easily defeated Meyer's challenge, but there were sixty ballot papers either cast for Meyer or abstaining, a surprisingly large number for a sitting Prime Minister. | |||
| Thatcher's new system to replace local government rates was introduced in ] in 1989 and in ] and ] in 1990. Rates were replaced by the "Community Charge" (more widely known as the ]), which applied the same amount to every individual resident, with only limited discounts for low earners. This was to be the most universally unpopular policy of her premiership. The Charge was introduced early in Scotland as the rateable values would in any case have been reassessed in 1989. However, it led to accusations that Scotland was a 'testing ground' for the tax. Thatcher apparently believed that the new tax would be popular, and had been persuaded by ] to bring it in early and in one go. Despite her hopes, the early introduction was followed by a sharp decline in the already-low support for the Conservative party in Scotland. | |||
| Additional problems emerged when many of the tax rates set by local councils proved to be much higher than earlier predictions. Some have argued that local councils saw the introduction of the new system of taxation as the opportunity to make significant increases in the amount taken, assuming (correctly) that it would be the originators of the new tax system and not its local operators who would be blamed. | |||
| A large London demonstration against the Community Charge on ], ]—the day before it was introduced in England and Wales—turned into a ]. Millions of people resisted paying the tax. Opponents of the 'poll tax' banded together to resist ]s and disrupt ] hearings of poll tax ]ors. Mrs Thatcher refused to compromise on the tax, and its unpopularity was a major factor in her downfall. | |||
| One of her final acts in office was to pressure US President ] to deploy troops to the ] to drive ]'s army out of ]. Bush was somewhat apprehensive about the plan, but Thatcher famously told him that this was "no time to go wobbly!" | |||
| On the Friday before the Conservative Party conference in October 1990, Thatcher ordered her new ] ] to reduce interest rates by 1%. Major persuaded her that the only way to maintain monetary stability was to join the Exchange Rate Mechanism at the same time, despite not meeting the 'Madrid conditions'. The Conservative Party conference that year saw a large degree of unity; few who attended could have imagined that Mrs Thatcher had only a matter of weeks left in office. | |||
| ===Fall from power=== | |||
| {{seealso|Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 1990}} | |||
| By 1990, opposition to Thatcher's policies on local government taxation, her Government's perceived mishandling of the economy (especially high ] of 15%, which were undermining her core voting base within the home-owning, entrepreneurial and business sectors), and the divisions opening within her party over the appropriate handling of ] made her and her party seem increasingly politically vulnerable. | |||
| A challenge was precipitated by the ] of Sir ], with whom Thatcher had for a long time had very bad personal relations, on ], ]. The immediate pretext was a particularly combative answer she had given to a parliamentary question in the Commons on the ], ], in which she denounced the president of the ], ]. | |||
| :"Yes, the Commission does want to increase its powers. Yes, it is a non-elected body and I do not want the Commission to increase its powers against this House, so of course we are differing. The President of the Commission, Mr. Delors, said at a press conference the other day that he wanted the European Parliament to be the democratic body of the Community, he wanted the Commission to be the Executive and he wanted the Council of Ministers to be the Senate. No. No. No." | |||
| In his ] Howe condemned Thatcher's policy on the ] as being devastating for British interests, and openly invited "others to consider their own response", which led ] to announce his challenge for the party leadership (and, by extension, the premiership). In the first ballot, Thatcher was two votes short of winning automatic re-election, a small but critical margin. (The margin was 14.6%; and the necessary margin required to avoid a second ballot was 15%.) | |||
| The results were:<br> | |||
| {| border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;" | |||
| |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | |||
| ! colspan="4"|]: ] ] | |||
| |- style="background-color:#E9E9E9" | |||
| ! colspan="2" style="width: 170px"|Candidate | |||
| ! style="width: 50px"|Votes | |||
| ! style="width: 40px"|% | |||
| |- | |||
| |- | |||
| ! style="background-color: {{Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color}}" | | |||
| | style="width: 170px" | Margaret Thatcher | |||
| | align="right" | 204 | |||
| | align="right" | | |||
| |- | |||
| ! style="background-color: {{Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color}}" | | |||
| | style="width: 170px" | ] | |||
| | align="right" | 152 | |||
| | align="right" | | |||
| |- | |||
| ! style="background-color: {{Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color}}" | | |||
| | style="width: 170px" | Abstentions | |||
| | align="right" | 6 | |||
| | align="right" | | |||
| |- | |||
| ! style="background-color: {{Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color}}" | | |||
| | style="width: 170px" | Void/Spoilt | |||
| | align="right" | 17 | |||
| | align="right" | | |||
| |- | |||
| |- style="background-color:#F6F6F6" | |||
| | colspan="2" align="right"|'''Majority''' | |||
| | align="right" | 52 | |||
| | align="right" | 14.6 | |||
| |- | |||
| |- style="background-color:#F6F6F6" | |||
| | colspan="2" align="right"|'''Turnout''' | |||
| | align="right" | 379 | |||
| |- | |||
| |- style="background-color:#F6F6F6" | |||
| | | |||
| | colspan="2" | Second Ballot required | |||
| |- | |||
| |} | |||
| This was probably at least in part due to mismanagement; she had fatally decided to be out of the country for the CSCE summit (Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe) in Paris, and her advisors appear to have underestimated the seriousness of the matter and the need to campaign, and the need to cajole potentially wavering supporters and reassure them in order to achieve the necessary first round win and put paid to talk of doubts. Ultimately however, the ballot reflected the fact that a very large number of Conservative MPs had no confidence in her leadership ability or style of government, and desired a change in leadership. | |||
| Upon returning to London, Thatcher consulted her cabinet colleagues. A large majority believed that, the first round not being a clear win, she would lose the second run-off ballot. | |||
| On ], at just after 9.30 am, Mrs. Thatcher announced to her cabinet that she would not be a candidate in the second ballot, thereby bringing her term of office to an end. | |||
| :"Having consulted widely among my colleagues, I have concluded that the unity of the Party and the prospects of victory in a General Election would be better served if I stood down to enable Cabinet colleagues to enter the ballot for the leadership. I should like to thank all those in Cabinet and outside who have given me such dedicated support." | |||
| In defeat, Margaret Thatcher seized the opportunity of the debate on confidence in her government to deliver one of her most memorable performances: | |||
| :"... a single currency is about the politics of Europe, it is about a federal Europe by the back door. So I shall consider the proposal of the Honourable Member for Bolsover (]). Now where were we? ''I am enjoying this''." | |||
| She supported ] as her successor and he duly won the leadership contest. After her resignation a ] poll found that 52% agreed that "On balance she had been good for the country", with 44% agreeing that she had been "bad".{{NamedRef|Kavangh134|1}} In ], she was given a long and unprecedented standing ovation at the party's annual conference, although she politely rejected calls from delegates for her to make a speech. She retired from the House of Commons at the ]. | |||
| ==Post-political career== | |||
| <!-- FAIR USE of Thatcher-robes.jpg: see image description page at http://en.wikipedia.org/Image:Thatcher-robes.jpg for rationale --> | |||
| ] during his house arrest in London, in 1998]] | |||
| In 1992, she was raised to the peerage by the conferment of the life barony of Thatcher, of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire upon her. It is interesting that she did not take an hereditary title, as she recommended for Harold Macmillan, later Earl of Stockton, on his ninetieth birthday in 1984, and become the Countess Thatcher or something similar. She has explained that she thought she hadn't sufficient means to 'support' an hereditary title. By virtue of the life barony she entered the ]. She made a series of speeches in the Lords criticising the ], the first time she had voted against the party line since 1961. She described it as 'a treaty too far' and in June 1993 told the Lords: "I could never have signed this treaty". She also advocated a referendum on the treaty, citing ], since all three main parties were in favour of it and that therefore the people should have their say. | |||
| In August 1992 she called for NATO to stop the Serbian assault on Gorazde and Sarajevo in order to end 'ethnic cleansing' and to preserve the Bosnian state. She claimed what was happening in Bosnia was 'reminiscent of the worst excesses of the Nazis'.{{NamedRef|Campbell769|2}} In December of that same year she warned that there could be a 'holocaust' in Bosnia and after the first massacre at ] in April 1993 Thatcher thought it was a 'killing field the like of which I thought we would never see in Europe again'. She reportedly said to Douglas Hurd, the Foreign Secretary: "Douglas, Douglas, you would make ] look like a warmonger".{{NamedRef|Campbell770|3}} | |||
| She had already been honoured by the Queen in 1990, shortly after her resignation as Prime Minister, when she was appointed to the ], one of the UK's highest distinctions. In addition, her husband, Denis Thatcher, had been given a ]cy in 1991 (ensuring that their son Mark would inherit a title). This was the first creation of a baronetcy since 1965. In 1995 Thatcher would also join the majority of former Prime Ministers as a member of the ], the United Kingdom's highest order of ]. | |||
| In July 1992, she was hired by tobacco giant ], now the ], as a "geopolitical consultant" for US$250,000 per year and an annual contribution of US$250,000 to her Foundation. In practice, she helped them break into markets in ], the former Soviet Union, China, and ], as well as fight against a proposed EC ban on tobacco advertising. | |||
| From 1993 to 2000, she served as Chancellor of the ], one of the oldest universities in ], which was established by royal charter in 1693. | |||
| She wrote her ]s in two volumes, '''The Path to Power''' and '''The Downing Street Years'''. In later years she wrote several more books on politics and foreign affairs. Although she remained supportive in public, in private she made her displeasure with many of John Major's policies plain, and her views were conveyed to the press and widely reported. Major later said he found her behaviour in retrospect to have been "intolerable". She publicly endorsed ] for the Conservative leadership in 1997 and, after Hague's victory, Major made a sly reference to Thatcher's behaviour during his own spell as leader during a speech at the annual conference - ''"...and I will give him all the support that a leader is entitled to expect from his predecessor."'' | |||
| In 1998, she made a highly publicised and controversial visit to her close friend, the former Chilean dictator ] during the time he was under house arrest in Surrey facing charges of ], conspiracy to torture and conspiracy to murder. She expressed her support for and friendship with him (see ). Margaret Thatcher and Augusto Pinochet are both members of the Rotary Club. Pinochet had been a key ally in the ]. During the same year, she made a £2,000,000 donation to ] for the endowment of a Margaret Thatcher Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies. She also donated the archive of her personal papers to ]. | |||
| She made many speaking engagements around the world, and she actively supported the Conservative election campaign in 2001. However, on ], ], she was told by her doctors to make no more public speeches on health grounds, having suffered several small strokes, which left her in a very frail state. | |||
| ]'s funeral in 2004.]] | |||
| ] in 2004. At the service in Washington's National Cathedral Lady Thatcher is greeted warmly by former Canadian prime minister ] and former ] president ].</small>]] | |||
| In 2003 she visited ], ] and compared his offices to those of Sir ]'s War Room. Although she was able to attend the ] in June 2004, her eulogy for him was pre-taped to prevent undue stress. | |||
| She remains involved with various Thatcherite groups, including being president of the ] group, which held a dinner at the ] in honour of the 25th Anniversary of her election. She is honorary president of the ], which takes its name from her 1988 speech at Bruges, where she was first openly hostile to developments in the ]. She is also patron of the Eurosceptic ] founded by the Conservative MP ]. She was widowed on ], ]. | |||
| On ] ] Thatcher celebrated her 80th birthday with a drinks party at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in ] where the guests included Her Majesty the Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. At the celebration ] commented on her political career, "Her real triumph was to have transformed not just one party but two, so that when Labour did eventually return, the great bulk of Thatcherism was accepted as irreversible." | |||
| On ] ], Thatcher was hospitalized in London after feeling faint. She stayed overnight at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. She began to feel faint on a visit to the hairdressers and was taken to hospital by her bodyguards (see ). | |||
| Her daughter Carol has reported that her short term memory is now poor: "She doesn't read much because of her memory loss. It's pointless. She can't remember the beginning of the sentence by the time she reaches the end" (see ). | |||
| ==Legacy== | |||
| Many British citizens remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard that Margaret Thatcher had resigned and what their reaction was. She was a polarising figure, who brought out strong reactions from people. Likewise, her legacy is highly disputed. | |||
| Some people credit her macroeconomic reforms with rescuing the British economy from the stagnation of the 1970s and admire her committed ]ism on social issues. Others see her as authoritarian and egotistical. She is accused of dismantling the ] and of destroying much of the UK's manufacturing base, whilst consigning millions to long-term unemployment. | |||
| The first charge reflects her government's rhetoric more than its actions, as it actually did little to reduce welfare expenditure, despite its desire to do so. The second charge may be credible in that there was a major fall in manufacturing employment, and some industries almost disappeared, though manufacturing does take a smaller share of employment and GDP as an economy modernises and the service sector expands. The UK was widely seen as the "]" in the 1970s, and some argued that it would be the first developed nation to return to the status of a developing country. Instead, the UK emerged as one of the most successful economies in modern Europe. Her supporters claim that this was due to Margaret Thatcher's policies. | |||
| Critics of this view believe that the economic problems of the 1970s were exaggerated, and were caused largely by factors outside any UK government's control, such as high ] prices caused by the ] which led to high ] which damaged the economies of nearly all major industrial countries. Accordingly, they also argue that the economic downturn was not the result of ] and ]s, as ] supporters claim. Critics also argue that the Thatcher period in government coincided with a general improvement in the world economy, and the buoyant tax revenues from ] (although this is sometimes a double-edged sword; see ]), and that these were the real cause of the improved economic environment of the 1980s rather than Margaret Thatcher's policies. | |||
| Perceptions of Margaret Thatcher are mixed in the view of the British public. A clear illustration of the divisions of opinion over Thatcher's leadership can be found in recent television polls: Thatcher appears at number 16 in the 2002 List of "]", which was the highest placing for a living person. She also appears at number 3 in the 2003 List of "]", which was confined to those living, narrowly missing out on the top spot, which went to ] ] ]. In the end, however, few could argue that there was any woman who played a more important role on the world stage in the 20th century. In perhaps the sincerest form of flattery, Labour Prime Minister, Tony Blair, himself a thrice-elected Prime Minister, has implicitly and explicitly acknowledged her importance by continuing many of her economic policies. Thatcher herself indirectly acknowledged Blair during a Conservative leadership contest when she said ''They...(The Conservative Party)...don't need someone that can beat Mr. Blair, they need someone LIKE Mr. Blair''. | |||
| Another view divides her economic legacy into two parts: market efficiency and long-term growth. The first part, due to her reforms, is quite controversial. While the unemployment rate did eventually come down, it came after initial job losses and radical labour market reforms. These included laws that weakened trade unions and the deregulation of financial markets, which certainly succeeded in returning the City to a leadership position as a European financial centre, and her push for increased competition in telecommunications and other public utilities. Long-term growth, according to available data, is considered low, due to lack of civil research and development spending, lowered education standards and ineffective job-training policies. | |||
| Many of her policies have proved to be divisive. In much of Scotland, Wales and the urban and former mining areas of northern England she is still reviled. Many people remember the hardships of the miners' strike, which destroyed many mining communities, and the decline of industry as service industries boomed. | |||
| While Thatcher enjoyed more support in much of the rural and affluent south-west, this was not extended to the less affluent and more industralised City of ], where it was thought that up to a quarter of the population was employed in the defence industry, particularly in ]. The privatisation of the dockyard's management in 1987 (handed over to ]) and the consequent massive job losses were largely blamed on the Thatcher government, resulting in a drop in support for the Conservatives from 44% in 1979 to 29% in 1987. | |||
| Negative opinions of Thatcher in the mining and industrial communities were reflected in the 1987 election, which she won by a landslide through winning large numbers of seats in southern England and the rural farming areas of northern England while winning few seats in the remaining areas of the country. Through the ] British agriculture was (and remains) heavily subsidised while other failing parts of the economy did not receive similar support. | |||
| Perceptions abroad broadly follow the same political divisions. On the left, Margaret Thatcher is generally regarded as somebody who used force to quash social movements, who imposed social reforms that disregarded the interests of the ] and instead favoured the wealthier elements of the ] and business. Satirists have often caricatured her. For instance, ] singer ] wrote a song, ''Miss Maggie'', which lauded women as refraining from many of the silly behaviours of males – and every time making an exception for "Mrs Thatcher". She may be remembered most of all for declaring: "There is no such thing as society" to reporter Douglas Keay, for 'Womans Own' magazine, ] ] . This quote is often taken out of context and truncated. The original quote goes on to emphasise the importance of families and individuals in the fabric of British life. On the economic and political ']' right, Thatcher is often remembered with some fondness as a conservative who dared to confront powerful unions and removed harmful constraints on the economy, though many do not openly claim to be following her example given the strong feelings that highly ideological Lady Thatcher and ] elicits in many. | |||
| Among Irish nationalists, she is generally remembered as an intransigent figure who eschewed negotiations with the Provisional IRA who had targeted her. Her critics believe this contributed to the length and ferocity of ] in ], despite the efforts her government made to increase Irish involvement in the North through the Anglo-Irish Agreement. | |||
| In 1996, the Scott Inquiry into the ] affair exposed the Thatcher government’s record in dealing with Saddam Hussein. It revealed how £1bn of Whitehall money was spent in propping up Saddam’s regime and pulling strings for arms firms. The judge found that during Baghdad's protracted ], officials destroyed documents after smuggling ] hulls to Iraq. Ministers clandestinely relaxed official guidelines to help private companies sell machine tools to build munitions factories. Some of the many shipments were from ], who exported sophisticated ] radios to the former Iraqi dictator’s army on credit. The judge also discovered they had abused lines of credit meant to include military sales. Members of the Conservative cabinet refused to stop lending guaranteed funds to Saddam even after he executed a British journalist, ], Thatcher’s cabinet minuting that they did not want to damage British industry. | |||
| Many on both the right and left agree that Thatcher had a transformative effect on the British political spectrum in Britain and that her tenure had the effect of moving the major political parties rightward. ] and ] have incorporated much of the economic, social and political tenets of "Thatcherism" in the same manner as, in a previous era, the Conservative Party from the 1950s until the days of ] accepted many of the basic assumptions of the ] instituted by Labour governments. The curtailing and large scale dismantling of elements of the welfare state under Thatcher have largely remained. As well, Thatcher's programe of ] ] has not been reversed. Indeed, successive Tory and Labour governments have further curtailed the involvement of the state in the economy and have further dismantled public ownership. | |||
| For good or ill, Thatcher's impact on the ] movement in Britain has been lasting with the breaking of the ] seen as a watershed moment, or even a breaking point, for a union movement which has been unable to regain the degree of power it exercised up to the 1970s. Unionisation rates in Britain declined under Thatcher and have not recovered and the legislative instruments introduced to curtail the impact of strikes has not been reversed. Instead, the Labour Party has worked to loosen its ties to the trade union movement. | |||
| Thatcher's legacy has continued strongly to influence the Conservative Party itself. Successive leaders, starting with ], and continuing in opposition with ], ] and ], have struggled with real or imagined factions in the Parliamentary and national party to determine what parts of her heritage should be retained or jettisoned. The leadership of ] in ] may mark an end to this fixation, which has riven the party since Thatcher left office. | |||
| ==Family life== | |||
| Margaret Thatcher has been accused of ] and ] over family values and other issues. | |||
| Lady Thatcher's husband, ], died in June 2003. The couple had been married for fifty-two years and had two children, twins, born on ] ]. | |||
| Her son, Sir ], has been dogged by a series of controversies from 1982 when he went missing in the ] to January 2005 when he was fined three million rand and received a four-year suspended jail sentence in ] over funding an aircraft intended for use in a planned ] in ]. | |||
| Her daughter, the ] and ] Hon. ], won the fifth series of the ] ] show '']''. | |||
| ==Titles and honours== | |||
| ] of Margaret Thatcher. The admiral represents the ], the image of Sir ] her background as a ] and her birth town ].]] | |||
| ===Titles from birth=== | |||
| Titles Lady Thatcher has held from birth, in chronological order: | |||
| *Miss Margaret Roberts (], ] – ], ]) | |||
| *Mrs Denis Thatcher (], ] – ], ]) | |||
| *Mrs Denis Thatcher, MP (], ] – ] ]) | |||
| *The Right Honourable Margaret Thatcher, MP (], ] – ], ]) | |||
| *The Right Honourable Margaret Thatcher, FRS, MP (], ] – ], ]) | |||
| *The Right Honourable Margaret Thatcher, OM, FRS, MP (], ] – ], ]) | |||
| *The Right Honourable Lady Thatcher, OM, FRS, MP (], ] – ], ]) | |||
| *The Right Honourable Lady Thatcher, OM, FRS (], ] – ], ]) | |||
| *The Right Honourable The Baroness Thatcher, OM, PC, FRS (], ] – ], ]) | |||
| *The Right Honourable The Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (], ] – ) | |||
| ===Honours=== | |||
| {{sisterlinks|Margaret Thatcher}} | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * Honorary member of the ] the ], and the only female full member. | |||
| ===Foreign Honours=== | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| * ] | |||
| ==Notes== | |||
| *{{NamedNote|Kavanagh134|1}} Dennis Kavangah, ''The Reordering of British Politics: Politics after Thatcher'' (OUP, 1997), p. 134. | |||
| *{{NamedNote|Campbell769|2}} John Campbell, ''Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady'' (Jonathan Cape, 2003), p. 769. | |||
| *{{NamedNote|Campbell770|3}} Ibid, p. 770. | |||
| ==References== | |||
| ===Books=== | |||
| *''Statecraft: Strategies for Changing World'' by Margaret Thatcher (HarperCollins, 2002) ISBN 0060199733 | |||
| *''The Collected Speeches of Margaret Thatcher'' by Margaret Thatcher (HarperCollins, 1999) ISBN 0060187344 | |||
| *''The Collected Speeches of Margaret Thatcher'' by Margaret Thatcher, Robin Harris (editor) (HarperCollins, 1997) ISBN 0002557037 | |||
| *''The Path to Power'' by Margaret Thatcher (HarperCollins, 1995) ISBN 0002550504 | |||
| *''The Downing Street Years'' by Margaret Thatcher (HarperCollins, 1993) ISBN 0002553546 | |||
| === Biographies === | |||
| *''"The Anatomy of Thatcherism"'' by Shirley Robin Letwin (Flamingo, 1992) ISBN 0006862438 | |||
| *''Margaret Thatcher; Volume One: The Grocer's Daughter'' by John Campbell (Pimlico, 2000) ISBN 0712674187 | |||
| *''Margaret Thatcher; Volume Two: The Iron Lady'' by John Campbell (Pimlico, 2003) ISBN 0712667814 | |||
| *''Memories of Maggie'' Edited by ] (Politicos, 2000) ISBN 190230151X | |||
| *''Britain Under Thatcher'' by ] & Daniel Collings (Longman, 1999) ISBN 0582317142 | |||
| *''Thatcher for Beginners'' by Peter Pugh and Paul Flint (Icon Books, 1997) ISBN 1874166536 | |||
| *''One of Us: Life of Margaret Thatcher'' by ] (Macmillan, 1989) ISBN 0333344391 | |||
| *''The Iron Lady: A Biography of Margaret Thatcher'' by Hugo Young (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1989) ISBN 0374226512 | |||
| *''Margaret, daughter of Beatrice'' by ] (Jonathan Cape, 1989) ISBN 0224027263 | |||
| *''Mrs. Thatcher's Revolution: Ending of the Socialist Era'' by ] (Jonathan Cape, 1987) ISBN 0224025163 | |||
| *''The Thatcher Phenomenon'' by Hugo Young (BBC, 1986) ISBN 0563204729 | |||
| *''My Style of Government: The Thatcher Years'' by ] (Hutchinson, 1991) ISBN 0091750512 | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * — written on the tenth anniversary of her resignation — ] ] | |||
| * ] ], President ] talks about Thatcher resignation | |||
| * ] – New York Times marks Thatcher's resignation | |||
| * | |||
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| {{Persondata | |||
| |NAME=Thatcher, Margaret Hilda | |||
| |ALTERNATIVE NAMES= | |||
| |SHORT DESCRIPTION=Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | |||
| |DATE OF BIRTH=], ] | |||
| |PLACE OF BIRTH=] | |||
| |DATE OF DEATH= | |||
| |PLACE OF DEATH= | |||
| }} | |||
Revision as of 17:07, 20 May 2006
- Thatcher redirects here. For other meanings see Thatcher (disambiguation).
{{Infobox PM | name = The Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher | image = Portrait hr.jpg | country = the United Kingdom | date_birth = 13 October 1925 | place_birth = Grantham, Lincolnshire | date_death = | place_death = | title = The Right Hon. | term = 4 May 1979 – 28 November 1990 | before = James Callaghan | after = John Major | party = Conservative }MARGRET THACHER IS AN EVIL ANDROID WHO WAS SENT TO DESTROY ALL LIFE ON EARTH Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (born 13 October 1925) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990.
She was the longest serving British Prime Minister in the 20th century, the longest since Gladstone, and had the longest continuous period in office since Lord Liverpool. She is also the only woman to be Prime Minister or elected leader of a major political party in the UK and, with Margaret Beckett, is one of only two women to hold any of the four great offices of state. Undoubtedly one of the most significant British politicians in recent political history, she is also one of the most divisive, being both loved and loathed in equal measure.
Her first cabinet post was Secretary of State for Education and Science in the government of Edward Heath from 1970 to 1974. In 1975 she successfully challenged Heath for the Conservative leadership, and was Leader of the Opposition from then until the next general election in 1979 when her party returned to power. As party Leader she was undefeated at the polls, winning three successive general elections (1979, 1983 and 1987) the only British politician to do so in the 20th century. However, although she had strong support from the largest minority of voters for most of her tenure she eventually resigned after failing to win outright a leadership election triggered by opponents within her own party, and was replaced by John Major in 1990.
She is an elder stateswoman of the Conservative Party and the figurehead of a political philosophy that became known as Thatcherism, which involves selectively reduced public spending in some areas, lower direct taxation, de-regulation, a monetarist policy, and a programme of privatisation of government-owned industries. Even before coming to power she was nicknamed the "Iron Lady" in Soviet media (because of her vocal opposition to communism), an appellation that stuck.
In foreign relations, she maintained the "special relationship" with the United States, and formed a close bond with Ronald Reagan. In 1982 her government dispatched a Royal Navy task force to retake the Falkland Islands from Argentina in the Falklands War.
The profound changes Thatcher set in motion as Prime Minister altered much of the economic and cultural landscape of the United Kingdom. She curtailed the power of the trade unions, attempted to cut back the role of the state in business, and dramatically expanded home ownership. She also aimed to cut back the welfare state and foster a more flexible labour market. She is particularly disliked in the old mining areas of Britain, such as South Wales, County Durham and the southern parts of Yorkshire. In a speech on 19th June, 1984, she had referred to the striking miners as "the enemy within", who had to be destroyed for the good of liberty and democracy.
Margaret Thatcher and Thatcherism were highly controversial and polarising. Some commentators contend that she was responsible for rejuvenating the British economy, while others argue that she was responsible for mass unemployment and a vast increase in inequality between rich and poor. Some have since argued that the hardships and disruption of the period were a regrettable but necessary phase in the modernisation of the British economy. Whatever the case, the perception that her Conservative party was unconcerned about and blind to these effects has contributed to the subsequent dominance of the Labour Party in government since 1997. It should be mentioned, though, that both Conservative and Labour governments since 1990 have maintained most of the economic reforms of the Thatcher period.
Her popularity declined when she replaced the unpopular local government rates tax with the even less popular Community Charge, more commonly known as the "Poll Tax". At the same time, the Conservative Party began to split over her sceptical approach to Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union. The resignation in November 1990 of her Deputy Prime Minister, Geoffrey Howe, seriously damaged her authority and undermined her party's confidence in her. Shortly afterwards she failed to gain the confidence of a clear majority of Conservative MPs during a leadership struggle, and she chose to resign and return to the back benches. Margaret Thatcher's defeat is attributable at least in part to inadequate advice and campaigning. In 1992 she was created Baroness Thatcher, and since then her direct political work has been as head of the Thatcher Foundation.
Early life and education
Thatcher was born Margaret Hilda Roberts in the town of Grantham in Lincolnshire in eastern England. Her father was Alfred Roberts, who ran a grocer's shop in the town and was active in local politics, serving as an Alderman and was also a Methodist local preacher (lay preacher). While officially described as 'Liberal Independent', in practice he supported the local Conservatives. He lost his post as Alderman after the Labour Party won control of Grantham Council in 1946. Her mother was Beatrice Roberts née Stephenson, and she had a sister, Muriel. Thatcher was brought up a staunch Methodist and has remained a Christian throughout her life.
She did well at school, going to a girls' grammar school (Kesteven) and then to Somerville College, Oxford from 1944, where she studied chemistry. She became President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1946, the third woman to hold the post. She graduated with a second-class degree, and worked as a research chemist for British Xylonite and then J. Lyons and Co. where she helped develop methods for preserving ice cream. She was a member of the team that developed the first soft frozen ice cream.
Political career between 1950 and 1970
At the 1950 and 1951 elections, Margaret Roberts fought the safe Labour seat of Dartford, and was the youngest woman Conservative candidate. Her activity in the Conservative Party in Kent brought her into contact with Denis Thatcher; they fell in love and were married later in 1951. Denis was a wealthy businessman, and he funded his wife to read for the Bar. She qualified as a barrister in 1953, the same year that her twin children, Carol and Mark, were born. On returning to work, she specialised in tax issues.
Thatcher had begun to look for a safe Conservative seat, and was narrowly rejected as candidate for Orpington in 1954. She had several other rejections before being selected for Finchley in April 1958. She won the seat easily in the 1959 election and took her seat in the House of Commons. Unusually, her maiden speech was in support of her Private Member's Bill to force local councils to hold meetings in public, which was successful. In 1961 she voted against her party's line by voting for the restoration of birching.
She was given early promotion to the front bench as Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance in September 1961, keeping the post until the Conservatives lost power in the 1964 election. When Sir Alec Douglas-Home stepped down, Thatcher voted for Edward Heath in the leadership election over Reginald Maudling, and was rewarded with the job of Conservative spokesman on Housing and Land. She moved to the Shadow Treasury Team after 1966.
Thatcher was one of few Conservative MPs to support Leo Abse's Bill to decriminalise male homosexuality, and she voted in favour of David Steel's Bill to legalise abortion. However, she was opposed to the abolition of capital punishment and voted against making divorce more easily attainable. She made her mark as a conference speaker in 1966 with a strong attack on the taxation policy of the Labour Government as being steps "not only towards Socialism, but towards Communism". She won promotion to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Fuel Spokesman in 1967, and was then promoted to shadow Transport and, finally, Education before the 1970 election.
In Heath's Cabinet
When the Conservatives won the 1970 general election, Thatcher became Secretary of State for Education and Science. In her first months in office, forced to administer a cut in the Education budget, she decided to abolish universal free milk in schools.
This provoked a storm of public protest, earning her the nickname "Maggie Thatcher, milk snatcher", coined by The Sun. Her term was marked by many proposals for more local education authorities to abolish grammar schools, of which she approved, and adopt comprehensive secondary education, even though this was widely perceived as a left-wing policy. Thatcher also defended the budget of the Open University from attempted cuts.
After the Conservative defeat in February 1974, she was promoted again, to Shadow Environment Secretary. In this job she promoted a policy of abolis