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Famous
Politicians > Margaret Thatcher
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| Margaret
Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG,
OM, PC, FRS (born October 13, 1925) is a British politician and
the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a position
she held from 1979 to 1990. She is a member of the Conservative
Party and still the figurehead for a brand of politics known as
Thatcherism involving reduced government spending and privatization
of government owned industries. Even before coming to power she
was nicknamed The Iron Lady in Soviet propaganda, an appellation
which stuck.
Thatcher served as Education Secretary in the government of Edward
Heath from 1970 to 1974, and successfully challenged Heath for the
Conservative leadership in 1975. She was undefeated at the polls,
winning the 1979, 1983 and 1987 general elections, and became the
longest serving Prime Minister of the 20th century. However, Thatcher
was a divisive leader and broke the power of the trade unions in
the miners' strike of 1984-5.
In foreign relations, Thatcher maintained the special relationship
with the United States, and formed a close bond with Ronald Reagan.
When Argentina invaded Falkland Islands in 1982, Thatcher dispatched
a Royal Navy task force to retake the islands in the Falklands War,
a policy that proved hugely popular at home. |
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Period
in Office:
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May 4,
1979 –
November 28, 1990 |
| PM Predecessor: |
James Callaghan |
| PM Successor:
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John Major |
| Date
of Birth: |
October 13, 1925
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| Place
of Birth: |
Grantham, England
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| Political
Party: |
Conservative |
Retirement
honour: |
Knighthood of the
Garter Life Barony (Thatcher) |
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Her popularity finally declined when she introduced a new tax to pay
for local government which opponents called the poll tax, and the
Conservative Party began to split over her sceptical approach to European
Economic and Monetary Union. Her leadership was challenged from within
and she was forced to resign in 1990. Since 1992 she has been known
as Baroness Thatcher, with her direct political work limited to membership
of the House of Lords and 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 grocers' shop in the town and was active in local politics,
serving as an Alderman (while officially described as 'Liberal Independent',
in practice he supported the local Conservatives). When the Labour
Party won control of Grantham Council in 1945, Alfred Roberts was
not re-elected as an Alderman, a decision which affected Thatcher
deeply.
She did well at school, going on to a girls' grammar school and then
to Somerville College, Oxford from 1944 where she studied chemistry.
She became Chairman of Oxford University Conservative Association
in 1946, the third woman to hold the post. She obtained a second class
degree and worked as a research chemist for British Xylonite and then
Lyons & Company, where she helped develop methods for preserving
ice cream.
Political career between 1950 and 1970
In the election of 1950 she was the youngest woman Conservative candidate
but fought in the safe Labour seat of Dartford. She fought the seat
again in the 1951 election. 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 Thatcher was a wealthy
businessman and 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 easily
won the seat in the 1959 election and took her seat in the House of
Commons. Unusually, her maiden speech was made in support of her Private
Member's Bill which was successful and forced local councils to hold
meetings in public.
She was given an 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 the Bill to decriminalise
male homosexuality, and she voted in favour of the principle of David
Steel's Bill to legalise abortion. However she was opposed to the
abolition of capital punishment. 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 general election.
In Heath's Cabinet
When the Conservatives won the 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 that
abolishing free milk in schools would be less harmful than other measures.
Nevertheless, 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 adopt comprehensive secondary education, of which she
approved 96%. Thatcher also defended the budget of the Open University
from attempts to cut it.
After the Conservative defeat in February 1974, she was again promoted
to be Shadow Environment Secretary. In this job she promoted a policy
of abolishing the rating system that paid for local government services,
which proved a popular policy within the Conservative Party. However
she agreed with Sir Keith Joseph that the Heath Government had lost
control of monetary policy. After Heath lost the second election that
year, Joseph and other right-wingers declined to challenge his leadership
but Thatcher decided that she would. Unexpectedly she outpolled him
on the first ballot and won the job on the second, in February 1975.
She appointed Heath's preferred successor William Whitelaw as her
Deputy.
As Leader of the Opposition
On 19 January 1976 she made a speech at Kensington Town Hall in which
she made a scathing attack on the Soviet Union. The most controversial
part of her speech ran:
"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. They put guns before butter,
while we put just about everything before guns."
In response, the Soviet Defence Ministry newspaper Red Star gave her
the nickname The Iron Lady, which was soon publicised by Radio Moscow
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 The Great She-Elephant, Attilla the Hen,
and The Grocer's Daughter (due to her father's profession, but coined
at a time when she was considered as Edward Heath's ally; he had been
nicknamed The Grocer).
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 in converting the Conservative Party to her monetarist
beliefs. She reversed Heath's support for devolution to Scotland.
An interview she gave to Granada Television's World in Action programme
in 1978 spoke of her concern of immigrants "swamping" Britain
aroused particular controversy. Most opinion polls showed that voters
preferred James Callaghan as Prime Minister even when the Conservative
Party was in the lead, but the Labour Government's severe difficulties
with the Trades Unions over the winter of 1978–1979 (dubbed the 'Winter
of Discontent') put the Conservatives well ahead in the 1979 election
and Thatcher became the first female Prime Minister.
As Prime Minister
1979–1983
She formed a government on 4 May 1979, with a mandate to
reverse Britain's economic decline and to reduce the extent of the
state. Thatcher was incensed by one contemporary view within the Civil
Service that its job was to manage Britain's decline from the days
of Empire, and wanted the country to punch above its weight in international
affairs. She was a philosophic soulmate with Ronald Reagan, elected
in 1980 in the United States, and to a lesser extent Brian Mulroney,
who was elected around the same time in Canada. It seemed for a time
that conservatism might be the dominant political philosophy in the
major English-speaking nations for the era.
Thatcher began by increasing interest rates to drive down inflation.
This move hit businesses, especially in the manufacturing sector,
and unemployment rose sharply. However her early tax policy reforms
were based on supply-side economics. 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,
telling the party "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 an open letter from 364 economists, taxes were
increased in the middle of a recession. Though unemployment reached
3 million in January 1982, the inflation rate dropped to low single
figures and interest rates were able to fall. By the time of the 1983
election the economy was recovering well.
On 2 April 1982, Argentinian forces invaded the Falkland Islands,
a British territory claimed by Argentina (see History of the Falkland
Islands). Thatcher immediately sent a naval task force to the Falklands
which defeated the Argentinians (see Falklands War), resulting in
a wave of patriotic enthusiasm for her personally. The landslide victory
of the Conservatives in the June 1983 general election is often ascribed
to the 'Falklands Effect'. Her 'Right to Buy' policy of allowing residents
of council housing to buy their homes at a discount did much to increase
her popularity in working-class areas.
1983–1987
Thatcher was committed to reducing the power of the trade
unions but unlike the Heath government, proceeded by way of incremental
change rather than a single Act. Several unions decided to launch
strikes which were wholly or partly aimed at damaging her politically,
in particular the National Union of Mineworkers. Thatcher had made
preparations for the strike by building up coal stocks and there were
no power cuts, and picket line violence, combined with the fact that
the NUM had not held a ballot to approve strike action, contrived
to swing public opinion on her side. The Miners' Strike lasted a full
year (1984–1985) before the miners were forced to give in and go back
to work without a deal. After this strike, trade union resistance
to reform was much reduced and a succession of changes were made.
During the middle of the strike, on the early morning of 12 October
1984, Thatcher escaped injury from a bomb planted by the Provisional
Irish Republican Army in Brighton's Grand Hotel during the Conservative
Party conference. Five people died in the attack, including the wife
of Government Chief Whip, John Wakeham. A prominent member of the
Cabinet, Norman Tebbit, was injured, along with his wife, Margaret,
who was left paralyzed. Thatcher insisted that the Conference open
on time the next day and made her speech as planned.
Thatcher's political and economic philosophy emphasised free markets
and entrepreneurialism. Since gaining power, she had experimented
in selling off a small nationalised industry, the National Freight
company, to the public, with a surprisingly large 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 share offers, although
many sold their shares immediately for a quick profit. The policy
of privatisation became synonymous with Thatcherism and has since
been exported across the globe.
In the Cold war Mrs Thatcher supported Reagan's policies of deterrence
against the Soviets. United States forces were permitted by Mrs Thatcher
to station nuclear cruise missiles at British bases, arousing mass
protests by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. She had no objections
to the US bombing raid on Libya from bases in Britain in 1986, and
her liking for defence ties with the USA was demonstrated in the Westland
affair when she acted with colleagues to prevent the helicopter manufacturer
Westland (a vital defence contractor) from linking with the Italian
firm Agusta in favour of a link with Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation
of the USA. Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine, who had pushed the
Agusta deal, resigned in protest at her style of leadership, and thereafter
became known as a potential leadership challenger.
In 1985, the University of Oxford 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 who had
been educated at Oxford.
Between 1983 and 1987, Thatcher had two noted foreign policy successes.
In 1984 she visited China and signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration
with Deng Xiaoping on 19 December stating the basic policies of the
People's Republic of China (PRC) regarding Hong Kong after the handover
in 1997. At the Fontainebleau summit of 1984, Thatcher argued that
the UK paid far more to the EEC than it received in spending and negotiated
a budget rebate. She was widely quoted as saying "We want our
money back".
1987–1990
By winning the 1987 general election she became the first
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to win three consecutive general
elections since Lord Liverpool (in office from 1812–1827). Most United
Kingdom newspapers supported her, with the exception of The Daily
Mirror and The Guardian, and were rewarded with regular press briefings
by her press secretary, Bernard Ingham. She was known as "Maggie"
in the tabloids, which in turn led to the well-known "Maggie
Out!" protest song, sung throughout that period by her opponents.
In the late 1980's Thatcher began to be concerned by environmental
policy, which she had previously dismissed. In 1988 she made a major
speech accepting the problems of global warming, ozone depletion and
acid rain and in 1990 she opened the Hadley Centre for climate prediction
and research that she had caused to be founded.
At Bruges in 1988 Thatcher made a speech in which she outlined her
opposition to proposals from the European Communities 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 Britain. She was specifically against Economic and Monetary
Union, through which a single currency would replace national currencies,
and for which the EC was making preparations.
Thatcher started to lose popularity in 1989, as the economy suffered
from high interest rates imposed to stop an unsustainable boom. She
blamed her Chancellor, Nigel Lawson, who had been following an economic
policy which was a preparation for monetary union; Thatcher claimed
not to have been told and did not approve. At the Madrid European
summit, Lawson and Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe forced Thatcher
to agree the circumstances in which she would join the Exchange Rate
Mechanism, a preparation for monetary union. Thatcher took revenge
on both by demoting Howe and listening more to her adviser Sir Alan
Walters 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 Anthony Meyer. As Meyer was a virtually unknown backbench
MP, he was viewed as a "stalking horse" candidate for more
prominent members of the party. Thatcher easily defeated Meyer's challenge,
but there were a surprisingly large number of ballot papers either
cast for Meyer or abstaining.
Thatcher's new system to replace local government rates was introduced
for Scotland in 1989 and for England and Wales in 1990. She replaced
them with the "Community Charge" which applied at the same
amount to every individual resident, with only limited discounts for
low earners. The indiscriminate nature of the charge led to it being
the most unpopular policy of her premiership and it was almost universally
known as the Poll Tax. The Charge was introduced early in Scotland
because 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 fully belived that the new tax would
be popular, and had been persuaded by Scottish Conservatives to bring
it in early and in one go. Despite her hopes, the early introduction
led to a sharp decline in the popularity of the Conservative party
in Scotland.
A large London demonstration against the poll tax on 31 March 1990
(the day before it was introduced in England and Wales) turned into
a riot. Millions of people resisted paying the tax. Opponents of the
tax banded together to resist bailiffs and disrupt court hearings
of poll tax debtors. Mrs Thatcher refused to compromise and change
the tax, and its unpopularity was a major factor in Thatcher's downfall.
One of her final acts in office was to pressure US President George
H. W. Bush to deploy troops to the Middle East to drive Saddam Hussein's
army out of Kuwait. 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 persuaded her new Chancellor John Major 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 conference that year
saw a degree of unity break out within the Conservative Party. Few
who attended could have realised that Mrs Thatcher had only a matter
of weeks left in office.
Fall from power
By 1990 opposition to Thatcher's policies on local government
taxation, her Government's handling of the economy, her perceived
arrogance and her reluctance to commit Britain to economic integration
with Europe made her politically vulnerable. A challenge was precipitated
by the resignation of Sir Geoffrey Howe on 1 November, whom Thatcher
had been humiliating in Cabinet meetings. Howe condemned Thatcher's
policy on the European Communities and openly invited "others
to consider their own response", which led Michael Heseltine
to announce his challenge. In the first ballot, Thatcher was two votes
short of winning re-election, but on consulting with cabinet colleagues
found a vast majority thought that she could not win on the second
ballot.
On 22 November, at just after 9:30 AM, Mrs Thatcher announced that
she would not be a candidate in the second ballot and therefore her
term of office would come to an end. She supported John Major as her
successor, and retired from Parliament at the 1992 election.
Post-political
career
In 1992 she was created Baroness Thatcher, of Kesteven in the County
of Lincolnshire, and entered the House of Lords. In addition, Denis
Thatcher, her husband, was given a Baronetcy (ensuring that their
son, Mark, would inherit a title).
She wrote her memoirs in two volumes. 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 William Hague for the
Conservative leadership in 1997.
In 1998 she made a highly publicised and controversial visit to the
former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet during the time he was under
house arrest in London facing charges of torture, conspiracy to torture
and conspiracy to murder, and expressed her support and friendship
for him.
She made many speaking engagements around the world, and actively
supported the Conservative election campaign in 2001. However, on
22 March 2002 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. Since then she visited Mayor Michael Bloomberg
of New York (in 2003), and compared his offices to those of Winston
Churchill's War Room. Although she was able to attend the funeral
in June 2004 of former US President Ronald Reagan, her eulogy for
him was pre-taped to prevent undue stress.
She remains involved with various Thatcherite groups, including being
president of the Conservative Way Forward group (who held a dinner
at the Savoy Hotel in honour of the 25th Anniversary of her election).
She is honorary president of the Bruges Group, which takes its name
from her 1988 speech at Bruges where she was first openly hostile
to developments in the European Union. She was widowed on 26 June
2003.
Legacy
Many
United Kingdom citizens remember where they were and what they were
doing when they heard that Margaret Thatcher had resigned and what
their reaction was. She brings out strong responses in people. Some
people credit her with rescuing the British economy from the stagnation
of the 1970s and admire her committed radicalism on social issues;
others see her as authoritarian, egotistical and responsible for the
dismantling of the Welfare State and the destruction of many manufacturing
industries. Britain was widely seen as the "sick man of Europe"
in the 1970s, and some argued that it would be the first developed
nation to return to the status of a developing country. By the late
1990s, Britain emerged with a comparatively healthy economy, at least
by previous standards. Her supporters claim that this was due to Margaret
Thatcher's policies.
However, critics claim that the economic problems of the 1970s were
exaggerated, and caused largely by factors outside of any UK government's
control, such as high oil prices caused by the oil crisis which caused
high inflation and damaged the economies of nearly all major industrial
countries. Accordingly, they also argue that the economic downturn
was not the result of socialism and trade unions, as Thatcherite 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 North Sea oil, which critics contend was the real cause
of the improved economic environment of the 1980s and not 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 "100 Greatest Britons"
(sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public), she also appears
at Number 3 in the 2003 List of "100 Worst Britons" (sponsored
by Channel Four and also voted for by the public), narrowly missing
out on the top spot, which went to Tony Blair. In the end, however,
few could argue that there was a woman who played a more important
role on the world stage in the Twentieth Century, and even the Labour
Prime Minister Tony Blair has implicitly and explicitly acknowledged
her importance by continuing many of her economic policies.
Many of her policies have proved to be divisive. In Scotland, Wales
and the urban and former mining areas of northern England she is still
unpopular and many retain strong feelings about her. Many people remember
the hardships of the miners strike, which destroyed many mining communities
and the decline of industry as service industries boomed. This was
reflected in the 1987 general 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 rest of the country.
Her son Mark has been dogged by a series of controversies. As of late
2004, he was under house arrest in South Africa facing charges of
abetting a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea. These reports have been
received with considerable schadenfreude by those in Britain less
than impressed by the Thatcher legacy.
Quotes
"If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something
done, ask a woman."
"There's no such thing as society. There are individual men and
women and there are families." (in an interview for Woman's Own
magazine on 23 September 1987 at 10 Downing Street).
"Every Prime Minister needs a Willie" (a reference to her
Deputy Prime Minister William Whitelaw; Mrs Thatcher was deaf to any
more euphemistic interpretation).
"We have become a grandmother" (March 3, 1989, on the birth
of her first grandchild; this was controversial for her apparent use
of the Royal we).
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
Memories of Maggie Edited by Iain Dale (Politicos, 2000) ISBN 190230151X
Britain Under Thatcher by Anthony Seldon & 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 Hugo Young (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 Leo Abse (Jonathan Cape, 1989) ISBN
0224027263
Mrs.Thatcher's Revolution: Ending of the Socialist Era by Peter Jenkins
(Jonathan Cape, 1987) ISBN 0224025163
The Thatcher Phenomenon by Hugo Young (BBC, 1986) ISBN 0563204729 |
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