Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LGThe Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry, or knighthood, originating in medieval England, and presently bestowed on recipients in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms; it is the pinnacle of the honours system in the United Kingdom...
,
OMThe Order of Merit
is an order recognizing distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture...
, PC, FRS (born 13 October 1925) served as
Prime Minister of the United KingdomThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political leader of the United Kingdom and the Head of Her Majesty's Government...
from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the
Conservative PartyThe Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservatives, the Conservative Party, or Tory Party is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom...
from 1975 to 1990. She is the only woman to have held either post.
Born in
GranthamGrantham is a market town within the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It stands athwart the East Coast Main Line railway , the historic A1 main north-south road, and the River Witham. Grantham is located approximately south of the city of Lincoln, and approximately east of...
in Lincolnshire, England, she read chemistry at
Somerville College, OxfordSomerville College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and was one of the first women's colleges to be founded there...
and later trained as a
barristerA barrister is a lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions that employ a split profession in relation to legal representation. In split professions, the other types of lawyers are mainly solicitors...
. She won a seat in the
1959 general electionThis United Kingdom general election was held on 8 October 1959. It marked a third successive victory for the ruling Conservative Party, led by Harold Macmillan...
, becoming the MP for
FinchleyFinchley was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election; its best-known MP was Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990...
as a Conservative. When
Edward HeathSir Edward Richard George Heath, KG, MBE , often known as Ted Heath, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975...
formed a government in 1970, he appointed Thatcher
Secretary of State for Education and ScienceThe Secretary of State for Education and Skills was the chief minister of the Department for Education and Skills in the United Kingdom government....
. Four years later, she backed
Keith JosephKeith Sinjohn Joseph, Baron Joseph, Bt., CH, PC was a British barrister, politician, and Conservative Cabinet Minister under three different Ministries. He is widely regarded as the "power behind the throne" in the creation of what came to be known as "Thatcherism"...
in his bid to become Conservative Party leader but he was forced to drop out of the
electionEdward Heath, leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom had called and unexpectedly lost the February 1974 general election...
. In 1975 Thatcher entered the contest herself and became leader of the Conservative Party. At the
1979 general electionThe United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 and is regarded as a pivotal point in 20th century British politics. The Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher defeated James Callaghan's incumbent Labour government in what would prove to be the first of four consecutive general...
she became Britain's first female Prime Minister.
In her foreword to the 1979 Conservative manifesto, Thatcher had written of "a feeling of helplessness, that a once great nation has somehow fallen behind." She entered
10 Downing Street10 Downing Street is the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury and hence Prime Minister of the United Kingdom...
determined to reverse what she perceived as a precipitate national decline, characterised by a combination of high inflation, high unemployment and stagnant or slow growth. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation, particularly of the financial sector, flexible labour markets, and the selling off of
state owned companiesA government-owned corporation, state-owned enterprise, or government business enterprise is a legal entity created by a government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government, and are usually considered to be an element or part of the state...
. Amid a recession and high unemployment, Thatcher's popularity decreased, though economic recovery and the 1982
Falklands WarThe Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict/Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
brought a resurgence of support and she was re-elected in 1983. She took a hard line against trade unions, survived the
Brighton hotel bombingThe Brighton hotel bombing occurred on 12 October 1984 at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England. The bomb was planted by Patrick Magee, a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army...
assassination attempt and opposed the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
(her tough-talking rhetoric gained her the nickname the "
Iron LadyIron Lady is a nickname that has frequently been used to describe female heads of government around the world. The term describes a "strong willed" woman...
"); she was re-elected for an unprecedented third term in 1987. The following years would prove difficult, as her
Poll taxThe Community Charge, popularly known as the "poll tax", was a system of taxation introduced in replacement of the rates to part fund local government in Scotland from 1989, and England and Wales from 1990. It provided for a single flat-rate per-capita tax on every adult, at a rate set by the...
plan was largely unpopular, and her views regarding the
European CommunityThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister in November 1990 after
Michael HeseltineMichael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH, PC is a British businessman, Conservative politician and patron of the Tory Reform Group....
's challenge to her
leadership of the Conservative PartyThe 1990 Conservative Party leadership election in the United Kingdom took place in November 1990 following the decision of former Defence and Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine to stand against the incumbent Conservative leader and Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.Thatcher failed to win...
.
Thatcher's tenure as Prime Minister was the longest since that of
Lord SalisburyRobert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC , known as Lord Robert Cecil before 1865 and as Viscount Cranborne from 1865 until 1868, was a British statesman and thrice Prime Minister, serving for a total of over 13 years...
and the longest continuous period in office since
Lord LiverpoolRobert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool PC was a British politician and the longest-serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since the Union with Ireland in 1801...
in the early 19th century. She was the first woman to lead a major political party in the
UKThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, and the first of only three women to hold any of the four
great offices of stateThe Great Offices of State in the United Kingdom are the four most senior and prestigious posts in the British parliamentary system of government. They are the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Foreign Secretary and the Home Secretary. Since 5 June 2009, these posts are held by...
. She holds a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher, of
KestevenThe Parts of Kesteven are a traditional subdivision of Lincolnshire, England. This subdivision had long had a separate county administration , along with the other two parts Lindsey and Holland).- Etymology :...
in the County of Lincolnshire, which entitles her to sit in the
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
.
Early life and education
Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on 13 October 1925 to
Alfred RobertsAlfred Roberts was a grocer, a lay preacher, an alderman and a Mayor of Grantham. He was the father of Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom....
, originally from
NorthamptonshireNorthamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census...
, and Beatrice Roberts née Stephenson from
LincolnshireLincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Rutland, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire, and the East Riding of Yorkshire. It also borders Northamptonshire for just 19 metres, England's shortest county boundary...
. Thatcher spent her childhood in the town of
GranthamGrantham is a market town within the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It stands athwart the East Coast Main Line railway , the historic A1 main north-south road, and the River Witham. Grantham is located approximately south of the city of Lincoln, and approximately east of...
in Lincolnshire, where her father owned two grocery shops. She and her older sister Muriel (born 1921, Grantham; died December 2004; married name Cullen) were raised in the flat above the larger of the two located near the railway line. Her father was active in local politics and religion, serving as an
AldermanAn alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions. Historically the term could also refer to local municipal judges in small legal proceedings...
and Methodist lay preacher. He came from a
LiberalThe Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the mid 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party to form a new party which would become...
family but stood—as was then customary in local government—as an
IndependentIn politics, an independent is a politician who is not affiliated with any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do not feel that any major party addresses...
. He lost his post as Alderman in 1952 after the
Labour PartyThe Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again...
won its first majority on Grantham Council in 1950.
Margaret Roberts was brought up a strict Methodist by her father. Having attended Huntingtower Road Primary School, she won a scholarship to
Kesteven and Grantham Girls' SchoolKesteven and Grantham Girls' School is a grammar school for girls in Grantham, Lincolnshire, established in 1910. It has over 1000 pupils ranging from ages 11-18, with its own sixth form based on site in the Harrowby House building...
. Her school reports show hard work and commitment, but not brilliance. Outside the classroom she played
hockeyField hockey is a team sport in which a team of players attempt to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking the ball with hockey sticks into the opposing team's goal. Its official name is simply hockey, and this is the common name for it in many countries...
and also enjoyed swimming and walking. Finishing school during the Second World War, she applied for a scholarship to attend
Somerville College, OxfordSomerville College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and was one of the first women's colleges to be founded there...
, but was only successful when the winning candidate dropped out. She went to Oxford in 1943 and studied Natural Sciences, specialising in Chemistry. She became President of the
Oxford University Conservative AssociationThe Oxford Conservative Association, or OCA is a student political organisation founded in 1924 whose members are drawn from the University of Oxford...
in 1946, the third woman to hold the post. In 1946 Roberts took the Final Honour School examination, graduating with a
Second ClassThe British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading scheme for undergraduate degrees in the United Kingdom...
Bachelor of ArtsBachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
degree. She subsequently studied crystallography and received a postgraduate
BScA Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years ....
degree in 1947. Three years later, in 1950, she achieved a Master of Arts advanced degree, according to her entitlement as an
OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
BABachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
of seven years' standing since matriculation.
Following graduation, Roberts moved to Colchester in Essex, to work as a research chemist for
BX PlasticsBX Plastics was a former Plastics engineering and production company. The company was acquired by Xylonite in the 1980s. The company had a plant in Manningtree. They held several patents on plastic products and manufacturing processes in the 1960s....
. During this time she joined the local
Conservative AssociationThe Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservatives, the Conservative Party, or Tory Party is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom...
and attended the party conference at Llandudno in 1948, as a representative of the University Graduate Conservative Association. She was also a member of the
Association of Scientific WorkersThe Association of Scientific Workers was a trade union in the UK. It was founded as the National Union of Scientific Workers in 1918, changing its name to the Association of Scientific Workers in 1927....
. In January 1949, a friend from Oxford, who was working for the
DartfordDartford is the principal town in the borough of Dartford. It is situated in the northwest corner of Kent, England, 16 miles east south-east of central London....
Conservative Association, told her that they were looking for candidates. After a brief period, she was selected as the Conservative candidate, and she subsequently moved to Dartford, Kent, to stand for election as a Member of Parliament. To support herself during this period, she went to work for
J. Lyons and Co.J. Lyons & Co. was a large British catering, food manufacturing and distribution business. It was founded in 1887 as a spin-off from the Salmon & Gluckstein tobacco business. Joseph Nathaniel Lyons was appointed to run the company and it was named after him. J. Lyons & Co...
, where she helped develop methods for preserving ice cream and was paid £500 per year.
Early political career (1950–1970)
At the
1950The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...
and
1951The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held eighteen months after the.1950 general election, which the Labour Party won, but with a very slim majority of just five seats...
elections, she fought the safe Labour seat of
DartfordDartford is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
. Although she lost out to
Norman DoddsNorman Noel Dodds was a British Labour Co-operative politician.He was Member of Parliament for Dartford from 1945 to 1955, and then for Erith and Crayford from 1955 until his death in 1965, aged 61....
, she reduced the Labour majority in the constituency by 6,000. She was, at the time, the youngest ever female Conservative candidate and her campaign attracted a higher than normal amount of media attention for a first time candidate. While active in the Conservative Party in Kent, she met
Denis ThatcherMajor Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, MBE, TD was an English businessman, and the husband of the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. He was born in Lewisham, London, England, the elder child of a New Zealand-born British businessman, Thomas Herbert Thatcher, and his wife Kathleen,...
, whom she married in 1951, conforming to his
AnglicanismThe Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches...
. Denis was a wealthy divorced businessman who ran his family's firm; he later became an executive in the oil industry. Denis funded his wife's studies for the
BarA barrister is a lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions that employ a split profession in relation to legal representation. In split professions, the other types of lawyers are mainly solicitors...
. She qualified as a barrister in 1953 and specialised in taxation. In the same year her twin children
CarolCarol Thatcher is a British journalist, author, and media personality. She is the only daughter of Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, a former British Prime Minister, and Sir Denis Thatcher, Bt....
and
MarkSir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet is the only son of Sir Denis Thatcher and Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, and twin brother of Carol Thatcher...
were born, delivered by
Caesarean sectionA Caesarean section , also known as C-section or Caesar, is a surgical procedure in which incisions are made through a mother's abdomen and uterus to deliver one or more babies...
while their father watched a
Test matchTest cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. It is generally considered the ultimate test of playing ability in the sport.The name "Test" may have arisen from the idea that the matches are a "test of strength and competency" between the sides involved...
at
the OvalThe Brit Insurance Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, London. In the past it was also sometimes called the 'Kennington Oval'...
. With their mother climbing the political ladder, the children were left to a
nannyA nanny or childminder is a person who looks after the child or children of another family. Childminding differs from nannying in that a nanny goes to the house of the child in order to care for it; childminders look after the child in the childminder's home...
. "My mother was prone to calling me by her secretaries' names and working through each of them until she got to Carol," recalled her daughter.
Thatcher began to look for a safe Conservative seat in the mid-1950s and was narrowly rejected as candidate for the
Orpington by-electionThe Orpington by-election, 1955 was a parliamentary by-election held on 20 January 1955 for the British House of Commons constituency of Orpington in Kent, England. It followed the death of the incumbent Conservative Member of Parliament Sir Waldron Smithers...
in 1955, and was not selected as a candidate in the
1955 electionThe 1955 United Kingdom general election was held on 26 May 1955, four years after the previous general election. It resulted in a substantially increased majority of 60 for the Conservative government under Sir Anthony Eden against the Labour Party under Clement Attlee...
. She had several further rejections before being selected for
FinchleyFinchley was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election; its best-known MP was Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990...
in April 1958. She won the seat after hard campaigning during the
1959 electionThis United Kingdom general election was held on 8 October 1959. It marked a third successive victory for the ruling Conservative Party, led by Harold Macmillan...
and was elected as a
member of ParliamentThe House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 646 members, who are known as "Members...
. Her
maiden speechA maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly-elected members of a legislature or parliament.Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country...
was in support of her
Private Member's BillA private member's bill or a legislative motion is a proposed law introduced by a backbencher, a so-called private member of parliament...
(
Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960The Public Bodies Act was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1960 which allowed members of the public and press to attend meetings of certain public bodies...
) requiring local councils to hold meetings in public, which was successful. In 1961 she went against the Conservative Party's official position by voting for the restoration of
birchingBirching is a corporal punishment with a birch rod, typically applied to the recipient's bare buttocks, although occasionally to the back and/or shoulders.-Implement:...
.
Within two years, in October 1961, she was given a promotion to the front bench as
Parliamentary Undersecretary at the Ministry of Pensions and National InsuranceThe Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Pensions was a junior Ministerial office at Parliamentary Secretary rank in the United Kingdom Government, supporting the Minister for Pensions. It was established in 1916 and filled intermittently until 1932...
. She held this post throughout the administration of
Harold MacmillanMaurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was a British Conservative politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
, until the Conservatives were removed from office in the
1964 electionThe United Kingdom general election of 1964 was held on 15 October 1964, more than five years after its predecessor, and thirteen years after the Conservative Party had first taken power...
. When
Sir Alec Douglas-HomeAlexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel, KT, PC , 14th Earl of Home from 1951 to 1963, was a British Conservative politician, and served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for a year from October 1963 to October 1964...
stepped down, Thatcher voted for
Edward HeathSir Edward Richard George Heath, KG, MBE , often known as Ted Heath, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975...
in the
leadership election of 1965The Conservative Party leadership election of July 1965 was held to find a successor to Sir Alec Douglas-Home.It was the first time that a formal election by the parliamentary party had taken place, previous leaders having emerged through a consultation process...
over
Reginald MaudlingReginald Maudling was a British politician who held several Cabinet posts, including Chancellor of the Exchequer. He had been spoken of as a prospective Conservative leader since 1955, and was twice seriously considered for the post; he was Edward Heath's chief rival in 1965...
. She was promoted to the position of Conservative spokesman on Housing and Land; in this position, she advocated the Conservative policy of allowing tenants to buy their
council houseThe council house is a form of public or social housing, primarily referred to in the United Kingdom. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well built homes on secure tenancies at below market rents to primarily working class people. Council house development...
s. The policy would prove to be popular. She moved to the Shadow
TreasuryHM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy.- History :...
team in 1966. As Treasury spokesman, she opposed Labour's mandatory price and income controls, which she argued would produce contrary effects to those intended and distort the economy.
Thatcher established herself as a potent conference speaker at the Conservative Party Conference of 1966, with a strong attack on the high-tax policies of the Labour Government as being steps "not only towards Socialism, but towards Communism". She argued that lower taxes served as an incentive to hard work. Thatcher was one of few Conservative MPs to support
Leo AbseLeopold Abse was a Welsh lawyer, politician and gay rights campaigner. He was a Welsh Labour Member of Parliament for nearly 30 years, and was noted for promoting private member's bills to decriminalise male homosexual relations and liberalise the divorce laws...
's Bill to decriminalise male homosexuality and voted in favour of
David SteelDavid Martin Scott Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood, KT, KBE, PC is a British and Scottish politician and a Liberal Democrat member of the UK House of Lords...
's Bill to legalise abortion, as well as a ban on
hare coursingHare coursing is the pursuit of hares with greyhounds and other sighthounds, which chase the hare by sight and not by scent. It is a competitive sport, in which dogs are tested on their ability to run, overtake and turn a hare, rather than a form of hunting aiming at the capture of game. It has a...
. She supported the retention of capital punishment and voted against the relaxation of divorce laws.
In 1967 she was selected by the
Embassy of the United States in LondonThe Embassy of the United States of America to the Court of St James's is at the American Embassy London Chancery Building, in Grosvenor Square, Westminster, London...
to participate in the
International Visitor Leadership ProgramThe International Visitor Leadership Program is a professional exchange program funded by the U.S. Department of State Office of International Visitors in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The purpose of the program is to help build mutual understanding between citizens of the U.S....
(then called the Foreign Leader Program), a professional exchange program in which she spent about six weeks visiting various U.S. cities, political figures, and institutions such as the
International Monetary FundThe International Monetary Fund is an international organization that oversees the global financial system by following the macroeconomic policies of its member countries, in particular those with an impact on exchange rates and the balance of payments...
. Later that year, Thatcher joined the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Fuel spokesman. Shortly preceding the
1970 general electionThe United Kingdom general election of 1970 was held on 18 June 1970, and resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, who defeated the Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The election also saw the Liberal Party and its new leader Jeremy Thorpe lose half their...
, she was promoted to Shadow Transport and, finally, Education.
Education Secretary (1970–1974)
When the Conservative party under
Edward HeathSir Edward Richard George Heath, KG, MBE , often known as Ted Heath, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975...
won the 1970 general election, Thatcher became
Secretary of State for Education and ScienceThe Secretary of State for Education and Skills was the chief minister of the Department for Education and Skills in the United Kingdom government....
. In her first months in office, Thatcher came to public attention as a result of the administration of Edward Heath's decision to cut spending. She gave priority to academic needs in schools, and imposed public expenditure cuts on the state education system, resulting in, against her private protests, the abolition of free milk for school-children aged seven to eleven. She believed that few children would suffer if schools were charged for milk, however she agreed to give younger children a third of a pint, daily, for nutritional purposes. This provoked a storm of protest from the Labour party and the press, and led to the unflattering moniker "Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher". Of the experience, Thatcher later wrote in her autobiography, "I learned a valuable lesson. I had incurred the maximum of political odium for the minimum of political benefit."
She successfully resisted the introduction of library book charges. She did not volunteer spending cuts in her department, contrary to her later beliefs. Her term was marked by support for several proposals for more local education authorities to close grammar schools and to adopt
comprehensive secondary educationA comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. The term is commonly used in relation to the United Kingdom, where comprehensive schools were introduced in the late 1940s to the early 1970s. It corresponds broadly to the...
. Thatcher, committed to a tiered secondary modern / grammar school system of education, was determined to preserve grammar schools, which prepared more students for admission to universities. She abolished Labour's commitment to comprehensive schooling, and instead left the matter to local education authorities.
Leader of the Opposition (1975–1979)
The Heath government experienced many difficulties between 1970 and 1974. The government executed a series of reversals in its economic policies, dubbed "U-turns". The Conservatives were defeated in the February
1974 general electionThe UK general election of February 1974 was held on 28 February 1974. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the only election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party, instead producing a hung...
, and Thatcher's portfolio was changed to Shadow Environment Secretary. In this position she promised to abolish the rating system that paid for local government services, which was a favoured policy proposal within the Conservative Party for many years.
Thatcher thought that the Heath Government had lost control of
monetary policyMonetary policy is the process by which the government, central bank, or monetary authority of a country controls the supply of money, availability of money, and cost of money or rate of interest, in order to attain a set of objectives oriented towards the growth and stability of the economy...
—and had lost direction. After her party lost the
second election of 1974The United Kingdom general election of October 1974 took place on 10 October 1974. It was the second of two United Kingdom general elections held that year. Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, having taken power in a hung parliament after the February election, returned to the polls and won a tiny...
in October, Thatcher, determined to change the direction of the Conservative party, challenged Heath for the Conservative party leadership. She promised a fresh start, and her main support came from the Conservative 1922 Committee. Unexpectedly, she
defeated HeathEdward Heath, leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom had called and unexpectedly lost the February 1974 general election...
on the first ballot, and he resigned the leadership. On the second ballot, she defeated Heath's preferred successor, William Whitelaw, and became Conservative Party leader on 11 February 1975. She appointed Whitelaw as her deputy. Heath remained disenchanted with Thatcher to the end of his life for what he, and many of his supporters, perceived as her disloyalty in standing against him.
In these years Thatcher began to work on her image, specifically her voice and screen image. "The hang-up has always been the voice" wrote the critic
Clive JamesClive James AM is an expatriate Australian author, poet, critic, memoirist, talk show host, television presenter, travel writer and cultural commentator.-Biography:...
, in
The ObserverThe Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In about the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a left-liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-History:The...
. "Not the timbre so much as, well, the
tone - the condescending explanatory whine which treats the squirming interlocutor as an eight year old child with learning deficiencies.
News Extra rolled a clip from May 1973 demonstrating the Thatcher sneer at full pitch. She sounded like a
cat sliding down a blackboard." She worked to change this image and James acknowledged ; "She's
cold ,
hard , quick and superior, and smart enough to know that those qualities could work
for her instead of against."
Thatcher appointed many of Heath's supporters to the Shadow Cabinet, for she had won the leadership as an outsider and then had little power base of her own within the party. Thatcher had to act cautiously to convert the Conservative Party to her monetarist beliefs. She reversed Heath's support for devolved government for
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
On 19 January 1976, she made a speech in Kensington Town Hall in which she made a scathing attack on the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
. The most famous part of her speech ran:
In response, the Soviet Defence Ministry newspaper
Krasnaya ZvezdaKrasnaya Zvezda is a Soviet and later Russian military newspaper. It was founded on January 1 1924. Today its official designation is "Central Organ of the Russian Ministry of Defence."...
(
Red Star) gave her the nickname "
Iron LadyIron Lady is a nickname that has frequently been used to describe female heads of government around the world. The term describes a "strong willed" woman...
". She took delight in the name and it soon became associated with her image as having an unwavering and steadfast character. She was later nicknamed "Attila the Hen" as well.
In an interview in January 1978, Thatcher raised the prospect of the number of Pakistani and Commonwealth Britons doubling to four million by the end of the century, remarking, "people are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture". White liberals and black leaders, and some liberals who were not white, and some whites who were not liberals, accused Thatcher of pandering to xenophobia. Thatcher received 10,000 letters thanking her for raising the subject of immigration, and the Conservatives, previously level with Labour on 43% in opinion polls, took a 48% to 39% lead.
The Labour Government was running into difficulties with industrial disputes and rising unemployment, and eventually collapsing public services during the winter of 1978–79, popularly dubbed the "
Winter of DiscontentThe "Winter of Discontent" is a term used to describe the British winter of 1978–1979, during which there were widespread strikes by local authority trade unions demanding larger pay raises for their members, and because the government of James Callaghan sought to hold a pay freeze to control...
". The Conservatives attacked the government's unemployment record, and used advertising hoardings with the slogan "Labour Isn't Working" to assist them.
In the run up to the
1979 General ElectionThe United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 and is regarded as a pivotal point in 20th century British politics. The Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher defeated James Callaghan's incumbent Labour government in what would prove to be the first of four consecutive general...
, most opinion polls showed that voters preferred
James CallaghanLeonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, KG, PC , was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980...
of the Labour party as Prime Minister, even as the Conservative Party maintained a lead in the polls. After a successful
motion of no confidence in spring 1979The 1979 vote of no confidence in the government of James Callaghan was a vote of no confidence in the British Labour Government of James Callaghan which occurred on the 28 March 1979. The vote was brought by opposition leader Margaret Thatcher and was lost by the Labour Government by one vote —...
, Callaghan's Labour government fell. The Conservatives would go on to win a 44-seat majority in the House of Commons and Margaret Thatcher became the United Kingdom's first female Prime Minister.
Prime Minister (1979–1990)
Thatcher became Prime Minister on 4 May 1979, with a mandate to reverse the UK's economic decline and to reduce the role of the state in the economy. Arriving at
10 Downing Street10 Downing Street is the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury and hence Prime Minister of the United Kingdom...
, she said, in a paraphrase of
St. Francis of AssisiSaint Francis of Assisi was a Catholic deacon and the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans....
:
Thatcher was incensed by one contemporary view within the British Civil Service that its job was to manage the UK's decline from the days of Empire and she wanted the country to assert a higher level of influence and leadership in international affairs. She represented the newly energetic right wing of the Conservative Party and advocated greater independence of the individual from the state and less government intervention. She became a very close ally, philosophically and politically, with President of the United States
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
, elected in 1980. During her tenure as Prime Minister she was said to need just four hours' sleep a night.
New economic initiatives
Thatcher's political and economic philosophy emphasised reduced state intervention,
free marketA free market describes a market without economic intervention and regulation by government except to regulate against force or fraud. The terminology is used by economists and in popular culture. A free market requires protection of property rights, but no regulation, no subsidization, no single...
s, and entrepreneurialism. She vowed to end what she felt was excessive government interference in the economy, and did this through privatising nationally-owned enterprises and selling public housing to tenants. After the
James CallaghanLeonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, KG, PC , was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980...
Government had concluded that the Keynesian approach to demand-side management failed, Thatcher felt that the economy was not self-righting and that new fiscal judgements had to be made to concentrate on inflation. She began her economic reforms by increasing interest rates to slow the growth of the money supply and thus lower inflation. She also placed limits on the printing of money and legal restrictions on trade unions, in her quest to tackle inflation and trade union disputes, which had bedevilled the UK economy throughout the 1970s. In accordance with her anti-interventionist views, she introduced cash limits on public spending and reduced expenditures on social services such as education (until 1987) and housing. Later, in 1985, as a deliberate snub, the
University of OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
voted to refuse Thatcher an honorary degree in protest against her cuts in funding for higher education.
GDP and public spending
by functional classification |
% change in real terms
1979/80 to 1989/90 |
| GDP |
+23.3 |
| Total government spending |
+12.9 |
| Law and order |
+53.3 |
| Employment and training |
+33.3 |
| Health |
+31.8 |
| Social security |
+31.8 |
| Transport |
-5.8 |
| Trade and industry |
-38.2 |
| Housing |
-67.0 |
| Defence |
-3.3 |
At the time, some
HeathiteSir Edward Richard George Heath, KG, MBE , often known as Ted Heath, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975...
Conservatives in the
CabinetIn the politics of the United Kingdom, the Cabinet is the collective decision-making body of Her Majesty's Government, composed of the Prime Minister and some 22 Cabinet Ministers, the most senior of government ministers.H.M...
, the so-called "wets", expressed doubt over Thatcher's "dry" policies. Civil unrest in Britain resulted in the British media discussing the need for a policy u-turn. At the 1980 Conservative Party conference, Thatcher addressed the issue directly, armed with a speech written by the playwright Ronald Millar which included the lines: "You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning!"
Thatcher lowered direct taxes on income amid the deepening
Early 1980s recessionThe early 1980s recession was a severe recession in the United States which began in December of 1980 and ended in November 1982. It has been thought that the primary cause of the recession was a contractionary monetary policy established by the Federal Reserve System to control high inflation.In...
, but, despite concerns expressed in a letter from 364 leading economists, indirect taxes were increased. Unemployment soared, and in December 1981 Thatcher's job approval rating fell to 25%, the lowest of her entire premiership, a lower rating than recorded for any previous prime minister, although she remained more popular than her party.
A month later, in January 1982, the worst post-war slump bottomed out, inflation dropped to 8.6% from an earlier high of 18%, and interest rates fell, although unemployment was now in excess of 3,000,000 for the first time since the
1930sThe 1930s was the decade that ran from January 1, 1930, to December 31, 1939. The first few years of the decade was marked by the Great Depression that had a traumatic effect worldwide. In response authoritarian regimes emerged in several countries in Europe, in particular the Third Reich in...
.
Thatcher's job approval rating recovered to 32%. By 1983, overall economic growth was stronger and inflation and mortgage rates were at their lowest levels since 1970, though manufacturing output had dropped 30% from 1978 and unemployment had more than doubled to 3.6 million.
The term "
ThatcherismThatcherism describes the ideology, political style and policies of the British Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher, who was leader of her party from 1975 to 1990...
" came to refer to her policies as well as aspects of her ethical outlook and personal style, including moral absolutism, nationalism, interest in the individual, and an uncompromising approach to achieving political goals. American author Claire Berlinski, who wrote the biography
There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher MattersThere Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters is a 2008 biographical account of the premiership of Margaret Thatcher written by American author Claire Berlinski....
, argues repeatedly throughout the volume that it was this Thatcherism, specifically her focus on economic reform, that set the United Kingdom on the path to recovery and long term growth.
Northern Ireland
The
hunger strikeThe 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during The Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976, when the British government withdrew Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary prisoners...
was begun by a number of Provisional IRA and
Irish National Liberation ArmyThe Irish National Liberation Army or INLA is an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group that was formed on 8 December 1974. Its goal is to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a united Ireland....
prisoners in
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
's
Maze PrisonHer Majesty's Prison Maze was a prison used to house paramilitary prisoners during the Northern Ireland Troubles from mid-1971 to mid-2000....
to regain the status of political prisoners which had been revoked five years earlier under the preceding Labour government.
Bobby SandsRobert Gerard Sands , commonly known as Bobby Sands, , was an Irish Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer and member of the United Kingdom Parliament who died on hunger strike while in HM Prison Maze .He was the leader of the 1981 hunger strike, in which Irish republican prisoners protested...
began the strike, saying that he would fast until death unless prison inmates won concessions over their living conditions. Thatcher refused to countenance a return to political status for the prisoners, famously declaring "Crime is crime is crime; it is not political" and felt that Britain should not negotiate with terrorists. However, despite holding this view in public, the British government made private contact with republican leaders in a bid to bring the hunger strikes to an end. After nine more men had starved to death and the strike had ended, some rights were restored to paramilitary prisoners, but official recognition of political status was not granted.
Later that year, Thatcher and Irish
TaoiseachThe Taoiseach , plural Taoisigh , also referred to as An Taoiseach , is the head of government of Ireland.The Taoiseach is appointed by the President upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann , and must, while he remains in office, retain the support of a majority in the Dáil...
Garret FitzGeraldGarret FitzGerald was Taoiseach of Ireland, serving two terms in office . FitzGerald was elected to Seanad Éireann in 1965 and was subsequently elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fine Gael TD in 1969. He served as Foreign Affairs Minister from 1973 to 1977...
established the Anglo-Irish Inter-Governmental Council, which would act as a forum for meetings between the two governments. On 15 November 1985, Thatcher and FitzGerald signed the Hillsborough
Anglo-Irish AgreementThe Anglo-Irish Agreement was an agreement between the United Kingdom and Ireland which aimed to bring an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland...
; the first time a British government gave the Republic of Ireland an advisory role in the governance of Northern Ireland.
The Falklands
On 2 April 1982, the ruling military junta in
ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
invaded the
Falkland IslandsThe Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located approximately from the coast of mainland South America, from mainland Antarctica, and from Africa. There are two main islands, East Falkland and West Falkland, as well as 776 smaller islands...
and South Georgia, British overseas territories that Argentina claimed. The following day, Thatcher sent a naval task force to recapture the islands and eject the invaders. The conflict escalated from there, evolving into an amphibious and ground combat operation. Argentina surrendered on 14 June and the operation was hailed a great success, notwithstanding the deaths of 255 British servicemen and three Falkland Islanders. 649 Argentinians also died, half of them after the cruiser
ARA General BelgranoThe ARA General Belgrano was an Argentine Navy cruiser sunk during the Falklands War by the Royal Navy submarine HMS Conqueror with the loss of 323 lives...
was torpedoed by
HMS ConquerorHMS Conqueror was a nuclear-powered fleet submarine that served in the Royal Navy from 1971 to 1990. She was built by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead. As of 2009, she is the only nuclear-powered submarine to have engaged an enemy ship with torpedoes, sinking the cruiser ARA General Belgrano with two...
. Victory in the South Atlantic brought a wave of patriotic enthusiasm and support for the government. Thatcher's personal approval rating rose from 30% to 59%, as measured by
Mori-Surname:*Mori Arinori, statesman, diplomat and founder of Japan's modern educational system*Mori Chack, graphics designer*Mōri Motonari, daimyo*Mori Ōgai, novelist and physician*Mori Sosen ,painter*Mori Mari, novelist *Mori Ranmaru...
, and from 29% to 52%, according to
GallupThe Gallup Organization provides a variety of management consulting, human resources and statistical research services. It has over 40 offices in 27 countries. World headquarters are in Washington, D.C.; operational headquarters are in Omaha, Nebraska...
. Conservative support climbed from 27% to 44%, while Labour's slipped from 34% to 27%.
Critics of Thatcher in Britain remained cynical however, and resisted the wave of support that military success brought her.
Paul FootPaul Mackintosh Foot was a British investigative journalist, political campaigner, author, and long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party...
for example, wrote in the
Daily Mirror: "Every time I hear Margaret Thatcher going on about the cruel military dictatorship in Argentina I repeat that no government in Europe snuggled closer to the junta than hers", that until the invasion her government "had set out to make friends with South American tyrannies especially in Chile and Argentina", William Whitelaw had cut off "the previous Labour government's assistance for political refugees from Argentina", and in 1981 " the debonair
Cecil ParkinsonCecil Edward Parkinson, Baron Parkinson, PC , is a British Conservative politician and former Cabinet Minister.-Early life:...
had flown to Buenos Aires to butter up the junta" and called its economic policy " an example to the British government."
1983 election
Economic recovery from the spring of 1982 bolstered the Thatcher government's popularity, and although many contemporary commentators saw the ensuing
national pollThe 1983 UK general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945.The opposition vote split almost evenly between the SDP/Liberal Alliance and Labour...
as a
khaki electionIn British political history, a khaki election is any national election which is heavily influenced by wartime or postwar sentiment. In the British general election of 1900, the Conservative Party government of Lord Salisbury was returned to office with an increased majority over the Liberal Party...
that was decided by the "Falklands factor", the war had produced a disaggregated boost to Conservative support of no more than 3% for 3 months, suggesting Thatcher's sustained improvement was due instead to successful macroeconomic management. She also faced a divided opposition: Labour was bitterly split; the party had responded to the New Cold War by moving to the left and adopting a policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament, and had lost many senior leaders to the new
Social Democratic PartyThe Social Democratic Party was a political party of the United Kingdom that existed nationwide between 1981 and 1988. It was founded by four senior Labour Party 'moderates', dubbed the Gang of Four: Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams...
in alliance with the
Liberal PartyThe Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the mid 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party to form a new party which would become...
, preventing the formation of an electoral pact against the Conservatives. Labour leader
Michael FootMichael Mackintosh Foot is a British politician and writer. He was leader of the Labour Party from 1980 to 1983.-Family:Foot's father, Isaac Foot, was a solicitor and founder of the Plymouth law firm, Foot and Bowden...
was a left-winger and generally regarded as unelectable, while Conservatives viewed Thatcher as 'their greatest electoral asset'. In the June 1983 general election, the Conservatives won 42.4% of the vote, the Labour party 27.6% and the Alliance 25.4% of the vote. Although the Conservatives' share of the vote had fallen slightly (1.5%) since 1979, Labour's vote had fallen by far more (9.3%) and under the first past the post system, the Conservatives won a
landslide victoryIn politics, a landslide victory is the victory of a candidate or political party by an overwhelming margin in an election.-Australia:...
with a massive majority. This resulted in the Conservative party having an overall majority of 144 MPs.
Privatisation
The policy of privatisation was a central pillar of Thatcherism. After the 1983 election the sale of large state utilities to private companies accelerated.
British PetroleumBP plc is the third largest global energy company, the 5th largest company in the world, the UK's largest company, a multinational oil company with headquarters in St James's, City of Westminster, London...
was privatised in stages in October 1979, September 1983 and November 1987;
British AerospaceBritish Aerospace was a UK aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. In 1999 it purchased Marconi Electronic Systems, the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc, to form BAE Systems....
in January 1981 and 1985; the government share in British Sugar in July 1981; Cable and Wireless in November 1981; Amersham International and National Freight Corporation in February 1982;
BritoilBritoil was originally a privatised British oil company operating in the North Sea. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:...
in November 1982 and August 1985; Associated British Ports in February 1983; Jaguar in July 1984; British Telecom in November 1984; the National Bus Company in October 1986;
British GasBritish Gas plc was formerly the monopoly gas supplier in the United Kingdom.- History :In the early 1900s the gas market in the United Kingdom was mainly run by county councils and small private firms....
in December 1986;
British AirwaysBritish Airways plc is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Waterside near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport and is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations. Its second hub is London Gatwick...
in February 1987; the
Royal OrdnanceBAE Systems Land Systems Munitions is a part of BAE Systems Land Systems, itself a part of BAE Systems' Land & Armaments business. It was formed as Royal Ordnance plc on 2 January 1985 as a public corporation...
in April 1987;
Rolls-RoyceRolls-Royce plc is a British aircraft engine maker, and the second-largest in the world, behind GE Aviation. The company has related businesses in the defence aerospace, marine and energy markets....
in May 1987; the British Airports Authority in July 1987; the Rover Group in August 1988;
British SteelBritish Steel was a major British steel producer. It originated as a nationalised industry, the British Steel Corporation , formed in 1967. This was converted to a limited company, British Steel PLC, and privatised in 1988...
in December 1988; the Regional Water Authorities in November 1989;
GirobankGirobank was a British financial institution founded in 1968. It started life as the National Giro but went through several name changes: National Girobank and, finally, Girobank Plc, before becoming Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank....
in July 1990; and the National Grid in December 1990.
In 1983 Thatcher also broke up and privatised
British ShipbuildersBritish Shipbuilders Corporation was a public corporation that owned and managed the UK shipbuilding industry from 1977 and through the 1980s....
, which had been amalgamated and nationalised by
CallaghanLeonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, KG, PC , was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980...
in 1977 in the lean times following the
1973 oil crisisThe 1973 oil crisis started in October 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC proclaimed an oil embargo" in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military" during the Yom Kippur war; it lasted until March 1974...
, and which still employed 86,000 people building naval and commercial vessels, many in the north-east of England. Few of the privatised shipyards subsequently survived competition against East Asian cheap labour, with the single largest private sector group,
BVTBVT Surface Fleet is a naval shipbuilding and support company owned by BAE Systems.It was formed on 1 July 2008 as a joint venture between BAE Systems and VT Group by the merger of BAE Systems Surface Fleet Solutions and VT Shipbuilding. BAE and VT owned 55% and 45% of the company respectively,...
, now employing a fraction of the nationalised group's number, just over 7,000 people working on
NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
contracts in the
Clyde-Places named Clyde:In Scotland:* River Clyde* Firth of ClydeIn Australia:* Clyde, New South Wales* Clyde, Victoria* Clyde River, New South WalesIn Canada:* Clyde, Prince Edward Island* Clyde, Quebec* Clyde, Ontario* Clyde, Alberta...
and
PortsmouthPortsmouth is a city located in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is the United Kingdom's only island city and is located on Portsea Island. The City of Portsmouth and Portsmouth Football Club are both nicknamed Pompey...
yards.
While privatisation led to marked improvements in the performance of a majority of firms, especially in terms of labour productivity, changes in the competitive environment were less extensive, and no clear pattern emerged between the degree of competition, regulation and performance. Overall, the output and profits of the privatised companies grew, margins increased, and employment declined, but the exact relationship of these changes to privatisation was uncertain.
Many people took advantage of share offers, although many sold their shares immediately for a quick profit and therefore the proportion of shares held by individuals rather than institutions did not increase. By the mid 1980s, the number of individual stockholders had tripled, and the Thatcher government had sold 1.5 million publicly owned housing units to their tenants.
The privatisation of public assets and deregulation of the private sector, particularly the financial sector, was enlisted to drive growth and competition in the economy. In the UK the
Big BangThe phrase Big Bang, used in reference to the sudden deregulation of financial markets, was coined to describe measures including the abolition of the distinction between stockjobbers and stockbrokers on the London Stock Exchange by the United Kingdom government in 1986.This change in the rules of...
of 1986 swept away many of the restrictions which had determined the kind of banks which could locate in London and how they traded. The British government actively encouraged the growth of the financial sector and the service sector more generally to replace the gap left by the decline of manufacturing and the older industrial towns and cities.
Susan StrangeSusan Strange was a British academic who was influential in the field of international political economy. Her most important publications include Casino Capitalism, Mad Money, States and Markets and The retreat of the State : The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy.For a quarter of a century,...
called this new financial growth model
casino capitalism - its business was trading in financial claims and speculation became an ever more important part of its activities, and it would flourish in Anglo-America under the Thatcher and Reagan governments.
Trade unions
Thatcher was committed to reducing the power of the trade unions, whose leadership she accused of undermining parliamentary democracy and economic performance through paralysing strike action. Several unions launched strikes in response to legislation introduced to curb their power, but resistance eventually collapsed. Only 39% of union members voted for Labour in the 1983 general election. According to the BBC, Thatcher "managed to destroy the power of the trade unions for almost a generation."
The number of stoppages across the United Kingdom peaked at 4,583 in the crisis year of 1979 that brought Thatcher to power, with over 29 million working days lost. 1984, the great year of industrial confrontation with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), saw 1,221 stoppages and over 27 million working days lost. Stoppages then fell steadily through the rest of Thatcher's premiership, to 630 by 1990, with under 2 million working days lost, and continued to fall thereafter. Trade union membership also fell, from over 12 million in 1979 to 8.4 million in 1990.
The
miners' strikeThe UK Miners' Strike was major industrial action affecting the British coal industry. It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, and its defeat significantly weakened the British trades union movement...
was the climax of the confrontation between the unions and the Thatcher government. In March 1984 the NUM ordered a strike, without a national ballot, in opposition to
National Coal BoardThe National Coal Board was the Statutory Corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in Britain. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the mines on 'vesting day', 1 January 1947...
proposals to close 20 pits out of 174 state-owned mines and cut 20,000 jobs out of 187,000. Two-thirds of the country's miners downed tools. Thatcher refused to meet the union's demands, and said: "We had to fight the enemy without in the Falklands. We always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty."
Violence was common on the picket lines during the miners' strike; controversial police tactics were used against strikers. The strike resulted in at least three deaths. Two miners, Joe Green and David Jones, were crushed to death by lorries while picketing. Two miners, Dean Hancock and Russell Shankland, were sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for the
manslaughter of taxi driver David WilkieThe killing of David Wilkie occurred on 30 November 1984 when David James Wilkie , a Welsh taxi driver, was killed by two striking miners during the miners' strike that was staged across Britain from March 1984 to March 1985.-Background:...
who was taking a working miner to his colliery. Some 20,000 people were injured in the course of the strike. 11,300 miners and their supporters were arrested and charged with criminal offences.
The NUM's failure to ballot and the picket line violence and intimidation cost the strike public support. A MORI poll in June 1984 found that 41% of people backed the Coal Board, and 35% the miners. By August support for the Board had risen to 46%, while support for the miners had fallen to 30%. The position remained unchanged at the end of the year. The miners' strike also split the trade union movement, with lorry drivers, dockers and power station employees crossing picket lines or handling coal. The strike was described as "one of the most aggressive trade union struggles since the 1926 General Strike", with some commentators even suggesting it was "the nearest the country had come to civil war for 400 years".
Archbishop of CanterburyAlso see Leaders of ChristianityThe Archbishop of Canterbury is the chief bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury, the see that churches must be in communion with in order to be...
Robert RuncieRobert Alexander Kennedy Runcie, Baron Runcie MC PC was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1980 to 1991.-Early life:...
accused Thatcher personally of fostering a "politics of confrontation", and blamed her policies for high unemployment, which he said had created "despair about the future".
After a year out on strike, in March 1985, the NUM leadership conceded without a deal. The cost of the strike to the economy was estimated at least £1.5 billion. The strike was also blamed for much of the pound's fall against the US dollar. The government proceeded to close 25 unprofitable pits in 1985; by 1992, a total of 97 pits had been closed, with the remaining being sold off and privatised in 1994. These actions had great effect on the industrial and political complexion of the country. The eventual closure of 150 collieries, not all of which were losing money, resulted in a loss of tens of thousands of jobs and devastated entire communities, delivering a blow from which the coal industry, with 50 mines employing 6,000 people, has barely begun to recover, with plans for 58 new open-cast mines and up to a dozen new deep mines.
Brighton bombing
On the early morning of 12 October 1984, the day before her 59th birthday, Thatcher narrowly escaped injury in the
Brighton hotel bombingThe Brighton hotel bombing occurred on 12 October 1984 at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England. The bomb was planted by Patrick Magee, a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army...
carried out by the
Provisional Irish Republican ArmyThe Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation which sought to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
. Five people were killed in the attack, including the wife of Cabinet Minister
John WakehamJohn Wakeham, Baron Wakeham, PC, DL , is a businessman and British Conservative Party politician.Since he left government, he has been active in business again, notably being a director of Enron before its collapse....
; a prominent member of the Cabinet,
Norman TebbitNorman Beresford Tebbit, Baron Tebbit CH, PC is a British Conservative politician and former Member of Parliament for Chingford, who was born in Southgate in Enfield...
, was injured, and his wife Margaret was left paralysed. Thatcher was staying at the hotel to attend the Conservative Party Conference, and insisted that the conference open on time the next day. She delivered her speech as planned in defiance of the bombers, a gesture which won widespread approval across the political spectrum, and measurably enhanced her personal popularity with the public. A
Gallup pollThe Gallup Poll is the division of Gallup that regularly conducts public opinion polls in more than 140 countries around the world. Gallup Polls are often referenced in the mass media as a reliable and objective measure of public opinion...
that month found her personal approval rating up from 40% to 50%, and the Conservative lead over Labour widening from 1% to 12%.
Cold War
Thatcher took office in the final decade of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
, a period of strategic confrontation between the Western powers and the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
and its
Warsaw PactThe Warsaw Pact is the informal name for the mutual defense Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance subscribed by eight Communist states in Eastern Europe, that was established at the USSR’s initiative and realised on 14 May 1955, in Warsaw, Poland...
satellites. During her first year as prime minister she supported
NATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
's decision to deploy U.S.
Cruise missileA cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and uses a lifting wing and a propulsion system, usually a jet engine, to allow sustained flight; it is essentially a flying bomb. Cruise missiles are generally designed to carry a large conventional or nuclear warhead many...
s and
Pershing missilePershing was a family of solid-fueled two-stage medium-range ballistic missiles designed and built by Martin Marietta to replace the PGM-11 Redstone missile as the United States Army's primary theater-level weapon. The Pershing systems lasted over 30 years from the first test version in 1960...
s in Western Europe. She permitted the United States to station more than 160 nuclear cruise missiles at Greenham Common, arousing mass protests by the
Campaign for Nuclear DisarmamentThe Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an organization that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by Britain. It also campaigns for international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
.
Thatcher became closely aligned with the policies of U.S. President
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
(1981–1989), and their closeness produced transatlantic cooperation. His policy of
deterrenceDeterrence theory is a military strategy developed during the Cold War. It is especially relevant with regard to the use of nuclear weapons, and figures prominently in current United States foreign policy regarding the development of nuclear technology in North Korea and Iran.The term is also used...
against the Soviets contrasted with the policy of
détenteDétente is a French term, meaning a relaxing or easing; the term has been used in international politics since the early 1970s. Generally, it may be applied to any international situation where previously hostile nations not involved in an open war de-escalate tensions through diplomacy and...
which the West had pursued during the 1970s, and caused friction with allies who still adhered to the idea of
détente.
Thatcher was among the first Western leaders to respond warmly to reformist Soviet leader
Mikhail GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was the second-to-last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991...
. They met in London in 1984, three months before he became General Secretary. Thatcher declared that she liked him, and told Reagan, saying, "we can do business together". Following the Reagan-Gorbachev summit meetings from 1985 to 1988, as well as multiple reforms enacted by Gorbachev in the USSR, Thatcher declared in November 1988, "We're not in a Cold War now" but rather in a "new relationship much wider than the Cold War ever was." She continued, "I expect Mr Gorbachev to do everything he can to continue his reforms. We will support it."
Thatcher initially opposed
German reunificationGerman reunification is the process in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and Berlin was united into a single city-state. The start of this process is commonly referred to by former citizens of the GDR as die Wende...
, telling Premier Gorbachev that “this would lead to a change to postwar borders, and we cannot allow that because such a development would undermine the stability of the whole international situation and could endanger our security.” She expressed concern that a united Germany would align itself closer with the Soviet Union and move away from NATO. Recent records attribute Gorbachev as stating that "the West doesn’t want German reunification but wants to use us to prevent it", possibly because of the line taken by Thatcher and other European leaders such as France's Mr Mitterrand who was even thinking of a military alliance with Russia to stop it, “camouflaged as a joint use of armies to fight natural disasters”.
Thatcher's premiership outlasted the Cold War, which ended in 1989, and those who share her views on it credit her with a part in the West's victory, by both the deterrence and
détente postures.
Nuclear deterrent
In March 1982 Thatcher approved the modernisation of the
strategic nuclear forceThe United Kingdom was the third state to test an independently developed nuclear weapon, in October 1952. It is one of the five "Nuclear Weapons States" under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which the UK ratified in 1968...
by ordering a new generation of
TridentThe UGM-133 Trident II, or Trident D5 is a Submarine-launched ballistic missile, built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale, California, and deployed with the Royal Navy and US Navy...
submarinesThe Vanguard class are the Royal Navy's current nuclear ballistic missile submarines , each armed with up to 16 Trident II Submarine-launched ballistic missiles...
to replace Polaris at a cost of £10 billion, creating 25,000 British jobs. She justified the expenditure on the basis that the United Kingdom was acquiring only the minimum deterrent against Soviet aggression and rejected participation in
START negotiationsSTART is a treaty between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms...
unless the U.S. and Soviet arsenals were substantially reduced. She committed the government to using savings from co-operation with the United States in the nuclear field to strengthen British conventional forces.
Hong Kong
On 19 December 1984, Thatcher and
Deng XiaopingDeng Xiaoping was a prominent Chinese politician, statesman, theorist, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng became a reformer who led China towards market economics...
of the
People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
signed the
Sino-British Joint DeclarationThe Sino-British Joint Declaration, formally known as the Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong, was signed by the Prime Ministers, Zhao Ziyang and Margaret...
, which committed
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
to the status of a Special Administrative Region. Britain agreed to leave the region in 1997.
Bombing of Libya
In April 1986 Thatcher, after expressing initial reservations, permitted U.S. F-111s to use RAF bases for the bombing of Libya in retaliation for the alleged
Libyan bombing of a Berlin discothèqueThe Berlin discotheque bombing of April 5, 1986 was a terrorist attack on the La Belle discotheque, West Berlin, Germany, that was frequented by U.S. soldiers. A bomb placed under a table near the DJ booth exploded at the club, killing a Turkish woman and two U.S. servicemen and injuring 230...
, citing the right of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter.
Thatcher told the House of Commons: "The United States has more than 330,000 forces in Europe to defend our liberty. Because they are there they are subject to terrorist attack. It is inconceivable that they should be refused the right to use American aircraft and American pilots in the inherent right of self-defence to defend their own people."
The United Kingdom was the only nation to provide support and assistance for the U.S. action. Polls suggested that more than two out of three people disapproved of Thatcher's decision to accede to the U.S. request.
Despite the
Lebanon hostage crisisThe Lebanon hostage crisis refers to the systematic kidnapping in Lebanon of 96 foreign hostages of 21 national origins - mostly American and western European - between 1982 and 1992...
in in April 1986, the hijacking of
Pan Am Flight 73Pan Am Flight 73, a Pan American World Airways Boeing 747-121, was hijacked on September 5, 1986, by four armed men of the Abu Nidal Organization...
in September 1986, and the
Lockerbie bombingPan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London's Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. On Wednesday 21 December 1988, the aircraft flying this route—a Boeing 747-121 named Clipper Maid of the Seas—was...
in December 1988, Thatcher insisted that the raid had deterred further Libyan attacks.
Supplementary Extradition Treaty
Thatcher also contended that her support for the U.S. bombing of Libya imposed an obligation on the United States to ratify a new extradition treaty with the United Kingdom in order to stand up to
IRAThe Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation which sought to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
violence. "What is the point," she asked, "of the United States taking a foremost part against terrorism and then not being as strict as they can against Irish terrorism, which afflicts one of their allies?" The U.S.-U.K. Supplementary Extradition Treaty, restricting the application of the political offence exception, signed in June 1986, and coming into force in December, was "hailed as a major improvement in the efforts of democratic nations to fight international terrorism".
Westland affair
Thatcher's preference for defence ties with the United States was also demonstrated in the
Westland affairThe Westland affair was a political scandal for the British Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in 1986. The argument was a result of differences of opinion within the government as to the future of the United Kingdom helicopter industry. The struggling Westland company, Britain's last...
of 1986 when she acted with colleagues to allow the helicopter manufacturer
WestlandWestland Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer located in Yeovil in Somerset. Formed as a separate company by separation from Petters Ltd just before the start of the Second World War, Westland had been building aircraft since 1915...
, a vital defence contractor, to refuse to link with the Italian firm
AgustaAgusta is an Italian helicopter manufacturer. It is based in the province of Varese, northern Italy, with its main manufacturing plant being at Samarate...
in order for it to link with the management's preferred option, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation of the United States. Defence Secretary
Michael HeseltineMichael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH, PC is a British businessman, Conservative politician and patron of the Tory Reform Group....
, who had pushed the Agusta deal, resigned in protest after this, and remained an influential critic and potential leadership challenger.
South Africa
In July 1986 Thatcher expressed her belief that economic sanctions against South Africa would be immoral because they would make thousands of black workers unemployed. Public dissatisfaction with her position grew steadily, reaching 65% in a MORI poll for
The TimesThe Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register....
published in August 1986, following a boycott of the
Commonwealth GamesThe 1986 Commonwealth Games were held in Edinburgh, Scotland for the second time. The Games were held from 24 July-2 August 1986.-Organisation and Controversy:...
in Edinburgh by 32 nations. However just 49% of people surveyed said they would approve of an end to new investment by British companies, and a complete ban on trade, air or sporting links also failed to attract majority support. 46% said sanctions would not help bring an end to apartheid, while 44% said they would.
Local government devolution
In 1986, in a controversial move, the Thatcher government abolished the
Greater London CouncilThe Greater London Council was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council which had covered a much smaller area.-Creation:...
, then led by the left-wing
Ken LivingstoneKenneth Robert Livingstone is an English politician; he has twice held the leading political role in London local government, firstly as Leader of the Greater London Council from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986 by the government of Margaret Thatcher, and secondly as the first Mayor of...
, as well as six Labour controlled
metropolitan county councilsThe metropolitan counties are a type of county-level administrative division of England. There are six metropolitan counties, which each cover large urban areas, typically with populations of 1.2 to 2.8 million...
. The government stated that they ordered this to decrease bureaucracy and increase efficiency, and encouraged transferring power to local councils for increased electoral accountability. Thatcher's opponents, however, held that the move was politically motivated, as the GLC had become a powerful centre of opposition to her government, and the county councils were in favour of higher local government taxes and public spending.
Relationship with the Queen
As Prime Minister, Thatcher met weekly with
Queen Elizabeth IIElizabeth II is the queen regnant of sixteen independent states known informally as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,...
to discuss government business. She was just six months older than the Queen, and their relationship came under close scrutiny, with the media speculating that they did not get along overly well. While they displayed public images that largely contrasted, Tim Bell, a former Thatcher advisor, recalled, "Margaret has the deepest respect for the Queen and all her family". She was said to greet the Queen with a
curtseyA curtsey is a traditional gesture of greeting, in which a girl or woman bends her knees while bowing her head. It is the female equivalent of male bowing in Western cultures...
every time they met.
In July 1986 sensational claims attributed to the Queen's advisers of a "rift" between
Buckingham PalaceBuckingham Palace is the official London residence of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
and
Downing StreetDowning Street is the street in London, England, which for over two hundred years has contained the official residences of two of the most senior British cabinet ministers: the First Lord of the Treasury, an office held by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Second Lord of the...
"over a wide range of domestic and international issues" were reported by
The Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
. The immediate cause was said to be "the Queen's fear for the possible break-up of the
CommonwealthThe Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly part of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values...
" because of Thatcher's rejection of comprehensive sanctions against
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
. Their relationship was characterised as "pragmatic and without any personal antagonism". The Palace issued an official denial, heading off speculation about a possible constitutional crisis. However a MORI poll for the
Evening StandardThe London Evening Standard is a free local daily newspaper, published in tabloid format in London, England. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the southeast of England, with coverage of national and international news and a strong emphasis on City of London finance...
suggested a sharp loss of support for the government following the controversy, giving Labour a 6-point lead, reversing a previous Conservative 6-point lead, while a separate MORI poll for
The TimesThe Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register....
put Labour on 41% with a 9-point lead.
After Thatcher's retirement a senior Palace source again dismissed as "nonsense" the "stereotyped idea" that she had not got along with the Queen or that they had fallen out over Thatcherite policies.
1987 election
At the time of the
1987 general electionThe United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987 and was the third consecutive victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher...
, Labour leader
Neil KinnockNeil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock of Bedwellty is a Welsh Labour politician, who was a Member of Parliament from 1970 to 1995, and was the Leader of the Opposition from 1983 to 1992, when he resigned after being defeated in the 1992 general election...
presided over a party deeply divided on policy agendas. Margaret Thatcher, in turn, led her party to victory, winning an unprecedented third term with a 102 seat majority, and became the longest continuously serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since Lord Liverpool (1812 to 1827), as well as the only Prime Minister of the 20th century to serve three terms. She was elected riding on an economic boom against a weak Labour opposition. The Conservatives won 42.2% of the popular vote, while the Labour party won 30.8% and Alliance won 22.6 %.
Environmental issues
Thatcher, the former chemist, became publicly concerned with environmental issues in the late 1980s. In 1988, she made a major speech communicating the problems of
global warmingGlobal warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. Global surface temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C during the last century...
,
ozone depletionOzone depletion describes two distinct, but related observations: a slow, steady decline of about 4% per decade in the total volume of ozone in Earth's stratosphere since the late 1970s, and a much larger, but seasonal, decrease in stratospheric ozone over Earth's polar regions during the same...
and
acid rainAcid rain is rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, i.e. elevated levels of hydrogen ions . It has harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure. Acid rain is mostly caused by emissions of compounds of sulfur, nitrogen, and carbon which react with the...
.
Continuation of economic changes
Thatcher introduced a new system for the government to raise revenue; she replaced local government taxes with a
Community Charge or "Poll tax"The Community Charge, popularly known as the "poll tax", was a system of taxation introduced in replacement of the rates to part fund local government in Scotland from 1989, and England and Wales from 1990. It provided for a single flat-rate per-capita tax on every adult, at a rate set by the...
, in which property tax rates were made uniform, in that the same amount was charged to every individual resident, and the residential property tax was replaced with a head tax whose rate would be established by local governments. Thatcher's revolutionary system was introduced in Scotland in 1989 and in England and Wales the following year.
A sceptical British public was disenchanted with Thatcher's system of local taxation and it was to be among the most unpopular policies of her premiership. What the Thatcher government did not anticipate was that local councils would raise their total shares from the taxes. As a result, the central Government capped rates that seemed out of line, resulting in charges of partisanship and the alienation of small-government Conservatives. The Prime Minister's popularity declined in 1989 as she continued to refuse to compromise on the tax. Unrest mounted and culminated in a number of
riotsThe UK Poll Tax Riots were a series of mass disturbances, or riots, in British cities during protests against the Community Charge , introduced by the Conservative government led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher...
, the most serious of which occurred at
Trafalgar SquareTrafalgar Square is a square in central London, England. With its position in the heart of London, it is a tourist attraction; and one of the most famous squares in the United Kingdom and the world. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base...
, London, on 31 March 1990; more than 100,000 protesters attended and more than 400 people were arrested.
A BBC Radio poll in September 1989 indicated that almost three-quarters of the public were also against water privatisation. Despite public opposition to the poll tax and the privatisation of water, electricity, and
British RailBritish Railways , which later traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the British railway system from the nationalisation of the 'Big Four' British railway companies in 1948 until privatisation in stages from 1994 to 1997...
, Thatcher remained confident that, as with her other major reforms, the initial public opposition would turn into support after implementation. A MORI poll for the
Sunday Times in June 1988 found that more than 60% of voters agreed that in the long term the Thatcher government's policies would improve the state of the economy, while less than 30% disagreed; although income inequality had increased the poor were still better off than in 1979: 74% of Britons said they were satisfied with their present standard of living, while only 18% were dissatisfied.
Europe
At Bruges, Belgium, in 1988, Thatcher made a speech in which she outlined her opposition to proposals from the
European CommunityThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
, a forerunner to the European Union, for a federal structure and increasing centralisation of decision-making. Though she had supported British membership in the EC, Thatcher believed that the role of the organisation should be limited to ensuring free trade and effective competition, and feared that the EC approach to governing was at odds with her views of smaller government and deregulatory trends; in 1988, she remarked, "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". A split was emerging over European policy inside the British Government and her Conservative Party.
On 30 November 1988, when the
European Court of Human RightsThe European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is an international judicial body established under the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950 to monitor respect of human rights by states...
ruled that Britain's detention provisions were in breach of European law, the policy split extended to parliament with the presentation of a petition calling for a written British constitution. Thatcher reacted angrily to the ECHR ruling, and to the failure of Belgium and Ireland to extradite a suspected terrorist,
Father Patrick RyanFather Patrick Ryan, an Irish Catholic priest, left the Pallottine order in 1973 after refusing a transfer to a parish church in England.A decade later, and alleged by British intelligence of being an IRA godfather, Fr Ryan was accused of involvement in terrorist activities...
, to face charges in Britain. She told the Commons: "We shall consider the judgment carefully and also the human rights of the victims and potential victims of terrorism."
At a meeting before the
MadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. It is the third-most populous municipality in the European Union after Greater London and Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the third-most populous city by urban area in the European Union after Paris and London.The city is located on the river...
European Community summit in June 1989, Chancellor of the Exchequer
Nigel LawsonNigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, PC , is a British Conservative politician and journalist who was Chancellor of the Exchequer between June 1983 and October 1989...
and Foreign Secretary
Geoffrey HoweRichard Edward Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon, CH, QC, PC , previously known as Sir Geoffrey Howe, is a British Conservative politician...
sought to persuade Thatcher to agree to circumstances under which Great Britain would join the Exchange Rate Mechanism, a preparation for monetary union, and abolish the pound as British currency. At the meeting, they both said they would resign if their demands were not met. Thatcher, as well as her economic advisor
Alan WaltersProfessor Sir Alan Arthur Walters was a British economist, best known as the former Chief Economic Adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from 1981 to 1983 and again in 1989 after he had returned from America.- Early life :...
, was opposed to this notion and felt that the pound sterling should be able to float freely, and that membership would constrain the UK economy. Both Lawson and Howe eventually resigned and Thatcher remained firmly opposed to British membership in the European Monetary System.
1989 Leadership election
Thatcher was challenged for the leadership of the Conservative Party by virtually unknown backbench MP Sir
Anthony MeyerSir Anthony John Charles Meyer, 3rd Baronet was a British soldier, diplomat, and Conservative Party politician, best known for standing against Margaret Thatcher for the party leadership in 1989...
in the
1989 leadership electionThe 1989 Conservative Party leadership election took place on 5 December 1989. The incumbent Margaret Thatcher was opposed by the little known MP Sir Anthony Meyer, Bt.-Background:...
. Of the 374 Conservative MPs eligible to vote, 314 voted for Thatcher while 33 voted for Meyer; there were 27 abstentions. Thatcher noted, "I would like to say how very pleased I am with this result and how very pleased I am to have had the overwhelming support of my colleagues in the House and the people from the party in the country", while Meyer said he was delighted as well: "The total result I think is rather better than I had expected". Her supporters in the Party viewed the results as a success, and rejected suggestions that there was discontent within the Party.
Gulf War
Thatcher was visiting the United States when she received word that Iraqi leader
Saddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
had invaded neighbouring Kuwait. She met with US President
George H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States . He was also Ronald Reagan's Vice President , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence....
, who had succeeded Ronald Reagan in 1989, during which Bush asked her, "Margaret, what is your view?" She recalled in an interview that she felt "that aggressors must be stopped, not only stopped, but they must be thrown out. An aggressor cannot gain from his aggression. He must be thrown out and really, by that time in my mind, I thought we ought to throw him out so decisively that he could never think of doing it again." She put pressure on Bush to deploy troops to the Middle East to drive the Iraqi army out of Kuwait. Bush was somewhat apprehensive about the plan, so Thatcher remarked to him during a telephone conversation, "This was no time to go wobbly!" Thatcher's government provided military forces to the international coalition in the
Gulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , known also as the Gulf War, the First Gulf War,or often as the Second Gulf War and by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as The Mother of all Battles, or commonly as Desert Storm, for the military response...
to pursue the ouster of Iraq from Kuwait.
Resignation
Despite having the longest continuous period of office of any prime minister in the twentieth century, Thatcher had, on average during her premiership, the second-lowest approval rating of any post-war prime minister, at 40%, only beating
Edward HeathSir Edward Richard George Heath, KG, MBE , often known as Ted Heath, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975...
; even after the Falklands War it had never risen above 55%; polls consistently showed that she was less popular than the Conservative party. A self-described conviction politician, Thatcher always insisted she did not care about her poll ratings, pointing instead to her unbeaten election record.
Moreover, in relative terms, Thatcher's personal position had remained consistently strong: a Marplan poll for the
Sunday Express in October 1988 showed that Thatcher was still trusted by 61% of Britons to lead the country, compared with only 17% for Labour leader
Neil KinnockNeil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock of Bedwellty is a Welsh Labour politician, who was a Member of Parliament from 1970 to 1995, and was the Leader of the Opposition from 1983 to 1992, when he resigned after being defeated in the 1992 general election...
. Thatcher's capacity to lead was trusted by 87% of Conservative voters and 46% of Labour voters. A Telephone Surveys poll for the
Sunday Express in September 1990, during the Gulf crisis, found that 65% of voters preferred Thatcher as a crisis leader to Kinnock, who polled 20%.
A Mori poll for the
Sunday Times in September 1989 showed that Thatcher was still the public's preferred choice of Conservative leader, attracting the support of 32% of voters, her pro-European former cabinet colleague
Michael HeseltineMichael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH, PC is a British businessman, Conservative politician and patron of the Tory Reform Group....
coming second on 22%. However, by March 1990, in the face of high inflation and rising unemployment, Thatcher's support had halved to 15%, with Heseltine's doubling to 40%. Opposition to the poll tax and the divisions opening in the parliamentary party over
European integrationEuropean integration is the process of political, legal, economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe...
left Thatcher increasingly vulnerable to a challenge.
By November 1990 the Conservatives had been trailing Labour for 18 months. Although a Mori survey for the
Sunday Times showed that 83% of Conservative voters were satisfied by the way Thatcher represented the United Kingdom in Europe, a BBC poll found that Labour had increased its lead by 5 points to 14%, its biggest lead since May, while a poll for the
Evening StandardThe London Evening Standard is a free local daily newspaper, published in tabloid format in London, England. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the southeast of England, with coverage of national and international news and a strong emphasis on City of London finance...
found that Labour had nearly doubled its lead over the Conservatives to 13.2 points. Low poll ratings, along with Thatcher's combative personality and willingness to override colleagues' opinions, contributed to discontent in the parliamentary party.
On 1 November 1990, Geoffrey Howe, for 15 years one of Thatcher's most "loyal and self-effacing" supporters, resigned from his position as Deputy Prime Minister over her refusal to agree to a timetable for British membership of the single currency. In his resignation speech in the Commons on 13 November, referring to Thatcher's promise to veto any arrangement which jeopardised the pound sterling, Howe famously complained: "It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find the moment that the first balls are bowled that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain." Howe's resignation put Thatcher's future in doubt, and was afterwards recognised as dealing a "fatal blow" to her premiership. While 59% of the British public polled for
The IndependentThe Independent is a British newspaper published by Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily newspapers. The daily edition was named National...
by Number Market Research agreed with Thatcher's opposition to monetary union, 64% still felt she ought to retire.
A few days later Heseltine challenged her for the leadership of the party. A
Gallup pollThe Gallup Poll is the division of Gallup that regularly conducts public opinion polls in more than 140 countries around the world. Gallup Polls are often referenced in the mass media as a reliable and objective measure of public opinion...
for the
Daily Telegraph showed that 28% of voters would be more inclined to vote Conservative if Heseltine were leader, and only 7% would be less inclined. Five separate polls indicated that he would give the Conservatives a national lead over Labour. Heseltine attracted sufficient support from the parliamentary party in the first round of voting to prolong the contest to a second ballot. Although Thatcher initially stated that she intended to contest the second ballot, she consulted with her Cabinet and decided to withdraw from the contest. Thatcher said that pressure from her colleagues helped her to conclude that the unity of the Conservative Party and the prospect of victory in the next general election would be more likely if she resigned. Early on the morning of 22 November, the 65-year-old Prime Minister announced to the Cabinet that she would not be a candidate in the second ballot. Thatcher informed the Queen of her decision, and a statement was released from 10 Downing Street at at 09.34:
Some sections of the British public were stunned, but there were also scenes of rejoicing at the news. After visiting the Queen at Buckingham Palace, she later arrived at the House of Commons to a debate;
Neil KinnockNeil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock of Bedwellty is a Welsh Labour politician, who was a Member of Parliament from 1970 to 1995, and was the Leader of the Opposition from 1983 to 1992, when he resigned after being defeated in the 1992 general election...
, Leader of the Opposition, proposed a motion of no confidence in the government, and Thatcher displayed her combativeness. She said:
Later years
Mrs Thatcher retained her parliamentary seat in the House of Commons as MP for Finchley for two years despite returning to the backbenches after leaving the premiership. She supported
John MajorSir John Major, KG, CH, ACIB , is a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and former Leader of the Conservative Party. He held these posts from 1990 to 1997....
as her successor and he duly won the leadership contest, although in the years to come her approval of Major would fall away. She occasionally spoke in the House of Commons after she was Prime Minister, commenting and campaigning on issues regarding her beliefs and concerns. In 1991, she was given a five minute, unprecedented standing ovation at the party's annual conference. She retired from the House at the
1992 electionThe United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party.John Major had won the leadership election in November 1990 succeeding the outgoing PM Margaret Thatcher....
, at the age of 66 years; she said that leaving the Commons would allow her more freedom to speak her mind.
After Parliament
Margaret Thatcher became a peer in
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
in 1992 by the bestowal of a life peerage as
Baroness Thatcher, of
KestevenThe Parts of Kesteven are a traditional subdivision of Lincolnshire, England. This subdivision had long had a separate county administration , along with the other two parts Lindsey and Holland).- Etymology :...
in the County of Lincolnshire. Thatcher had already been honoured by the Queen in 1990, shortly after her resignation as Prime Minister, when awarded the
Order of MeritThe Order of Merit
is an order recognizing distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture...
, one of the UK's highest distinctions and in the personal conferment of the sovereign. At the same time it was announced that her husband, Denis, would be given a
baronetA baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown known as a baronetcy...
cy, which was confirmed in 1991 (ensuring that their son,
MarkSir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet is the only son of Sir Denis Thatcher and Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, and twin brother of Carol Thatcher...
, would inherit a title). In 1995, Baroness Thatcher was appointed a Lady Companion of the
Order of the GarterThe Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry, or knighthood, originating in medieval England, and presently bestowed on recipients in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms; it is the pinnacle of the honours system in the United Kingdom...
, the United Kingdom's highest order of
ChivalryChivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of knighthood. It is usually associated with ideals of knightly virtues, honor and courtly love. The word is derived from the French word chevalier, indicating one who rides a horse Chivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of...
.
After leaving the House of Commons, Thatcher remained active in politics. She wrote two volumes of memoirs:
The Downing Street Years, published in 1993 and
The Path to Power published in 1995. A third book followed these,
Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, detailing her thoughts on
international relationsInternational relations or International studies represents the study of foreign affairs and global issues among states within the international system, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , non-governmental organizations , and multinational corporations...
since her resignation in 1990.
In August 1992 Thatcher called for
NATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
to stop the Serbian assault on
GoraždeGoražde is a city and municipality in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina on the Drina river. It is located between Foča, Sokolac and Višegrad, and is administratively part of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the center of the Bosnian Podrinje Canton....
and
SarajevoSarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 304,614 people in the four municipalities that make up the city proper, and an estimated urban area population of 421,289 people in the Sarajevo Canton . It is also the capital of the Federation of Bosnia and...
in order to end
ethnic cleansingEthnic cleansing is a term that has come to be used broadly to describe all forms of ethnically inspired violence, ranging from murder, rape, and torture to the forcible removal of populations...
and to preserve the
BosnianBosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( or (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian Latin: Bosna i Hercegovina; Serbian Cyrillic: Босна и Херцеговина) is a country in Southeast Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula...
state. She described the situation in Bosnia as "reminiscent of the worst excesses of the Nazis," warning that there could be a "holocaust" in Bosnia and described the conflict as a "killing field the like of which I thought we would never see in Europe again." She made a series of speeches in the Lords criticising the
Maastricht TreatyThe Maastricht Treaty was signed on 7 February 1992 in Maastricht, the Netherlands after final negotiations on 9 December 1991 between the members of the European Community and entered into force on 1 November 1993 during the Delors Commission. It created the European Union and led to the creation...
, describing it as "a treaty too far" and stated "I could never have signed this treaty". She cited
A. V. DiceyAlbert Venn Dicey was a British jurist and constitutional theorist who wrote An Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution . The principles it expounds are considered part of the uncodified British constitution...
, to the effect that, since all three main parties were in favour of revisiting the treaty, the people should have their say.
From 1993 to 2000, Lady Thatcher served as Chancellor of the
College of William and MaryThe College of William & Mary in Virginia is a public research university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States...
in Virginia, which, established by
Royal CharterIn medieval Europe, royal charters were used to create cities . The date that such a charter was granted is considered to be when a city was "founded", regardless of when the locality originally began to be settled.At one time a royal charter was the only way in which an incorporated body could be...
in 1693, is the sole royal foundation in the contiguous United States. She was also Chancellor of the
University of BuckinghamThe University of Buckingham is the only degree-awarding independent university in the United Kingdom. The university has the highest ranking in the UK for student satisfaction. Its highest-rated departments are English, Business, and Law ....
, the UK's only private university.
After
Tony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
's
election as Labour Party leaderA leadership election was held on July 21, 1994 for the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, after the death of incumbent leader John Smith. With the unpopularity of John Major's Conservative Party following Black Wednesday and a number of sleaze scandals the 1994 election would ultimately decide...
in 1994, Thatcher gave an interview in May 1995 in which she praised Blair as "probably the most formidable Labour leader since
Hugh GaitskellHugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell was a British Labour politician, who served in a number of Cabinet positions under various governments, and was the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1955, until his untimely death in 1963.-Early life:He was born in London, England, and...
. I see a lot of socialism behind their front bench, but not in Mr Blair. I think he genuinely has moved."
Lady Thatcher visited former Chilean president
Augusto PinochetAugusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was a Chilean army general and later head of state as president. He was the Commander in Chief of the Chilean army from 1973 to 1998, president of the Government Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981 and President of the Republic from 1974 until the return of...
, once a key British ally during the 1982 Falklands War, while he was under house arrest in Surrey in 1998. Pinochet was fighting extradition to Spain for alleged human rights abuses committed during his tenure. Thatcher expressed her support and friendship for Pinochet, who had swept to power on a wave of military violence and torture in the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, thanking him for his support in 1982 and for "bringing democracy to Chile."
In 1999, during Thatcher's first speech to a Conservative Party conference in nine years, she contended that Britain's problems came from continental Europe. Her comments aroused some criticism from Sir
Malcolm RifkindSir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind KCMG QC MP is a British Conservative politician and Member of Parliament for the constituency of Kensington and Chelsea. He served in various roles as a Cabinet Minister under both Margaret Thatcher and John Major, before becoming Foreign Secretary in 1995 in Major's...
, a former Foreign Secretary under Sir
John MajorSir John Major, KG, CH, ACIB , is a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and former Leader of the Conservative Party. He held these posts from 1990 to 1997....
, who said that Lady Thatcher's comments could give the impression that Britain is prejudiced against Europe.
In the
2001 general electionThe UK general election, 2001 was held on 7 June 2001 and was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media. There was little change at all - outside Northern Ireland - with 620 out of 641 seats remaining unchanged. Labour enjoyed its second so-called 'landslide victory' in a row, maintaining its...
, Lady Thatcher supported the Conservative general election campaign but this time did not endorse Iain Duncan Smith in public as she had done previously for John Major and William Hague. In the
Conservative leadership electionThe 2001 Conservative leadership election was held after the United Kingdom Conservative Party failed to make inroads into the Labour government's lead in the 2001 general election. Party leader William Hague resigned, and a leadership contest was called under new rules Hague had introduced...
shortly after, she supported
Iain Duncan SmithGeorge Iain Duncan Smith is a British politician, the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Chingford and Woodford Green. He was leader of the Conservative Party from 12 September 2001 to 6 November 2003...
because she believed he would "make infinitely the better leader" than Kenneth Clarke.
Activities since 2003
Thatcher was widowed upon the death of Sir Denis Thatcher on 26 June 2003. A funeral service was held honouring him at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea on 3 July with Thatcher present, as well as her children Mark and Carol. Thatcher paid tribute to him by saying, "Being Prime Minister is a lonely job. In a sense, it ought to be—you cannot lead from a crowd. But with Denis there I was never alone. What a man. What a husband. What a friend".
Now in her declining years, she began complaining about her "lost" family, (Mark in South Africa, Carol in Switzerland), but her daughter was less than sympathetic; "A mother cannot reasonably expect her grown-up children to boomerang back, gushing cosiness and make up for lost time. Absentee Mum, then Gran in overdrive is not an equation that balances."
The following year, on 11 June, Thatcher travelled to the United States to attend the state funeral service for former US President
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
and one of her closest friends at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Thatcher delivered a
eulogyA eulogy is a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially one recently deceased or retired Eulogies may be given as part of funeral services, however some denominations either discourage or do not permit eulogies at services to maintain respect for traditions...
via videotape to Reagan; in view of her failing mental faculties following several small strokes, the message had been pre-recorded several months earlier. Thatcher then flew to
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
with the Reagan entourage, and attended the memorial service and interment ceremony for President Reagan at the
Ronald Reagan Presidential LibraryThe Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Center for Public Affairs is the presidential library and final resting place of Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th President of the United States. Designed by Hugh Stubbins and Associates, the library is located in Simi Valley, California, about northwest of...
.
Thatcher marked her 80th birthday with a celebration at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hyde Park, London on 13 October 2005, where the guests included
the QueenElizabeth II is the queen regnant of sixteen independent states known informally as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,...
,
The Duke of EdinburghThe Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. Philip was originally a royal prince of Greece and Denmark, and thus a member of the Danish-German House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, but renounced these titles shortly before his marriage and adopted the...
,
Princess AlexandraPrincess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy , is a member of the British Royal Family, the youngest granddaughter of King George V and Queen Mary. She is the widow of Sir Angus Ogilvy. Prior to her marriage she was known as Princess Alexandra of Kent...
and Tony Blair. There, Geoffrey Howe, now Lord Howe of Aberavon, said of his former boss, "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."
In 2006, Thatcher attended the official Washington, D.C. memorial service to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States. She attended as a guest of the US Vice President,
Dick CheneyRichard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 in the administration of George W. Bush....
, and met with US Secretary of State
Condoleezza RiceCondoleezza Rice is a professor, diplomat, author, and national security expert. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and the second to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
during her visit. On 12 November, she appeared at the
Remembrance DayRemembrance Day – also known as Poppy Day, Armistice Day or Veterans Day – is a day to commemorate the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and of civilians in times of war, specifically since the First World War. It is observed on 11 November to recall the end of World War I on...
parade at the
CenotaphA cenotaph is a tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of persons whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been interred elsewhere. The word derives from the Greek κενοτάϕιον...
in London, leaning heavily on the arm of Sir John Major. On 10 December she announced she was "deeply saddened" by the death of Augusto Pinochet.
In February 2007, she became the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to be honoured with a statue in the Houses of Parliament while still living. The statue is made of bronze and stands opposite her political hero and predecessor, Sir
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
. The statue was unveiled on 21 February 2007 with Lady Thatcher in attendance; she made a rare and brief speech in the members' lobby of the House of Commons, reposting, "I might have preferred iron — but bronze will do... It won't rust." The statue shows her as if she were addressing the House of Commons, with her right arm outstretched. Thatcher said she was thrilled with it.
On 13 September 2007, Thatcher was invited to
10 Downing Street10 Downing Street is the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury and hence Prime Minister of the United Kingdom...
to have tea with Prime Minister
Gordon BrownJames Gordon Brown is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party. Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair and three days after becoming leader of the governing Labour Party...
and his wife,
SarahSarah Brown is the wife of Gordon Brown, the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She was also a founding partner of Hobsbawm Macaulay Communications, a public relations company.-Early life:...
. Brown referred to Lady Thatcher as a "conviction politician."
On 30 January 2008, Thatcher met incumbent Conservative Leader
David CameronDavid William Donald Cameron is the leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition in the United Kingdom. He has occupied both positions since December 2005....
at an awards ceremony at London's
GuildhallThe Guildhall is a building in the City of London, off Gresham Street and Basinghall Street, in the wards of Bassishaw and Cheap. It has been used as a town hall for several hundred years, and is still the ceremonial and administrative centre of the City of London and its Corporation...
where she was presented with a 'Lifetime Achievement Award'.
In May 2009, she traveled to Rome to meet Pope Benedict XVI in a private audience at the Vatican. She had previously met Paul VI in 1977 and John Paul II in 1980.
Health concerns
Thatcher suffered several small strokes in 2002 and she was advised by her doctors not to engage in any more public speaking. As a result of the strokes, her short term memory began to falter. Her former press spokesman Sir
Bernard InghamSir Bernard Ingham is a journalist and former civil servant who is best known as Margaret Thatcher's Chief Press Secretary whilst she was Prime Minister. Today Ingham lectures in Public Relations at Middlesex University in London...
said in early 2007, "She's now got no short-term memory left, which is absolutely tragic."
Thatcher was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital, Central London on 7 March 2008, for tests after collapsing at a
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
dinner. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where she spent one night. The incident was probably caused by her low blood pressure and stuffy conditions within the dining hall.
On 24 August 2008 it was publicly disclosed that Thatcher has been suffering from dementia. Her daughter Carol described in her 2008 memoir,
A Swim-on Part in the Goldfish Bowl, first observing in 2000 that Thatcher was becoming forgetful. The condition later became more noticeable; at times, Thatcher thought that her husband Denis, who died in 2003, was still living. Carol Thatcher recalls that her mother's memories of the time she spent as Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990 remain among her sharpest.
In June 2009 Thatcher broke a bone in her arm in a fall at home. She underwent a 45 minute surgical procedure to insert a pin into her upper arm. She spent a total of three weeks in hospital before being discharged.
Legacy
Thatcher remains identified with her remarks to the reporter Douglas Keay, for
Woman's OwnWoman's Own is a British lifestyle magazine aimed at women.Woman's Own was first published in 1932. It is one of the UK's most famous women's magazines and is published by IPC Media....
magazine, 23 September 1987:
To her supporters, Margaret Thatcher remains a revolutionary figure who revitalised Britain's economy, impacted the trade unions, and re-established the nation as a world power. But Thatcher was also a controversial figure, in that her premiership was also marked by high unemployment and social unrest, and many critics fault her economic policies for the unemployment level. Yet speaking in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
in April 2009, before the 30th anniversary of her election as prime minister, Thatcher declared: "I regret nothing," and insisted she "was right to introduce the
poll taxThe Community Charge, popularly known as the "poll tax", was a system of taxation introduced in replacement of the rates to part fund local government in Scotland from 1989, and England and Wales from 1990. It provided for a single flat-rate per-capita tax on every adult, at a rate set by the...
and to close loss-making industries to end the country's 'dependency culture'." Critics, however, have regretted her influence in the abandonment of full employment, poverty reduction and a consensual civility as bedrock policy objectives. The tone of many recent biographers has been 'that of a policeman examining a nasty crime scene' and
Michael WhiteMichael White is an associate editor and former political editor of The Guardian. White was raised in Wadebridge, Cornwall. He was educated at Bodmin Grammar School and then studied for a BA in History at University College London...
writing in
The New StatesmanThe New Statesman was an award-winning British sitcom of the late 1980s and early 1990s satirising the Conservative government of the time...
in February 2009 wondered if the ' hubristic collapse of the free-market model of capitalism that she promoted [had] dealt her another blow. Who was it who first removed the seat belts and airbags from the safe-but-boring Volvo that the West built after 1945? 'Her freer, more promiscuous version of capitalism' in
Hugo YoungHugo John Smelter Young was a British journalist and columnist and senior political commentator at The Guardian.-Early life and education:...
's phrase is reaping a darker harvest."
The
Labour partyThe Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again...
, in adapting its social democratic agenda, incorporated much of the economic, social and political tenets of Thatcherism. Thatcher's programme of
privatisingPrivatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector...
state-owned enterprises has not been reversed. Indeed, successive Conservative and Labour governments have further curtailed direct state management of the economy and have further dismantled public ownership. Yet Thatcher's growth model, as it promoted privatisation of public assets and deregulation of the private sector, particularly the financial sector, its encouragement of the financial sector to 'create new ways of spreading risk and expanding credit' has, since 2008, looked less definitive. The financial revolution in London in the 1980s meant that among the large economies none rivalled Britain for the relative size of its financial sector. Whether the events of 2008-2009, "the collapse of a particular growth model and ideology, the discrediting of many of the prescriptions of neo-liberalism,
and the dramatic return of the state, in the form of bank bailouts and nationalizations - constitute a permanent and major political and ideological shift, or whether the changes will only prove to be temporary" - is still to be seen. In his 2009 TV series 'Off Kilter', looking at Scotland, the cultural commentator
Jonathan MeadesJonathan Meades is a British writer on food, architecture, and culture, as well as an author and broadcaster...
spoke of Thatchers legacy in Fife: "Fife's mining towns and villages were victims, collateral as they say, of that bloody spat of 25 years ago ; - mining
might, just
might, have been economically exhausted, but it was socially cohesive; its undeniable that jobs do foment pride, they inculcate an idea of self worth. Finchley was quite incapable of empathy. There is much to be said in favour of inefficient industry , not least that that the human cost of efficiency and adherence to the bottom line does not have to be paid, - nor for that matter does unemployment benefit have to be paid to the tens of thousands rationalised into involuntary idleness. Further, the Finchley faith, which became the enthusiastically adopted cross party consensus of the past 25 years, the
faith that manufacturing industry was an irrelevance, and that an entire economy, a soufflé economy, might be founded on the no-holds-barred selflessness of deregulated debt rights, peddling expensive money, proved to be just that, a
faith, an expression of unfounded wishfulness."
After her resignation in 1990, a
MORIIpsos MORI is the second largest survey research organisation in the UK, formed by two of the UK's leading survey companies in October 2005. MORI was originally founded in 1969 by Robert Worcester, and was the largest independent research organisation in the United Kingdom...
poll found that 52% of Britons agreed that "On balance she had been good for the country", while 48% disagreed. In April 2008, the
Daily Telegraph commissioned a
YouGovYouGov is an international internet-based market research firm launched in the UK in May 2000 by Stephan Shakespeare and Nadhim Zahawi . In 2005 the company opened an office in the Middle East, YouGovSiraj, and in 2007 it further expanded by acquiring market research firms in the USA, Germany and...
poll asking whom Britons regarded as the greatest post-World War II prime minister; Thatcher came in first, receiving 34% of the vote, while Winston Churchill ranked second with 15%.
Recently, proponents of the "end of capitalism" thesis have speculated tentatively about "the death of
ThatcherismThatcherism describes the ideology, political style and policies of the British Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher, who was leader of her party from 1975 to 1990...
," linking the 1986 deregulation of the financial industry to the
2008 world financial crisisThe financial crisis of 2007–2009 has been called the worst financial crisis since the one related to the Great Depression by leading economists, and it contributed to the failure of key businesses, declines in consumer wealth estimated in the trillions of U.S. dollars, substantial financial...
. The link is rejected by others,
The EconomistThe Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in an office in the City of Westminster, London. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843. While The Economist calls itself a...
s opinion column
Bagehot for example, argued that: "There have been too many intervening years, factors and governments for the case to stand up—though it reflects Mrs Thatcher's mythic status that, for some, she
must be to blame".
Conversely, Conservative leaders sense in the crisis "the death of New Labour". Thatcher's defenders argue that the current downturn is dwarfed by the wealth generated by decades of growth, and note that the banking crisis began under the divided, tripartite regulatory system introduced by
Gordon BrownJames Gordon Brown is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party. Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair and three days after becoming leader of the governing Labour Party...
in 1997. Others, the conservative Claire Berlinski for example, point to Thatcher's control of the money supply and cite the 1986 Financial Services Act as evidence of her own emphasis on "stringent banking regulation", and contend that the big-spending Labour government only lasted as long as it did "because it inherited the best economic situation of any 20th-century government". These arguments are evidence that neo-liberal apologists 'are already seeking to develop their own narrative of the crash and what caused it, arguing that the crisis has been caused by failures of regulation rather than failures of markets. Neo-liberals hope by this means to seize back the ground they have lost. But, like Keynesianism in the 1970s, neo-liberalism has suffered some hammer blows." "The 'efficient markets thesis', the belief that markets if left alone would always price assets correctly, is in ruins."
Thatcher herself made known in April 2009 that she was "appalled" by Brown's handling of the economy, seeing it as "a repeat" of the crisis of the 1970s that had brought her radical reforming government to power. Pointing to the "huge convergence around liberal labour markets, liberal migration policies and high levels of public spending," one leading analyst summed up the new policy paradigm as: "Thatcher plus
KeynesKeynesian economics is a macroeconomic theory based on the ideas of 20th-century British economist John Maynard Keynes...
".
Honours
In addition to her conventional appointment as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council (PC) upon becoming Secretary of State for Education and Science in 1970 Thatcher has received numerous honours as a result of her career, including being named a
Lady of the Most Noble Order of the GarterThe Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry, or knighthood, originating in medieval England, and presently bestowed on recipients in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms; it is the pinnacle of the honours system in the United Kingdom...
(LG). She is a
Member of the Order of MeritThe Order of Merit
is an order recognizing distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture...
(OM) as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and the first woman entitled to full membership rights as an honorary member of the
Carlton ClubThe Carlton Club is a gentlemen's club in London which describes itself as the "oldest, most elite, and most important of all Conservative clubs."-History:...
, a gentlemen's club.
In 1999 Thatcher was among 18 included in
Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th centuryGallup's List of Widely Admired People, a poll of United States citizens to volunteer the names of the individuals whom they most admire, is a list compiled annually by The Gallup Organization. This is the only question that Gallup has asked every year since its founding in the 1930s...
, from a poll conducted of Americans. In a 2006 list compiled by
New StatesmanThe New Statesman is a British left-wing political magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
, she was voted 5th in the list of "Heroes of our time". She was also named a "Hero of Freedom" by the libertarian magazine
ReasonReason is a libertarian monthly magazine from the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 60,000 and has twice been named one of the "50 best magazines" by the Chicago Tribune.- History :...
. In the Falkland Islands, Margaret Thatcher Day is celebrated as a public holiday every 10 January, commemorating her visit on this date in 1983, seven months after the military victory; the decision was taken by the Falklands Islands legislature in 1992. Thatcher Drive in
StanleyStanley is the capital and only true cityin the Falkland Islands. It is located on the isle of East Falkland, on a north-facing slope, south of Stanley Harbour, in one of the wettest parts of the islands...
, the site of government, is also named for her. In South Georgia,
Thatcher PeninsulaThatcher Peninsula is a mountainous cove in north-central South Georgia terminating to the north in Mai Point, rising between Cumberland West Bay to the west, and Cumberland East Bay and Moraine Fjord to the east; bounded to the southwest and south by Lyell Glacier and Hamberg Glacier...
, where the Task Force troops first set foot on Falklands soil, also bears her name.
Upon her death, it has been suggested that Lady Thatcher be granted the rare honour of a state funeral. However, this has proved controversial, and the government has stated that they are undecided on the issue.
Thatcher has also been awarded numerous honours from foreign countries. In 1990, she was awarded the
Presidential Medal of FreedomThe Presidential Medal of Freedom is a decoration bestowed by the President of the United States and is, along with theequivalent Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress, the highest civilian award in the U.S...
, the highest civilian honour awarded by the United States. She was also given the
Republican Senatorial Medal of FreedomThe United States Republican Senatorial Medal of Freedom, is the highest and most prestigious award that Republican U.S. Senators can bestow on an individual...
,
Ronald Reagan Freedom AwardThe Ronald Reagan Freedom Award is the highest civilian honor bestowed by the private Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. The award is given to "those who have made monumental and lasting contributions to the cause of freedom worldwide."...
, and named a patron of the
Heritage FoundationThe Heritage Foundation is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C.The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies drew significantly from Heritage's policy study Mandate for Leadership. Heritage has since continued to...
. She was also awarded the
Grand Order of King Dmitar ZvonimirThe Grand Order of King Dmitar Zvonimir , or more fully the Grand Order of King Dmitar Zvonimir with sash and Morning Star , is an order of the Republic of Croatia...
, the fourth highest state order of the Republic of Croatia.
Cultural depictions
Cultural depictions of Margaret ThatcherThis page is a list of depictions of Margaret Thatcher onstage, in film and in other forms of fiction.-Film:*Back in Business - Caroline Bernstein*I Am Bob - Caroline Bernstein*For Your Eyes Only - Janet Brown...
have featured in a number of television programs, documentaries, films and plays; among the most notable depictions of her are
Patricia HodgePatricia Ann Hodge is an English actress.-Early life:The daughter of the Royal Hotel owner/manager Eric and his wife Marion , Hodge attended Wintringham Girls' Grammar School on Weelsby Avenue in Grimsby and then St...
in
The Falklands PlayThe Falklands Play is a dramatic account of the political events leading up to, and including, the 1982 Falklands War. The play was written by Ian Curteis, an experienced writer who had started his television career in drama, but had increasingly come to specialise in dramatic reconstructions of...
(2002) and
Lindsay DuncanLindsay Vere Duncan, CBE is a Scottish actress. She is a noted stage and television actress, winning the Tony Award for Private Lives.-Personal life:...
in
MargaretMargaret is a 2009 television film produced by Great Meadow Productions for the BBC. It is a fictionalisation of the life of Margaret Thatcher and her fall from the premiership in the 1990 leadership election. It was first broadcast on 26 February 2009 on BBC Two...
(2009). She was also the inspiration for a number of
protest songA protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs . It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre...
s.
Titles
The
styleA style of office, or honorific, is a legal, official, or recognized title, in other words a term which by tradition or law precedes a reference to a person who holds a post, or which is used to refer to the political office itself. An honorific can also be awarded to an individual in a personal...
s and titles Thatcher has held from birth are, in chronological order:
- Miss Margaret Roberts (13 October 1925 – 13 December 1951)
- Mrs Denis Thatcher (13 December 1951 – 8 October 1959)
- Mrs Denis Thatcher, MP (8 October 1959 – 22 June 1970)
- The Rt Hon.
The Right Honourable is an honorific prefix that is traditionally applied to certain people in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Anglophone Caribbean and other Commonwealth Realms, and occasionally elsewhere...
Margaret Thatcher, MP, PC (22 June 1970 – 7 December 1990)
- The Rt Hon. Margaret Thatcher, OM, MP, PC (7 December 1990 – 4 February 1991)
- The Rt Hon. Lady Thatcher, OM, MP, PC (4 February 1991 – 16 March 1992)
- The Rt Hon. Lady Thatcher, OM, PC (16 March 1992 – 26 June 1992)
- The Rt Hon. The Baroness Thatcher, OM, PC (26 June 1992 – 22 April 1995)
- The Rt Hon. The Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC (since 22 April 1995)
Further reading
Biographies
Books by Thatcher
Ministerial autobiographies
External links
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