Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

BigWorld Blog's Conservative Heroes Hall of Fame honors Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

 

Great Britain's Iron Lady was the longest serving Prime Minsiter in 150 years, and the first (and so far the only) woman to ever hold that role.  Her steadfast leadership in the United Kingdom helped win the Cold War.  Along with her ideological twin, Ronald Reagan, Lady Thatcher  was able to change the history of the world.

 

A biography of PM Thatcher and a commentary by Stephen Davies follow.

 

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From: http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page126.asp

 

Margaret Thatcher 1979-90 Conservative

Born: 13 October 1925 in Grantham, Lincolnshire

First entered Parliament: 8 October 1959

Age she became PM: 53 years, 204 days

Maiden Speech: 5 February 1960 during the second reading of her Private Member's Bill

Total time as PM: 11 years, 209 days

Facts and figures

Nickname: "The Iron Lady"

Education: Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School and Somerville College,

Oxford

Family: Margaret Thatcher is the younger of two daughters. She married Sir Dennis Thatcher, and has one son and one daughter

Interests: Music, art, opera and reading

Biography

Breaking the barriers

Margaret Thatcher was the longest serving Prime Minister for more than 150 years and was the first woman ever to take the role.

Her father, a shopkeeper and Mayor of Grantham, was a major formative influence.

Thatcher was educated at the local grammar school and at Oxford where she studied chemistry. She also became president of the university Conservative association.

Mrs Thatcher later read for the Bar, before being elected in 1959 as the Conservative MP for Finchley.

She held junior posts before becoming shadow spokesperson for Education, and entered the Cabinet as Education Secretary in 1970.

In Opposition she stood against Edward Heath for the party leadership in 1975. Her victory was considered a surprise by many. In 1979, the Conservative Party won the General Election and Margaret Thatcher succeeded James Callaghan as PM.

Thatcher's first two years in office were not easy. Unemployment was very high, but the economy gradually showed improvement. She brought more of her supporters into the Cabinet, and bolstered her reputation by leading the country to war against Argentina in the Falkland Islands.

Landslide victory

The Conservatives went on to win the 1983 election by a landslide, aided by a fragmented opposition. Margaret Thatcher's government followed a radical programme of privatisation and deregulation, reform of the Trade Unions, tax cuts and the introduction of market mechanisms into health and education. The aim was to reduce the role of government and increase individual self-reliance.

She also became a familiar figure internationally, striking up a famous friendship with US President Reagan and gaining the praise of Soviet leader Gorbachev.

One great difficulty during her time in office was the issue of Europe. Her long-serving Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe resigned in November 1990 in protest at Thatcher's attitude to Europe.

Final downfall

His resignation speech set in train events which were to lead to Thatcher's downfall later that month.

Michael Heseltine challenged her for the leadership, and while he failed to win, he gained 152 votes - enough to make it evident that a crucial minority favoured a change. Thatcher was eventually persuaded not to go forward to the second ballot, which was won by her Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Major.

She left the House of Commons in 1992, and now sits in the Lords as Baroness Thatcher. Margaret Thatcher's writings include two volumes of memoirs: The Downing Street Years and The Path to Power.

The Baroness is still seen at Tory party gatherings and has endorsed party leaders such as William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

Quote unquote

"It will be years before a woman either leads the Conservative Party or becomes prime minister. I don't see it happening in my time" (in 1970)

Did you know?

Before Thatcher became an MP, she worked as a research chemist for British Xylonite and then Lyons & Company, where she helped develop methods for preserving ice cream.

Husband

Denis Thatcher, as the first male PM spouse in history, was always likely to be the centre of media attention - and he didn't disappoint.

When she met him, Baroness Thatcher remarked that "it was clear to me at once that Denis was an exceptional man - he had a certain style and dash." Described as a man of integrity, humour and common sense, he had a strong business background and fought with the Royal Artillery during the war.

It was said that Denis was in 'the Thatcher party not the Tory party'. He once famously remarked, recalling the words of Mark Twain, that: "it's better to keep my mouth shut and be thought a fool rather than open it and remove all doubt."

When he died in 2003 his wife paid tribute to the man she loved by saying: "Being PM 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."

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Margaret Thatcher and the Rebirth of Conservatism
On Principle, v1n2

by: Stephen Davies

 

Most politicians enjoy a brief moment in the public eye and then are gone, so soon forgotten that within ten years few can remember what they did or what they stood for. Some however make such a deep impression, for good or ill, that they will remain alive in the popular memory long after their career is over, even after their death. Margaret Thatcher is one of these.

 

By any standard Margaret Thatcher is an extraordinary politician. During her period as Prime Minister she had a profound and permanent impact on British politics. She changed the rules of political debate, transformed her own party, and altered and amended aspects of British life which had seemed fixed and permanent. Love her or hate her, no one could be indifferent to her. No one could mistake what she believed in and what she stood for. A "conviction politician," she had the rare distinction of having an ideology named after her--Thatcherism.

 

Today it is easy to forget how extraordinary her career and achievements have been. For a woman to become the leader of the Conservative party and then Prime Minister was unthinkable before she did it. More important, she challenged, and changed the definition of what was politically feasible, not only in Britain, but around the world. Pundits could see no future for a leader who so sharply questioned the conventional wisdom. When she became a party leader, the Economist, later one of her warmest admirers, declared that the Conservatives could be condemning themselves to years in the political wilderness. How differently things turned out! By confronting established institutions and set ideas of what was proper and possible, she was able both to bring about radical change and to change the terms of political debate. The power of trades unions, which had so dominated British political life before 1979, was sharply curtailed. The privatization of state owned industries , unthinkable before, became commonplace and has now been imitated all over the world. This all went with unprecedented political success. Elected in 1979 with the biggest switch in votes since 1945, she went on to win two further general elections by landslide margins. In fact she never lost an election. A radical in a conservative party, she was ejected by her own MPs when her radicalism and willingness to confront the accepted beliefs of the elite became too much for them.

 

Indeed, the very qualities which brought her success and then led to her fall mean that Margaret Thatcher is still a relevant and important figure. Her standing and her ability to present the views and beliefs of ordinary people as opposed to those of a detached elite mean that her words and arguments are still listened to. Over the Maastricht Treaty and the future of Europe--the issue that more than anything else led to her ejection from office--her critique of the project (obvious but never openly admitted) of the creation of a federal and enclosed European state, has articulated the fears of ordinary people, against the wishes of the elite and the leadership of both main parties who want to avoid a debate at almost any cost. Other qualities which give her a continued relevance are her interest in ideas, an unusual feature in a politician, and above all her capacity to get to the nub of an issue and face up to tough decisions. Nowhere was this clearer than over Bosnia where h er dramatic and forceful interventions, in the form of an electrifying series of television interviews, highlighted the issues at stake and exposed the handwringing equivocation and moral cowardice of the official "line". Would this have been put so forcefully or received such attention if it had not been Margaret Thatcher who was speaking?

 

When the history of the twentieth century is written Margaret Thatcher is sure to have a prominent place. In the collapse of communism and the creation of what the late Peter Jenkins has called the "post socialist era," she has played a major part. However, right now she is still very much alive, still very active, and still fighting for her convictions and what she believes to be right.

 

Stephen Davies is Senior Lecturer in History at Manchester Metropolitan University, England. He is co-editor of A Dictionary of Conservative and Libertarian Thought and is author of Private Goods, Public Benefit: The Voluntary Supply of "Public Goods."

 

 

 

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