Margaret Thatcher

Thatcherism

Thatcherism refers to Thatcher's economic policies while prime minister 1979 and 1990. It consisted of

free market supply-side economics

tax reduction

artificial manipulation of the money supply to reduce inflation

privatization of public industry

reining in of trade union influence and power

Life after being Prime Minister

After leaving the House of Commons, Thatcher was dubbed Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven and entered the House of Lords. Denis Thatcher was given a Baronetcy, which ensured that their son, Mark, would inherit the title of "Sir Mark".

She publicly endorsed William Hague against Kenneth Clarke for the Conservative leadership in 1997. She made many speaking engagements around the world, including very vocal support of former General Augusto Pinochet, whom the new Labour administration extradited to Spain on trumped-up charges of torturing political opponents. In March 2002 she suffered a mild stroke, and made few speeches. In 2004 she attended the funeral of her old friend and political soul-mate, Ronald Reagan. Baroness Thatcher is still seen at Tory party gatherings and has continued endorsing party leaders, such as Iain Duncan Smith. In August 2008, it became known that she was suffering from dementia and had withdrawn from public life. [5] [3][4][5]

Quick Facts

Born: 13 October 1925 in Grantham, Lincolnshire

First entered Parliament: 8 October 1959

Became leader of the Conservative Party in February 1975

Elected as Prime Minister in May 1979

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

Nickname: "The Iron Lady"

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

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.

Family: Margaret Thatcher is the younger of two daughters. She often gave her father as an example of an outstanding citizen. She married Sir Denis Thatcher, and has one son and one daughter.

Interests: Music, art, opera and reading. [6][7]

Husband

Denis Thatcher, as the first male PM spouse in history, was always likely to be the center 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, humor 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." [8][9]

Notable quotes

"I like Mr Gorbachev, we can do business together."

"The lady is not for turning"

"I have made it quite clear that a unified Ireland was one solution that is out. A second solution was a confederation of two states. That is out. A third solution was joint authority. That is out-that is a derogation of sovereignty."

"I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left."

"If you lead a country like Britain, a strong country, a country which has taken a lead in world affairs in good times and in bad, a country that is always reliable, then you have to have a touch of iron about you."

"I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near."

" There is no such thing as society. There is living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate"[6]

"What Britain needs is an iron lady."

"Unless we change our ways and our direction, our greatness as a nation will soon be a footnote in the history books, a distant memory of an offshore island, lost in the mists of time like Camelot, remembered kindly for its noble past."

"I just owe almost everything to my father [and] it's passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election."

"Democratic nations must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend."[7]

"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.) This quote was parodied in the 2006 TV series Life on Mars, when DCI Gene Hunt (speaking in 1973) stated "There'll never be a woman Prime Minister as long as I have a hole in my ar*e."

“You may have to fight the battle more than once to win it.” [8]

See also

Thatcherism

Conservative Links

External Links

Margaret Thatcher Foundation

References

Ўь 1977 speech by Margaret Thatcher; Zurich Economic Society

Ўь Time Magazine; Time 100 citation

Ўь Richard Stevens, "The Evolution of Privatisation as an Electoral Policy, c. 1970-90." Contemporary British History 2004 18(2): 47-75. Issn: 1361-9462 Fulltext: Ebsco

Ўь Speech to the Royal Society, 9/27/1988

Ўь Thatcher suffers from dementia

Ўь Interview in Woman's Own

Ўь Quotes by Margaret Thatcher

Ўь The Routledge dictionary of quotationsэ - Page 283 by Robert Andrews

Bibliography

Blundell, John. Margaret Thatcher: A Portrait of the Iron Lady (2008) excerpt and text search

Campbell, John. Margaret Thatcher. Vol. 1: The Grocer's Daughter. (2000); Margaret Thatcher. vol. 2: Iron Lady (2007), 520pp; 913pp; long, detailed authoritative biography

Clarke, Peter. "Margaret Thatcher's Place in History: Two Views," Journal of the History of Economic Thought 2002 24(3): 357-368 online at EBSCO

Geelhoed, Bruce E. and Hobbs, James F. Margaret Thatcher's Last Hurrah: In Victory and Downfall, 1987 and 1990. (1992). 193 pp. online edition; also excerpt and text search

King, Anthony. "The Outsider as Political Leader: the Case of Margaret Thatcher." British Journal of Political Science 2002 32(3): 435-454. Issn: 0007-1234 Fulltext: CUP and Jstor. Thatcher was a social outsider, psychological outsider and political outsider.

Thompson, Juliet S., and Wayne C. Thompson. Margaret Thatcher: Prime Minister Indomitable (1994) online edition

Young, Hugo. The Iron Lady: A Biography of Margaret Thatcher. (1989). 570 pp. well-written and well researched

Political studies

Adonis, Andrew, and Tim Hames, eds. A Conservative Revolution: The Thatcher-Reagan Decade (1994), comparative perspective

Backhouse, Roger E. "The Macroeconomics of Margaret Thatcher," Journal of the History of Economic Thought 2002 24(3): 313-334 online at EBSCO

Dellheim, Charles. The Disenchanted Isle: Mrs. Thatcher's Capitalist Revolution. (1995) 352 pp.

Evans, Brendan. Thatcherism and British Politics, 1975-1997 (2000)

Evans, Eric J. Thatcher and Thatcherism. (2nd ed. 2004). 176 pp online edition

Fry, Geoffrey K. Politics of the Thatcher Revolution: An Interpretation of British Politics 1975 - 1990 (2008) excerpt and text search

Haseler, Stephen. The Battle for Britain: Thatcher and the New Liberals. (1990). 195 pp.

Holmes, Martin. The First Thatcher Government, 1979-83: Contemporary Conservatism and Economic Change (1985); Thatcherism: Scope and Limits, 1983-87. (1989). 174 pp. a sympathetic assessment.

Jenkins, Peter. Mrs. Thatcher's Revolution: The Ending of the Socialist Era. (1988). 417 pp. critical

Johnson, Christopher. The Grand Experiment: Mrs. Thatcher's Economy and How It Spread. (1993). 341 pp.

Kavanagh, Dennis. Thatcherism and British Politics: The End of Consensus? (1987). 334 pp.

Kavanagh, Dennis, and Anthony Seldon, eds. The Thatcher Effect (1989), major interpretive essays by experts

Krieger, Joel. Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of Decline. (1987). 247 pp.

Moon, Jeremy. Innovative Leadership in Democracy: Policy Change under Thatcher. (1993). 157 pp.

Morgan, K.O. The People's Peace: British History, 1945-90 (1990) survey by leading scholar

Pugliese, Stanislao, ed. The Political Legacy of Margaret Thatcher. (2003). 419 pp.

Reitan, Earl A. The Thatcher Revolution: Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and Tony Blair, and the Transformation of Modern Britain, 1979-2001. (2003). 260 pp.

Reitan, Earl A. Tory Radicalism: Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and the Transformation of Modern Britain, 1979-1997. (1997). 222 pp.

Riddell, Peter. The Thatcher Decade: How Britain Has Changed during the 1980's. (1989). 236 pp.

Roy, Subroto a nd Clarke, John, eds. Margaret Thatcher's Revolution: How It Happened and What It Meant. (2005). 209 pp.

Savage, S.P., and L. Robbins, eds. Public Policy under Thatcher (1990), essays by experts

Sharp, Paul. Thatcher's Diplomacy: The Revival of British Foreign Policy. (1997). 269 pp.

Smith, Geoffrey. Reagan and Thatcher. (1991). 285 pp.

Waine, Barbara. The Rhetoric of Independence: The Ideology and Practice of Social Policy in Thatcher's Britain. (1992). 172 pp.

Wall, Stephen. A Stranger in Europe: Britain and the EU from Thatcher to Blair (2008) excerpt and text search

Walters, A. A. Britain's Economic Renaissance: Margaret Thatcher's Reforms, 1979-1984. (1986). 200 pp.

Wapshott, Nicholas. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage. (2007) 329 pp. excerpt and text search

Whipple, Amy C. "'Ordinary People': The Cultural Origins of Popular Thatcherism in Britain, 1964-1979." PhD dissertation Northwestern U. 2004. 253 pp. DAI 2004 65(5): 1926-A. DA3132626 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses additional books

Primary sources

Clark, Alan. Mrs. Thatcher's Minister: The Private Diaries of Alan Clark. (1994). 421 pp.

Thatcher, Margaret, Margaret. The Path to Power (1995); The Downing Street Years. (1993). 914 pp., highly detailed memoirs.

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

Sir 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 Sir 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.”

The previous Prime Minister

James Callaghan 1976-9 Labour

The next Prime Minister

John Major 1990-7 Conservative

SIR DENNIS THATCHER IS DEAD; Margaret at bedside of 88-year-old

SIR Denis Thatcher, husband of formidable former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, died today in a London hospital. He was 88.

A spokesman for the Thatcher family said: 'It is with deep sadness that we have to announce that Sir Denis Thatcher passed away peacefully this morning in the Lister Hospital after a short illness.

'His family were with him at his bedside when he died.'

Denis Thatcher married Margaret Hilda Roberts, the Grantham grocer's daughter, Oxford chemistry graduate and would-be MP, at London's City Road Methodist Church on December 13, 1951.

She rewarded his pride in her and redoubled it by having twins, qualifying as a barrister and becoming an MP in the six years between 1953 and 1959.

When Denis Thatcher sold Atlas in 1965 for pounds 560,000, it provided a springboard to a new career as an oil company executive with the Burmah group.

His wealth gave his wife financial independence, but it was not until the early 1970s that her career took off in a way that threatened to dwarf his own. Even as Minister of Education, Mrs Thatcher would make a point of specifying her husband as 'the real bread-winner'

MRS. THATCHER CAPTURES TORIES

Packed Meeting Shows Enthusiasm

Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, M.A, B.Sc, the 33 year old housewife-barrister who topped the list of about 200 would-be Conservative MPs seeking the Finchley and Friern Barnet seat in the next General Election, scored a resounding hit when she appeared for adoption at Conservative Hall on Thursday evening, last week.

If the selectors of Mrs. Thatcher had wondered how their choice of a woman candidate would be received their anxietics were soothed by the enthusiasm of the meeting.

The hall was packed, and a large crowd who came too late to secure chairs stood at the back. The Conservatives came to see--and went away conquered. If any had come to oppose--they went away converted.

According to custom the candidate was not on the platform when the meeting opened. For forty minutes the Conservatives heard their Divisional Chairman, Mr. C. H. Blatch, tell of the marathon task of the selectors, and how 200 names had been sifted down to a manageable list.

When Mrs. Thatcher did appear, clad in restrained black and gold and with a small black hat, the Conservatives rose as a man--and woman--to applaud. Already they had been told that she was a competent speaker, and Mrs. Thatcher gave no time for this reputation to cool. What followed, even to an experienced listener at political meetings, was a polished performance.

Speaking without notes, stabbing home points with expressive hands, Mrs. Thatcher launched fluently into a clear-cut appraisal of the Middle East situation, weighed up Russia's propagandist moves with the skill of a housewife measuring the ingredients in a familiar recipe, pinpointed Nasser as the fly in the mixing bowl, switched swiftly to Britain's domestic problems (showing a keen grasp of wage and Trade Union issues), then swept her breathless audience into a confident preview of Conservatism's dazzling future.

Willy-nilly, her spell-bound audience felt the exhilaration of Conservatism planing through the spray of a lifting wave, as she expressed it--"just emerged from the trough."

Crisply, Mrs. Thatcher summarised her points. And while the audience was still agog at the "winner" which the selectors appeared to have pulled out of the hat, there came a request from the Chairman of the evening (President Mr. A. C. D. Miller) for "questions."

"Question time", the selectors probably thought, was the testing time for their choice, and the chance for opposition to reveal itself. It never came.

There were three interpolations from the body of the hall. The first from a woman who said she had been about to ask how Mrs. Thatcher intended to reconcile managing a family with "becoming an MP?"

"Now that I have heard her, I am quite satisfied," said the questioner, and sat down.

A Finchley Council member asked how Mrs. Thatcher would approach the "grudge voters" who swung from Tory to Liberal. Smartly, Mrs. Thatcher said she would apply the Young Conservatives' maxim--"Success is what you put into it." Another man asked Mrs. Thatcher's views on a new "anti-Socialist" organisation, and the candidate shredded it before his eyes. There were no more questions.

A forest of hands reached for the pale blue ceiling of the hall when the meeting was asked for "a one hundred per cent vote" in Mrs. Thatcher's favour.

Mrs. Thatcher took her adoption calmly. She promised that from now on Finchley would see her constantly. Her voice warmed as she spoke of her children--twins Mark and Carol--and said she wanted to meet everyone "family to family".

The advent of Mrs. Margaret Thatcher introduces a new note into the local political scene, certainly into the affairs of the Conservative Party. Will being a woman interfere with her vote-pulling powers? At a forecast it seems unlikely.

Once in her stride as a speaker she has the ability--if not the determination--to restrain femininity: no one could accuse her of throwing her womanhood at the audience.

Moreover, she is an original speaker. Her phraseology is not a clicheridden discourse like that of many women politicians. Of course she is a practised speaker in the most critical of theatres: the Courts of Law. But by the same reasoning she is also a practised thinker.

The Conservatives of Finchley and Friern Barnet have armed themselves with a new weapon--a clever woman. Mrs. Thatcher has stated that she is not satisfied with the Conservative Party's 12,000-odd majority at the last General Election. Neither are the other two Parties, but for a different reason. It will be interesting to observe their reaction towards the latest Conservative move, which is no less than the adoption of a new leader who promises action during and outside election time.[fo 1]

(2) Finchley Times, 1 August 1958

Mrs. M. H. Thatcher Adopted By Conservatives

With only five dissentients out of an attendance of 350 members, Mrs. Margaret Hilda Thatcher was enthusiastically adopted as prospective Parliamentary Conservative candidate by the Finchley and Friern Barnet Conservative Association, at their headquarters in Ballards-lane, North Finchley, last Thursday. In her twenty-five minute speech, which was punctuated with frequent applause, she proved a brilliant speaker and was never at a loss for a word or an argument.

Mrs. Thatcher spoke mainly on the Middle East, the "despotism" of trade unions and the Rent Act.

She said the problems of the Middle East could not be solved by bringing something out of a hat or by summit conferences. The Arab problem had been going on for 40 years. Nasser had stated he would never be satisfied until the Arabs had destroyed the State of Israel. There was not unanimity in the Arab world and some of the old monarchies were wondering where they stood.

In the Iraki revolt the people who were brutally murdered were Arabs. In any discussion on the Middle East we must take into consideration the State of Israel, because we were mainly responsible for its existence.

"If we had not sent troops into Jordan," she said, "not only would there have been violence but we would have lost our oil. We have spent large sums of money in the Middle East and all Russia has paid into that area is propaganda. British foreign policy should never be afraid to say we are there to protect British interests."

Mrs. Thatcher said she did not think the Opposition had been helpful about the Middle East, nor in regard to Cyprus.

It was vital for the Conservatives to win the next general election with a decisive majority.

Home Affairs

The problem at home was still inflation and rising wages. She saw some hope in the fact that the rate of wage increases was going down.

In 1956 wages went up by 8 per cent.; in 1957 wages increases were 5 per cent. and in the first half of 1958 it was between 3 and 4 per cent.

Conservative policy was based on individual liberty. We had, she declared, curbed private despotism but now there was a new depotism and it is on the part of the trade unions.

"It looks as if a Conservative Government will have to tackle this problem," she said amid cheers. "A man should have the right Not to strike if he does not wish to. We must regulate trade unions and protect the individual worker."

Mrs. Thatcher said the Conservatives had come through a trough, but now there was a wonderful resurgence throughout the country.

There was a tremendous divide between Socialism and Conservatism. "The Socialists stand for equality and if you have any brains you must not show it because it will put other people off."

Major Nevard (Conservative Agent for Finchley) announced that there would be a membership campaign from September 16 to December 16. "We have been sleeping for the past two years. What we are going to do is not only to get more members, but find out who will help us at the next election," he said.

Major Cole said the Selection Committee should be thanked for finding such an excellent candidate. Unfortunately he had heard from two members that they would not vote for a woman candidate.

Mr. Blatch, chairman of the Association, said Mrs. Thatcher did not think the Conservative majority of 13,000 in Finchley, was enough and he added: "She will demoralise the Socialists and wipe the floor with the Liberals."

Childhood and Education

Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on 13 October 1925 in the town of Grantham in Lincolnshire. Her father Alfred Roberts owned two grocery shops in Grantham and was active in local politics and religion serving as an Alderman and Methodist lay preacher. After attending Hunting tower Road Primary School and Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School, she applied for a scholarship to attend Somerville College, Oxford. She went to Oxford in 1943 and studied Natural Science specializing in Chemistry. She was elected as President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1946. She studied crystallography and received a post graduation B Sc. degree in 1947. In 1950, she took the degree of Masters of Arts. After graduation, Margaret Thatcher moved to Colchester to work as a research chemist for BX plastics. During this period she joined the local Conservative Association. She was also a member of Association of scientific Workers and in 1949, she moved to Dart ford to stand for election as a Member of Parliament.

Political Career

She was the youngest ever female Conservative candidate, when she contested for the safe labor seat in Dart Ford in 1950 and 1951 elections. Though she could not win the seat, her campaign attracted high media attention. While active in the politics, she married a wealthy businessman Denis Thatcher in 1951 and qualified as a barrister in 1953 with specialization in Taxation. In the same year she gave birth to her twin children, Carol and Mark.

Before being elected as a Member of Parliament in 1959 election, she had faced several rejections in the past. Within 2 years, in 1961, she was promoted to the front bench as Parliamentary Undersecretary at the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance. She moved to the Shadow Treasury in 1966 where she opposed Labor's mandatory price and income control, which she believed would distort the economy. Thatcher was also against the Government's high tax policy, as she was of view that low taxes work as an incentive and motivation to work hard.

In 1967, she was selected by the Embassy of the United States in London to participate in the International Visitor Leadership Program. Later that year, Thatcher was moved and joined the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Fuel spokesman and shortly after the 1970 general election she was promoted to Shadow transport and after that, Education.

Prime Minister of United Kingdom (1979-1990)

Thatcher became the Prime Minister on 4 May 1979, with the mandate to reverse the economic decline and to reduce the role of state in the economy. She vowed to reduce the government's excessive interference in economy, which she believed was a hurdle in its growth. Her political policies emphasized on reducing the state intervention, free markets and entrepreneurialism. She took new economic initiatives and began her economic reforms by increasing interest rates and introducing budget cuts. She cut the budget on social services like health care, education and housing, and placed legal restrictions on trade unions. By 1983, the economic growth of UK was stronger and the term `Thatcherism' came to refer the ideologies and policies of Margaret Thatcher and her uncompromising approach of achieving political goals. After the election of 1983, the Conservative majority expanded and Margaret Thatcher continued to enact her economic policies.

The Falklands

On 2 April 1982, a ruling military in Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, a British overseas territory that Argentina had claimed after 1810 dispute. The Thatcher government recaptured the islands and the salvagers were deported to Argentina. Argentina surrendered on 14 June and the operation was deemed as a success for the Thatcher government and resulted in a greater support for the government. The lasting effect of the Falklands compounded with the economic recovery in early 1983 was seen in the 1983 election, when the Conservative party won 42% of the votes.

Trade Unions

Margaret Thatcher was committed to curb the power and influence of trade unions by privatizing mines and pits. Her reforms instigated Violence and protests from the mine workers, but were successfully combated by the government. In 1984, National Union of Mineworkers ordered a strike against the legislation imposed on them to curb their power. Violent clashes broke out in many places in which a number of people were injured and arrested. After a year of striking, The National Union gave up without a deal.

European Community

Thatcher was opposed to the proposal from the European Community for a federal structure and increasing centralization of decision making. She was not against the Britain's membership in the European Community, but she believed that it should be limited to ensuring free trade and effective competition. On the contrary to the European approach to governing, she was a supporter of smaller government and deregulatory trends. Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe, who was a great supporter of her, tried to persuade Thatcher to agree to the proposal, which she refused. Margaret felt that the membership will constrain the UK economy. A split emerged over the European policy within the Conservative Party and eventually Geoffrey resigned from his position of Deputy Prime Minister.

Economic Changes during 1987-1990

Thatcher introduced a new system to raise revenue; she replaced the local government taxes with a Community Charge or `Poll tax'. Property taxes were made uniform and 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. As a result the Prime Minister's popularity declined in 1989. Unrest mounted in the country as Margaret refused to compromise on the tax. Several protest meeting were held, resulting in a number of riots, the most serious of which occurred at Trafalgar Square, London on 31 March 1990.

Fall from Power

In 1990, The Conservative Party began to split on the issue of European Community, as Margaret Thatcher remained firmly opposed to British membership in the European Monetary system. Apart from it, opposition for her tax policy made her politically weak and vulnerable. Her combative personality and uncompromising approach to overrule other's opinion contributed to the discontentment in the party members. On 1 November 1990, Geoffrey Howe, once her great supporter, resigned from his position as Deputy Prime Minister and his resignation speech on 13 November in the House of Commons led to the downfall of the Margaret Thatcher's Government in UK. On 22 November an announcement was made informing that she would not be contesting the second ballot. She was the only Prime Minister of the 20 centaury to serve three times.

Life after Parliament

Margaret Thatcher became a member of the House of Lords in 1992. She had already been honored by the Queen as the `Order of Merit', one of the UK's highest distinctions in 1990. After leaving the House of the Commons, she authored her memoirs in two volumes: The Path to Power and The Downing Street years. From 1993 to 2000 served as Chancellor of the College of William and Mary in Virginia. She was also Chancellor of the University of Buckingham, the UK's only private university. She was widowed on 26 June, 2003. In February 2007, she became the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to be honored with a statue in the House of Parliament while still alive.

Since 2003

Sir Denis Thatcher died on 26 June 2003 and was cremated on 3 July.[187] She had paid tribute to him in The Downing Street Years, writing "Being Prime Minister is a lonely job. In a sense, it ought to be: you cannot lead from the crowd. But with Denis there I was never alone. What a man. What a husband. What a friend".[188]

On 11 June 2004, Thatcher attended the state funeral service for Ronald Reagan.[189] She delivered her eulogy via videotape; in view of her health, the message had been pre-recorded several months earlier.[190] Thatcher then flew to California with the Reagan entourage, and attended the memorial service and interment ceremony for the president at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.[191]

Thatcher attends the Washington memorial service marking the 5th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks, pictured with Dick Cheney and his wife

Thatcher celebrated her 80th birthday at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hyde Park, London, on 13 October 2005, at which the guests included the Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Alexandra and Tony Blair.[192] Geoffrey Howe, by then Lord Howe of Aberavon, was also present, and said of his former leader: "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."[193]

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 was a guest of Vice President Dick Cheney, and met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit.[194]

In February 2007, Thatcher became the first living UK Prime Minister to be honoured with a statue in the Houses of Parliament. The bronze statue stands opposite that of her political hero, Sir Winston Churchill,[195] and was unveiled on 21 February 2007 with Thatcher in attendance; she made a rare and brief speech in the members' lobby of the House of Commons, responding: "I might have preferred iron - but bronze will do ... It won't rust."[195] The statue shows her addressing the House of Commons, with her right arm outstretched.[196]

Thatcher returned to 10 Downing Street in late November 2009 for the unveiling of an official portrait by the artist Richard Stone,[197] an unusual honour for a living ex-Prime Minister.[198] Stone had previously painted portraits of the Queen and the Queen Mother.[197]

Thatcher suffered several small strokes in 2002 and was advised by her doctors not to engage in any more public speaking.[199] After collapsing at a House of Lords dinner, she was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in central London on 7 March 2008 for tests.[200] Her daughter Carol has recounted ongoing memory loss.[201]

She is a public supporter of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism and the resulting Prague Process, and sent a public letter of support to its preceding conference.[202]

At the Conservative Party conference in 2010, the new Prime Minister David Cameron announced that he would invite Thatcher back to 10 Downing Street on her 85th birthday for a party to be attended by past and present ministers. She pulled out of the celebration because of flu.[203][204] She was invited to the Royal Wedding on 29 April 2011 but did not attend, reportedly due to ill health.[205]

On American Independence Day 2011 (4 July) Lady Thatcher was to attend a ceremony for the unveiling of a 10-foot statue to former American President Ronald Reagan, outside the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London but was unable to attend due to frail health.[206] On 31 July 2011 it was announced that the former prime minister's office in the House of Lords had been closed down.[207]

Also in July 2011, Thatcher was named the most competent British Prime Minister of the past 30 years in an Ipsos Mori poll.[208]

In September 2011, Thatcher attended the 50th birthday party of the Defence Secretary, Dr Liam Fox, at his apartment in Admiralty House; Dr Fox commented "it was great having two Prime Ministers at my 50th birthday party this evening".[209]

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Thatcher remains identified with her remarks to the reporter Douglas Keay, for Woman's Own magazine in September 1987:

I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand "I have a problem, it is the Government's job to cope with it!" or "I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!" "I am homeless, the Government must house me!" and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then also to help look after our neighbour and life is a reciprocal business and people have got the entitlements too much in mind without the obligations.[210]

To her supporters, Margaret Thatcher remains a figure who revitalised Britain's economy, impacted the trade unions, and re-established the nation as a world power.[211] She oversaw an increase from 7% to 25% of adults owning shares, and more than a million families bought their council houses, giving an increase from 55% to 67% in owner-occupiers. Total personal wealth rose by 80%.[212] Victory in the Falklands conflict and her strong alliance with the United States are also remembered as some of her greatest achievements.[213]

Thatcher's premiership was also marked by high unemployment and social unrest,[211] and many critics fault her economic policies for the unemployment level; many of the areas affected by high unemployment as a result of her monetarist economic policies[214][not in citation given]have still not fully recovered and are also blighted by social problems including drug abuse and family breakdown.[215] Speaking in Scotland in April 2009, before the 30th anniversary of her election as Prime Minister, Thatcher insisted she had no regrets, and was right to introduce the poll tax and to remove subsidies from "outdated industries, whose markets were in terminal decline" which had created "the culture of dependency, which had done such damage to Britain".[216]

Thatcher often referred after the war to the "Falklands Spirit"; Hastings and Jenkins (1983) suggested that this reflected her preference for the streamlined decision-making of her War Cabinet over the painstaking deal-making of peace-time cabinet government.[217]

Critics have regretted Thatcher's influence in the abandonment of full employment, poverty reduction and a consensual civility as bedrock policy objectives. Many recent biographers have been critical of aspects of the Thatcher years and Michael White, writing in New Statesman in February 2009, challenged the view that her reforms had brought a net benefit.[218] Despite being Britain's first woman Prime Minister, some critics contend Thatcher did "little to advance the political cause of women",[219] either within her party or the government, and some British feminists regarded her as "an enemy".[220]

The term "Thatcherism" 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.[nb 4]. Influenced at the outset by Keith Joseph,[221] Thatcherism remains a potent byword in British political parlance, with both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown defining policies in post-Thatcherite terms, and David Cameron saying after a dinner with Thatcher in February 2009: "You have got to do the right thing even if it is painful. Don't trim or track all over the place. Set your course and take the difficult decisions because that is what needs to be done ... I think that influence, that character she had, that conviction she had, I think that will be very important."[222]

Thatcher's tenure of 11 years and 209 days as Prime Minister was the longest since Lord Salisbury (13 years and 252 days in three spells starting in 1885), and the longest continuous period in office since Lord Liverpool (14 years and 305 days starting in 1812).[223][224][225]

Honours

Thatcher became a Privy Councillor (PC) upon becoming Secretary of State for Education and Science in 1970.[226] She was appointed a Member of the Order of Merit (OM) (an order within the personal gift of the Queen) within two weeks of leaving office. Denis Thatcher was made a Baronet at the same time.[227] She became a peer in the House of Lords in 1992 with a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire.[172][228] She was appointed a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter, the UK's highest order of chivalry, in 1995.[229]

US President George H. W. Bush awards Thatcher the Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1991

She was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1983,[22] and was the first woman entitled to full membership rights as an honorary member of the Carlton Club on becoming leader of the Conservative Party in 1975.[230]

In the Falklands, Margaret Thatcher Day has been marked every 10 January since 1992,[231] commemorating her visit in 1983.[232][233] Thatcher Drive in Stanley is named for her, as is Thatcher Peninsula in South Georgia, where the task force troops first set foot on the Falklands.[231]

Thatcher has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour awarded by the US; the Republican Senatorial Medal of Freedom; and the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award. She is a patron of the Heritage Foundation,[234] which established the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom in 2005.[235] Speaking of Heritage president Ed Feulner, at the first Clare Booth Luce lecture in September 1993, Thatcher said: "You didn't just advise President Reagan on what he should do; you told him how he could do it. And as a practising politician I can testify that that is the only advice worth having."[236]

Other awards include Dame Grand Cross of the Croatian Grand Order of King Dmitar Zvonimir.[237]

Thatcher statue at Hillsdale College

A statue of her likeness sits on the Hillsdale College campus in Hillsdale, MI, in honour of her role as a speaker there in March 1995[238] and her continued support of the college and its emphasis on the Western tradition. It remains the first and only statue of the former Prime Minister within the United States [239]

Upon Thatcher's eventual death, it is rumoured that she will be honoured with a state funeral at St Paul's Cathedral. If so, she will be the first Prime Minister to be honoured this way since Sir Winston Churchill in 1965.[240]

Media depictions

Depictions of Margaret Thatcher have featured in a number of television programmes, documentaries, films and plays; she was played by Patricia Hodge in Ian Curteis's long unproduced The Falklands Play (2002) and Lindsay Duncan in Margaret (2009). She was portrayed by Andrea Riseborough in the TV film The Long Walk to Finchley. Thatcher will be played by Meryl Streep in the 2011 film The Iron Lady.[241]

Thatcher was lampooned by satirist John Wells in several media. Wells collaborated with Richard Ingrams on the spoof "Dear Bill" letters which ran as a column in Private Eye magazine, were published in book form, and were then adapted into a West End stage revue as Anyone for Denis?, starring Wells as Denis Thatcher. The stage show was followed by a 1982 TV special directed by Dick Clement.[242] In 1979, Wells was commissioned by comedy producer Martin Lewis to write and perform on a comedy record album titled Iron Lady: The Coming Of The Leader on which Thatcher was portrayed by comedienne and noted Thatcher impersonator Janet Brown. The album consisted of skits and songs satirising Thatcher's rise to power.

In Spitting Image, Thatcher was portrayed as a bullying tyrant, wearing trousers, and ridiculing her own ministers.[243]

Protest songs

Thatcher was the subject or the inspiration for a number of protest songs including The Specials' "Ghost Town", (1981), The Jam's "Town Called Malice" (Number One in February 1982) and Morrissey's "Margaret on the Guillotine". Elvis Costello's "Shipbuilding" protested against the Falklands war. Songwriter Billy Bragg released Workers Playtime in 1988. Paul Weller was a founding member of Red Wedge collective, which unsuccessfully sought to oust Thatcher with the help of music. In 1987, they organised a comedy tour with British comedians Lenny Henry, Ben Elton, Robbie Coltrane, Harry Enfield and others.

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