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{{Short description|Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990}}{{Redirect|Iron Lady||Iron Lady (disambiguation)|and|Margaret Thatcher (disambiguation)}}{{Good article}}{{Pp-vandalism|small=yes}}{{Pp-move}}{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}{{Use British English|date=March 2020}}

factoids

| name = The Baroness Thatchercountry=GBRLGDStJFRS|HonFRSC}}| image = Margaret Thatcher stock portrait (cropped).jpg| alt = Thatcher in a half-length portrait photograph, wearing a black suit and pearls1995–96}}| office = Prime Minister of the United Kingdom| term_start = 4 May 1979| term_end = 28 November 1990| monarch = Elizabeth IIGeoffrey Howe {{nowrap>(1989–90)}}| predecessor = James Callaghan| successor = John MajorLeader of the Opposition (United Kingdom)>Leader of the Opposition| term_start1 = 11 February 1975| term_end1 = 4 May 1979| monarch1 = Elizabeth II

• Harold Wilson
• James Callaghan

{edih}| deputy1 = William Whitelaw| predecessor1 = Edward Heath| successor1 = James CallaghanLeader of the Conservative Party (UK)>Leader of the Conservative Party| term_start2 = 11 February 1975| term_end2 = 28 November 1990William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw>The Viscount WhitelawChairman of the Conservative Party>Chairman| 1namedata2 = {{Collapsible list| titlestyle = font-style:italic; font-weight:normal;| title = See listPeter Thorneycroft>The Lord Thorneycroft| Cecil Parkinson| John Gummer| Norman TebbitPeter Brooke, Baron Brooke of Sutton Mandeville>Peter BrookeKenneth Baker, Baron Baker of Dorking>Kenneth Baker}}| predecessor2 = Edward Heath| successor2 = John Major{{Collapsed infobox section begin |cont = yes |Ministerial portfolios| titlestyle = border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}

factoids

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}}{{Collapsed infobox section begin |cont = yes |Parliamentary offices| titlestyle = border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}

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| subterm1 = {{dagger}}2011–2013| suboffice1 = Office closed| parliament2 = United Kingdom| constituency_MP2 = Finchley| term_start2 = 8 October 1959| term_end2 = 16 March 1992| predecessor2 = John Crowder| successor2 = Hartley Booth{{Collapsed infobox section end}} }}| birth_name = Margaret Hilda Robertsdf=y10|13}}| birth_place = Grantham, Lincolnshire, Englanddf=y4192513}}| death_place = London, England| resting_place = Royal Hospital Chelsea51.489057region:GB_type:landmark |display=inline}}Conservative Party (UK)>ConservativeDenis Thatcher26 June 2003|end=d}}

• Mark
• Carol

{edih}

• Somerville College, Oxford (MA)

{edih}List of honours of Margaret Thatcher>Full list| father = Alfred Roberts

• Barrister
• chemist
• politician

{edih}| signature = Signature of Margaret Thatcher.svg| signature_alt = Cursive signature in inkmargaretthatcher.org|name=Foundation}}“Iron Lady“}}pos=centerfilename=Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Joint Statement, 10th G7 summit.oggtype=speechJoint Statement for the 10th G7 summit|Recorded 9 June 1984}} }}}}{{Margaret Thatcher sidebar}}Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=small|LG|OM|DStJ|PC|FRS|HonFRSC|commas=on}} ({{nee|Roberts}}; 13 October 1925{{snd}}8 April 2013) was a British stateswoman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the position. As prime minister, she implemented economic policies known as Thatcherism. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the ”Iron Lady”, a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.Thatcher studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, and worked briefly as a research chemist before becoming a barrister. She was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her secretary of state for education and science in his 1970–1974 government. In 1975, she defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become leader of the opposition, the first woman to lead a major political party in the UK.On becoming prime minister after winning the 1979 general election, Thatcher introduced a series of economic policies intended to reverse high inflation and Britain’s struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an oncoming recession.{{refn|In her foreword to the Conservative manifesto of 1979, she wrote of “a feeling of helplessness, that we are a once great nation that has somehow fallen behind”.|group=nb}} Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised greater individual liberty, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Her popularity in her first years in office waned amid recession and rising unemployment. Victory in the 1982 Falklands War and the recovering economy brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her landslide re-election in 1983. She survived an assassination attempt by the Provisional IRA in the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing and achieved a political victory against the National Union of Mineworkers in the 1984–85 miners’ strike. In 1986, Thatcher oversaw the deregulation of UK financial markets, leading to an economic boom, in what came to be known as the Big Bang.Thatcher was re-elected for a third term with another landslide in 1987, but her subsequent support for the Community Charge (also known as the “poll tax“) was widely unpopular, and her increasingly Eurosceptic views on the European Community were not shared by others in her cabinet. She resigned as prime minister and party leader in 1990, after a challenge was launched to her leadership, and was succeeded by John Major, the chancellor of the Exchequer.{{refn|Winning support from a majority of her party in the first round of votes, Thatcher fell four votes short of the required 15% margin to win the contest outright. Her fall has been characterised as “a rare coup d’état at the top of the British politics: the first since Lloyd George sawed Asquith off at the knees in 1916.“|group=nb}} After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher (of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire) which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. In 2013, she died of a stroke at the Ritz Hotel, London, at the age of 87.A polarising figure in British politics, Thatcher is nonetheless viewed favourably in historical rankings and public opinion of British prime ministers. Her tenure constituted a realignment towards neoliberal policies in Britain; the complex legacy attributed to this shift continues to be debated into the 21st century.{{TOC limit|limit=3}}

Early life and education

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Family and childhood (1925–1943)

Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on 13 October 1925 in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Her parents were Alfred Roberts (1892–1970), from Northamptonshire, and Beatrice Ethel Stephenson (1888–1960), from Lincolnshire.{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|p=1}} Her father’s maternal grandmother, Catherine Sullivan, was born in County Kerry, Ireland.NEWS, O’Sullivan, Majella, 10 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher’s Irish roots lie in Co Kerry, Belfast Telegraph,www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/republic-of-ireland/margaret-thatchers-irish-roots-lie-in-co-kerry-29185669.html, live, 18 July 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200803171312/https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/republic-of-ireland/margaret-thatchers-irish-roots-lie-in-co-kerry-29185669.html, 3 August 2020, Roberts spent her childhood in Grantham, where her father owned a tobacconist’s and a grocery shop. In 1938, before the Second World War, the Roberts family briefly gave sanctuary to a teenage Jewish girl who had escaped Nazi Germany. With her {{wikt-lang|en|penfriend|pen-friending|i=-}} elder sister Muriel, Margaret saved pocket money to help pay for the teenager’s journey.{{sfnp|Campbell|2011a|pp=38–39}}Alfred was an alderman and a Methodist local preacher.{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|p=8}} He brought up his daughter as a strict Wesleyan Methodist,NEWS, Johnson, Maureen, 28 May 1988, Bible-Quoting Thatcher Stirs Furious Debate, Associated Press, attending the Finkin Street Methodist Church,NEWS, Filby, Eliza, 31 October 2015, God and Mrs. Thatcher: The Battle for Britain’s Soul, National Review,www.nationalreview.com/2015/10/margaret-thatcher-christian-methodism/, live, 21 April 2018,web.archive.org/web/20191212034043/https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/10/margaret-thatcher-christian-methodism/, 12 December 2019, but Margaret was more sceptical; the future scientist told a friend that she could not believe in angels, having calculated that they needed a breastbone {{convert|6|feet}} long to support wings.{{r|Oxford1}} Alfred came from a Liberal family but stood (as was then customary in local government) as an Independent. He served as Mayor of Grantham from 1945 to 1946 and lost his position as alderman in 1952 after the Labour Party won its first majority on Grantham Council in 1950.{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|p=8}}(File:Margaret Thatcher aos 13 anos de idade.jpg|alt=Margaret Roberts, 13, in a black-and-white portrait photograph|thumb|upright|left|1938–39 portrait, aged 13)Roberts attended Huntingtower Road Primary School and won a scholarship to Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ School, a grammar school.{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|p=5}} Her school reports showed hard work and continual improvement; her extracurricular activities included the piano, field hockey, poetry recitals, swimming and walking.{{sfnmp|1a1=Beckett|1y=2006|1p=6|2a1=Blundell|2y=2008|2pp=21–22}} She was head girl in 1942–43,WEB, School aims,www.kestevengrantham.lincs.sch.uk/kg/about_school/school_aims, dead,kestevengrantham.lincs.sch.uk/kg/about_school/school_aims," title="web.archive.org/web/20130128200852kestevengrantham.lincs.sch.uk/kg/about_school/school_aims,">web.archive.org/web/20130128200852kestevengrantham.lincs.sch.uk/kg/about_school/school_aims, 28 January 2013, 9 April 2013, Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ School, and outside school, while the Second World War was ongoing, she voluntarily worked as a fire watcher in the local ARP service.{{sfnp|Moore|2019|page=929}} Other students thought of Roberts as the “star scientist”, although mistaken advice regarding cleaning ink from parquetry almost caused chlorine gas poisoning. In her upper sixth year, Roberts was accepted for a scholarship to study chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, a women’s college, starting in 1944. After another candidate withdrew, Roberts entered Oxford in October 1943.{{sfnmp|1a1=Beckett|1y=2006|1p=12|2a1=Blundell|2y=2008|2p=23}}{{r|Oxford1}}

Oxford (1943–1947)

File:Somerville College.jpg|alt=The Hall and Maitland Building of Somerville College, Oxford, in 2006|thumb|upright|Roberts studied chemistry at Somerville CollegeSomerville CollegeRoberts arrived at Oxford in 1943 and graduated in 1947 with a second-class degree in chemistry, after specialising in X-ray crystallography under the supervision of Dorothy Hodgkin.{{sfnmp|1a1=Blundell|1y=2008|1pp=25–27|2a1=Beckett|2y=2006|2p=16}} Her dissertation was on the structure of the antibiotic gramicidin.{{sfnp|Campbell|2000|p=65}} She also received the degree of Master of Arts in 1950 (as an Oxford BA, she was entitled to the degree 21 terms after her matriculation).NEWS, Whittaker, Freddie, etal, 9 April 2013, Thatcher: college will honour its former student, Oxford Mail,www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10341124.thatcher-college-will-honour-former-student, live, 26 October 2021,web.archive.org/web/20211028113352/https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10341124.thatcher-college-will-honour-former-student/, 28 October 2021, Later in life, she was reportedly prouder of becoming the first prime minister with a science degree than becoming the first female prime minister.NEWS, Runciman, David, David Runciman, 6 June 2013, Rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat, London Review of Books,www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n11/david-runciman/rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat, live, 11 June 2013,web.archive.org/web/20190309071240/https://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n11/david-runciman/rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat, 9 March 2019, While prime minister she attempted to preserve Somerville as a women’s college.NEWS, Bowcott, Owen, 30 December 2016, Thatcher fought to preserve women-only Oxford college, The Guardian,www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/30/thatcher-fought-to-preserve-women-only-oxford-college-somerville, live, 31 December 2016,web.archive.org/web/20170101004346/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/30/thatcher-fought-to-preserve-women-only-oxford-college-somerville?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-2, 1 January 2017, Twice a week outside study she worked in a local forces canteen.{{sfnp|Dougill|1987|page=4}}During her time at Oxford, Roberts was noted for her isolated and serious attitude.NEWS, Moore, Charles, Charles Moore, Baron Moore of Etchingham, 19 April 2013, A side of Margaret Thatcher we’ve never seen, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/10006410/A-side-of-Margaret-Thatcher-weve-never-seen.html, live, 25 July 2017,web.archive.org/web/20180420214300/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/10006410/A-side-of-Margaret-Thatcher-weve-never-seen.html, 20 April 2018, none, Her first boyfriend, Tony Bray (1926–2014), recalled that she was “very thoughtful and a very good conversationalist. That’s probably what interested me. She was good at general subjects”.{{r|Oxford1}}NEWS, 5 August 2014, Tony Bray – obituary, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11013968/Tony-Bray-obituary.html, live, 25 July 2017,web.archive.org/web/20190205025842/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11013968/Tony-Bray-obituary.html, 5 February 2019, Roberts’s coursework involved subjects beyond chemistry{{sfnp|Campbell|2000|p=47}} as she was already contemplating an entry into law and politics.WEB, Lecher, Colin, 8 April 2013, How Thatcher The Chemist Helped Make Thatcher The Politician,www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-04/margaret-thatcher-politician-and-chemist-has-died, live,www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-04/margaret-thatcher-politician-and-chemist-has-died," title="web.archive.org/web/20170217043947www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-04/margaret-thatcher-politician-and-chemist-has-died,">web.archive.org/web/20170217043947www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-04/margaret-thatcher-politician-and-chemist-has-died, 17 February 2017, 22 November 2014, Popular Science, Her enthusiasm for politics as a girl made Bray think of her as “unusual” and her parents as “slightly austere” and “very proper”.{{r|Oxford1}}{{r|Bray}} Roberts became President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1946.{{sfnmp|1a1=Beckett|1y=2006|1pp=20–21|2a1=Blundell|2y=2008|2p=28}} She was influenced at university by political works such as Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom (1944),{{sfnp|Blundell|2008|p=30}} which condemned economic intervention by government as a precursor to an authoritarian state.{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=17}}

Post-Oxford career (1947–1951)

After graduating, Roberts moved to Colchester in Essex to work as a research chemist for BX Plastics.{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|p=17}} In 1948, she applied for a job at Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) but was rejected after the personnel department assessed her as “headstrong, obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated”.NEWS, 8 April 2013, In quotes: Margaret Thatcher, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-10377842, live, 12 April 2013,web.archive.org/web/20190408090853/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-10377842, 8 April 2019, Jon Agar in Notes and Records argues that her understanding of modern scientific research later impacted her views as prime minister.{{sfnp|Agar|2011}}Roberts joined the local Conservative Association and attended the party conference at Llandudno, Wales, in 1948, as a representative of the University Graduate Conservative Association.{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|p=22}} Meanwhile, she became a high-ranking affiliate of the Vermin Club,NEWS, Moore, Charles, 5 February 2009, Golly: now we know what’s truly offensive, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/charlesmoore/4520977/Golly-now-we-know-whats-truly-offensive.html, live, 29 April 2017,web.archive.org/web/20190205043254/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/charlesmoore/4520977/Golly-now-we-know-whats-truly-offensive.html, 5 February 2019, MAGAZINE, J.C., 21 October 2012, Gaffe-ology: why Mitchell had to go,www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/2012/10/political-crises, live, The Economist,web.archive.org/web/20191021232133/https://www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/2012/10/political-crises, 21 October 2019, 29 April 2017, In 1948 Aneurin Bevan called the Conservative Party ‘lower than vermin’ [...] The Tories embraced the phrase; some formed the Vermin Club in response (Margaret Thatcher was a member)., registration, a group of grassroots Conservatives formed in response to a derogatory comment made by Aneurin Bevan.{{r|Vermin}} One of her Oxford friends was also a friend of the Chair of the Dartford Conservative Association in Kent, who were looking for candidates.{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|p=22}} Officials of the association were so impressed by her that they asked her to apply, even though she was not on the party’s approved list; she was selected in January 1950 (aged 24) and added to the approved list (wikt:post ante|post ante).{{sfnp|Blundell|2008|p=36}}At a dinner following her formal adoption as Conservative candidate for Dartford in February 1949, she met divorcé Denis Thatcher, a successful and wealthy businessman, who drove her to her Essex train.{{sfnmp|1a1=Beckett|1y=2006|1p=22|2a1=Blundell|2y=2008|2p=36}} After their first meeting, she described him to Muriel as “not a very attractive creature – very reserved but quite nice”.{{r|Oxford1}} In preparation for the election, Roberts moved to Dartford, where she supported herself by working as a research chemist for J. Lyons and Co. in Hammersmith, part of a team developing emulsifiers for ice cream.{{sfnmp|1a1=Beckett|1y=2006|1p=22|2a1=New Scientist|2y=1983}} She married at Wesley’s Chapel and her children were baptised there,HANSARD,hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2013-04-10/debates/1304101000196/DeathOfAMemberBaronessThatcher, Death of a Member: Baroness Thatcher, 10 April 2013, 22 October 2020, House of Lords, 744, 1154, but she and her husband began attending Church of England services and would later convert to Anglicanism.NEWS, Belz, Mindy, 4 May 2013, Weather maker, World (magazine), World,world.wng.org/2013/04/weather_maker, live, 10 January 2017,web.archive.org/web/20190203055950/https://world.wng.org/2013/04/weather_maker, 3 February 2019, NEWS, Filby, Eliza, 14 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher: her unswerving faith shaped by her father, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9992424/Margaret-Thatcher-her-unswerving-faith-shaped-by-her-father.html, live, 10 January 2017,web.archive.org/web/20190205050323/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9992424/Margaret-Thatcher-her-unswerving-faith-shaped-by-her-father.html, 5 February 2019,

Early political career

In the 1950 and 1951 general elections, Roberts was the Conservative candidate for the Labour seat of Dartford. The local party selected her as its candidate because, though not a dynamic public speaker, Roberts was well-prepared and fearless in her answers. A prospective candidate, Bill Deedes, recalled: “Once she opened her mouth, the rest of us began to look rather second-rate.“{{r|runciman20130606}} She attracted media attention as the youngest and the only female candidate;{{sfnmp|1a1=Beckett|1y=2006|1pp=23–24|2a1=Blundell|2y=2008|2p=37}} in 1950, she was the youngest Conservative candidate in the country.{{sfnp|Jackson|Saunders|2012|p=3}} She lost on both occasions to Norman Dodds but reduced the Labour majority by 6,000 and then a further 1,000.{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|pp=23–24}} During the campaigns, she was supported by her parents and by her future husband Denis Thatcher, whom she married in December 1951.{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|pp=23–24}}NEWS, 27 June 2003, Sir Denis Thatcher, Bt, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/1434154/Sir-Denis-Thatcher-Bt.html, live, 6 January 2012,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/1434154/Sir-Denis-Thatcher-Bt.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20120114083041www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/1434154/Sir-Denis-Thatcher-Bt.html,">web.archive.org/web/20120114083041www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/1434154/Sir-Denis-Thatcher-Bt.html, 14 January 2012, Denis funded his wife’s studies for the bar;{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|p=25}} she qualified as a barrister in 1953 and specialised in taxation.{{sfnp|Blundell|2008|p=35}} Later that same year their twins Carol and Mark were born, delivered prematurely by Caesarean section.{{sfnmp|1a1=Ogden|1y=1990|1p=70|2a1=Beckett|2y=2006|2p=26|3a1=Aitken|3y=2013|3p=74}}

Member of Parliament (1959–1970)

In 1954, Thatcher was defeated when she sought selection to be the Conservative Party candidate for the Orpington by-election of January 1955. She chose not to stand as a candidate in the 1955 general election, in later years, stating: “I really just felt the twins were [...] only two, I really felt that it was too soon. I couldn’t do that.“{{sfnp|Campbell|2000|p=100}} Afterwards, Thatcher began looking for a Conservative safe seat and was selected as the candidate for Finchley in April 1958 (narrowly beating Ian Montagu Fraser). She was elected as MP for the seat after a hard campaign in the 1959 election.{{sfnp|Beckett|2006|p=27}}{{London Gazette|issue=41842|page=6433|date=13 October 1959}} Benefiting from her fortunate result in a lottery for backbenchers to propose new legislation,{{r|runciman20130606}} Thatcher’s maiden speech was, unusually, in support of her private member’s bill, the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960, requiring local authorities to hold their council meetings in public; the bill was successful and became law.WEB, 5 February 1960, HC S 2R [Public Bodies (Admission of the Press to Meetings) Bill] (Maiden Speech),www.margaretthatcher.org/document/101055, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/101055," title="web.archive.org/web/20131109151758www.margaretthatcher.org/document/101055,">web.archive.org/web/20131109151758www.margaretthatcher.org/document/101055, 9 November 2013, 8 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, {{sfnp|Aitken|2013|p=91}} In 1961 she went against the Conservative Party’s official position by voting for the restoration of birching as a judicial corporal punishment.{{sfnp|Campbell|2000|p=134}}

On the frontbenches

Thatcher’s talent and drive caused her to be mentioned as a future prime minister in her early 20s{{r|runciman20130606}} although she herself was more pessimistic, stating as late as 1970: “There will not be a woman prime minister in my lifetime – the male population is too prejudiced.“NEWS, Sandbrook, Dominic, Dominic Sandbrook, 9 April 2013, Viewpoint: What if Margaret Thatcher had never been?, BBC News Magazine,www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22076886, live, 16 June 2013,www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22076886," title="web.archive.org/web/20130608091711www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22076886,">web.archive.org/web/20130608091711www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22076886, 8 June 2013, In October 1961 she was promoted to the frontbench as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry for Pensions by Harold Macmillan.{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=4}} Thatcher was the youngest woman in history to receive such a post, and among the first MPs elected in 1959 to be promoted.{{sfnp|Scott-Smith|2003}} After the Conservatives lost the 1964 election, she became spokeswoman on housing and land. In that position, she advocated her party’s policy of giving tenants the right to buy their council houses.{{sfnp|Wapshott|2007|p=64}} She moved to the Shadow Treasury team in 1966 and, as Treasury spokeswoman, opposed Labour’s mandatory price and income controls, arguing they would unintentionally produce effects that would distort the economy.{{sfnp|Wapshott|2007|p=64}}Jim Prior suggested Thatcher as a Shadow Cabinet member after the Conservatives’ 1966 defeat, but party leader Edward Heath and Chief Whip William Whitelaw eventually chose Mervyn Pike as the Conservative shadow cabinet’s sole woman member.{{sfnp|Scott-Smith|2003}} At the 1966 Conservative Party conference, Thatcher criticised the high-tax policies of the Labour government as being steps “not only towards Socialism, but towards Communism”, arguing that lower taxes served as an incentive to hard work.{{sfnp|Wapshott|2007|p=64}} Thatcher was one of the few Conservative MPs to support Leo Abse’s bill to decriminalise male homosexuality.HANSARD, 22 October 2020,api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1966/jul/05/sexual-offences-no-2, Sexual Offences (No. 2), 5 July 1966, House of Commons, 731, 267, She voted in favour of David Steel’s bill to legalise abortion,{{sfnp|Thatcher|1995|p=150}}HANSARD, 22 October 2020,api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1966/jul/22/medical-termination-of-pregnancy-bill, Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill, 22 July 1966, House of Commons, 732, 1165, as well as a ban on hare coursing.HANSARD, 22 October 2020,api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1970/may/14/hare-coursing-bill, Hare Coursing Bill, 14 May 1970, House of Commons, 801, 1599–1603, She supported the retention of capital punishmentHANSARD, 22 October 2020,api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1969/jun/24/capital-punishment, Capital Punishment, 24 June 1969, House of Commons, 785, 1235, and voted against the relaxation of divorce laws.HANSARD, 22 October 2020,api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1968/feb/09/divorce-reform-bill, Divorce Reform Bill, 9 February 1968, House of Commons, 758, 904–907, {{sfnp|Thatcher|1995|p=151}}

In the Shadow Cabinet

In 1967, the United States Embassy chose Thatcher to take part in the International Visitor Leadership Program (then called the Foreign Leader Program), a professional exchange programme that allowed her to spend about six weeks visiting various US cities and political figures as well as institutions such as the International Monetary Fund. Although she was not yet a Shadow Cabinet member, the embassy reportedly described her to the State Department as a possible future prime minister. The description helped Thatcher meet with prominent people during a busy itinerary focused on economic issues, including Paul Samuelson, Walt Rostow, Pierre-Paul Schweitzer and Nelson Rockefeller. Following the visit, Heath appointed Thatcher to the Shadow Cabinet{{sfnp|Scott-Smith|2003}} as fuel and power spokeswoman.NEWS, 8 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher’s timeline: From Grantham to the House of Lords, via Arthur Scargill and the Falklands War, The Independent,www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/margaret-thatchers-timeline-from-grantham-to-the-house-of-lords-via-arthur-scargill-and-the-8564555.html, live, 2 November 2016,www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/margaret-thatchers-timeline-from-grantham-to-the-house-of-lords-via-arthur-scargill-and-the-8564555.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20161104013802www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/margaret-thatchers-timeline-from-grantham-to-the-house-of-lords-via-arthur-scargill-and-the-8564555.html,">web.archive.org/web/20161104013802www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/margaret-thatchers-timeline-from-grantham-to-the-house-of-lords-via-arthur-scargill-and-the-8564555.html, 4 November 2016, Before the 1970 general election, she was promoted to shadow transport spokeswoman and later to education.{{sfnp|Wapshott|2007|p=65}}In 1968, Enoch Powell delivered his “Rivers of Blood” speech in which he strongly criticised Commonwealth immigration to the United Kingdom and the then-proposed Race Relations Bill. When Heath telephoned Thatcher to inform her that he would sack Powell from the Shadow Cabinet, she recalled that she “really thought that it was better to let things cool down for the present rather than heighten the crisis”. She believed that his main points about Commonwealth immigration were correct and that the selected quotations from his speech had been taken out of context.{{sfnp|Aitken|2013|page=117}} In a 1991 interview for Today, Thatcher stated that she thought Powell had “made a valid argument, if in sometimes regrettable terms”.MAGAZINE, Sandford, Christopher, Christopher Sandford (biographer), 4 December 2017, June 2012 issue, To See and to Speak,www.chroniclesmagazine.org/article/to-see-and-to-speak/, live, Chronicles (magazine), Chronicles,web.archive.org/web/20201027040342/https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/article/to-see-and-to-speak/, 27 October 2020, 23 October 2020, Around this time, she gave her first Commons speech as a shadow transport minister and highlighted the need for investment in British Rail. She argued: “[{{ucfirst:i]f}} we build bigger and better roads, they would soon be saturated with more vehicles and we would be no nearer solving the problem.“{{sfnp|Campbell|2000|p=189}} Thatcher made her first visit to the Soviet Union in the summer of 1969 as the Opposition transport spokeswoman, and in October, delivered a speech celebrating her ten years in Parliament. In early 1970, she told The Finchley Press that she would like to see a “reversal of the permissive society”.{{sfnp|Campbell|2000|pp=190–191}}

Education Secretary (1970–1974)

File:Girls at Baldock County Council School in Hertfordshire enjoy a drink of milk during a break in the school day in 1944. D20552.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Girls at Baldock County Council School in Hertfordshire enjoying a drink of milk during a break in the school day in 1944|Thatcher abolished free milk for children aged 7–11 (pictured{{--)}} in 1971 as her predecessor had done for older children in 1968.]]The Conservative Party, led by Edward Heath, won the 1970 general election, and Thatcher was appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Education and Science. Thatcher caused controversy when, after only a few days in office, she withdrew Labour’s Circular 10/65, which attempted to force comprehensivisation, without going through a consultation process. She was highly criticised for the speed at which she carried this out.{{sfnp|Campbell|2000|p=222}} Consequently, she drafted her own new policy (Circular 10/70), which ensured that local authorities were not forced to go comprehensive. Her new policy was not meant to stop the development of new comprehensives; she said: “We shall [...] expect plans to be based on educational considerations rather than on the comprehensive principle.“{{sfnp|Moore|2013|p=215}}Thatcher supported Lord Rothschild’s 1971 proposal for market forces to affect government funding of research. Although many scientists opposed the proposal, her research background probably made her sceptical of their claim that outsiders should not interfere with funding.{{r|lecher20130408}} The department evaluated proposals for more local education authorities to close grammar schools and to adopt comprehensive secondary education. Although Thatcher was committed to a tiered secondary modern-grammar school system of education and attempted to preserve grammar schools,{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=14}} during her tenure as education secretary, she turned down only 326 of 3,612 proposals (roughly 9 per cent){{sfnp|Campbell|2000|p=224}} for schools to become comprehensives; the proportion of pupils attending comprehensive schools consequently rose from 32 per cent to 62 per cent.{{sfnp|Marr|2007|pp=248–249}} Nevertheless, she managed to save 94 grammar schools.{{sfnp|Moore|2013|p=215}}{{anchor|Milk Snatcher}}During her first months in office, she attracted public attention due to the government’s attempts to cut spending. She gave priority to academic needs in schools,{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=14}} while administering public expenditure cuts on the state education system, resulting in the abolition of free milk for schoolchildren aged seven to eleven.{{sfnp|Wapshott|2007|p=76}} She held that few children would suffer if schools were charged for milk but agreed to provide younger children with {{convert|0.3|imppt}} daily for nutritional purposes.{{sfnp|Wapshott|2007|p=76}} She also argued that she was simply carrying on with what the Labour government had started since they had stopped giving free milk to secondary schools.{{sfnp|Campbell|2000|p=231}} Milk would still be provided to those children that required it on medical grounds, and schools could still sell milk.{{sfnp|Campbell|2000|p=231}} The aftermath of the milk row hardened her determination; she told the editor-proprietor Harold Creighton of The Spectator: “Don’t underestimate me, I saw how they broke Keith {{interp|Joseph}}, but they won’t break me.“{{sfnp|Campbell|2000|p=288}}Cabinet papers later revealed that she opposed the policy but had been forced into it by the Treasury.NEWS, Hickman, Martin, 9 August 2010, Tories move swiftly to avoid ‘milk-snatcher’ tag, The Independent,www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tories-move-swiftly-to-avoid-milksnatcher-tag-2047372.html, live, 9 April 2013,www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tories-move-swiftly-to-avoid-milksnatcher-tag-2047372.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20130517184554www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tories-move-swiftly-to-avoid-milksnatcher-tag-2047372.html,">web.archive.org/web/20130517184554www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tories-move-swiftly-to-avoid-milksnatcher-tag-2047372.html, 17 May 2013, Her decision provoked a storm of protest from Labour and the press,{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=15}} leading to her being notoriously nicknamed “Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher”.{{sfnp|Wapshott|2007|p=76}}NEWS, Smith, Rebecca, 8 August 2010, How Margaret Thatcher became known as ‘Milk Snatcher’, The Sunday Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/7932963/How-Margaret-Thatcher-became-known-as-Milk-Snatcher.html, live, 9 April 2013,web.archive.org/web/20120118071518/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/7932963/How-Margaret-Thatcher-became-known-as-Milk-Snatcher.html, 18 January 2012, She reportedly considered leaving politics in the aftermath and later wrote in her autobiography: “I learned a valuable lesson. I had incurred the maximum of political odium for the minimum of political benefit.“{{sfnmp|1a1=Reitan|1y=2003|1p=15|2a1=Thatcher|2y=1995|2p=182}}

Leader of the Opposition (1975–1979)

{{See also|Shadow Cabinet of Margaret Thatcher}}{{External media| topic=1975 speech to the US National Press Clubframelessborder |Thatcher sitting in a black-and-white photograph)| caption=Thatcher in late 1975URL-STATUS=LIVE ARCHIVE-DATE=27 SEPTEMBER 2018 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, (Starts at 7:39, finishes at 28:33.)19 SEPTEMBER 1975 URL=HTTP://WWW.MARGARETTHATCHER.ORG/DOCUMENT/102770 ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20161029044318/HTTP://WWW.MARGARETTHATCHER.ORG/DOCUMENT/102770 ACCESS-DATE=28 OCTOBER 2016, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, }}The Heath government continued to experience difficulties with oil embargoes and union demands for wage increases in 1973, subsequently losing the February 1974 general election.{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=15}} Labour formed a minority government and went on to win a narrow majority in the October 1974 general election. Heath’s leadership of the Conservative Party looked increasingly in doubt. Thatcher was not initially seen as the obvious replacement, but she eventually became the main challenger, promising a fresh start.{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=16}} Her main support came from the parliamentary 1922 Committee{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=16}} and The Spectator,WEB, Cosgrave, Patrick, Patrick Cosgrave, 25 January 1975, Clear choice for the Tories,www.spectator.co.uk/2013/04/clear-choice-for-the-tories/, live,web.archive.org/web/20171025145009/https://www.spectator.co.uk/2013/04/clear-choice-for-the-tories/, 25 October 2017, 13 July 2017, 13 April 2013, The Spectator, but Thatcher’s time in office gave her the reputation of a pragmatist rather than that of an ideologue.{{r|runciman20130606}} She defeated Heath on the first ballot, and he resigned from the leadership.NEWS, Naughton, Philippe, 18 July 2005, Thatcher leads tributes to Sir Edward Heath, The Times,www.thetimes.co.uk/article/thatcher-leads-tributes-to-sir-edward-heath-353gzwv3fdh, live, subscription, 23 October 2020,archive.today/20210913173244/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/thatcher-leads-tributes-to-sir-edward-heath-353gzwv3fdh, 13 September 2021, In the second ballot she defeated Whitelaw, Heath’s preferred successor. Thatcher’s election had a polarising effect on the party; her support was stronger among MPs on the right, and also among those from southern England, and those who had not attended public schools or Oxbridge.{{sfnp|Cowley|Bailey|2000}}Thatcher became Conservative Party leader and Leader of the Opposition on 11 February 1975;WEB, 11 February 1975, Press Conference after winning Conservative leadership (Grand Committee Room),www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=102452, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=102452," title="web.archive.org/web/20120218065547www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=102452,">web.archive.org/web/20120218065547www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=102452, 18 February 2012, 29 September 2007, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, she appointed Whitelaw as her deputy. Heath was never reconciled to Thatcher’s leadership of the party.{{sfnp|Moore|2013|pages=394–395, 430}}Television critic Clive James, writing in The Observer prior to her election as Conservative Party leader, compared her voice of 1973 to “a cat sliding down a blackboard”.{{refn|{{harvtxt|James|1977|pp=119–120}}: The hang-up has always been the voice. Not the timbre so much as, well, the {{em|tone}} – the condescending explanatory whine which treats the squirming interlocutor as an eight-year-old child with personality deficiencies. It has been fascinating, recently, to watch her striving to eliminate this. BBC2 News Extra on Tuesday night rolled a clip from May 1973 demonstrating the Thatcher sneer at full pitch. (She was saying that she wouldn’t {{em|dream}} of seeking the leadership.) She sounded like a cat sliding down a blackboard.NEWS, James, Clive, 9 February 1975, Getting Mrs T into focus, 26, The Observer,www.newspapers.com/clip/52299047/, live, 23 October 2020,web.archive.org/web/20210111173045/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52299047/2-c-mt-on-tv/, 11 January 2021, Newspapers.com, |group=nb}} Thatcher had already begun to work on her presentation on the advice of Gordon Reece, a former television producer. By chance, Reece met the actor Laurence Olivier, who arranged lessons with the National Theatre’s voice coach.{{sfnp|Thatcher|1995|p=267}}NEWS, Moore, Charles, December 2011, The Invincible Mrs. Thatcher, Vanity Fair (magazine), Vanity Fair,www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/12/margaret-thatcher-201112, live, 25 February 2012,www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/12/margaret-thatcher-201112," title="web.archive.org/web/20120218073039www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/12/margaret-thatcher-201112,">web.archive.org/web/20120218073039www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/12/margaret-thatcher-201112, 18 February 2012, {{refn|Thatcher succeeded in completely suppressing her Lincolnshire dialect except when under stress, notably after provocation from Denis Healey in the Commons in 1983, when she accused the Labour frontbench of being (wikt:frit#Etymology 2|frit).NEWSPAPER THE TIMES, A miracle recovery for Finchley mother of two, Frank Johnson (journalist), Johnson, Frank, News, 22 April 1983, 28, 61513, NEWS, 20 April 1983, PM taunts Labour over early election, 5, The Guardian, Amid uproar from both sides of the house, Mrs Thatcher shouted: ‘So you are afraid of an election are you? Afraid, Afraid, Afraid. Frightened, frit – couldn’t take it. Couldn’t stand it.’, |group=nb}}Thatcher began attending lunches regularly at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a think tank founded by {{wikt-lang|en|Hayekian|i=-}} poultry magnate Antony Fisher; she had been visiting the IEA and reading its publications since the early 1960s. There she was influenced by the ideas of Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon and became the face of the ideological movement opposing the British welfare state. Keynesian economics, they believed, was weakening Britain. The institute’s pamphlets proposed less government, lower taxes, and more freedom for business and consumers.{{sfnp|Beckett|2010|loc=chpt. 11}}{{multiple image|direction=vertical|image1=President Gerald Ford Meeting with Great Britain’s Conservative Party Leader Margaret Thatcher in the Oval Office.jpg|alt1=Thatcher sitting with Gerald Ford|caption1=With President Ford in the Oval Office, 1975|image2=Shah and Margaret Thatcher.jpg|alt2=Thatcher sitting with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi|caption2=With the Shah in the Niavaran Complex, 1978}}Thatcher intended to promote neoliberal economic ideas at home and abroad. Despite setting the direction of her foreign policy for a Conservative government, Thatcher was distressed by her repeated failure to shine in the House of Commons. Consequently, Thatcher decided that as “her voice was carrying little weight at home”, she would “be heard in the wider world”.{{sfnp|Campbell |2000|p=344}} Thatcher undertook visits across the Atlantic, establishing an international profile and promoting her economic and foreign policies. She toured the United States in 1975 and met President Gerald Ford,WIKISOURCE, President Ford–Margaret Thatcher memcon, President Ford–Margaret Thatcher memcon (18 September 1975), 18 September 1975, visiting again in 1977, when she met President Jimmy Carter.{{sfnp|Cooper|2010|pp=25–26}} Among other foreign trips, she met Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during a visit to Iran in 1978.PRESS RELEASE, Press Conference concluding visit to Iran, 1 May 1978, Margaret Thatcher Foundation,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103489, 13 April 2018, live,web.archive.org/web/20180414010627/https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103489, 14 April 2018, Thatcher chose to travel without being accompanied by her shadow foreign secretary, Reginald Maudling, in an attempt to make a bolder personal impact.{{sfnp|Cooper|2010|pp=25–26}}In domestic affairs, Thatcher opposed Scottish devolution (home rule) and the creation of a Scottish Assembly. She instructed Conservative MPs to vote against the Scotland and Wales Bill in December 1976, which was successfully defeated, and then when new Bills were proposed, she supported amending the legislation to allow the English to vote in the 1979 referendum on Scottish devolution.NEWS, 27 April 2008, How Thatcher tried to thwart devolution, The Scotsman,www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/how-thatcher-tried-to-thwart-devolution-1-1165673, dead, 20 April 2013,www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/how-thatcher-tried-to-thwart-devolution-1-1165673," title="web.archive.org/web/20151016012202www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/how-thatcher-tried-to-thwart-devolution-1-1165673,">web.archive.org/web/20151016012202www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/how-thatcher-tried-to-thwart-devolution-1-1165673, 16 October 2015, Britain’s economy during the 1970s was so weak that then Foreign Secretary James Callaghan warned his fellow Labour Cabinet members in 1974 of the possibility of “a breakdown of democracy”, telling them: “If I were a young man, I would emigrate.“{{sfnp|Beckett|2010|loc=chpt. 7}} In mid-1978, the economy began to recover, and opinion polls showed Labour in the lead, with a general election being expected later that year and a Labour win a serious possibility. Now prime minister, Callaghan surprised many by announcing on 7 September that there would be no general election that year and that he would wait until 1979 before going to the polls. Thatcher reacted to this by branding the Labour government “chickens”, and Liberal Party leader David Steel joined in, criticising Labour for “running scared”.NEWS, 7 September 1978: Callaghan accused of running scared, On This Day 1950–2005, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/7/newsid_2502000/2502781.stm, live, 13 January 2012,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/7/newsid_2502000/2502781.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20120410202005news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/7/newsid_2502000/2502781.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20120410202005news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/7/newsid_2502000/2502781.stm, 10 April 2012, The Labour government then faced fresh public unease about the direction of the country and a damaging series of strikes during the winter of 1978–79, dubbed the “Winter of Discontent”. The Conservatives attacked the Labour government’s unemployment record, using advertising with the slogan “Labour Isn’t Working”. A general election was called after the Callaghan ministry lost a motion of no confidence in early 1979. The Conservatives won a 44-seat majority in the House of Commons, and Thatcher became the first female British prime minister.{{sfnp|Butler|Kavanagh|1980|page=199}}

“Iron Lady”

{{External media |topic=1976 speech to Finchley Conservatives |video1=SPEECH, Speech to Finchley Conservatives (admits to being an “Iron Lady“),www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111324, the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, }}{{blockquote|I stand before you tonight in my Red Star chiffon evening gown, my face softly made up and my fair hair gently waved, the Iron Lady of the Western world.{{r|Iron Lady}}|Thatcher embracing her Soviet nickname in 1976}}In 1976, Thatcher gave her “Britain Awake” foreign policy speech which lambasted the Soviet Union, saying it was “bent on world dominance”.WEB, 19 January 1976, Speech at Kensington Town Hall (’Britain Awake’) (The Iron Lady),www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102939, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102939," title="web.archive.org/web/20101017152319www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102939,">web.archive.org/web/20101017152319www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102939, 17 October 2010, 2 November 2008, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, Helsinki Accords, At Helsinki we endorsed the status quo in Eastern Europe. In return we had hoped for the freer movement of people and ideas across the Iron Curtain. So far we have got nothing of substance., The Soviet Army journal Red Star reported her stance in a piece headlined “Iron Lady Raises Fears”,NEWS, Gavrilov, Yuri, 24 January 1976, The ‘Iron Lady’ Sounds the Alarm, 28, 3, 17, Red Star, 1–13, {{text, The Current Digest of the Soviet Press, }} alluding to her remarks on the Iron Curtain. The Sunday Times covered the Red Star article the next day,WEB, 25 January 1976, Maggie, the ‘Iron Lady’,gale.cengage.co.uk/images/upload/NewsVault/Thatcher/15-Maggie-the-Iron-Lady.pdf,gale.cengage.co.uk/images/upload/NewsVault/Thatcher/15-Maggie-the-Iron-Lady.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20161029044402gale.cengage.co.uk/images/upload/NewsVault/Thatcher/15-Maggie-the-Iron-Lady.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20161029044402gale.cengage.co.uk/images/upload/NewsVault/Thatcher/15-Maggie-the-Iron-Lady.pdf, 29 October 2016, 28 October 2016, The Sunday Times, and Thatcher embraced the (wikt:epithet|epithet) a week later; in a speech to Finchley Conservatives she likened it to the Duke of Wellington’s nickname “{{title case|iron duke}}”.WEB, 31 January 1976, Speech to Finchley Conservatives (admits to being an ‘Iron Lady’),www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102947, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102947," title="web.archive.org/web/20160924182918www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102947,">web.archive.org/web/20160924182918www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102947, 24 September 2016, 17 October 2016, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, The “Iron” metaphor followed her throughout ever since,{{sfnmp|1a1=Atkinson|1y=1984|1p=115|2a1=Kaplan|2y=2000|2p=60}} and would become a generic sobriquet for other strong-willed female politicians.WEB, Macpherson, Fiona, Fiona Macpherson, 10 April 2013, The Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher’s linguistic legacy,blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/04/10/margaretthatcher, dead,web.archive.org/web/20180616153939/https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/04/10/margaretthatcher/, 16 June 2018, 20 May 2018, OxfordDictionaries.com, While it has been applied to other women since (from politicians to tennis players), the resonance with Margaret Thatcher remains the strongest.,

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1979–1990)

{{Further|First Thatcher ministry|second Thatcher ministry|third Thatcher ministry}}{{External media| topic=1979 remarks on becoming prime ministerframelessborder)10 Downing Street, {{circa>1979}} (ST FRANCIS’S PRAYER) VIA=THE MARGARET THATCHER FOUNDATION, }}Thatcher became prime minister on 4 May 1979. Arriving at Downing Street she said, paraphrasing the Prayer of Saint Francis:{{poemquote|Where there is discord, may we bring harmony;Where there is error, may we bring truth;Where there is doubt, may we bring faith;And where there is despair, may we bring hope.WEB, 4 May 1979, Remarks on becoming Prime Minister (St Francis’s prayer),www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104078, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104078," title="web.archive.org/web/20170322015853www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104078,">web.archive.org/web/20170322015853www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104078, 22 March 2017, 21 March 2017, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, }}In office throughout the 1980s, Thatcher was frequently referred to as the most powerful woman in the world.{{sfnmp|1a1=Bern|1y=1987|1p=43|2a1=Ogden|2y=1990|2pp=9, 12}}MAGAZINE, Sheehy, Gail, Gail Sheehy, 1989, Gail Sheehy on the most powerful woman in the world, Vanity Fair, 52, 102, MAGAZINE, Eisner, Jane, Jane Eisner, 7 June 1987, The most powerful woman in the world, The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, 1, B006RKBPBK,

Domestic affairs

Minorities

Thatcher was the Opposition leader and prime minister at a time of increased racial tension in Britain. During the 1977 local elections, The Economist commented: “The Tory tide swamped the smaller parties{{snd}}specifically the National Front {{interp|NF}}, which suffered a clear decline from last year.“NEWS, 14 May 1977, Votes go to Tories, and nobody else, 263, 24–28, The Economist, 6976, WEB, 1 March 1978, Conservative Campaign Guide Supplement 1978,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/110797, live,web.archive.org/web/20201019154057/https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/110797, 19 October 2020, 22 October 2020, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, 270, Her standing in the polls had risen by 11% after a 1978 interview for World in Action in which she said “the British character has done so much for democracy, for law and done so much throughout the world that if there is any fear that it might be swamped people are going to react and be rather hostile to those coming in”, as well as “in many ways {{interp|minorities}} add to the richness and variety of this country. The moment the minority threatens to become a big one, people get frightened”.WEB, 27 January 1978, TV Interview for Granada World in Action (’rather swamped’),www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103485, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103485," title="web.archive.org/web/20170717144335www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103485,">web.archive.org/web/20170717144335www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103485, 17 July 2017, 23 July 2017, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, NEWSPAPER THE TIMES, Mrs Thatcher fears people might become hostile if immigrant flow is not cut, News, 31 January 1978, 2, 60224, In the 1979 general election, the Conservatives had attracted votes from the NF, whose support almost collapsed.{{sfnmp|1a1=Reitan|1y=2003|1p=26|2a1=Ward|2y=2004|2p=128}} In a July 1979 meeting with Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington and Home Secretary William Whitelaw, Thatcher objected to the number of Asian immigrants, in the context of limiting the total of Vietnamese boat people allowed to settle in the UK to fewer than 10,000 over two years.NEWS, Swaine, Jon, 30 December 2009, Margaret Thatcher complained about Asian immigration to Britain, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/margaret-thatcher/6906503/Margaret-Thatcher-complained-about-Asian-immigration-to-Britain.html, dead, 20 January 2011,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/margaret-thatcher/6906503/Margaret-Thatcher-complained-about-Asian-immigration-to-Britain.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20100525084645www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/margaret-thatcher/6906503/Margaret-Thatcher-complained-about-Asian-immigration-to-Britain.html,">web.archive.org/web/20100525084645www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/margaret-thatcher/6906503/Margaret-Thatcher-complained-about-Asian-immigration-to-Britain.html, 25 May 2010,

The Queen

As prime minister, Thatcher met weekly with Queen Elizabeth II to discuss government business, and their relationship came under scrutiny.{{sfnmp|1a1=Reitan|1y=2003|1p=28|2a1=Seward|2y=2001|2p=154}} {{harvtxt|Campbell|2011a|page=464}} states:{{blockquote|One question that continued to fascinate the public about the phenomenon of a woman Prime Minister was how she got on with the Queen. The answer is that their relations were punctiliously correct, but there was little love lost on either side. As two women of very similar age – Mrs Thatcher was six months older – occupying parallel positions at the top of the social pyramid, one the head of government, the other head of state, they were bound to be in some sense rivals. Mrs Thatcher’s attitude to the Queen was ambivalent. On the one hand she had an almost mystical reverence for the institution of the monarchy [...] Yet at the same time she was trying to modernise the country and sweep away many of the values and practices which the monarchy perpetuated.}}Michael Shea, the Queen’s press secretary, in 1986 leaked stories of a deep rift to The Sunday Times. He said that she felt Thatcher’s policies were “uncaring, confrontational and socially divisive”.{{sfnp|Pimlott|1996|pp=460–463, 484, 509–514}} Thatcher later wrote: “I always found the Queen’s attitude towards the work of the Government absolutely correct [...] stories of clashes between ‘two powerful women’ were just too good not to make up.“{{sfnp|Thatcher|1993|p=18}}

Economy and taxation

{{See also|June 1979 United Kingdom budget|l1=1979 budget}}{{Margaret Thatcher/datatable}}Thatcher’s economic policy was influenced by monetarist thinking and economists such as Milton Friedman and Alan Walters.{{sfnp|Childs|2006|p=185}} Together with her first chancellor, Geoffrey Howe, she lowered direct taxes on income and increased indirect taxes.{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=30}} She increased interest rates to slow the growth of the money supply, and thereby lower inflation;{{sfnp|Childs|2006|p=185}} introduced cash limits on public spending and reduced expenditure on social services such as education and housing.{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=30}} Cuts to higher education led to Thatcher being the first Oxonian post-war prime minister without an honorary doctorate from Oxford University after a 738–319 vote of the governing assembly and a student petition.NEWS, 29 January 1985: Thatcher snubbed by Oxford dons, On This Day 1950–2005, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/29/newsid_2506000/2506019.stm, live, 9 April 2007,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/29/newsid_2506000/2506019.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20130724131128news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/29/newsid_2506000/2506019.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20130724131128news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/29/newsid_2506000/2506019.stm, 24 July 2013, Some Heathite Conservatives in the Cabinet, the so-called “wets”, expressed doubt over Thatcher’s policies.NEWS, 10 October 1980: Thatcher ‘not for turning’, On This Day 1950–2005, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/10/newsid_2541000/2541071.stm, live, 21 December 2008,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/10/newsid_2541000/2541071.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20130724131113news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/10/newsid_2541000/2541071.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20130724131113news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/10/newsid_2541000/2541071.stm, 24 July 2013, The 1981 England riots resulted in the British media discussing the need for a policy U-turn. At the 1980 Conservative Party conference, Thatcher addressed the issue directly with a speech written by the playwright Ronald Millar,{{sfnp|Jones|2007|p=224}} that notably included the following lines:{{blockquote|To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the “U” turn, I have only one thing to say. “You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning.“WEB, 10 October 1980, Speech to Conservative Party Conference (’the lady’s not for turning’),www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104431, live,web.archive.org/web/20180105144306/https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104431, 5 January 2018, 31 March 2018, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, }}{{See also|1981 United Kingdom budget|l1=1981 budget}}Thatcher’s job approval rating fell to 23% by December 1980, lower than recorded for any previous prime minister.{{sfnp|Thornton|2004|p=18}} As the recession of the early 1980s deepened, she increased taxes,{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=31}} despite concerns expressed in a March 1981 statement signed by 364 leading economists,NEWS, 31 March 1981, An avalanche of economists, 17, The Times,infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/263/101/138526786w16/purl=rc1_TTDA_0_CS285575295&dyn=75!xrn_1_0_CS285575295&hst_1?sw_aep=mclib, dead, limited, 12 January 2011,infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/mclib?http_rc=400&class=session&sev=temp&type=session&cause=http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/263/101/138526786w16/purl%3Drc1_TTDA_0_CS285575295%26dyn%3D75!xrn_1_0_CS285575295%26hst_1%3Fsw_aep%3Dmclib&cont=&msg=No+Session+cookies&sserv=no," title="archive.today/20120714012618infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/mclib?http_rc=400&class=session&sev=temp&type=session&cause=http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/263/101/138526786w16/purl%3Drc1_TTDA_0_CS285575295%26dyn%3D75!xrn_1_0_CS285575295%26hst_1%3Fsw_aep%3Dmclib&cont=&msg=No+Session+cookies&sserv=no,">archive.today/20120714012618infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/mclib?http_rc=400&class=session&sev=temp&type=session&cause=http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/263/101/138526786w16/purl%3Drc1_TTDA_0_CS285575295%26dyn%3D75!xrn_1_0_CS285575295%26hst_1%3Fsw_aep%3Dmclib&cont=&msg=No+Session+cookies&sserv=no, 14 July 2012, which argued there was “no basis in economic theory [...] for the Government’s belief that by deflating demand they will bring inflation permanently under control”, adding that “present policies will deepen the depression, erode the industrial base of our economy and threaten its social and political stability”.WEB, 13 March 1981, Economy: Letter of the 364 economists critical of monetarism (letter sent to academics and list of signatories),www.margaretthatcher.org/document/121217, live,web.archive.org/web/20180401144432/https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/121217, 1 April 2018, 31 March 2018, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, File:Margaret Thatcher visiting Salford.jpg|thumb|alt=photograph|Visiting Salford UniversitySalford UniversityBy 1982, the UK began to experience signs of economic recovery;{{sfnp|Floud|Johnson|2004|p=392}} inflation was down to 8.6% from a high of 18%, but unemployment was over 3 million for the first time since the 1930s.NEWS, 26 January 1982: UK unemployment tops three million, On This Day 1950–2005, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/26/newsid_2506000/2506335.stm, live, 16 April 2010,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/26/newsid_2506000/2506335.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20180221074348news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/26/newsid_2506000/2506335.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20180221074348news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/26/newsid_2506000/2506335.stm, 21 February 2018, By 1983, overall economic growth was stronger, and inflation and mortgage rates had fallen to their lowest levels in 13 years, although manufacturing employment as a share of total employment fell to just over 30%,{{sfnp|Rowthorn|Wells|1987|page=234}} with total unemployment remaining high, peaking at 3.3 million in 1984.NEWS, O’Grady, Sean, 16 March 2009, Unemployment among young workers hits 15 per cent, The Independent,www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/unemployment-among-young-workers-hits-15-per-cent-1645728.html, live, 21 November 2010,www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/unemployment-among-young-workers-hits-15-per-cent-1645728.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20130724123849www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/unemployment-among-young-workers-hits-15-per-cent-1645728.html,">web.archive.org/web/20130724123849www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/unemployment-among-young-workers-hits-15-per-cent-1645728.html, 24 July 2013, During the 1982 Conservative Party Conference, Thatcher said: “We have done more to roll back the frontiers of socialism than any previous Conservative Government.“WEB, 8 October 1982, Speech to Conservative Party Conference,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105032, live,web.archive.org/web/20180408073302/https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105032, 8 April 2018, 7 April 2018, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, She said at the Party Conference the following year that the British people had completely rejected state socialism and understood “the state has no source of money other than money which people earn themselves [...] There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers’ money.“WEB, 14 October 1983, Speech to Conservative Party Conference,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105454, live,web.archive.org/web/20180408010401/https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105454, 8 April 2018, 7 April 2018, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, By 1987, unemployment was falling, the economy was stable and strong, and inflation was low. Opinion polls showed a comfortable Conservative lead, and local council election results had also been successful, prompting Thatcher to call a general election for 11 June that year, despite the deadline for an election still being 12 months away. The election saw Thatcher re-elected for a third successive term.NEWS, 11 June 1987, Politics 97, BBC,www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/background/pastelec/ge87.shtml, live, 14 November 2011,www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/background/pastelec/ge87.shtml," title="web.archive.org/web/20111203222938www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/background/pastelec/ge87.shtml,">web.archive.org/web/20111203222938www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/background/pastelec/ge87.shtml, 3 December 2011, Thatcher had been firmly opposed to British membership of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM, a precursor to European Economic and Monetary Union), believing that it would constrain the British economy,NEWS, Riddell, Peter, Peter Riddell, 23 November 1987, Thatcher stands firm against full EMS role, Financial Times,www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=106969, live, 8 October 2008,www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=106969," title="web.archive.org/web/20080420095953www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=106969,">web.archive.org/web/20080420095953www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=106969, 20 April 2008, despite the urging of both Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson and Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe;{{sfnp|Thatcher|1993|p=712}} in October 1990 she was persuaded by John Major, Lawson’s successor as chancellor, to join the ERM at what proved to be too high a rate.{{sfnp|Marr|2007|p=484}}Thatcher reformed local government taxes by replacing domestic rates (a tax based on the nominal rental value of a home) with the Community Charge (or poll tax) in which the same amount was charged to each adult resident.NEWS, Passell, Peter, 23 April 1990, Furor Over British Poll Tax Imperils Thatcher Ideology, The New York Times,query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE7DD1030F930A15757C0A966958260, live, 30 October 2008,www.nytimes.com/1990/04/23/business/furor-over-british-poll-tax-imperils-thatcher-ideology.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20130602032717www.nytimes.com/1990/04/23/business/furor-over-british-poll-tax-imperils-thatcher-ideology.html,">web.archive.org/web/20130602032717www.nytimes.com/1990/04/23/business/furor-over-british-poll-tax-imperils-thatcher-ideology.html, 2 June 2013, The new tax was introduced in Scotland in 1989 and in England and Wales the following year,{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|pp=87–88}} and proved to be among the most unpopular policies of her premiership.{{r|polltax}} Public disquiet culminated in a 70,000 to 200,000-strongNEWS, Graham, David, 25 March 2010, The Battle of Trafalgar Square: The poll tax riots revisited, The Independent,www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-battle-of-trafalgar-square-the-poll-tax-riots-revisited-1926873.html, live, 8 April 2013,www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-battle-of-trafalgar-square-the-poll-tax-riots-revisited-1926873.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20180119102840www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-battle-of-trafalgar-square-the-poll-tax-riots-revisited-1926873.html,">web.archive.org/web/20180119102840www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-battle-of-trafalgar-square-the-poll-tax-riots-revisited-1926873.html, 19 January 2018, demonstration in London in March 1990; the demonstration around Trafalgar Square deteriorated into riots, leaving 113 people injured and 340 under arrest.NEWS, 31 March 1990: Violence flares in poll tax demonstration, On This Day 1950–2005, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/31/newsid_2530000/2530763.stm, live, 30 October 2008,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/31/newsid_2530000/2530763.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20130409013226news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/31/newsid_2530000/2530763.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20130409013226news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/31/newsid_2530000/2530763.stm, 9 April 2013, The Community Charge was abolished in 1991 by her successor, John Major.{{r|otd pt}} It has since transpired that Thatcher herself had failed to register for the tax and was threatened with financial penalties if she did not return her form.NEWS, Narwan, Gurpreet, 30 December 2016, Threat of fine for unpaid poll tax sent to No 10, The Times,www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/threat-of-fine-for-unpaid-poll-tax-sent-to-no-10-szqwdrlb6, live, subscription, 22 October 2020,archive.today/20210821195006/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/threat-of-fine-for-unpaid-poll-tax-sent-to-no-10-szqwdrlb6, 21 August 2021,

Industrial relations

{{See also|GCHQ trade union ban|Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service|label2=the GCHQ case}}Thatcher believed that the trade unions were harmful to both ordinary trade unionists and the public.{{sfnp|Campbell|2011a|pp=89–90}} She was committed to reducing the power of the unions, whose leadership she accused of undermining parliamentary democracy and economic performance through strike action.{{sfnp|Thatcher|1993|pp=97–98, 339–340}} Several unions launched strikes in response to legislation introduced to limit their power, but resistance eventually collapsed.NEWS, Margaret Thatcher, CNN,www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/thatcher, 29 October 2008,www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/thatcher," title="web.archive.org/web/20080703072749www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/thatcher,">web.archive.org/web/20080703072749www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/thatcher, 3 July 2008, Only 39% of union members voted Labour in the 1983 general election.NEWS, Revzin, Philip, 23 November 1984, British Labor Unions Begin to Toe the Line, Realizing That the Times Have Changed, The Wall Street Journal, According to the BBC’s political correspondent in 2004, Thatcher “managed to destroy the power of the trade unions for almost a generation”.NEWS, Wilenius, Paul, 5 March 2004, Enemies within: Thatcher and the unions, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3067563.stm, live, 29 October 2008,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3067563.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20090430144439news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3067563.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20090430144439news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3067563.stm, 30 April 2009, The miners’ strike of 1984–85 was the biggest and most devastating confrontation between the unions and the Thatcher government.NEWS, Henry, John, 5 March 2009, When miners took on the government, BBC News, Yorkshire,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/south_yorkshire/7923138.stm, live, 20 May 2018,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/south_yorkshire/7923138.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20180521105409news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/south_yorkshire/7923138.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20180521105409news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/south_yorkshire/7923138.stm, 21 May 2018, (File:Miners strike rally London 1984.jpg|alt=photograph|thumb|Pro-strike rally in London, 1984)In March 1984, the National Coal Board (NCB) proposed to close 20 of the 174 state-owned mines and cut 20,000 jobs out of 187,000.NEWS, Glass, Robert, 16 December 1984, The Uncivilized Side of Britain Rears its Ugly Head, 37, The Record, NEWS, Black, David, 21 February 2009, Still unbowed, ex-miners to mark 25 years since the start of the strike, The Journal,www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/still-unbowed-ex-miners-mark-25-4488387, dead, 5 July 2017,www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/still-unbowed-ex-miners-mark-25-4488387," title="web.archive.org/web/20170812022044www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/still-unbowed-ex-miners-mark-25-4488387,">web.archive.org/web/20170812022044www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/still-unbowed-ex-miners-mark-25-4488387, 12 August 2017, {{r|pits-closed}} Two-thirds of the country’s miners, led by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) under Arthur Scargill, downed tools in protest.{{r|Glass}}NEWS, Hannan, Patrick, Patrick Hannan (presenter), 6 March 2004, Iron Lady versus union baron, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/3537463.stm, live, 20 November 2008,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/3537463.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20090226200523news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/3537463.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20090226200523news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/3537463.stm, 26 February 2009, NEWS, Jones, Alan, 3 March 2009, A History of the Miners’ Strike, Press Association, However, Scargill refused to hold a ballot on the strike,{{sfnp|Adeney|Lloyd|1988|pages=88–89}} having previously lost three ballots on a national strike (in January and October 1982, and March 1983).{{sfnp|Adeney|Lloyd|1988|page=169}} This led to the strike being declared illegal by the High Court of Justice.{{sfnp|Adeney|Lloyd|1988|page=170}}NEWS, 28 September 1984: Pit dispute ‘illegal’ says judge, On This Day 1950–2005, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/28/newsid_2540000/2540813.stm, live, 26 December 2012,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/28/newsid_2540000/2540813.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20181002235052news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/28/newsid_2540000/2540813.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20181002235052news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/28/newsid_2540000/2540813.stm, 2 October 2018, Thatcher refused to meet the union’s demands and compared the miners’ dispute to the Falklands War, declaring in a speech in 1984: “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.“{{sfnp|Khabaz|2006|p=226}} Thatcher’s opponents misrepresented her words as indicating contempt for the working class and have been employed in criticism of her ever since.{{sfnp|Moore|2015|p=164}}After a year out on strike in March 1985, the NUM leadership conceded without a deal. The cost to the economy was estimated to be at least £1.5 billion, and the strike was blamed for much of the pound’s fall against the US dollar.NEWS, Harper, Timothy, 5 March 1985, Miners return to work today. Bitter coal strike wrenched British economy, society, 8, The Dallas Morning News, Thatcher reflected on the end of the strike in her statement that “if anyone has won”, it was “the miners who stayed at work” and all those “that have kept Britain going”.{{sfnp|Moore|2015|p=178}}The government closed 25 unprofitable coal mines in 1985, and by 1992 a total of 97 mines had been closed;{{r|pits-closed}} those that remained were privatised in 1994.NEWS, 4 March 2004, UK Coal sees loss crumble to £1m, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3531819.stm, live, 20 November 2008,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3531819.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20110131203228news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3531819.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20110131203228news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3531819.stm, 31 January 2011, The resulting closure of 150 coal mines, some of which were not losing money, resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and had the effect of devastating entire communities.NEWS, 5 March 2004, Watching the pits disappear, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3514549.stm, live, 20 November 2008,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3514549.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20080702053420news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3514549.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20080702053420news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3514549.stm, 2 July 2008, Strikes had helped bring down Heath’s government, and Thatcher was determined to succeed where he had failed. Her strategy of preparing fuel stocks, appointing hardliner Ian MacGregor as NCB leader and ensuring that police were adequately trained and equipped with riot gear contributed to her triumph over the striking miners.{{sfnp|Marr|2007|p=411}}The number of stoppages across the UK peaked at 4,583 in 1979, when more than 29 million working days had been lost. In 1984, the year of the miners’ strike, there were 1,221, resulting in the loss of more than 27 million working days. Stoppages then fell steadily throughout the rest of Thatcher’s premiership; in 1990, there were 630 and fewer than 2 million working days lost, and they continued to fall thereafter.{{sfnp|Butler|1994|p=375}} Thatcher’s tenure also witnessed a sharp decline in trade union density, with the percentage of workers belonging to a trade union falling from 57.3% in 1979 to 49.5% in 1985.{{sfnp|Laybourn|1992|page=208}} In 1979 up until Thatcher’s final year in office, trade union membership also fell, from 13.5 million in 1979 to fewer than 10 million.{{sfnp|Barrell|1994|p=127}}

Privatisation

The policy of privatisation has been called “a crucial ingredient of Thatcherism”.{{sfnp|Seldon|Collings|2000|p=27}} After the 1983 election, the sale of state utilities accelerated;{{sfnp|Feigenbaum|Henig|Hamnett|1998|p=71}} more than £29 billion was raised from the sale of nationalised industries, and another £18 billion from the sale of council houses.{{sfnp|Marr|2007|p=428}} The process of privatisation, especially the preparation of nationalised industries for privatisation, was associated with marked improvements in performance, particularly in terms of labour productivity.{{sfnp|Parker|Martin|1995}}Some of the privatised industries, including gas, water, and electricity, were natural monopolies for which privatisation involved little increase in competition. The privatised industries that demonstrated improvement sometimes did so while still under state ownership. British Steel Corporation had made great gains in profitability while still a nationalised industry under the government-appointed MacGregor chairmanship, which faced down trade-union opposition to close plants and halve the workforce.{{sfnp|Kirby|2006}} Regulation was also significantly expanded to compensate for the loss of direct government control, with the foundation of regulatory bodies such as Oftel (1984), Ofgas (1986), and the National Rivers Authority (1989).{{sfnp|Veljanovski|1990|pp=291–304}} There was no clear pattern to the degree of competition, regulation, and performance among the privatised industries.{{sfnp|Parker|Martin|1995}}In most cases, privatisation benefited consumers in terms of lower prices and improved efficiency but results overall have been mixed.{{sfnp|McAleese|2004|pp=169–70}} Not all privatised companies have had successful share price trajectories in the longer term.NEWS, Simon, Emma, 12 April 2013, Thatcher’s legacy: how has privatisation fared?, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/shares-and-stock-tips/9989430/Thatchers-legacy-how-has-privatisation-fared.html, live, 5 July 2017,www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/shares-and-stock-tips/9989430/Thatchers-legacy-how-has-privatisation-fared.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20171015222606www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/shares-and-stock-tips/9989430/Thatchers-legacy-how-has-privatisation-fared.html,">web.archive.org/web/20171015222606www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/shares-and-stock-tips/9989430/Thatchers-legacy-how-has-privatisation-fared.html, 15 October 2017, A 2010 review by the IEA states: “[{{ucfirst:i]t}} does seem to be the case that once competition and/or effective regulation was introduced, performance improved markedly [...] But I hasten to emphasise again that the literature is not unanimous.“WEB, 7 November 2000, A Review of Privatisation and Regulation Experience in Britain,iea.org.uk/publications/research/a-review-of-privatisation-and-regulation-experience-in-britain, live,web.archive.org/web/20180220033519/https://iea.org.uk/publications/research/a-review-of-privatisation-and-regulation-experience-in-britain, 20 February 2018, 19 February 2018, Institute of Economic Affairs, Thatcher always resisted privatising British Rail and was said to have told Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley: “Railway privatisation will be the (wikt:Waterloo#Noun|Waterloo) of this government. Please never mention the railways to me again.” Shortly before her resignation in 1990, she accepted the arguments for privatisation, which her successor John Major implemented in 1994.{{sfnp|Marr|2007|p=495}}The privatisation of public assets was combined with financial deregulation to fuel economic growth. Chancellor Geoffrey Howe abolished the UK’s exchange controls in 1979,NEWS, Robertson, Jamie, 27 October 2016, How the Big Bang changed the City of London for ever, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37751599, live, 19 June 2017,www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37751599," title="web.archive.org/web/20170816022757www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37751599,">web.archive.org/web/20170816022757www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37751599, 16 August 2017, which allowed more capital to be invested in foreign markets, and the Big Bang of 1986 removed many restrictions on the London Stock Exchange.{{r|Robertson}}

Northern Ireland

(File:Margaret Thatcher on a visit to Northern Ireland.jpg|thumb|alt=Margaret and Denis Thatcher on a visit to Northern Ireland|Visiting Northern Ireland in 1982)In 1980 and 1981, Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners in Northern Ireland’s Maze Prison carried out hunger strikes to regain the status of political prisoners that had been removed in 1976 by the preceding Labour government.{{r|strike}} Bobby Sands began the 1981 strike, saying that he would fast until death unless prison inmates won concessions over their living conditions.NEWS, 3 October 1981: IRA Maze hunger strikes at an end, On This Day 1950–2005, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/3/newsid_2451000/2451503.stm, live, 5 January 2008,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/3/newsid_2451000/2451503.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20180113034637news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/3/newsid_2451000/2451503.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20180113034637news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/3/newsid_2451000/2451503.stm, 13 January 2018, Thatcher refused to countenance a return to political status for the prisoners, having declared “Crime is crime is crime; it is not political”.{{r|strike}} Nevertheless, the British government privately contacted republican leaders in a bid to bring the hunger strikes to an end.NEWS, Clarke, Liam, 5 April 2009, Was Gerry Adams complicit over hunger strikers?, The Sunday Times,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111769, live, 23 October 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201111220938/https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111769, 11 November 2020, the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, After the deaths of Sands and nine others, the strike ended. Some rights were restored to paramilitary prisoners, but not official recognition of political status.{{r|CAIN-hs}} Violence in Northern Ireland escalated significantly during the hunger strikes.{{sfnp|English|2005|pp=207–08}}Thatcher narrowly escaped injury in an IRA assassination attempt at a Brighton hotel early in the morning on 12 October 1984.NEWS, 12 October 1984: Tory Cabinet in Brighton bomb blast, On This Day 1950–2005, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/12/newsid_2531000/2531583.stm, live, 29 October 2008,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/12/newsid_2531000/2531583.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20170308094001news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/12/newsid_2531000/2531583.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20170308094001news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/12/newsid_2531000/2531583.stm, 8 March 2017, Five people were killed, including the wife of minister John Wakeham. Thatcher was staying at the hotel to prepare for the Conservative Party conference, which she insisted should open as scheduled the following day.{{r|bbc-bomb}} She delivered her speech as planned,{{sfnp|Thatcher|1993|pp=379–383}} though rewritten from her original draft,NEWS, Travis, Alan, 3 October 2014, Thatcher was to call Labour and miners ‘enemy within’ in abandoned speech, The Guardian,www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/03/thatcher-labour-miners-enemy-within-brighton-bomb, live, 25 May 2017,web.archive.org/web/20170228014646/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/03/thatcher-labour-miners-enemy-within-brighton-bomb, 28 February 2017, in a move that was supported across the political spectrum and enhanced her popularity with the public.{{sfnp|Lanoue|Headrick|1998}}On 6 November 1981, Thatcher and Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Garret FitzGerald had established the Anglo-Irish Inter-Governmental Council, a forum for meetings between the two governments.WEB, The Hunger Strike of 1981 – A Chronology of Main Events,cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/hstrike/chronology.htm, live,cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/hstrike/chronology.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20101206165221cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/hstrike/chronology.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20101206165221cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/hstrike/chronology.htm, 6 December 2010, 27 January 2011, Conflict Archive on the Internet, Ulster University, On 15 November 1985, Thatcher and FitzGerald signed the Hillsborough Anglo-Irish Agreement, which marked the first time a British government had given the Republic of Ireland an advisory role in the governance of Northern Ireland. In protest, the Ulster Says No movement led by Ian Paisley attracted 100,000 to a rally in Belfast,WEB, Anglo Irish Agreement Chronology,cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/aia/chron.htm, dead,cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/aia/chron.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20101206111841cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/aia/chron.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20101206111841cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/aia/chron.htm, 6 December 2010, 27 January 2011, Conflict Archive on the Internet, Ulster University, Ian Gow, later assassinated by the PIRA, resigned as Minister of State in HM Treasury,NEWS, 15 November 1985: Anglo-Irish agreement signed, On This Day 1950–2005, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/15/newsid_2539000/2539849.stm, live, 4 May 2010,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/15/newsid_2539000/2539849.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20080307120742news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/15/newsid_2539000/2539849.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20080307120742news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/15/newsid_2539000/2539849.stm, 7 March 2008, {{sfnp|Moloney|2002|p=336}} and all 15 Unionist MPs resigned their parliamentary seats; only one was not returned in the subsequent by-elections on 23 January 1986.{{sfnp|Cochrane|1997|p=143}}

Environment

Thatcher supported an active climate protection policy; she was instrumental in the passing of the Environmental Protection Act 1990,{{sfnp|Tewdwr-Jones|2003|page=47}} the founding of the Hadley Centre for Climate Research and Prediction,WEB, 25 May 1990, Speech opening Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108102, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108102," title="web.archive.org/web/20170613090256www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108102,">web.archive.org/web/20170613090256www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108102, 13 June 2017, 17 June 2017, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,NEWS, Harrabin, Roger, Roger Harrabin, 8 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher: How PM legitimised green concerns, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22069768, live, 17 June 2017,www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22069768," title="web.archive.org/web/20170810032718www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22069768,">web.archive.org/web/20170810032718www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22069768, 10 August 2017, and the ratification of the Montreal Protocol on preserving the ozone.WEB, Bourke, India, 14 October 2016, Will Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan be the unlikely saviours of the world from climate change?,www.newstatesman.com/politics/energy/2016/10/will-margaret-thatcher-and-ronald-reagan-be-unlikely-saviours-world-climate, live,web.archive.org/web/20181206102436/https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/energy/2016/10/will-margaret-thatcher-and-ronald-reagan-be-unlikely-saviours-world-climate, 6 December 2018, 6 December 2018, New Statesman, Thatcher helped to put climate change, acid rain and general pollution in the British mainstream in the late 1980s,{{r|Harrabin}}{{sfnp|Campbell|2011a|page=642}} calling for a global treaty on climate change in 1989.NEWS, 20 September 2013, A brief history of climate change, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15874560, live, 17 June 2017,www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15874560," title="web.archive.org/web/20170726033727www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15874560,">web.archive.org/web/20170726033727www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15874560, 26 July 2017, Her speeches included one to the Royal Society in 1988,WEB, 27 September 1988, Speech to the Royal Society,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107346, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107346," title="web.archive.org/web/20160406101350www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107346,">web.archive.org/web/20160406101350www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107346, 6 April 2016, 27 April 2016, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, followed by another to the UN General Assembly in 1989.

Foreign affairs

{{multiple image|direction=vertical|image1=Thatcher at Oval Office desk with Carter.jpg|alt1=Thatcher sitting with Jimmy Carter|caption1=With President Carter in the Oval Office, 1979|image2=President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom.jpg|alt2=Thatcher sitting with Ronald Reagan|caption2=With President Reagan in the Oval Office, 1988|image3=Thatcher and Bush - 1990 - P14935-18A.jpg|alt3=Thatcher standing with George H. W. BushGeorge H. W. Bush>President Bush in Aspen, Colorado, 1990}}Thatcher appointed Lord Carrington, an ennobled member of the party and former Secretary of State for Defence, to run the Foreign Office in 1979.{{sfnp|Sked|Cook|1993|pages=364–422}} Although considered a “wet”, he avoided domestic affairs and got along well with Thatcher. One issue was what to do with Rhodesia, where the white minority had determined to rule the prosperous, black-majority breakaway colony in the face of overwhelming international criticism. With the 1975 Portuguese collapse in the continent, South Africa (which had been Rhodesia’s chief supporter) realised that their ally was a liability; black rule was inevitable, and the Thatcher government brokered a peaceful solution to end the Rhodesian Bush War in December 1979 via the Lancaster House Agreement. The conference at Lancaster House was attended by Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith, as well as by the key black leaders: Muzorewa, Mugabe, Nkomo and Tongogara. The result was the new Zimbabwean nation under black rule in 1980.{{sfnmp|1a1=Lewis|1y=1980|2a1=Soames|2y=1980}}

Cold War

Thatcher’s first foreign-policy crisis came with the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. She condemned the invasion, said it showed the bankruptcy of a détente policy and helped convince some British athletes to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics. She gave weak support to US president Jimmy Carter who tried to punish the USSR with economic sanctions. Britain’s economic situation was precarious, and most of NATO was reluctant to cut trade ties.{{sfnp|Lahey|2013}} Thatcher nevertheless gave the go-ahead for Whitehall to approve MI6 (along with the SAS) to undertake “disruptive action” in Afghanistan.{{sfnp|Dorril|2002|p={{nowrap|{{plainlinkarchive.org/details/mi6insidecovertw00dorr/page/752|752}} {{closed access}}}}}} As well working with the CIA in Operation Cyclone, they also supplied weapons, training and intelligence to the mujaheddin.{{sfnp|Cormac|2018|pages=233–36}}The Financial Times reported in 2011 that her government had secretly supplied Iraq under Saddam Hussein with “non-lethal” military equipment since 1981.WEB, Stothard, Michael, 30 December 2011, UK secretly supplied Saddam,www.ft.com/cms/s/0/52add2c4-30b4-11e1-9436-00144feabdc0.html, subscription, live,www.ft.com/cms/s/0/52add2c4-30b4-11e1-9436-00144feabdc0.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20160701032514www.ft.com/cms/s/0/52add2c4-30b4-11e1-9436-00144feabdc0.html,">web.archive.org/web/20160701032514www.ft.com/cms/s/0/52add2c4-30b4-11e1-9436-00144feabdc0.html, 1 July 2016, 11 October 2015, Financial Times, NEWS, Leigh, David, David Leigh (journalist), Evans, Rob, amp, 27 February 2003, How £1bn was lost when Thatcher propped up Saddam, The Guardian,www.theguardian.com/world/2003/feb/28/iraq.politics1, live, 2 August 2017,web.archive.org/web/20170811011113/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/feb/28/iraq.politics1, 11 August 2017, Having withdrawn formal recognition from the Pol Pot regime in 1979,HANSARD, 22 October 2020, House of Commons, 16 May 1985, 79, 486, 490, Kampuchea,api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1985/may/16/kampuchea, the Thatcher government backed the Khmer Rouge keeping their UN seat after they were ousted from power in Cambodia by the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. Although Thatcher denied it at the time,HANSARD, 22 October 2020, House of Commons, 26 October 1990, 655, 667, Cambodia,publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm198990/cmhansrd/1990-10-26/Debate-3.html, it was revealed in 1991 that, while not directly training any Khmer Rouge,{{sfnp|Neville|2016|p=20}} from 1983 the Special Air Service (SAS) was sent to secretly train “the armed forces of the Cambodian non-communist resistance” that remained loyal to Prince Norodom Sihanouk and his former prime minister Son Sann in the fight against the Vietnamese-backed puppet regime.HANSARD, 22 October 2020, House of Commons, 22 July 1991, 195, 863, 883, Cambodia,api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1991/jul/22/cambodia, NEWS, 9 January 2000, Butcher of Cambodia set to expose Thatcher’s role, The Observer,www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jan/09/cambodia, live, 26 May 2011,web.archive.org/web/20180612144544/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jan/09/cambodia, 12 June 2018, Thatcher was one of the first Western leaders to respond warmly to reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Following Reagan–Gorbachev summit meetings and reforms enacted by Gorbachev in the USSR, she declared in November 1988 that “[{{lcfirst:W]e’re}} not in a Cold War now” but rather in a “new relationship much wider than the Cold War ever was”.NEWS, 18 November 1988, Gorbachev Policy Has Ended The Cold War, Thatcher Says, The New York Times, Associated Press,query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE2DC1738F93BA25752C1A96E948260, live, 30 October 2008,web.archive.org/web/20210111173109/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/18/world/gorbachev-policy-has-ended-the-cold-war-thatcher-says.html, 11 January 2021, She went on a state visit to the Soviet Union in 1984 and met with Gorbachev and Council of Ministers chairman Nikolai Ryzhkov.{{sfnp|Zemcov|Farrar|1989|page=138}}

Ties with the US

File:Reagan-Thatcher cabinet talks.jpg|thumb|alt=photograph|upright=1.2|Meeting Reagan’s cabinet with ministers in the White House Cabinet RoomWhite House Cabinet RoomDespite opposite personalities, Thatcher bonded quickly with US president Ronald Reagan.{{refn|{{harvtxt|Cannadine|2017}}: In many ways they were very different figures: he was sunny, genial, charming, relaxed, upbeat, and with little intellectual curiosity or command of policy detail; she was domineering, belligerent, confrontational, tireless, hyperactive, and with an unrivalled command of facts and figures. But the chemistry between them worked. Reagan had been grateful for her interest in him at a time when the British establishment refused to take him seriously; she agreed with him about the importance of creating wealth, cutting taxes, and building up stronger defences against Soviet Russia; and both believed in liberty and free-market freedom, and in the need to outface what Reagan would later call ‘the evil empire’.|group=nb}} She gave strong support to the Reagan administration’s Cold War policies based on their shared distrust of communism.{{r|thatcher-cw}} A sharp disagreement came in 1983 when Reagan did not consult with her on the invasion of Grenada.{{sfnp|Williams|2001}}WEB, 6 June 2004, Ronald Reagan,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111260, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111260," title="web.archive.org/web/20170628180545www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111260,">web.archive.org/web/20170628180545www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111260, 28 June 2017, 5 July 2017, Obituary, the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, The Times, During her first year as prime minister, she supported NATO’s decision to deploy US nuclear cruise and Pershing II missiles in Western Europe,{{r|thatcher-cw}} permitting the US to station more than 160 cruise missiles at RAF Greenham Common, starting in November 1983 and triggering mass protests by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.{{r|thatcher-cw}} She bought the Trident nuclear missile submarine system from the US to replace Polaris, tripling the UK’s nuclear forcesMAGAZINE, 28 July 1980, Trident is go, Time,www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,922079,00.html, dead, 16 January 2011,www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,922079,00.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20080904225816www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,922079,00.html,">web.archive.org/web/20080904225816www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,922079,00.html, 4 September 2008, at an eventual cost of more than £12 billion (at 1996–97 prices).WEB, Federation of American Scientists, 5 November 1999, Vanguard Class Ballistic Missile Submarine,fas.org/nuke/guide/uk/slbm/vanguard.htm, live,www.fas.org/nuke/guide/uk/slbm/vanguard.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20101123230232www.fas.org/nuke/guide/uk/slbm/vanguard.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20101123230232www.fas.org/nuke/guide/uk/slbm/vanguard.htm, 23 November 2010, 16 January 2011, Thatcher’s preference for defence ties with the US was demonstrated in the Westland affair of 1985–86 when she acted with colleagues to allow the struggling helicopter manufacturer Westland to refuse a takeover offer from the Italian firm Agusta in favour of the management’s preferred option, a link with Sikorsky Aircraft. Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine, who had supported the Agusta deal, resigned from the government in protest.{{sfnp|Marr|2007|p=419}}In April 1986 she permitted US F-111s to use Royal Air Force bases for the bombing of Libya in retaliation for the alleged Libyan bombing of a Berlin discothèque,NEWS, Cannon, Lou, Lou Cannon, 15 April 1986, Reagan Acted Upon ‘Irrefutable’ Evidence, The Washington Post,www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/04/15/reagan-acted-upon-irrefutable-evidence/61170c59-b355-4e0a-8ab5-411bba4879e8, live, 5 July 2017,web.archive.org/web/20170906092229/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/04/15/reagan-acted-upon-irrefutable-evidence/61170c59-b355-4e0a-8ab5-411bba4879e8/, 6 September 2017, citing the right of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter.NEWS, Riddell, Peter, 16 April 1986, Thatcher Defends US Use Of British Bases in Libya bombing raid, 1, Financial Times, {{refn|The United States has more than 330,000 members of her forces in Europe to defend our liberty. Because they are here, 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.HANSARD, 22 October 2020, House of Commons,api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1986/apr/15/engagements, Engagements, 15 April 1986, 95, 723–728, |group=nb}} Polls suggested that fewer than one in three British citizens approved of her decision.NEWS, Lejeune, Anthony, 23 May 1986, A friend in need, 38, 27, National Review, 1, Thatcher was in the US on a state visit when Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990.WEB, Oral History: Margaret Thatcher,www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/oral/thatcher/1.html, live,www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/oral/thatcher/1.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20081202075000www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/oral/thatcher/1.html,">web.archive.org/web/20081202075000www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/oral/thatcher/1.html, 2 December 2008, 1 November 2008, PBS, During her talks with President George H. W. Bush, who succeeded Reagan in 1989, she recommended intervention,{{r|gw-pbs}} and put pressure on Bush to deploy troops in the Middle East to drive the Iraqi Army out of Kuwait.NEWS, Lewis, Anthony, Anthony Lewis, 7 August 1992, Abroad at Home; Will Bush Take Real Action?, The New York Times,query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CEED9113AF934A3575BC0A964958260, live, 1 November 2008,web.archive.org/web/20210111173131/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/07/opinion/abroad-at-home-will-bush-take-real-action.html, 11 January 2021, Bush was apprehensive about the plan, prompting Thatcher to remark to him during a telephone conversation: “This was no time to go wobbly!“WEB, 26 August 1990, Gulf War: Bush–Thatcher phone conversation (no time to go wobbly),www.margaretthatcher.org/commentary/displaydocument.asp?docid=110711, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/commentary/displaydocument.asp?docid=110711," title="web.archive.org/web/20080420093131www.margaretthatcher.org/commentary/displaydocument.asp?docid=110711,">web.archive.org/web/20080420093131www.margaretthatcher.org/commentary/displaydocument.asp?docid=110711, 20 April 2008, 1 November 2008, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, WEB, Tisdall, Simon, Simon Tisdall, 8 April 2013, No-nonsense Iron Lady punched above UK’s weight on world stage,www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-iron-lady-world-stage, live,web.archive.org/web/20170731063611/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-iron-lady-world-stage, 31 July 2017, 18 June 2017, The Guardian, Thatcher’s government supplied military forces to the international coalition in the build-up to the Gulf War, but she had resigned by the time hostilities began on 17 January 1991.{{sfnp|Aitken|2013|pp=600–601}}NEWS, Grice, Andrew, 13 October 2005, Thatcher reveals her doubts over basis for Iraq war, The Independent,www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/thatcher-reveals-her-doubts-over-basis-for-iraq-war-319542.html, live, 22 September 2016,web.archive.org/web/20171025132508/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/thatcher-reveals-her-doubts-over-basis-for-iraq-war-319542.html, 25 October 2017, She applauded the coalition victory on the backbenches, while warning that “the victories of peace will take longer than the battles of war”.HANSARD, The Gulf,api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1991/feb/28/the-gulf#column_1120, House of Commons, 28 February 1991, 1120, 28 October 2020, It was disclosed in 2017 that Thatcher had suggested threatening Saddam with chemical weapons after the invasion of Kuwait.NEWS, 20 July 2017, Margaret Thatcher suggested threatening Saddam with chemical weapons, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40667031, live, 22 July 2017,www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40667031," title="web.archive.org/web/20170722005112www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40667031,">web.archive.org/web/20170722005112www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40667031, 22 July 2017, NEWS, Mance, Henry, 20 July 2017, Thatcher wanted to threaten Saddam with chemical weapons, Financial Times,www.ft.com/content/e2d78a20-6bcd-11e7-b9c7-15af748b60d0, live, subscription, 31 July 2017,archive.today/20170720180853/https://www.ft.com/content/e2d78a20-6bcd-11e7-b9c7-15af748b60d0, 20 July 2017,

Crisis in the South Atlantic

{{See also|Rejoice (Margaret Thatcher)|label1=“Rejoice“|Diana Gould–Margaret Thatcher exchange|label2=the Diana Gould exchange}}On 2 April 1982, the ruling military junta in Argentina ordered the invasion of the British Overseas Territories of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, triggering the Falklands War.{{sfnp|Smith|1989|p=21}} The subsequent crisis was “a defining moment of {{interp|Thatcher’s}} premiership”.{{sfnp|Jackling|2005|p=230}} At the suggestion of Harold Macmillan and Robert Armstrong,{{sfnp|Jackling|2005|p=230}} she set up and chaired a small War Cabinet (formally called ODSA, Overseas and Defence committee, South Atlantic) to oversee the conduct of the war,{{sfnp|Hastings|Jenkins|1983|pp=80–81}} which by 5–6 April had authorised and dispatched a naval task force to retake the islands.{{sfnp|Hastings|Jenkins|1983|p=95}} Argentina surrendered on 14 June and Operation Corporate was hailed a success, notwithstanding the deaths of 255 British servicemen and three Falkland Islanders. Argentine fatalities totalled 649, half of them after the nuclear-powered submarine {{HMS|Conqueror|S48|6}} torpedoed and sank the cruiser {{ship|ARA|General Belgrano}} on 2 May.NEWS, Evans, Michael, 15 June 2007, The Falklands: 25 years since the Iron Lady won her war, The Times,www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-falklands-25-years-since-the-iron-lady-won-her-war-v3dp2zx3h5h, live, subscription, 5 July 2017,archive.today/20210913174010/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-falklands-25-years-since-the-iron-lady-won-her-war-v3dp2zx3h5h, 13 September 2021, Thatcher was criticised for the neglect of the Falklands’ defence that led to the war, and especially by Labour MP Tam Dalyell in Parliament for the decision to torpedo the General Belgrano, but overall, she was considered a competent and committed war leader.{{sfnp|Hastings|Jenkins|1983|pp=335–336}} The “Falklands factor”, an economic recovery beginning early in 1982, and a bitterly divided opposition all contributed to Thatcher’s second election victory in 1983.{{sfnp|Sanders|Ward|Marsh|1987}} Thatcher frequently referred after the war to the “Falklands spirit”;WEB, Jenkins, Simon, Simon Jenkins, 1 April 2012, Falklands war 30 years on and how it turned Thatcher into a world celebrity,www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/apr/01/falklands-war-thatcher-30-years, live,web.archive.org/web/20170905232855/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/apr/01/falklands-war-thatcher-30-years, 5 September 2017, 26 May 2017, The Guardian, {{harvtxt|Hastings|Jenkins|1983|p=329}} suggests that this reflected her preference for the streamlined decision-making of her War Cabinet over the painstaking deal-making of peacetime cabinet government.

Negotiating Hong Kong

In September 1982, she visited China to discuss with Deng Xiaoping the sovereignty of Hong Kong after 1997. China was the first communist state Thatcher had visited as prime minister, and she was the first British prime minister to visit China. Throughout their meeting, she sought the PRC’s agreement to a continued British presence in the territory. Deng insisted that the PRC’s sovereignty over Hong Kong was non-negotiable but stated his willingness to settle the sovereignty issue with the British government through formal negotiations. Both governments promised to maintain Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity.{{sfnp|Yahuda|1996|page=155}} After the two-year negotiations, Thatcher conceded to the PRC government and signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration in Beijing in 1984, agreeing to hand over Hong Kong’s sovereignty in 1997.{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=116}}

Apartheid in South Africa

Despite saying that she was in favour of “peaceful negotiations” to end apartheid,HANSARD, 22 October 2020, House of Commons, 25 February 1988, 128, 437, Engagements,api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1988/feb/25/engagements#S6CV0128P0_19880225_HOC_113, HANSARD, 22 October 2020, South Africa, 11 July 1988, 137, 3, 4W, Written Answers HC Deb,api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1988/jul/11/south-africa#S6CV0137P0_19880711_CWA_21, Thatcher opposed sanctions imposed on South Africa by the Commonwealth and the European Economic Community (EEC).{{sfnp|Campbell|2011a|p=322}} She attempted to preserve trade with South Africa while persuading its government to abandon apartheid. This included “[c]asting herself as President Botha’s candid friend” and inviting him to visit the UK in 1984,NEWS, Hanning, James, 8 December 2013, The ‘terrorist’ and the Tories: What did Nelson Mandela really think of Margaret Thatcher?, The Independent,www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/the-terrorist-and-the-tories-what-did-nelson-mandela-really-think-of-margaret-thatcher-8990872.html, live, 24 October 2017,www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/the-terrorist-and-the-tories-what-did-nelson-mandela-really-think-of-margaret-thatcher-8990872.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20131208093841www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/the-terrorist-and-the-tories-what-did-nelson-mandela-really-think-of-margaret-thatcher-8990872.html,">web.archive.org/web/20131208093841www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/the-terrorist-and-the-tories-what-did-nelson-mandela-really-think-of-margaret-thatcher-8990872.html, 8 December 2013, despite the “inevitable demonstrations” against his government.{{sfnp|Campbell|2011a|p=325}} Alan Merrydew of the Canadian broadcaster BCTV News asked Thatcher what her response was “to a reported ANC statement that they will target British firms in South Africa?” to which she later replied: “[...] when the ANC says that they will target British companies [...] This shows what a typical terrorist organisation it is. I fought terrorism all my life and if more people fought it, and we were all more successful, we should not have it and I hope that everyone in this hall will think it is right to go on fighting terrorism.“WEB, Plaut, Martin, 29 August 2018, Did Margaret Thatcher really call Nelson Mandela a terrorist?,www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/08/did-margaret-thatcher-really-call-nelson-mandela-terrorist, live,web.archive.org/web/20180906233752/https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/08/did-margaret-thatcher-really-call-nelson-mandela-terrorist, 6 September 2018, 6 September 2018, New Statesman, During his visit to Britain five months after his release from prison, Nelson Mandela praised Thatcher: “She is an enemy of apartheid [...] We have much to thank her for.“{{r|Hanning}}

Europe

{{See also|Bruges speech}}{{External media |topic=1988 speech to the College of Europe |video1=SPEECH, Speech to the College of Europe (’The Bruges Speech’),www.margaretthatcher.org/document/113688, the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, }}Thatcher and her party supported British membership of the EEC in the 1975 national referendumNEWS, 4 June 1975, Conservatives favor remaining in market, 5, Wilmington Morning Star, United Press International,news.google.com/newspapers?id=M7QsAAAAIBAJ&pg=2825%2C608551, live, 26 December 2011,web.archive.org/web/20201031074621/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=M7QsAAAAIBAJ&pg=2825%2C608551, 31 October 2020, and the Single European Act of 1986, and obtained the UK rebate on contributions,NEWS, Kuper, Simon, 20 June 2019, How Oxford university shaped Brexit – and Britain’s next prime minister, Financial Times,www.ft.com/content/85fc694c-9222-11e9-b7ea-60e35ef678d2, live, 23 October 2020,web.archive.org/web/20190621101919/https://www.ft.com/content/85fc694c-9222-11e9-b7ea-60e35ef678d2, 21 June 2019, but she believed that the role of the organisation should be limited to ensuring free trade and effective competition, and feared that the EEC approach was at odds with her views on smaller government and deregulation.{{sfnp|Senden|2004|p=9}} Believing that the single market would result in political integration,{{r|kuper20190620}} Thatcher’s opposition to further European integration became more pronounced during her premiership and particularly after her third government in 1987.NEWS, Pylas, Pan, 23 January 2020, Britain’s EU Journey: When Thatcher turned all euroskeptic, Associated Press,apnews.com/64855d1ff67454443db5132bdfb22ea6, live, 22 October 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201030173846/https://apnews.com/64855d1ff67454443db5132bdfb22ea6, 30 October 2020, In her Bruges speech in 1988, Thatcher outlined her opposition to proposals from the EEC,WEB, 20 September 1988, Speech to the College of Europe (’The Bruges Speech’),www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=107332, live,margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=107332," title="web.archive.org/web/20120513020525margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=107332,">web.archive.org/web/20120513020525margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=107332, 13 May 2012, 31 October 2008, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, forerunner of the European Union, for a federal structure and increased centralisation of decision-making:{{blockquote |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.{{sfnp|Senden|2004|p=9}}}}Sharing the concerns of French president François Mitterrand,NEWS, Blitz, James, 9 September 2009, Mitterrand feared emergence of ‘bad’ Germans, Financial Times,www.ft.com/content/886192ba-9d7d-11de-9f4a-00144feabdc0, live, subscription, 14 May 2017,web.archive.org/web/20190131042253/https://www.ft.com/content/886192ba-9d7d-11de-9f4a-00144feabdc0, 31 January 2019, Thatcher was initially opposed to German reunification,{{refn|She was decidedly cool towards reunification prior to 1990, but made no attempt to block it.{{sfnp|Ratti|2017|loc=chpt. 4}}|group=nb}} telling Gorbachev that it “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 more closely with the Soviet Union and move away from NATO.{{sfnp|Görtemaker|2006|p=198}}In March 1990, Thatcher held a Chequers seminar on the subject of German reunification that was attended by members of her cabinet and historians such as Norman Stone, George Urban, Timothy Garton Ash and Gordon A. Craig. During the seminar, Thatcher described “what Urban called ‘saloon bar clichés’ about the German character, including ‘angst, aggressiveness, assertiveness, bullying, egotism, inferiority complex {{interp|and}} sentimentality{{’“}}. Those present were shocked to hear Thatcher’s utterances and “appalled” at how she was “apparently unaware” about the post-war German collective guilt and Germans’ attempts to work through their past.{{sfnp|Campbell|2011a|p=634}} The words of the meeting were leaked by her foreign-policy advisor Charles Powell and, subsequently, her comments were met with fierce backlash and controversy.NEWS, Low, Valentine, 30 December 2016, Germans seen as self-pitying, egotistical and bullying race, The Times,www.thetimes.co.uk/article/germans-seen-as-self-pitying-egotistical-and-bullying-race-chl0zfqtd, live, subscription, 17 December 2020,archive.today/20210821212858/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/germans-seen-as-self-pitying-egotistical-and-bullying-race-chl0zfqtd, 21 August 2021, During the same month, German chancellor Helmut Kohl reassured Thatcher that he would keep her “informed of all his intentions about unification”,WEB, Bowcott, Owen, 30 December 2016, Kohl offered Thatcher secret access to reunification plans,www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/30/helmut-kohl-margaret-thatcher-reunification-plans-national-archives-files, live,web.archive.org/web/20190517040338/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/30/helmut-kohl-margaret-thatcher-reunification-plans-national-archives-files, 17 May 2019, 18 June 2017, The Guardian, and that he was prepared to disclose “matters which even his cabinet would not know”.{{r|Bowcott}}

Challenges to leadership and resignation

File:Thatcher reviews troops.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Thatcher in a blue suit and hat, walking in front of troops|Reviewing the Royal Bermuda RegimentRoyal Bermuda RegimentDuring her premiership, Thatcher had the second-lowest average approval rating (40%) of any post-war prime minister. Since Nigel Lawson’s resignation as chancellor in October 1989,{{sfnp|Crewe|1991}} polls consistently showed that she was less popular than her party.NEWS, Ridley, Matt, Matt Ridley, 25 November 1990, Et Tu, Heseltine?; Unpopularity Was a Grievous Fault, and Thatcher Hath Answered for It, The Washington Post,www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1160505.html, dead, 5 July 2017,web.archive.org/web/20170831000325/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1160505.html, 31 August 2017, A self-described conviction politician, Thatcher always insisted that she did not care about her poll ratings and pointed instead to her unbeaten election record.NEWSPAPER THE TIMES, The poll tax incubus, Editorials/Leaders, 24 November 1990, 13, 63872, In December 1989, Thatcher was challenged for the leadership of the Conservative Party by the little-known backbench MP Sir Anthony Meyer.NEWS, 5 December 1989: Thatcher beats off leadership rival, On This Day 1950–2005, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/5/newsid_2528000/2528339.stm, live, 1 November 2008,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/5/newsid_2528000/2528339.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20080307113658news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/5/newsid_2528000/2528339.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20080307113658news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/5/newsid_2528000/2528339.stm, 7 March 2008, Of the 374 Conservative MPs eligible to vote, 314 voted for Thatcher and 33 for Meyer. Her supporters in the party viewed the result as a success and rejected suggestions that there was discontent within the party.{{r|89election}}Opinion polls in September 1990 reported that Labour had established a 14% lead over the Conservatives,{{r|howe}} and by November, the Conservatives had been trailing Labour for 18 months.{{r|ridley}} These ratings, together with Thatcher’s combative personality and tendency to override collegiate opinion, contributed to further discontent within her party.{{r|resign-nyt}}In July 1989, Thatcher removed Geoffrey Howe as foreign secretary after he and Lawson had forced her to agree to a plan for Britain to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). Britain joined the ERM in October 1990.On 1 November 1990, Howe, by then the last remaining member of Thatcher’s original 1979 cabinet, resigned as deputy prime minister, ostensibly over her open hostility to moves towards European monetary union.NEWS, 1 November 1990: Howe resigns over Europe policy, On This Day 1950–2005, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/1/newsid_2513000/2513953.stm, live, 1 November 2008,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/1/newsid_2513000/2513953.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20080307114118news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/1/newsid_2513000/2513953.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20080307114118news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/1/newsid_2513000/2513953.stm, 7 March 2008, NEWS, Millership, Peter, 1 November 1990, Thatcher’s Deputy Quits in Row over Europe, Reuters, In his resignation speech on 13 November, which was instrumental in Thatcher’s downfall,NEWSPAPER THE TIMES, Sir Geoffrey Howe’s resignation was fatal blow in Mrs Thatcher’s political assassination, Alan Walters, Walters, Alan, News, 5 December 1990, 12, 63881, Howe attacked Thatcher’s openly dismissive attitude to the government’s proposal for a new European currency competing against existing currencies (a “hard ECU“):{{blockquote|How on earth are the Chancellor and the Governor of the Bank of England, commending the hard ECU as they strive to, to be taken as serious participants in the debate against that kind of background noise? I believe that both the Chancellor and the Governor are cricketing enthusiasts, so I hope that there is no monopoly of cricketing metaphors. It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find, the moment the first balls are bowled, that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain.HANSARD, 22 October 2020, House of Commons,api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1990/nov/13/personal-statement, Personal Statement, 13 November 1990, 180, 461, 465, NEWSPAPER THE TIMES, Sir Geoffrey Howe savages Prime Minister over European stance in resignation speech, Politics and Parliament, 14 November 1990, 3, 63863, }}On 14 November, Michael Heseltine mounted a challenge for the leadership of the Conservative Party.NEWS, Frankel, Glenn, Glenn Frankel, 15 November 1990, Heseltine challenges Thatcher for her job, The Washington Post,www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/11/15/heseltine-challenges-thatcher-for-her-job/13f1b56b-2db0-44c8-b75d-8b2a31a16a07, live, 2 August 2017,web.archive.org/web/20170810172436/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/11/15/heseltine-challenges-thatcher-for-her-job/13f1b56b-2db0-44c8-b75d-8b2a31a16a07/, 10 August 2017, {{sfnp|Marr|2007|p=473}} Opinion polls had indicated that he would give the Conservatives a national lead over Labour.NEWSPAPER THE TIMES, Poll swing followed downturn by Tories; Conservative Party leadership, Lipsey, David, David Lipsey, Baron Lipsey, News, 21 November 1990, 2, 63869, Although Thatcher led on the first ballot with the votes of 204 Conservative MPs (54.8%) to 152 votes (40.9%) for Heseltine, with 16 abstentions, she was four votes short of the required 15% majority. A second ballot was therefore necessary.{{sfnp|Williams|1998|page=66}} Thatcher initially declared her intention to “fight on and fight to win” the second ballot, but consultation with her cabinet persuaded her to withdraw.NEWS, Whitney, Craig R., 23 November 1990, Change in Britain; Thatcher Says She’ll Quit; 11½ Years as Prime Minister Ended by Party Challenge, The New York Times,query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE6DB1438F930A15752C1A966958260&sec=&spon=, 1 November 2008, NEWS, 22 November 1990: Thatcher quits as prime minister, On This Day 1950–2005, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/22/newsid_2549000/2549189.stm, live, 1 November 2008,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/22/newsid_2549000/2549189.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20080307114202news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/22/newsid_2549000/2549189.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20080307114202news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/22/newsid_2549000/2549189.stm, 7 March 2008, After holding an audience with the Queen, calling other world leaders, and making one final Commons speech,WEB, 22 November 1990, HC S: [Confidence in Her Majesty’s Government],www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108256, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108256," title="web.archive.org/web/20170407102050www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108256,">web.archive.org/web/20170407102050www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108256, 7 April 2017, 21 March 2017, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, on 28 November she left Downing Street in tears. She reportedly regarded her ousting as a betrayal.{{sfnp|Marr|2007|p=474}} Her resignation was a shock to many outside Britain, with such foreign observers as Henry Kissinger and Gorbachev expressing private consternation.NEWS, Travis, Alan, 30 December 2016, Margaret Thatcher’s resignation shocked politicians in US and USSR, files show, The Guardian,www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/30/margaret-thatcher-resignation-shocked-us-ussr-files, live, 22 October 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201108115705/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/30/margaret-thatcher-resignation-shocked-us-ussr-files, 8 November 2020, Chancellor John Major replaced Thatcher as head of government and party leader, whose lead over Heseltine in the second ballot was sufficient for Heseltine to drop out. Major oversaw an upturn in Conservative support in the 17 months leading to the 1992 general election and led the party to a fourth successive victory on 9 April 1992.NEWS, Kettle, Martin, Martin Kettle, 4 April 2005, Pollsters taxed, The Guardian,www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/apr/04/electionspast.past3, live, 23 January 2011,www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/apr/04/electionspast.past3," title="web.archive.org/web/20131109160116www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/apr/04/electionspast.past3,">web.archive.org/web/20131109160116www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/apr/04/electionspast.past3, 9 November 2013, Thatcher had lobbied for Major in the leadership contest against Heseltine, but her support for him waned in later years.NEWS, 3 October 1999, Major attacks ‘warrior’ Thatcher, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/463873.stm, live, 1 November 2008,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/463873.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20031011111013news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/463873.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20031011111013news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/463873.stm, 11 October 2003,

Later life

Return to backbenches (1990–1992)

After leaving the premiership, Thatcher returned to the backbenches as a constituency parliamentarian.{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=118}} Her domestic approval rating recovered after her resignation, though public opinion remained divided on whether her government had been good for the country.{{sfnp|Crewe|1991}}WEB, 8 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013),www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/margaret-thatcher-1925-2013, dead,web.archive.org/web/20170722003205/https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/margaret-thatcher-1925-2013, 22 July 2017, 25 May 2017, Ipsos MORI, At the time of her resignation [...] 52% of the public said that they thought her government had been good for the country and 40% that it had been bad., Aged 66, she retired from the House of Commons at the 1992 general election, saying that leaving the Commons would allow her more freedom to speak her mind.NEWS, 30 June 1992: Thatcher takes her place in Lords, On This Day 1950–2005, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/30/newsid_2523000/2523395.stm, live, 1 November 2008,news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/30/newsid_2523000/2523395.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20080307130818news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/30/newsid_2523000/2523395.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20080307130818news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/30/newsid_2523000/2523395.stm, 7 March 2008,

Post-Commons (1992–2003)

On leaving the Commons, Thatcher became the first former British prime minister to set up a foundation;WEB, Thatcher Archive,www.margaretthatcher.org/archive/thatcher-archive.asp, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/archive/thatcher-archive.asp," title="web.archive.org/web/20130926225828www.margaretthatcher.org/archive/thatcher-archive.asp,">web.archive.org/web/20130926225828www.margaretthatcher.org/archive/thatcher-archive.asp, 26 September 2013, 26 August 2013, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, the British wing of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation was dissolved in 2005 due to financial difficulties.NEWS, Barkham, Patrick, 11 May 2005, End of an era for Thatcher foundation, The Guardian,www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/may/11/conservatives.politics, live, 27 April 2013,www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/may/11/conservatives.politics," title="web.archive.org/web/20130928211215www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/may/11/conservatives.politics,">web.archive.org/web/20130928211215www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/may/11/conservatives.politics, 28 September 2013, Mystery surrounds the future of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation after it emerged that the British wing of the high-profile organisation set up by the former prime minister in 1991 was formally dissolved at Companies House two days before the general election., She wrote two volumes of memoirs, The Downing Street Years (1993) and The Path to Power (1995). In 1991, she and her husband Denis moved to a house in Chester Square, a residential garden square in central London’s Belgravia district.NEWS, Taylor, Matthew, 9 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher’s estate still a family secret, The Guardian,www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/09/margaret-thatcher-estate-family-secret, live, 14 April 2013,www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/09/margaret-thatcher-estate-family-secret," title="web.archive.org/web/20130928211300www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/09/margaret-thatcher-estate-family-secret,">web.archive.org/web/20130928211300www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/09/margaret-thatcher-estate-family-secret, 28 September 2013, Thatcher was hired by the tobacco company Philip Morris as a “geopolitical consultant” in July 1992 for $250,000 per year and an annual contribution of $250,000 to her foundation.NEWS, 19 July 1992, Tobacco Company Hires Margaret Thatcher as Consultant, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press,articles.latimes.com/1992-07-19/news/mn-4763_1_margaret-thatcher, live, 25 May 2017,articles.latimes.com/1992-07-19/news/mn-4763_1_margaret-thatcher," title="web.archive.org/web/20170630132953articles.latimes.com/1992-07-19/news/mn-4763_1_margaret-thatcher,">web.archive.org/web/20170630132953articles.latimes.com/1992-07-19/news/mn-4763_1_margaret-thatcher, 30 June 2017, Thatcher earned $50,000 for each speech she delivered.NEWS, Harris, John, John Harris (critic), 3 February 2007, Into the void, The Guardian,www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/feb/03/past.conservatives?INTCMP=SRCH, live, 16 January 2011,www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/feb/03/past.conservatives?INTCMP=SRCH," title="web.archive.org/web/20131225054519www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/feb/03/past.conservatives?INTCMP=SRCH,">web.archive.org/web/20131225054519www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/feb/03/past.conservatives?INTCMP=SRCH, 25 December 2013, Thatcher became an advocate of Croatian and Slovenian independence.NEWS, 22 December 1991, TV Interview for HRT (Croatian radiotelevision), Margaret Thatcher Foundation,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111358, live, 21 March 2011,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111358," title="web.archive.org/web/20110701055009www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111358,">web.archive.org/web/20110701055009www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111358, 1 July 2011, Commenting on the Yugoslav Wars, in a 1991 interview for Croatian Radiotelevision, she was critical of Western governments for not recognising the breakaway republics of Croatia and Slovenia as independent and for not supplying them with arms after the Serbian-led Yugoslav Army attacked.NEWS, Whitney, Craig R., 24 November 1991, Thatcher Close to Break With Her Replacement, The New York Times,query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE5D7123DF937A15752C1A967958260, live, 21 March 2011,web.archive.org/web/20210111173134/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/24/world/thatcher-close-to-break-with-her-replacement.html, 11 January 2021, In August 1992, she called for NATO to stop the Serbian assault on Goražde and Sarajevo to end ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian War, comparing the situation in Bosnia–Herzegovina to “the barbarities of Hitler’s and Stalin’s”.NEWS, Thatcher, Margaret, 6 August 1992, Stop the Excuses. Help Bosnia Now, The New York Times,query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE7DE1731F935A3575BC0A964958260&sec=&spon=, live, 2 December 2007,web.archive.org/web/20210111173132/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/06/opinion/stop-the-excuses-help-bosnia-now.html, 11 January 2021, She made a series of speeches in the Lords criticising the Maastricht Treaty,{{r|lords}} describing it as “a treaty too far” and stated: “I could never have signed this treaty.“WEB, 7 June 1993, House of Lords European Communities (Amendment) Bill Speech,www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108314, live,margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108314," title="web.archive.org/web/20120513085456margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108314,">web.archive.org/web/20120513085456margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108314, 13 May 2012, 9 April 2007, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, She cited A. V. Dicey when arguing that, as all three main parties were in favour of the treaty, the people should have their say in a referendum.WEB, 20 November 1991, House of Commons European Community debate,www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108291, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108291," title="web.archive.org/web/20070927195136www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108291,">web.archive.org/web/20070927195136www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108291, 27 September 2007, 9 April 2007, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, Thatcher served as honorary chancellor of the College of William & Mary in Virginia from 1993 to 2000,WEB, Chancellor’s Robe,www.wm.edu/about/administration/chancellor/robe/index.php, live,www.wm.edu/about/administration/chancellor/robe/index.php," title="web.archive.org/web/20120119054532www.wm.edu/about/administration/chancellor/robe/index.php,">web.archive.org/web/20120119054532www.wm.edu/about/administration/chancellor/robe/index.php, 19 January 2012, 18 January 2010, College of William & Mary, while also serving as chancellor of the private University of Buckingham from 1992 to 1998,NEWS, Oulton, Charles, 1 October 1992, Thatcher installed as chancellor of private university, The Independent,www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/thatcher-installed-as-chancellor-of-private-university-charles-oulton-reports-on-a-day-of-mixed-emotions-for-the-former-prime-minister-1554652.html, live, 12 January 2010,www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/thatcher-installed-as-chancellor-of-private-university-charles-oulton-reports-on-a-day-of-mixed-emotions-for-the-former-prime-minister-1554652.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20120128210133www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/thatcher-installed-as-chancellor-of-private-university-charles-oulton-reports-on-a-day-of-mixed-emotions-for-the-former-prime-minister-1554652.html,">web.archive.org/web/20120128210133www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/thatcher-installed-as-chancellor-of-private-university-charles-oulton-reports-on-a-day-of-mixed-emotions-for-the-former-prime-minister-1554652.html, 28 January 2012, WEB, Kealey, Terence, Terence Kealey, 8 April 2013, University mourns death of Lady Thatcher,www.buckingham.ac.uk/latest-news/university-mourns-death-of-lady-thatcher,web.archive.org/web/20130819022057/https://www.buckingham.ac.uk/latest-news/university-mourns-death-of-lady-thatcher, 19 August 2013, 25 May 2017, University of Buckingham, a university she had formally opened in 1976 as the former education secretary.{{r|Kealey}}After Tony Blair’s election as Labour Party leader in 1994, Thatcher praised Blair as “probably the most formidable Labour leader since Hugh Gaitskell”, adding: “I see a lot of socialism behind their front bench, but not in Mr Blair. I think he genuinely has moved.“NEWS, Castle, Stephen, 28 May 1995, Thatcher praises ‘formidable’ Blair, The Independent,www.independent.co.uk/news/thatcher-praises-formidable-blair-1621354.html, live, 5 July 2017,web.archive.org/web/20171228232439/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/thatcher-praises-formidable-blair-1621354.html, 28 December 2017, Blair responded in kind: “She was a thoroughly determined person, and that is an admirable quality.“NEWS, Woodward, Robert, Bob Woodward, 15 March 1997, Thatcher seen closer to Blair than Major, The Nation, Reuters, London, UK,news.google.com/newspapers?id=gaZNAAAAIBAJ&pg=6603%2C5897694, live, 25 May 2017,web.archive.org/web/20210111173046/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gaZNAAAAIBAJ&pg=6603%2C5897694, 11 January 2021, In 1998, Thatcher called for the release of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet when Spain had him arrested and sought to try him for human rights violations. She cited the help he gave Britain during the Falklands War.NEWS, 22 October 1998, Pinochet â€“ Thatcher’s ally, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/198604.stm, live, 15 January 2010,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/198604.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20111110132525news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/198604.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20111110132525news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/198604.stm, 10 November 2011, In 1999, she visited him while he was under house arrest near London.NEWS, 26 March 1999, Thatcher stands by Pinochet, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/304516.stm, live, 15 January 2010,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/304516.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20100217081915news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/304516.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20100217081915news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/304516.stm, 17 February 2010, Pinochet was released in March 2000 on medical grounds by Home Secretary Jack Straw.NEWS, 2 March 2000, Pinochet set free, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/663170.stm, live, 15 January 2010,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/663170.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20091016002953news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/663170.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20091016002953news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/663170.stm, 16 October 2009, File:Margaret Thatcher.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Thatcher in a red coat, standing in the Vehicle Assembly Building|Touring the Kennedy Space CenterKennedy Space CenterAt the 2001 general election, Thatcher supported the Conservative campaign, as she had done in 1992 and 1997, and in the Conservative leadership election following its defeat, she endorsed Iain Duncan Smith over Kenneth Clarke.WEB, 21 August 2001, Letter supporting Iain Duncan Smith for the Conservative leadership published in the Daily Telegraph,www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108390, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108390," title="web.archive.org/web/20120218065601www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108390,">web.archive.org/web/20120218065601www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108390, 18 February 2012, 9 April 2007, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, In 2002 she encouraged George W. Bush to aggressively tackle the “unfinished business” of Iraq under Saddam Hussein,NEWS, Thatcher, Margaret, 11 February 2002, Advice to a Superpower, The New York Times,www.nytimes.com/2002/02/11/opinion/11THAT.html, live, 11 October 2015,www.nytimes.com/2002/02/11/opinion/11THAT.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20151016012202www.nytimes.com/2002/02/11/opinion/11THAT.html,">web.archive.org/web/20151016012202www.nytimes.com/2002/02/11/opinion/11THAT.html, 16 October 2015, and praised Blair for his “strong, bold leadership” in standing with Bush in the Iraq War.NEWS, Harnden, Toby, Toby Harnden, 11 December 2002, Thatcher praises Blair for standing firm with US on Iraq, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/1415788/Thatcher-praises-Blair-for-standing-firm-with-US-on-Iraq.html, live, 11 October 2015,archive.today/20210913173639/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/1415788/Thatcher-praises-Blair-for-standing-firm-with-US-on-Iraq.html, 13 September 2021, She broached the same subject in her (Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World), which was published in April 2002 and dedicated to Ronald Reagan, writing that there would be no peace in the Middle East until Saddam was toppled. Her book also said that Israel must trade land for peace and that the European Union (EU) was a “fundamentally unreformable”, “classic utopian project, a monument to the vanity of intellectuals, a programme whose inevitable destiny is failure”.{{sfnp|Glover|Economides|2010|page=20}} She argued that Britain should renegotiate its terms of membership or else leave the EU and join the North American Free Trade Area.NEWS, Wintour, Patrick, Patrick Wintour, 18 March 2002, Britain must quit EU, says Thatcher, The Guardian,www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/mar/18/uk.eu, live, 8 May 2014,www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/mar/18/uk.eu," title="web.archive.org/web/20140512213313www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/mar/18/uk.eu,">web.archive.org/web/20140512213313www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/mar/18/uk.eu, 12 May 2014, Following several small strokes, her doctors advised her not to engage in further public speaking.PRESS RELEASE, Statement from the office of the Rt Hon Baroness Thatcher LG OM FRS, 22 March 2002, Margaret Thatcher Foundation,www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=109305, 9 November 2008, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=109305," title="web.archive.org/web/20081007032938www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=109305,">web.archive.org/web/20081007032938www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=109305, 7 October 2008, In March 2002 she announced that, on doctors’ advice, she would cancel all planned speaking engagements and accept no more.{{sfnp|Campbell|2003|pp=796–798}} }}On 26 June 2003, Thatcher’s husband, Sir Denis, died aged 88;NEWS, Tempest, Matthew, Matthew Tempest, 26 June 2003, Sir Denis Thatcher dies aged 88, The Guardian,www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jun/26/obituaries.politics, live, 8 August 2017,web.archive.org/web/20170808194009/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jun/26/obituaries.politics, 8 August 2017, his body was cremated on 3 July at Mortlake Crematorium in London.NEWS, 3 July 2003, Lady Thatcher bids Denis farewell, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3041546.stm, live, 20 January 2011,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3041546.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20170808195919news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3041546.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20170808195919news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3041546.stm, 8 August 2017,

Final years (2003–2013)

(File:Margaret Thatcher DF-SD-06-15534.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|alt=Thatcher exiting a limousine on the ramp at Andrews Air Force Base|Arriving for the funeral of President Reagan in 2004)On 11 June 2004, Thatcher (against doctors’ orders) attended the state funeral service for Ronald Reagan.NEWS, 11 June 2004, Thatcher: ‘Reagan’s life was providential’, CNN,www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/11/thatcher.transcript, dead, 1 November 2008,www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/11/thatcher.transcript/," title="web.archive.org/web/20171109022946www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/11/thatcher.transcript/,">web.archive.org/web/20171109022946www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/11/thatcher.transcript/, 9 November 2017, She delivered her eulogy via videotape; in view of her health, the message had been pre-recorded several months earlier.NEWS, 10 June 2004, Thatcher’s final visit to Reagan, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3793565.stm, live, 1 November 2008,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3793565.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20120330090938news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3793565.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20120330090938news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3793565.stm, 30 March 2012, NEWS, Russell, Alec, Alec Russell, Sparrow, Andrew, amp, 7 June 2004, Thatcher’s taped eulogy at Reagan funeral, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1463874/Thatchers-taped-eulogy-at-Reagan-funeral.html, live, 18 July 2016,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1463874/Thatchers-taped-eulogy-at-Reagan-funeral.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20160707040239www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1463874/Thatchers-taped-eulogy-at-Reagan-funeral.html,">web.archive.org/web/20160707040239www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1463874/Thatchers-taped-eulogy-at-Reagan-funeral.html, 7 July 2016, Thatcher flew to California with the Reagan entourage, and attended the memorial service and interment ceremony for the president at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.NEWS, 12 June 2004, Private burial for Ronald Reagan, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3800315.stm, live, 1 November 2008,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3800315.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20081016022432news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3800315.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20081016022432news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3800315.stm, 16 October 2008, In 2005, Thatcher criticised how Blair had decided to invade Iraq two years previously. Although she still supported the intervention to topple Saddam Hussein, she said that (as a scientist) she would always look for “facts, evidence and proof” before committing the armed forces.{{r|grice}} She celebrated her 80th birthday on 13 October at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hyde Park, London; guests included the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Alexandra and Tony Blair.NEWS, 13 October 2005, Thatcher marks 80th with a speech, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4329132.stm, live, 1 November 2008,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4329132.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20090208082439news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4329132.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20090208082439news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4329132.stm, 8 February 2009, Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon, was also in attendance 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.“NEWS, 13 October 2005, Birthday tributes to Thatcher, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4337404.stm, live, 1 November 2008,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4337404.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20061112154711news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4337404.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20061112154711news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4337404.stm, 12 November 2006, {{multiple image|align=right|direction=vertical|title=In the US, 2006|image1=Thatcher 2006 September 11 event.jpg|alt1=Thatcher standing with Dick and Lynne Cheney|caption1=Thatcher (left{{--)}} at a Washington memorial service on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks|image2=Margaret Thatcher 060912-F-0193C-006.jpg|alt2=Thatcher sharing a laugh with Donald Rumsfeld and Peter Pace|caption2=With Donald Rumsfeld and General Pace at the Pentagon}}In 2006, Thatcher attended the official Washington memorial service to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the US. She was a guest of Vice President Dick Cheney and met Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit.WEB, 11 September 2006, 9/11 Remembrance Honors Victims from More Than 90 Countries,montevideo.usembassy.gov/usaweb/paginas/2006/06-334EN.shtml,montevideo.usembassy.gov/usaweb/paginas/2006/06-334EN.shtml," title="web.archive.org/web/20060922193936montevideo.usembassy.gov/usaweb/paginas/2006/06-334EN.shtml,">web.archive.org/web/20060922193936montevideo.usembassy.gov/usaweb/paginas/2006/06-334EN.shtml, 22 September 2006, 1 November 2008, US Department of State, In February 2007 Thatcher became the first living British prime minister to be honoured with a statue in the Houses of Parliament. The bronze statue stood opposite that of her political hero, Winston Churchill,{{r|bronze}} and was unveiled on 21 February 2007 with Thatcher in attendance; she remarked in the Members’ Lobby of the Commons: “I might have preferred iron – but bronze will do [...] It won’t rust.“NEWS, 21 February 2007, Iron Lady is honoured in bronze, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6384029.stm, live, 9 April 2007,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6384029.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20090307201021news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6384029.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20090307201021news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6384029.stm, 7 March 2009, Thatcher was 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.PRESS RELEASE, Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, 9 June 2008, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation,www.victimsofcommunism.org/media/article.php?article=3850, 24 October 2011, dead,victimsofcommunism.org/media/article.php?article=3850," title="web.archive.org/web/20110518124148victimsofcommunism.org/media/article.php?article=3850,">web.archive.org/web/20110518124148victimsofcommunism.org/media/article.php?article=3850, 18 May 2011, After collapsing at a House of Lords dinner, Thatcher, suffering low blood pressure,NEWS, Moore, Charles, 9 March 2008, Thatcher risks becoming a national treasure, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1581197/Thatcher-risks-becoming-a-national-treasure.html, live, 31 May 2017,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1581197/Thatcher-risks-becoming-a-national-treasure.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20171020135223www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1581197/Thatcher-risks-becoming-a-national-treasure.html,">web.archive.org/web/20171020135223www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1581197/Thatcher-risks-becoming-a-national-treasure.html, 20 October 2017, was admitted to St Thomas’ Hospital in central London on 7 March 2008 for tests. In 2009 she was hospitalised again when she fell and broke her arm.NEWS, 12 June 2009, Lady Thatcher treated after fall, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8097018.stm, live, 20 April 2013,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8097018.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20210111173140news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8097018.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20210111173140news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8097018.stm, 11 January 2021, Thatcher returned to 10 Downing Street in late November 2009 for the unveiling of an official portrait by artist Richard Stone,NEWS, 23 November 2009, Margaret Thatcher returns to Downing Street, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/margaret-thatcher/6636644/Margaret-Thatcher-returns-to-Downing-Street.html, dead, subscription, 22 October 2020,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/margaret-thatcher/6636644/Margaret-Thatcher-returns-to-Downing-Street.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20091126182445www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/margaret-thatcher/6636644/Margaret-Thatcher-returns-to-Downing-Street.html,">web.archive.org/web/20091126182445www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/margaret-thatcher/6636644/Margaret-Thatcher-returns-to-Downing-Street.html, 26 November 2009, an unusual honour for a living former prime minister. Stone was previously commissioned to paint portraits of the Queen and Queen Mother.{{r|ThatcherReturns}}On 4 July 2011, Thatcher was to attend a ceremony for the unveiling of a {{convert|10|ft|m|abbr=on}} statue of Ronald Reagan outside the US embassy in London, but was unable to attend due to her frail health.NEWS, 4 July 2011, Ronald Reagan statue unveiled at US Embassy in London, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14009137, live, 22 October 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201111215743/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14009137, 11 November 2020, She last attended a sitting of the House of Lords on 19 July 2010,{{sfnp|UK Parliament|2012|ps=, Thatcher, B.}} and on 30 July 2011 it was announced that her office in the Lords had been closed.NEWS, Walker, Tim, 30 July 2011, Baroness Thatcher’s office is closed, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8671195/Baroness-Thatchers-office-is-closed.html, live, 21 August 2011,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8671195/Baroness-Thatchers-office-is-closed.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20110731185910www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8671195/Baroness-Thatchers-office-is-closed.html,">web.archive.org/web/20110731185910www.telegraph.co.uk/news/8671195/Baroness-Thatchers-office-is-closed.html, 31 July 2011, Earlier that month, Thatcher was named the most competent prime minister of the past 30 years in an Ipsos MORI poll.NEWS, Stacey, Kiran, 3 July 2011, Thatcher heads poll of most competent PMs, Financial Times,www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d4e23a0c-a3f9-11e0-8b4f-00144feabdc0.html, live, subscription, 23 October 2020,www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d4e23a0c-a3f9-11e0-8b4f-00144feabdc0.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20120712002740www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d4e23a0c-a3f9-11e0-8b4f-00144feabdc0.html,">web.archive.org/web/20120712002740www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d4e23a0c-a3f9-11e0-8b4f-00144feabdc0.html, 12 July 2012, Thatcher’s daughter Carol n:Margaret Thatcher suffering from dementia, says daughter|first revealed]] that her mother had dementia in 2005,{{r|Langley}} saying “Mum doesn’t read much any more because of her memory loss”. In her 2008 memoir, Carol wrote that her mother “could hardly remember the beginning of a sentence by the time she got to the end”.NEWS, Langley, William, 30 August 2008, Carol Thatcher, daughter of the revolution, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/profiles/2652365/Profile-Carol-Thatcher-daughter-of-the-revolution.html, live, 11 February 2013,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/profiles/2652365/Profile-Carol-Thatcher-daughter-of-the-revolution.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20121112112840www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/profiles/2652365/Profile-Carol-Thatcher-daughter-of-the-revolution.html,">web.archive.org/web/20121112112840www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/profiles/2652365/Profile-Carol-Thatcher-daughter-of-the-revolution.html, 12 November 2012, She later recounted how she was first struck by her mother’s dementia when, in conversation, Thatcher confused the Falklands and Yugoslav conflicts; she recalled the pain of needing to tell her mother repeatedly that her husband Denis was dead.NEWS, Elliott, Francis, 25 August 2008, Margaret Thatcher’s struggle with dementia revealed in daughter’s memoir, The Times,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111317, live, 7 July 2017,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111317," title="web.archive.org/web/20170531035605www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111317,">web.archive.org/web/20170531035605www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111317, 31 May 2017, the Margaret Thatcher Foundation,

Death and funeral (2013)

{{multiple image|align=right|direction=vertical|image1=Margaret Thatcher coffin at St. Pauls X8A2604.jpg|alt1=photograph|caption1=Thatcher’s coffin being carried up the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral|image2=MTgrave1.jpeg|alt2=photograph|caption2=Plaques on the graves of Margaret and Denis Thatcher at the Royal Hospital Chelsea}}Thatcher died on 8 April 2013, at the age of 87, after suffering a stroke. She had been staying at a suite in the Ritz Hotel in London since December 2012 after having difficulty with stairs at her Chester Square home in Belgravia.NEWS, Swinford, Steven, 8 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher: final moments in hotel without her family by her bedside, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9980269/Margaret-Thatcher-final-moments-in-hotel-without-her-family-by-her-bedside.html, live, subscription, 22 October 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201130113809/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9980269/Margaret-Thatcher-final-moments-in-hotel-without-her-family-by-her-bedside.html, 30 November 2020, Her death certificate listed the primary causes of death as a “cerebrovascular accident” and “repeated transient ischaemic attack”;NEWS, Mason, Rowena, 16 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher described as ‘retired stateswoman’ on death certificate, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9997368/Margaret-Thatcher-described-as-retired-stateswoman-on-death-certificate.html, live, subscription, 11 January 2021,web.archive.org/web/20130419013555/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9997368/Margaret-Thatcher-described-as-retired-stateswoman-on-death-certificate.html, 19 April 2013, secondary causes were listed as a “carcinoma of the bladder” and dementia.{{r|Mason}}q:Death and funeral of Margaret Thatcher|Reactions to the news of Thatcher’s death]] were mixed across the UK, ranging from tributes lauding her as Britain’s greatest-ever peacetime prime minister to public celebrations of her death and expressions of hatred and personalised vitriol.NEWS, Burns, John F., John Fisher Burns, Cowell, Alan, Alan Cowell, amp, 10 April 2013, Parliament Debates Thatcher Legacy, as Vitriol Flows Online and in Streets, The New York Times,www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/world/europe/british-lawmakers-margaret-thatcher-legacy.html, live, limited, 25 April 2013,www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/world/europe/british-lawmakers-margaret-thatcher-legacy.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20130420131956www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/world/europe/british-lawmakers-margaret-thatcher-legacy.html,">web.archive.org/web/20130420131956www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/world/europe/british-lawmakers-margaret-thatcher-legacy.html, 20 April 2013, Details of Thatcher’s funeral had been agreed upon with her in advance.NEWS, Wright, Oliver, 8 April 2013, Funeral will be a ‘ceremonial’ service in line with Baroness Thatcher’s wishes, The Independent,www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/funeral-will-be-a-ceremonial-service-in-line-with-baroness-thatchers-wishes-8565093.html, live, 12 April 2013,www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/funeral-will-be-a-ceremonial-service-in-line-with-baroness-thatchers-wishes-8565093.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20130412095123www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/funeral-will-be-a-ceremonial-service-in-line-with-baroness-thatchers-wishes-8565093.html,">web.archive.org/web/20130412095123www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/funeral-will-be-a-ceremonial-service-in-line-with-baroness-thatchers-wishes-8565093.html, 12 April 2013, She received a ceremonial funeral, including full military honours, with a church service at St Paul’s Cathedral on 17 April.NEWS, 8 April 2013, Ex-Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher dies, aged 87, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22067155, live, 22 October 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201031074659/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22067155, 31 October 2020, NEWS, 9 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher funeral set for next week, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22079749, live, 22 October 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201021081324/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22079749, 21 October 2020, Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh attended her funeral,NEWS, 17 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher: Queen leads mourners at funeral, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22177366, live, 4 May 2013,www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22177366," title="web.archive.org/web/20130504194758www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22177366,">web.archive.org/web/20130504194758www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22177366, 4 May 2013, marking only the second and final time in the Queen’s reign that she attended the funeral of any of her former prime ministers, after that of Churchill, who received a state funeral in 1965.NEWS, Davies, Caroline, 10 April 2013, Queen made personal decision to attend Lady Thatcher’s funeral, The Guardian,www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/10/queen-decision-lady-thatcher-funeral, live, 3 May 2013,www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/10/queen-decision-lady-thatcher-funeral," title="web.archive.org/web/20131109155827www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/10/queen-decision-lady-thatcher-funeral,">web.archive.org/web/20131109155827www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/10/queen-decision-lady-thatcher-funeral, 9 November 2013, After the service at St Paul’s, Thatcher’s body was cremated at Mortlake, where her husband’s had been cremated. On 28 September, a service for Thatcher was held in the All Saints Chapel of the Royal Hospital Chelsea’s Margaret Thatcher Infirmary. In a private ceremony, Thatcher’s ashes were interred in the hospital’s grounds, next to her husband’s.NEWS, 28 September 2013, Baroness Thatcher’s ashes laid to rest, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/10341402/Baroness-Thatchers-ashes-laid-to-rest.html, live, subscription, 22 October 2020,web.archive.org/web/20190413185023/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/10341402/Baroness-Thatchers-ashes-laid-to-rest.html, 13 April 2019, NEWS, 28 September 2013, Margaret Thatcher’s ashes laid to rest at Royal Hospital Chelsea, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24316701, live, 22 October 2020,www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24316701," title="web.archive.org/web/20170924105909www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24316701,">web.archive.org/web/20170924105909www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24316701, 24 September 2017,

Legacy

Political impact

{{Thatcherism}}Thatcherism represented a systematic and decisive overhaul of the post-war consensus, whereby the major political parties largely agreed on the central themes of Keynesianism, the welfare state, nationalised industry, and close regulation of the economy, and high taxes. Thatcher generally supported the welfare state while proposing to rid it of abuses.{{refn|{{harvtxt|Moore|2013|p=87}}: Neither at the beginning of her career nor when she was prime minister, did Margaret Thatcher ever reject the wartime foundations of the welfare state, whether in health, social policy or education. In this she was less radical than her critics or some of her admirers supposed. Her concern was to focus more on abuse of the system, on bureaucracy and union militancy, and on the growth of what later came to be called the dependency culture, rather than on the system itself.|group=nb}}She promised in 1982 that the highly popular National Health Service was “safe in our hands”.{{sfnp|Klein|1985}} At first, she ignored the question of privatising nationalised industries; heavily influenced by right-wing think tanks, and especially by Sir Keith Joseph,{{sfnp|Marr|2007|p=358}} Thatcher broadened her attack. Thatcherism came to refer to her policies as well as aspects of her ethical outlook and personal style, including moral absolutism, nationalism, liberal individualism, and an uncompromising approach to achieving political goals.ENCYCLOPEDIA, Margaret Thatcher profile, Encyclopædia Britannica,www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/590098/Margaret-Thatcher, 30 October 2008, Young, Hugo, n.d., Hugo Young,web.archive.org/web/20111031211708/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/590098/Margaret-Thatcher, 31 October 2011, live, NEWS, Bootle, Roger, Roger Bootle, 8 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher: the economic achievements and legacy of Thatcherism, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9979362/Margaret-Thatcher-the-economic-achievements-and-legacy-of-Thatcherism.html, live, 24 July 2017,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9979362/Margaret-Thatcher-the-economic-achievements-and-legacy-of-Thatcherism.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20170704110154www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9979362/Margaret-Thatcher-the-economic-achievements-and-legacy-of-Thatcherism.html,">web.archive.org/web/20170704110154www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9979362/Margaret-Thatcher-the-economic-achievements-and-legacy-of-Thatcherism.html, 4 July 2017, {{refn|{{harvtxt|Lawson|1992|p=64}} lists the Thatcherite ideals as “a mixture of free markets, financial discipline, firm control over public expenditure, tax cuts, nationalism, ‘Victorian values’ (of the Samuel Smiles self-help variety), privatisation and a dash of populism”.|group=nb}}Thatcher defined her political philosophy, in a major and controversial break with the one-nation conservatism{{sfnp|Campbell|2011a|pages=530–532}} of her predecessor Edward Heath, in a 1987 interview published in Woman’s Own magazine:{{blockquote|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.WEB, 23 September 1987, Interview for Woman’s Own (’no such thing as society’) with journalist Douglas Keay,www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=106689, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=106689," title="web.archive.org/web/20060427052051www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=106689,">web.archive.org/web/20060427052051www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=106689, 27 April 2006, 10 April 2007, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, }}

Overview

The number of adults owning shares rose from 7 per cent to 25 per cent during her tenure, and more than a million families bought their council houses, increasing from 55 per cent to 67 per cent in owner-occupiers from 1979 to 1990. The houses were sold at a discount of 33–55 per cent, leading to large profits for some new owners. Personal wealth rose by 80 per cent in real terms during the 1980s, mainly due to rising house prices and increased earnings. Shares in the privatised utilities were sold below their market value to ensure quick and wide sales rather than maximise national income.{{sfnp|Marr|2007|p=430}}NEWS, 10 April 2013, What is Thatcherism?, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22079683, live, 2 August 2017,www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22079683," title="web.archive.org/web/20170811054456www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22079683,">web.archive.org/web/20170811054456www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22079683, 11 August 2017, The “Thatcher years” were also marked by periods of high unemployment and social unrest,NEWS, 4 May 2004, Evaluating Thatcher’s legacy, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3681973.stm, live, 11 April 2013,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3681973.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20090209115746news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3681973.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20090209115746news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3681973.stm, 9 February 2009, NEWS, 9 April 2013, The Thatcher years in statistics, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22070491, live, 6 January 2019,web.archive.org/web/20181224070722/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22070491, 24 December 2018, and many critics on the left of the political spectrum fault her economic policies for the unemployment level; many of the areas affected by mass unemployment as well as her monetarist economic policies remained blighted for decades, by such social problems as drug abuse and family breakdown.{{sfnp|Richards|2004|p=63}} Unemployment did not fall below its May 1979 level during her tenure,NEWS, 8 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher: How the economy changed, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22073527, live, 5 November 2016,www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22073527," title="web.archive.org/web/20161014025026www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22073527,">web.archive.org/web/20161014025026www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22073527, 14 October 2016, only falling below its April 1979 level in 1990.WEB, Denman, James, McDonald, Paul, amp, January 1996, Unemployment statistics from 1881 to the present day,www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-trends--discontinued-/january-1996/unemployment-since-1881.pdf, live,www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-trends--discontinued-/january-1996/unemployment-since-1881.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20150925103339www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-trends--discontinued-/january-1996/unemployment-since-1881.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20150925103339www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-trends--discontinued-/january-1996/unemployment-since-1881.pdf, 25 September 2015, 16 May 2017, Government Statistical Service, 7, The long-term effects of her policies on manufacturing remain contentious.NEWS, 12 April 2013, Industrialists split over Thatcher legacy, Financial Times,www.ft.com/content/959ebdda-a2cf-11e2-bd45-00144feabdc0, live, subscription, 13 November 2016,archive.today/20210912185844/https://www.ft.com/content/959ebdda-a2cf-11e2-bd45-00144feabdc0, 12 September 2021, {{sfnp|Campbell|2011a|page=79}}Speaking in Scotland in 2009, Thatcher insisted she had no regrets and was right to introduce the poll tax and withdraw subsidies from “outdated industries, whose markets were in terminal decline”, subsidies that created “the culture of dependency, which had done such damage to Britain”.NEWS, Allardyce, Jason, 26 April 2009, Margaret Thatcher: I did right by Scots, The Sunday Times,www.thetimes.co.uk/article/margaret-thatcher-i-did-right-by-scots-bwjjcdbwbx9, live, subscription, 5 July 2017,archive.today/20210912185513/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/margaret-thatcher-i-did-right-by-scots-bwjjcdbwbx9, 12 September 2021, Political economist Susan Strange termed the neoliberal financial growth model “casino capitalism”, reflecting her view that speculation and financial trading were becoming more important to the economy than industry.{{sfnp|Gamble|2009|p=16}}Critics on the left describe her as divisiveNEWS, 16 September 2008, Who has been UK’s greatest post-war PM?, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7593554.stm, live, 16 April 2011,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7593554.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20170906000712news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7593554.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20170906000712news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7593554.stm, 6 September 2017, and say she condoned greed and selfishness.{{r|legacy-bbc}} Leading Welsh politician Rhodri Morgan,NEWS, 8 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher: A ‘Marmite’ prime minister, says Rhodri Morgan, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-22072074, live, 11 April 2017,www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-22072074," title="web.archive.org/web/20130609081401www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-22072074,">web.archive.org/web/20130609081401www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-22072074, 9 June 2013, among others,{{sfnmp|1a1=West|1y=2012|1p=176|2a1=Blundell|2y=2013|2p=88}} characterised Thatcher as a “Marmite” figure. Journalist Michael White, writing in the aftermath of the 2007–08 financial crisis, challenged the view that her reforms were still a net benefit.MAGAZINE, White, Michael, 26 February 2009, The making of Maggie,www.newstatesman.com/books/2009/02/margaret-thatcher-british, live, New Statesman,www.newstatesman.com/books/2009/02/margaret-thatcher-british," title="web.archive.org/web/20170412061634www.newstatesman.com/books/2009/02/margaret-thatcher-british,">web.archive.org/web/20170412061634www.newstatesman.com/books/2009/02/margaret-thatcher-british, 12 April 2017, 11 April 2017, Her ‘freer, more promiscuous version of capitalism’ (in Hugo Young’s phrase) is reaping a darker harvest., Others consider her approach to have been “a mixed bag“{{sfnp|Rothbard|1995|loc=chpt. 63}}WEB, Van Reenen, John, John Van Reenen (economist), 10 April 2013, The economic legacy of Mrs. Thatcher is a mixed bag,blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-economic-legacy-of-mrs-thatcher-2, live,blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-economic-legacy-of-mrs-thatcher-2/," title="web.archive.org/web/20170412061433blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-economic-legacy-of-mrs-thatcher-2/,">web.archive.org/web/20170412061433blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-economic-legacy-of-mrs-thatcher-2/, 12 April 2017, 11 April 2017, London School of Economics, and “{{interp|a}} Curate’s egg”.{{sfnp|Johnson|1991|loc=chpt. 8}}Thatcher did “little to advance the political cause of women” within her party or the government.{{sfnp|Evans|2004|p=25}} Some British feminists regarded her as “an enemy”.{{sfnp|Burns|2009|p=234}} June Purvis of Women’s History Review says that, although Thatcher had struggled laboriously against the sexist prejudices of her day to rise to the top, she made no effort to ease the path for other women.{{sfnp|Purvis|2013}} Thatcher did not regard women’s rights as requiring particular attention as she did not, especially during her premiership, consider that women were being deprived of their rights. She had once suggested the shortlisting of women by default for all public appointments and proposed that those with young children should leave the workforce.{{sfnp|Gelb|1989|pages=58–59}}Thatcher’s stance on immigration in the late 1970s was perceived as part of a rising racist public discourse,{{sfnp|Witte|2014|page=54}} which Martin Barker terms “new racism”.{{sfnmp|Barker|1981|Chin|2009|2p=92}} In opposition, Thatcher believed that the National Front (NF) was winning over large numbers of Conservative voters with warnings against floods of immigrants. Her strategy was to undermine the NF narrative by acknowledging that many of their voters had serious concerns in need of addressing. In 1978 she criticised Labour’s immigration policy to attract voters away from the NF to the Conservatives.{{sfnp|Witte|2014|pages=53–54}} Her rhetoric was followed by increased Conservative support at the expense of the NF. Critics on the left accused her of pandering to racism.{{sfnp|Friedman|2006|page=13}}{{refn|group=nb|{{harvtxt|Mitchell|Russell|1989}} posits that she had been misinterpreted and that race was never a focus of Thatcherism. By the 1980s, both the Conservatives and Labour had taken similar positions on immigration policy;{{sfnmp|1a1=Ward|1y=2004|1p=128|2a1=Vinen|2y=2009|2pp=227, 279}} the British Nationality Act 1981 was passed with cross-party support.{{sfnp|Hansen|2000|pages=207–208}} There were no policies passed or proposed by ministers to restrict legal immigration, nor would Thatcher highlight the subject of race in any of her later remarks.{{sfnp|Anwar|2001}}}}Many Thatcherite policies influenced the Labour Party,NEWS, Kampfner, John, John Kampfner, 17 April 2008, Margaret Thatcher, inspiration to New Labour, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/themargaretthatcheryears/1895878/Margaret-Thatcher-inspiration-to-New-Labour.html, live, 12 May 2017,web.archive.org/web/20181019082215/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/themargaretthatcheryears/1895878/Margaret-Thatcher-inspiration-to-New-Labour.html, 19 October 2018, {{sfnp|Seldon|2007|page=14}} which returned to power in 1997 under Tony Blair. Blair rebranded the party “New Labour” in 1994 with the aim of increasing its appeal beyond its traditional supporters,NEWS, Assinder, Nick, 10 May 2007, How Blair recreated Labour, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6129844.stm, live, 18 May 2017,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6129844.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20170312022307news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6129844.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20170312022307news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6129844.stm, 12 March 2017, and to attract those who had supported Thatcher, such as the “Essex man”.NEWS, Smith, Jodie, 30 March 2015, ‘Essex Man’ 2015: Does the Thatcher-era stereotype still pack a political punch?, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-england-31868550, live, 17 May 2017,www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-england-31868550," title="web.archive.org/web/20170314025416www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-england-31868550,">web.archive.org/web/20170314025416www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-england-31868550, 14 March 2017, Thatcher is said to have regarded the “New Labour” rebranding as her greatest achievement.NEWS, McSmith, Andy, Andy McSmith, Chu, Ben, Garner, Richard, amp, 8 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher’s legacy: Spilt milk, New Labour, and the Big Bang – she changed everything, The Independent,www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/margaret-thatchers-legacy-spilt-milk-new-labour-and-the-big-bang-she-changed-everything-8564541.html, live, 30 December 2016,www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/margaret-thatchers-legacy-spilt-milk-new-labour-and-the-big-bang-she-changed-everything-8564541.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20161230231827www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/margaret-thatchers-legacy-spilt-milk-new-labour-and-the-big-bang-she-changed-everything-8564541.html,">web.archive.org/web/20161230231827www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/margaret-thatchers-legacy-spilt-milk-new-labour-and-the-big-bang-she-changed-everything-8564541.html, 30 December 2016, In contrast to Blair, the Conservative Party under William Hague attempted to distance himself and the party from Thatcher’s economic policies in an attempt to gain public approval.{{sfnp|Campbell|2011a|p=790}}Shortly after Thatcher died in 2013, Scottish first minister Alex Salmond argued that her policies had the “unintended consequence” of encouraging Scottish devolution.NEWS, Dinwoodie, Robbie, 9 April 2013, First Minister: Her policies made Scots believe that devolution was essential, The Herald,www.heraldscotland.com/politics/political-news/first-minister-her-policies-made-scots-believe-that-devolution-was-essential.20640632, live, 22 October 2020,www.heraldscotland.com/politics/political-news/first-minister-her-policies-made-scots-believe-that-devolution-was-essential.20640632," title="web.archive.org/web/20131109215642www.heraldscotland.com/politics/political-news/first-minister-her-policies-made-scots-believe-that-devolution-was-essential.20640632,">web.archive.org/web/20131109215642www.heraldscotland.com/politics/political-news/first-minister-her-policies-made-scots-believe-that-devolution-was-essential.20640632, 9 November 2013, Lord Foulkes of Cumnock agreed on Scotland Tonight that she had provided “the impetus” for devolution.WEB, 8 April 2013, Scotland Tonight,player.stv.tv/programmes/scotland-tonight/2013-04-08-2230, dead,player.stv.tv/programmes/scotland-tonight/2013-04-08-2230/," title="web.archive.org/web/20130411051526player.stv.tv/programmes/scotland-tonight/2013-04-08-2230/,">web.archive.org/web/20130411051526player.stv.tv/programmes/scotland-tonight/2013-04-08-2230/, 11 April 2013, 9 April 2013, STV Player, Writing for The Scotsman in 1997, Thatcher argued against devolution on the basis that it would eventually lead to Scottish independence.WEB, 9 September 1997, Article for the Scotsman (devolution referendum),www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108373, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108373," title="web.archive.org/web/20170531035317www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108373,">web.archive.org/web/20170531035317www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108373, 31 May 2017, 11 June 2017, Margaret Thatcher Foundation,

Reputation

}}Thatcher’s tenure of 11 years and 209 days as British prime minister was the longest since Lord Salisbury in the late 19th century (13 years and 252 days, in three spells) and the longest continuous period in office since Lord Liverpool in the early 19th century (14 years and 305 days).{{sfnp|Gardiner|Thompson|2013|page=12}}NEWS, Mackay, Robert, 28 December 1987, Thatcher longest serving British prime minister, United Press International,www.upi.com/Archives/1987/12/28/Thatcher-longest-serving-British-prime-minister/8486567666000, live, 26 June 2017,www.upi.com/Archives/1987/12/28/Thatcher-longest-serving-British-prime-minister/8486567666000," title="web.archive.org/web/20160303004520www.upi.com/Archives/1987/12/28/Thatcher-longest-serving-British-prime-minister/8486567666000,">web.archive.org/web/20160303004520www.upi.com/Archives/1987/12/28/Thatcher-longest-serving-British-prime-minister/8486567666000, 3 March 2016, Having led the Conservative Party to victory in three consecutive general elections, twice in a landslide, she ranks among the most popular party leaders in British history regarding votes cast for the winning party; over 40 million ballots were cast in total for the party under her leadership.WEB, Kimber, Richard, n.d., UK General Election May 1979: Results and statistics,www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/ge79/results.htm, dead,www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/ge79/results.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20170428175636www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/ge79/results.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20170428175636www.politicsresources.net/area/uk/ge79/results.htm, 28 April 2017, 19 March 2017, Political Science Resources, WEB, 9 June 1983, General Election Results,www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-information-office/m09.pdf, live,www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-information-office/m09.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20161029150237www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-information-office/m09.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20161029150237www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-information-office/m09.pdf, 29 October 2016, 31 December 2016, UK Parliament, WEB, 11 June 1987, General Election Results,www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-information-office/m11.pdf, live,www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-information-office/m11.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20170107031834www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-information-office/m11.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20170107031834www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-information-office/m11.pdf, 7 January 2017, 31 December 2016, UK Parliament, Her electoral successes were dubbed a “historic (wikt:hat trick|hat trick)” by the British press in 1987.{{YouTube|id=P0p5r_ibGT4|title=UK General Election Results}}{{Retrieved|prepend=.{{sp}}|access-date=21 March 2017|note=Broadcast 12 June 1987}}Thatcher ranked highest among living persons in the 2002 BBC poll 100 Greatest Britons.WEB, Great Britons – Top 100,www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/greatbritons/list.shtml,www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/greatbritons/list.shtml," title="web.archive.org/web/20021204214727www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/greatbritons/list.shtml,">web.archive.org/web/20021204214727www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/greatbritons/list.shtml, 4 December 2002, 11 April 2013, BBC History, In 1999, Time deemed Thatcher one of the (Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century|100 most important people of the 20th century).MAGAZINE, Quittner, Joshua, Josh Quittner, 14 April 1999, Margaret Thatcher – Time 100 People of the Century, Time,www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,26473,00.html, dead, 22 December 2012,www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,26473,00.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20130308133259www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,26473,00.html,">web.archive.org/web/20130308133259www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,26473,00.html, 8 March 2013, In 2015 she topped a poll by Scottish Widows, a major financial services company, as the most influential woman of the past 200 years;NEWS, Boult, Adam, 1 December 2015, Margaret Thatcher voted most influential woman of past 200 years, The Telegraph,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/12027994/Margaret-Thatcher-voted-most-influential-woman-of-past-200-years.html, live, 30 December 2016,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/12027994/Margaret-Thatcher-voted-most-influential-woman-of-past-200-years.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20161231075046www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/12027994/Margaret-Thatcher-voted-most-influential-woman-of-past-200-years.html,">web.archive.org/web/20161231075046www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/12027994/Margaret-Thatcher-voted-most-influential-woman-of-past-200-years.html, 31 December 2016, and in 2016 topped BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour Power List of women judged to have had the biggest impact on female lives over the past 70 years.WEB, Woman’s Hour – The 7 women who’ve changed women’s lives – BBC Radio 4,www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/PnqpZRvgbvMFBCtrwHhhTZ/the-7-women-whove-changed-womens-lives, live,web.archive.org/web/20210111173034/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/PnqpZRvgbvMFBCtrwHhhTZ/the-seven-women-whove-changed-womens-lives, 11 January 2021, 15 December 2016, BBC, Topping the 2016 Power List – in our only ranked position – is the UK’s first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher., NEWS, 14 December 2016, Margaret Thatcher tops Woman’s Hour Power List, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38303886, live, 22 October 2020,www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38303886," title="web.archive.org/web/20180404063443www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38303886,">web.archive.org/web/20180404063443www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38303886, 4 April 2018, In 2020, Time magazine included Thatcher’s name on its list of 100 Women of the Year. She was chosen as the Woman of the Year in 1982 when the Falklands War began under her command, resulting in the British victory.WEB, 5 March 2020, 1982: Margaret Thatcher,time.com/5793666/margaret-thatcher-100-women-of-the-year/, live,web.archive.org/web/20200307064451/https://time.com/5793666/margaret-thatcher-100-women-of-the-year/, 7 March 2020, 7 March 2020, Time, In contrast to her relatively poor average approval rating as prime minister,{{r|Ipsos}} Thatcher has since ranked highly in retrospective opinion polling and, according to YouGov, is “see[n] in overall positive terms” by the British public.WEB, Smith, Matthew, 10 August 2016, David Cameron was the best Prime Minister since Thatcher,yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2016/08/10/cameron-best-prime-minister-since-thatcher, live,web.archive.org/web/20210111173134/https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2016/08/10/cameron-best-prime-minister-since-thatcher, 11 January 2021, 7 December 2018, YouGov, Just after her death in 2013, according to a poll by The Guardian, about half of the public viewed her positively while one third viewed her negatively.WEB, Clark, Tom, 9 April 2013, Opinion on Margaret Thatcher remains divided after her death, poll finds,www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/09/opinion-sharply-divide-margaret-thatcher, live,web.archive.org/web/20161202174723/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/09/opinion-sharply-divide-margaret-thatcher, 2 December 2016, 5 December 2021, The Guardian, In a 2019 opinion poll by YouGov, most Britons rated her as Britain’s greatest post-war leader (with Churchill coming second).WEB, Smith, Matthew, 3 May 2019, Margaret Thatcher: the public view 40 years on,yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/05/03/margaret-thatcher-public-view-40-years, live,web.archive.org/web/20211205080201/https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/05/03/margaret-thatcher-public-view-40-years, 5 December 2021, 5 December 2021, YouGov, According to the poll, more than four in ten Britons (44%) think that Thatcher was a “good” or “great” prime minister, compared to 29% who think she was a “poor” or “terrible” one. She was voted the fourth-greatest British prime minister of the 20th century in a 2011 poll of 139 academics organised by MORI.WEB, Rating British Prime Ministers,www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/poll.aspx?oItemId=661, dead,www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/poll.aspx?oItemId=661," title="web.archive.org/web/20110912105223www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/poll.aspx?oItemId=661,">web.archive.org/web/20110912105223www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/poll.aspx?oItemId=661, 12 September 2011, 24 August 2012, Ipsos MORI, In a 2016 University of Leeds survey of 82 academics specialising in post-1945 British history and politics, she was voted the second-greatest British prime minister after the Second World War.WEB, Cowburn, Ashley, 13 October 2016, David Cameron rated the third worst Prime Minister of the past 71 years,www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-cameron-worst-prime-minister-ranking-third-since-ww2-a7358171.html, 16 May 2022, The Independent, en,

Cultural depictions

According to theatre critic Michael Billington,WEB, Events: Michael Billington: ‘State of the Nation’,www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/events/id/3627, dead,www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/events/id/3627," title="web.archive.org/web/20080207113843www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/events/id/3627,">web.archive.org/web/20080207113843www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/events/id/3627, 7 February 2008, 8 June 2008, Thatcher left an “emphatic mark” on the arts while prime minister.NEWS, Billington, Michael, 8 April 2013, Margaret Thatcher casts a long shadow over theatre and the arts, The Guardian,www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-long-shadow-theatre, live, 8 May 2017,web.archive.org/web/20170113085827/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/apr/08/margaret-thatcher-long-shadow-theatre, 13 January 2017, One of the earliest satires of Thatcher as prime minister involved satirist John Wells (as writer and performer), actress Janet Brown (voicing Thatcher) and future Spitting Image producer John Lloyd (as co-producer), who in 1979 were teamed up by producer Martin Lewis for the satirical audio album The Iron Lady, which consisted of skits and songs satirising Thatcher’s rise to power. The album was released in September 1979.NEWS, 16 April 2013, ‘I’m There’ song reissue mocks Margaret Thatcher on day of funeral, USA Today,www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2013/04/16/im-there-song-reissue-mocks-margaret-thatcher-on-day-of-funeral/2088929, live, 25 April 2013,www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2013/04/16/im-there-song-reissue-mocks-margaret-thatcher-on-day-of-funeral/2088929/," title="web.archive.org/web/20130422071500www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2013/04/16/im-there-song-reissue-mocks-margaret-thatcher-on-day-of-funeral/2088929/,">web.archive.org/web/20130422071500www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2013/04/16/im-there-song-reissue-mocks-margaret-thatcher-on-day-of-funeral/2088929/, 22 April 2013, NEWS, Lewis, Randy, 16 April 2013, Album skewering Margaret Thatcher to be reissued on April 17, Los Angeles Times,www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-margaret-thatcher-funeral-album-iron-lady-comedy-20130416,0,4237647.story, live, 25 April 2013,www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-margaret-thatcher-funeral-album-iron-lady-comedy-20130416,0,4237647.story," title="web.archive.org/web/20130420095346www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-margaret-thatcher-funeral-album-iron-lady-comedy-20130416,0,4237647.story,">web.archive.org/web/20130420095346www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-margaret-thatcher-funeral-album-iron-lady-comedy-20130416,0,4237647.story, 20 April 2013, Thatcher was heavily satirised on Spitting Image, and The Independent labelled her “every stand-up’s dream”.NEWS, Sherwin, Adam, Adam Sherwin, 1 September 2012, Margaret Thatcher: Let’s hear it for the Iron Lady, comedy’s greatest straight man, The Independent,www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/margaret-thatcher-lets-hear-it-for-the-iron-lady-comedys-greatest-straight-man-8100027.html, live, 29 September 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190929124047/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/margaret-thatcher-lets-hear-it-for-the-iron-lady-comedys-greatest-straight-man-8100027.html, 29 September 2019, Thatcher was the subject or the inspiration for 1980s protest songs. Musicians Billy Bragg and Paul Weller helped to form the Red Wedge collective to support Labour in opposition to Thatcher.NEWS, Heard, Chris, 4 May 2004, Rocking against Thatcher, BBC News,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3682281.stm, live, 2 August 2011,news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3682281.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20090311130019news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3682281.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20090311130019news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3682281.stm, 11 March 2009, Known as “Maggie” by supporters and opponents alike, the chant song “Maggie Out” became a signature rallying cry among the left during the latter half of her premiership.{{sfnmp|1a1=Vinen|1y=2009|1pp=1947–1948|2a1=Barr|2y=2013|2pp=178, 235}}Wells parodied Thatcher in several media. He collaborated with Richard Ingrams on the spoof “Dear Bill” letters, which ran as a column in Private Eye magazine; they were also published in book form and became a West End stage revue titled Anyone for Denis?, with Wells in the role of Thatcher’s husband. It was followed by a 1982 TV special directed by Dick Clement, in which Thatcher was played by Angela Thorne.WEB, Anyone for Denis?,ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/4789, dead,ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/4789," title="web.archive.org/web/20130724114429ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/4789,">web.archive.org/web/20130724114429ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/4789, 24 July 2013, 19 January 2011, British Film Institute, Since her premiership, Thatcher has been portrayed in a number of television programmes, documentaries, films and plays.NEWS, Chilton, Martin, 8 February 2011, People who have played Margaret Thatcher, The Telegraph, London, UK,www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/8311635/People-who-have-played-Margaret-Thatcher.html, live, 15 April 2017,www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/8311635/People-who-have-played-Margaret-Thatcher.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20170424160245www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/8311635/People-who-have-played-Margaret-Thatcher.html,">web.archive.org/web/20170424160245www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/8311635/People-who-have-played-Margaret-Thatcher.html, 24 April 2017, She was portrayed by Patricia Hodge in Ian Curteis’s long unproduced The Falklands Play (2002) and by Andrea Riseborough in the TV film The Long Walk to Finchley (2008). She is the protagonist in two films, played by Lindsay Duncan in Margaret (2009) and by Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady (2011),NEWS, 8 February 2011, Image of Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher unveiled, BBC News,www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12393674, live, 9 February 2011,www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12393674," title="web.archive.org/web/20110209050448www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12393674,">web.archive.org/web/20110209050448www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12393674, 9 February 2011, in which she is depicted as suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.WEB, Steinberg, Julie, 22 December 2011, ‘The Iron Lady’ Draws Fire For Depicting Margaret Thatcher With Alzheimer’s,blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/12/22/the-iron-lady-draws-fire-for-depicting-thatcher-with-alzheimers, subscription, live,web.archive.org/web/20120108010000/https://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/12/22/the-iron-lady-draws-fire-for-depicting-thatcher-with-alzheimers, 8 January 2012, 28 February 2012, The Wall Street Journal, She is a main character in the fourth season of The Crown, played by Gillian Anderson.WEB, Thorpe, Vanessa, 7 September 2019, Gillian Anderson to play Thatcher in fourth series of The Crown,www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/sep/07/gillian-anderson-to-play-thatcher-fourth-series-the-crown-netflix, live,web.archive.org/web/20191216101144/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/sep/07/gillian-anderson-to-play-thatcher-fourth-series-the-crown-netflix, 16 December 2019, 16 December 2019, The Guardian,

Titles, awards and honours

File:Margaret Thatcher awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom.jpg|thumb|alt=Thatcher standing with George H. W. Bush|Receiving the Presidential Medal of FreedomPresidential Medal of FreedomThatcher became a privy counsellor (PC) on becoming a secretary of state in 1970.WEB, Gay, Oonagh, Rees, Anwen, amp, 5 July 2005, The Privy Council,www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-3708.pdf, dead,www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-3708.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20111227183508www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-3708.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20111227183508www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-3708.pdf, 27 December 2011, 27 February 2009, Parliament and Constitution Centre, the House of Commons Library, She was the first woman entitled to full membership rights as an honorary member of the Carlton Club on becoming Conservative Party leader in 1975.NEWS, Ungoed-Thomas, Jon, 8 February 1998, Carlton Club to vote on women, The Sunday Times, As prime minister, Thatcher received two honorary distinctions:

• {{Timeline-event |date= |event=Honorary Fellowship (Hon.) of the Royal Institute of Chemistry (FRIC),WEB, 24 October 1979, Speech to the Chemical Society and the Royal Institute of Chemistry (honorary fellowship),www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104152, live,www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104152," title="web.archive.org/web/20160530200036www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104152,">web.archive.org/web/20160530200036www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104152, 30 May 2016, 25 April 2016, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, which was merged into the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) the following year;WEB, 18 March 2016, Our origins,www.rsc.org/about-us/our-history/our-origins/, live,www.rsc.org/about-us/our-history/our-origins/," title="web.archive.org/web/20180702064508www.rsc.org/about-us/our-history/our-origins/,">web.archive.org/web/20180702064508www.rsc.org/about-us/our-history/our-origins/, 2 July 2018, 11 September 2018, Royal Society of Chemistry, }}
• {{Timeline-event |date= |event=Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS), a point of controversy among some of the then-existing Fellows.{{sfnmp|New Scientist|1983|Agar|2022}}}}

{{multiple image| title = Orders of chivalry| align = right| perrow = 2| total_width = 185| image1 = Order of the Garter UK ribbon.svg| alt1 = Ribbon of the Order of the GarterOrder of the Garter>UK, 1995}}| image2 = Ord.GoodHope-ribbon.gif| alt2 = Ribbon of the Order of Good HopeOrder of Good Hope>{{abbrRepublic of South Africa}}, 1991}}| image3 = Galó de l’Orde del Mèrit (UK).svg| alt3 = Ribbon of the Order of MeritOrder of Merit>UK, 1990}}| image4 = Order of St John (UK) ribbon -vector.svg| alt4 = Ribbon of the Order of St JohnOrder of Saint John (chartered 1888)>UK, 1991}}| footer = Shown are the ribbons for each order bestowed on Thatcher.}}Two weeks after her resignation, Thatcher was appointed Member of the Order of Merit (OM) by the Queen. Her husband Denis was made a hereditary baronet at the same time;{{London Gazette|issue=52360|page=19066|date=11 December 1990|nolink=yes}} as his wife, Thatcher was entitled to use the honorific style “Lady”,WEB, Family of a Baronet,www.debretts.com/forms-address/titles/baronet/family-baronet, dead,www.debretts.com/forms-address/titles/baronet/family-baronet," title="web.archive.org/web/20150315235601www.debretts.com/forms-address/titles/baronet/family-baronet,">web.archive.org/web/20150315235601www.debretts.com/forms-address/titles/baronet/family-baronet, 15 March 2015, 2 February 2015, Debrett’s, an automatically conferred title that she declined to use.NEWS, Tuohy, William, William Tuohy, 8 December 1990, It’s Now ‘Lady Thatcher’, but She’ll Stick With ‘Mrs.’, Los Angeles Times, London, UK,articles.latimes.com/1990-12-08/news/mn-5367_1_lady-thatcher, live, 5 March 2017,articles.latimes.com/1990-12-08/news/mn-5367_1_lady-thatcher," title="web.archive.org/web/20170306135614articles.latimes.com/1990-12-08/news/mn-5367_1_lady-thatcher,">web.archive.org/web/20170306135614articles.latimes.com/1990-12-08/news/mn-5367_1_lady-thatcher, 6 March 2017, NEWS, 9 December 1990, Headliners; Call Her Mrs., The New York Times,www.nytimes.com/1990/12/09/weekinreview/headliners-call-her-mrs.html, live, 23 April 2017,web.archive.org/web/20190304201415/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/09/weekinreview/headliners-call-her-mrs.html, 4 March 2019, MAGAZINE, Orth, Maureen, Maureen Orth, June 1991, Maggie’s Big Problem, Vanity Fair,www.vanityfair.com/news/1991/06/thatcher199106, live, 11 April 2017,web.archive.org/web/20181104074036/https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1991/06/thatcher199106, 4 November 2018, Since he was now a baronet, might she care to be known as Lady Thatcher?, She would be made Lady Thatcher in her own right on her subsequent ennoblement in the House of Lords.NEWS, Tuohy, William, 6 June 1992, ‘Iron Lady’ Is Made Baroness Thatcher, Los Angeles Times, London, UK,articles.latimes.com/1992-06-06/news/mn-552_1_baroness-thatcher, live, 11 April 2017,articles.latimes.com/1992-06-06/news/mn-552_1_baroness-thatcher," title="web.archive.org/web/20170412061757articles.latimes.com/1992-06-06/news/mn-552_1_baroness-thatcher,">web.archive.org/web/20170412061757articles.latimes.com/1992-06-06/news/mn-552_1_baroness-thatcher, 12 April 2017, In the Falklands, Margaret Thatcher Day has been marked each 10 January since 1992,NEWS, 6 January 1992, Falklands to make 10 January Thatcher Day, Reuters, commemorating her first visit to the Islands in January 1983, six months after the end of the Falklands War in June 1982.WEB, 8 August 2014, Margaret Thatcher in Falkland Islands after Argentina’s surrender, 1983,rarehistoricalphotos.com/margaret-thatcher-falkland-islands-argentina-surrender-1983, live,rarehistoricalphotos.com/margaret-thatcher-falkland-islands-argentina-surrender-1983/," title="web.archive.org/web/20161016054413rarehistoricalphotos.com/margaret-thatcher-falkland-islands-argentina-surrender-1983/,">web.archive.org/web/20161016054413rarehistoricalphotos.com/margaret-thatcher-falkland-islands-argentina-surrender-1983/, 16 October 2016, 9 October 2016, Rare Historical Photos, Thatcher became a member of the House of Lords in 1992 with a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher, of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire.{{r|lords}}{{London Gazette|issue=52978|page=11045|date=26 June 1992|nolink=yes}} Subsequently, the College of Arms granted her use of a personal coat of arms; she was allowed to revise these arms on her appointment as Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter (LG) in 1995, the highest order of chivalry.{{London Gazette|issue=54017|page=6023|date=25 April 1995|nolink=yes}}{| class=“mw-collapsible mw-collapsed” style="font-size:small; margin:auto; text-align:center;”Post–Garter appointment(File:Coat of Arms of Margaret Thatcher, The Baroness Thatcher (1992–1995).svgupright=.68|(File:Coat of Arms of Margaret Thatcher, The Baroness Thatcher (1995–2013).svgupright=.68.7em}}(File:Coat of Arms of Margaret Thatcher, The Baroness Thatcher (1995–2013) (Variant).svgupright=.68|illustration of variant)|Lozenge (heraldry)>Lozenge: 1995–2013Escutcheon (heraldry)>Escutcheon: 1995–2013In the US, Thatcher received the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award from the Reagan Presidential Foundation in 1998;WEB, The Ronald Reagan Freedom Award,www.reaganfoundation.org/programs-events/the-ronald-reagan-freedom-award/, live,web.archive.org/web/20180104052308/https://www.reaganfoundation.org/programs-events/the-ronald-reagan-freedom-award/, 4 January 2018, 19 July 2017, Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, she was designated a patron of the Heritage Foundation in 2006,REPORT,www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/04/demint-on-lady-thatcher-freedoms-champion, Jim DeMint on Lady Thatcher, The Heritage Foundation, 27 April 2016,www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/04/demint-on-lady-thatcher-freedoms-champion," title="web.archive.org/web/20160630181752www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/04/demint-on-lady-thatcher-freedoms-champion,">web.archive.org/web/20160630181752www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/04/demint-on-lady-thatcher-freedoms-champion, 30 June 2016, dead, WEB, Baroness Thatcher,www.heritage.org/about-heritage/staff/leadership/nonstaff/t/baroness-thatcher, dead,www.heritage.org/about/staff/nonstaff/t/baroness-thatcher," title="web.archive.org/web/20130625154102www.heritage.org/about/staff/nonstaff/t/baroness-thatcher,">web.archive.org/web/20130625154102www.heritage.org/about/staff/nonstaff/t/baroness-thatcher, 25 June 2013, 20 July 2017, The Heritage Foundation, where she established the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom.NEWS, Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, 13 September 2006, Honoring the Iron Lady, The Washington Times,www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/sep/13/20060913-085945-8112r/, live, 22 April 2018,web.archive.org/web/20180423033402/https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/sep/13/20060913-085945-8112r/, 23 April 2018,

Published works

• BOOK, Thatcher, Margaret, The Downing Street Years, The Downing Street Years, 1993, HarperCollins, 978-0-00-255049-9, none, 0,
• BOOK, Thatcher, Margaret, The Path to Power, The Path to Power (Thatcher book), 1995, HarperCollins, 978-0-00-255050-5, none, 0,
• BOOK, Thatcher, Margaret, Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, 2003, Harper Perennial, 978-0-06-095912-8, none, 0,

See also

• Cadby Hall
• Economic history of the United Kingdom
• List of elected and appointed female heads of state and government
• Political history of the United Kingdom (1979–present)
• Social history of the United Kingdom (1979–present)

References

Explanatory notes

{{Reflist|group=nb|30em|refs={{refn|group=nb|name=Campbell|{{harvtxt|Campbell|2011a|p=800}} also writes about a third view that can be argued: Thatcher “achieved much less” than she and her “dries” would claim; she failed to curb public spending, diminish or privatise the welfare state, change fundamental attitudes of the general public, or “enhance” freedom where she had instead centralised control over “many areas of national life”.}}}}

Citations

General bibliography

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External links

{{Sister project links|s=Author:Margaret Thatcher}}

• {{Webarchive|title=Margaret Thatcher Centre |urlweb.archive.org/web/20200205104344/http:www.thatchercentre.com/margaret-thatcher/ |date=dmy }}
• {{official website|url=//margaretthatcher.org/essential/biography.asp|name=Margaret Thatcher Foundation}}
• {{Hansard-contribs|mrs-margaret-thatcher|Margaret Thatcher}}
• {{Internet Archive author|sname=Margaret Thatcher}}
• {{Library resources about}}
• {{Librivox author|id=3625}}
• {{UK National Archives ID}}
• {{C-SPAN|2071}}
• {{IMDb name}}
• {{Guardian topic}}
• {{New York Times topic|new_id=person/margaret-thatcher}}
• {{NPG name|05827}}
• {{Webarchive|nolink=1|title=Obituary (BBC News Online) |urlweb.archive.org/web/20130408204606/http:www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-10364876 |date=dmy }}
• {{Webarchive|nolink=1|title=History of Baroness Margaret Thatcher (Gov.uk) |urlweb.archive.org/web/20131005092036/https:www.gov.uk/government/history/past-prime-ministers/margaret-thatcher |date=dmy }}

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