Margaret thatcher

Margaret Thatcher

By Olga Kokunko, RIMO-203

The main aim of this presentation is to share my interest about Margaret Thatcher – the first female British Prime Minister, leader of the Conservative Party, and at the time the longest serving PM since 1827, governing from 1979 – 90, and her way to success.

Queen Elizabeth II and Margaret Thatcher

«What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work

and a certain sense of purpose».

Margaret Thatcher

Thatcher's home and early life

Margaret Thatcher (Margaret

Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher

of Kesteven, née Roberts) was born

on October 13th 1925 in Grantham

to Alfred and Beatrice Roberts. The

Roberts family ran a grocery

business, bringing up two daughters

in a flat over the shop.

Margaret Thatcher's home and early

life in Grantham played a large part

in forming her political convictions.

Her parents were Methodists and

her father was a local councilor.

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

Margaret Thatcher

Education

Margaret Roberts attended

Huntingtower Road Primary School

and won a scholarship to Kesteven

and Grantham Girls' School.

From there won a place at

Oxford, where she studied chemistry

at Somerville College (1943-47). Her

tutor was Dorothy Hodgkin, a pioneer

of X-ray crystallography who won a

Nobel Prize in 1964.

The beginning of political career

After graduating, Roberts moved to

Colchester in Essex to work as a

research chemist. She joined the local

Conservative Association.

In her mid-twenties she ran as the

Conservative candidate for the strong

Labour seat of Dartford (1950 and

1951), winning national publicity as

the youngest woman candidate in the

country.

She lost both times, but cut the Labour

majority sharply enjoyed the

experience of campaigning.

Marriage and motherhood

In Dartford she met Denis Thatcher, a successful and wealthy

businessman, whom she married in December 1951. Denis funded his

wife's studies for the bar; she qualified as a barrister in 1953 and

specialized in taxation. The same year her twins, Carol and Mark, were

born.

Secretary of State for Education and Science

Margaret Thatcher was elected to

Parliament in 1959 as Member of

Parliament for Finchley, a north

London constituency, which she

continued to represent until she was

made a member of the House of

Lords (as Baroness Thatcher) in

1992.

The Conservative party under

Edward Heath won the 1970 general

election, and Thatcher was

subsequently appointed Secretary of

State for Education and Science.

The Heath government experienced difficulties with oil embargoes and

union demands for wage increases in 1973, and lost 1974 general

election. Labour went on to win a majority in 1974 general election.

Heath's leadership of the Conservative Party looked increasingly in

doubt. Thatcher became party leader in 1975.

The Labour government faced public unease about the direction of the

country and a damaging series of strikes during the winter of 1978–79.

A general election was called after James Callaghan's government lost

a motion of no confidence in early 1979.

The leader of the Opposition 1975–1979

The Conservatives won a majority in the House of

Commons, and Margaret Thatcher became the UK's

first female Prime Minister.

«If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman».

Margaret Thatcher

The new government pledged to check

and reverse Britain's economic decline.

Direct taxes were cut, indirect taxes

were increased. By the end of

Thatcher's first term, unemployment in

Britain was more than three million

and it began to fall only in 1986.

Inflation was checked and the

government created the expectation

that it would do whatever was

necessary to keep it low.

1979-1983: Prime Minister – First Term

The Falklands War

Political support flowed from this

achievement, but the re-election of

the government was only made

certain by the Falklands War. The

Argentine Junta's invasion of the

islands in 1982 was met by Thatcher

in the firmest way.

Although she worked with the US

administration in pursuing the

possibility of a diplomatic solution.

When diplomacy failed, military

action was successful and the

Falklands were back under British

control by 1982.The cover of Newsweek magazine, 19 April 1982, depicts HMS Hermes, flagship of the British Task Force.

1983-1987: Prime Minister – Second Term

The economy continued to

improve during the 1983-87

Parliament and the policy of

economic liberalization was

extended. The government began

to pursue a policy of selling state

assets.

The British privatizations of the

1980s were the first of their kind

and proved influential across the

world.

The Anglo-Irish Agreement

In October 1984 the Irish Republican Army attempted to murder Margaret Thatcher and many of her cabinet by bombing her hotel in Brighton during the Conservative Party annual conference.

The Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 was an attempt to improve security cooperation between Britain and Ireland and to give some recognition to the political outlook of Catholics in Northern Ireland, an initiative which won warm endorsement from the Reagan administration and the US Congress.

Margaret Thatcher & Ronald Reagan at Camp David, 22 December 1984.

1987-1990: Prime Minister – Third Term

The legislative platform of the third-

term Thatcher Government was

among the most ambitious ever put

forward by a British administration.

There were measures to reform the

education system (1988). There was a

new tax system for local government

(1989), the Community Charge. And

there was legislation to separate

purchasers and providers within the

National Health Service (1990).

Relations with the Soviet Union

The Soviets had dubbed her the 'Iron Lady' — a tag she relished — for the tough

line she took against them in speeches shortly after becoming Conservative leader in 1975.

But when Mikhail Gorbachev emerged as a potential leader of the Soviet Union, she invited him to Britain in 1984 and pronounced him a man she could do business with. She did not soften her criticisms of the Soviet system, making use of new opportunities to broadcast to television audiences in the east to put the case against Communism.

Margaret Thatcher & Gorbachev at RAF Brize Norton, 7 December 1987.

«What Britain needs is an iron lady».

«It pays to know the enemy - not least because at some time you may have the opportunity to turn him into a friend».

Margaret Thatcher

Best-selling volumes of memoirs

After 1990 Lady Thatcher remained a potent political figure. She

wrote two best-selling volumes of memoirs - The Downing Street

Years (1993) and The Path to Power (1995) - while continuing for a

full decade to tour the world as a lecturer. A book of reflections on

international politics - Statecraft - was published in 2002.

The Attitude towards Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher remains an intensely

controversial figure in Britain.

Critics claim that her economic policies

were divisive socially, that she was harsh

in her politics.

Defenders point to a transformation in

Britain's economic performance over the

course of the Thatcher Governments.

Trade union

reforms, privatization, deregulation, a

strong anti-inflationary stance, and

control of tax and spending have created

better economic prospects for Britain than

seemed possible when she became Prime

Minister in 1979.

Margaret Thatcher and modern British politics

The Labour Party leadership was transformed by her period of office and the 'New Labour' politics of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown would not have existed without her. Her legacy remains the core of modern British politics: the world economic crisis since 2008 has revived many of the arguments of the 1980s, keeping her name at the centre of political debate in Britain.

Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair Margaret Thatcher and Gordon Brown

Critics and supporters

Critics and supporters alike recognize the Thatcher premiership as a

period of fundamental importance in British history. Margaret Thatcher accumulated huge prestige over the course of the 1980s and often compelled the respect even of her bitterest critics. Indeed, her effect on the terms of political debate has been profound.

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

Links

• http://www.margaretthatcher.org/essential/biography.asp

• http://www.biography.com/people/margaret-thatcher-9504796

• http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/margaret_thatcher.html

• http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/margaret-thatcher/as-prime-minister.html