Margaret Thatcher

1925-2013. British politician. Member of the Conservative Party. First female British Prime Minister (1979-1990).

Biography

On the 13th October 1925 Margaret Roberts was born in Grantham. She grew up as the second daughter of a political active family. His father Alf Roberts was a specialist grocer and became the Mayor of Grantham. After studying at the Oxford University she became a research chemist. In 1950 she married a wealthy businessman, Denis Thatcher, and started studying law. After three years of marriage she gave birth to twins named Carol and Mark. Later on she lived with her family in London where she started working as a lawyer. In 1979 she became the first female British Prime Minister and resigned after nearly ten years. On the 8th April 2013 she died of a stroke in London.

Thatcher`s third terms as Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher may be considered one of the most powerful women in Britain from 1979 to 1990. As first female Prime Minister of the Conservative Party she was determined to keep socialism out of England and reclaim economic stability for Great Britain. In her first year as Prime Minister the world`s oil prices increased and the value of the British pound depreciated. There were strikes, mass lay-offs and the closure of many facturies so that Thatcher had to deal with high unemployment rates and poverty. Her reaction to the economic crisis that Britain was faced with, was the first Trade Union Bill with the United Kingdom that restricted picketing and defined tighter limits for the closed shops. Towards the end of her first term of office, she sent troops to fight in the Falklands War (against Argentina) in 1982. The successful offensive sparked a wave of patriotism that carried Thatcher to her election victory in 1983. During the early 1980`s the government was establishing alternative power sources to its previous reliance on fuel. In 1984 the coal miners went on an eleven month strike. To Thatcher, a union strike was a threat of socialism and was necessary to end it forcefully. Thatcher`s policies succeeded in curtailing inflation but unemployment rose and the rich became richer while the poor became poorer. In 1990 when Thatcher resigned, John Major became Prime Minister of the Conservative Party. After her resignation she founded the Thatcher Foundation that aims political and economic freedom of Britain. In 1991 she got the Presidential Medal of Freedom and also joined the House of Lords with the title of "Baroness".

Thatcher`s policy

The politics of Thatcherism are quiet complex. During her years as Prime Minister she focused on conserving what she believed to be key principles of British society and politics. She ended up socialism and emphasised national identity and patriotism. Her policy sought to encourage traditional families by increasing their tax cuts. She looked upon the British population as a society that had to be guided and taught how to be responsible for themselves. That manner which she believed she could best manifest this goal, was to restrict state aid in every sector. Her policy based on lowering taxes (especially of higher incomes), spending, replacing the dependency culture with an enterprise culture, privatizing state-owned industries and utilities (e. g. British Rail, British Telecom, British Gas, British Airways), cutting welfare benefits, reforming Trade Unions and reducing social outgoings across the boards. On the one hand she was sceptical of Britain`s integration into the European Union and took also an uncompromising position towards the Soviet Union, for which she was nicknamed "the Iron Lady", but on the other hand there was a privileged relationship between Thatcher and the US-President Reagan.

Bibliography

Gomoll, Kimberly. Margaret Thatcher. www.womeninworldhistory.com/imow-Thatcher.pdf. (accessed on the 3th June 2017).

Thatcher, Margaret. The Downing Street Years. London: HarperCollins, 1993.