The Heath government was elected on promises of economic revival that would be spurred by introducing more free-market policies and taming the trade unions but became one of the most interventionist governments in British history. Thatcher herself faced a difficult job as Education Secretary at the height of student radicalism, with protesters disrupting her speeches, harsh criticism in the opposition press for not being liberal enough, and criticism from Conservatives for veering too far to the left.
When the Heath Government lost a second General Election in October , Thatcher decided to run against Heath for the leadership of the Conservative Party and won in February , becoming the first woman to lead a Western political party and to be the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons. The economic difficulties experienced by the United Kingdom under the Labour government - requiring credit from the International Monetary Fund in and causing extensive trade union strikes over pay demands in the winter of — swung public opinion back to the favor of the Conservatives.
The Thatcher government had pledged to turn Britain's economic decline around, mainly by increasing taxes and balancing the budget. By the spring of , recovery had begun, followed by eight years of steady growth.
Thatcher demonstrated her confidence, determination, and decisiveness again during the Falklands War—on April 2, , Argentina invaded the British-held Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island. Although she first pursued a diplomatic resolution, a British military task force was on-hand when that effort failed. The Falklands were back under British control in 74 days, with Argentina surrendering on June 14, The Conservative government was reelected in June with its Parliamentary majority more than tripled to seats.
The government faced as many challenges as it had during its first term. The labor movement resisted the government's trade union reforms, with the miners' union going on a violent, year-long strike beginning in The union was eventually defeated, and the Labour Opposition quietly accepted the success of the trade union legislation, pledging not to reverse key components.
In October , the Irish Republican Army bombed the hotel Thatcher and many of her cabinet were staying in during the Conservative Party annual conference. She had refused to meet their political demands, particularly during the prison hunger strikes. Thatcher was unhurt although several colleagues were among the dead and injured, and she appeared the next morning, defiant and undeterred from continuing with the conference. The treaty established the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, which gave the Irish government an advisory role in Northern Ireland's government and confirmed Northern Ireland's constitutional position.
Although the agreement did not immediately end violence in Northern Ireland, it was crucial in the peace process by improving cooperation between the British and Irish governments.
Thatcher's policies continued to help the economy improve. In the mids, the government began to privatize state assets by offering shares to the public and providing generous terms to small investors. It also encouraged people to buy their own homes, invest in private pensions, and save through the stock market. Divisions in the Conservative party became more apparent in the mid to late s. The Westland Affair, a political scandal involving the buyout of financially troubled British helicopter manufacturer Westland, resulted in the resignation of two of Thatcher's cabinet members.
Thatcher was also heavily criticized for allowing US warplanes to fly from British bases to attack targets in Libya. Undaunted by the criticism, Thatcher intimated plans for additional reforms during the Conservative Party's annual conference in October and, thanks to her economic policies that resulted in a strong British economy, the Conservative Party prevailed again in the General Election in June Thatcher's third term in office was marked by reforms to the education system, National Health Service, and the local government tax system or poll tax, as it became known.
Party rules dating from the end of Heath's leadership provided for annual elections to the post and in November a contest was triggered by Michael Heseltine, following the resignation of Sir Geoffrey Howe over European policy. Although Thatcher won a majority of the vote, under party rules the majority was not sufficient to avert a second ballot. Faced with the possibility of defeat and discovering that she lacked the full-hearted support of many cabinet colleagues, she resigned as party leader and as Prime Minister.
Thatcher's achievement as party leader was remarkable in many respects. Few doubt her impact, whether they think it good or ill.
She rehabilitated the idea of political leadership in Britain, discarding and in fact making ridiculous the conventional wisdom of the s that the country had become "ungovernable". Under her leadership fashionable pessimism ceased to be fashionable and talk of national decline largely faded. She put in its place a dynamic style of government, unfamiliar to Conservatives and Labour alike, but sufficiently compelling to encourage her opponents to ape the style in which she led and even to present themselves as her natural successors in fiscal rigour and business sense.
She became the first British politician since Churchill to achieve significant international standing and remains one of the most newsworthy individuals on the planet. Student Hub. Quick Links. Staff directory. Student handbooks and college documents. Financial support. Careers Service Bursaries.
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Some see the prime minister as having saved the country from economic decline, while others believe she destroyed the livelihoods of millions of workers. But none can deny that Thatcher became a legend in her own lifetime. Born Margaret Roberts on Oct. In addition to being a grocer, Thatcher's father, Alfred Roberts, was also a preacher and a local politician, having held a seat on the local town council for several years and serving as Mayor of Grantham from - Her father's religious devotion and interest in politics, no doubt, influenced Thatcher's views and career path as an adult.
She was a determined student, and after attending grammar school on a scholarship, was granted admission to Oxford in — an ambition still firmly out of reach of most women in the years after World War II. She graduated Oxford in with a chemistry degree, having specialized in X-ray crystallography while under the supervision of Dorothy Hodgkin, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist.
Related: Gallery: A treasure trove of Britain's old newspapers. In she applied for a job at Imperial Chemical Industries, but was denied because she was "headstrong, obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated," according to a BBC article. Unperturbed, she continued her career as a chemist while satisfying her appetite for politics by joining the local Conservative Association.
Then, in the and general elections, she was the Conservative candidate for a Labour seat in Parliament. She lost both times but stood out among her competition as the youngest and only woman candidate, according to John Blundell's biography " Margaret Thatcher: A Portrait of the Iron Lady " Algora, Margaret thought Denis was "nice," but wasn't swept off her feet by any means, according to a report by The Telegraph.
Nonetheless, the two stayed in touch and married on Dec. After failing to be selected as the Conservative candidate for the by-election to replace Sir Waldron Smithers, a Conservative MP who had died, Thatcher took a step back from politics to focus on raising her two-year-old twin children, according to John Campbell's book " Margaret Thatcher Volume One: The Grocer's Daughter " Johnathan Cape, Finally, in , after a challenging campaign, Thatcher was elected as the Conservative MP for the county of Finchley.
For the next decade, she served in a variety of political posts, consistently attracting attention for being a young woman in politics and for her sometimes controversial views, such as her support for capital punishment. During her time in office she oversaw the expansion of comprehensive schools, which are secondary schools that welcome all students rather than selecting students based on academics or wealth, as grammar schools do.
There were supporters and detractors of comprehensive schools, but at the heart of the criticism was the belief that it underpinned class-based society and stifled aspiration, especially in the poorer disadvantaged areas. Thatcher's popularity in her Cabinet role continued to decline when she abolished free milk for school children over seven years old as part of the government's broader effort to cut spending.
Many people began to see her as an enemy of the health and wellbeing of the nation's future, and the phrase "Mrs. Thatcher, milk snatcher" was born.
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