Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher

(Her Life as Prime Minister of Britain)

Margaret Thatcher can be considered as one of the most prolific leaders of our time.

She was Britain's first and only woman Prime Minister, thus far. She was the longest

serving Prime Minister Britain had in the 20th century. Thatcher's stern, no-nonsense

approach in the leadership of her government earned her the nickname, "The Iron Lady."

She certainly lived up to the name, because she took Britain through a revolutionary

change; that even made other world leaders open their eyes to her dynamics.

Margaret Thatcher served as Britain's prime minister from 1979 to 1990 (Young

3). She became prime minister after the Conservative Party; led by her, defeated the

Labour Party in parliamentary elections in 1979. She remained in office after her part

gain won parliamentary elections in 1983 and 1987 (Young 3).

Margaret Thatcher was born on October 13, 1925 in the north Midlands town of

Grantham, (Birth name Margaret Hilda Roberts), the youngest daughter of a grocer,

Alfred Roberts, who held a number of part-time political positions and eventually

became the town's alderman. His enthsiasuim for public duty, as well as his reverence for

education, thrift, and hard work, were undeniable influence on his daughter's early

formation, and in her political thinking ( Johnson 2). In 1943, she just managed to enter

Somerville College at Oxford but was locked into the study of chemistry by the

inflexibility of the British secondary school system. She would have preferred to study

law first, but that would happen later.

In 1953, Thatcher became a tax attorney (Young 3). However, her real

passion was politics, and she soon joined the Oxford University Conservative Association

(OUCA). Her first direct experience in politics came in 1945 when she canvassed

for Quentin Hogg (later Lord Hailsham) in the Oxford municipal elections. After

she left the university she became a research chemist for a plastics company in

Essex (Johnson 2).Thatcher was elected to the House of Commans, in 1959. She was

Secretary of State for Education and Science from 1970 - 1974. In 1975, she

became the first woman to head a British political party, when she was elected

leader of the Conservative Party (Johnson 2).

Thatcher was a strong opponent of the socialist polices, of the Labour Party; she

work to reduce government control over the British economy (Young 3). By the mid 70's

enough Tories were fed up with the Heath and, "The Ratchet Effect." - the way in which

each statist advance was accepted by the Conservative, and then became a platform for a

further statist advance. Under Thatcher, the government sold its interest in some

industries to private citizens and businesses. During this time, the country experienced

economic expansion (Young 3). She chose her issues carefully. The legal duels she took

on early in her tenure as Prime Minister sounded the themes that made her an enduring

leader: open markets, vigorous debates, and loyal alliances. Among her first fights: a

struggle against Britain's out-of-control trade unions, which had destroyed three

governments in succession (Gale Group 1). Thatcher turned the nation's anti-union

feeling into handsome parliamentary majority and a mandate to restrict union privileges

by series of laws that effectively ended Britain's trade-union problems once and for all.

"Who governs Britain?" she famously asked, as unions struggled for power. By 1980,

everyone knew the answer: Thatcher governs (Gale Group 1).

Once the union citadel had been stormed, Thatcher quickly discovered that every

area of the economy was open to judicious reform. Even as the rest of Europe

toyed with socialism and state ownership, she set about privatizing the

nationalized industries, which had been hitherto sacrosanct, no matter how

inefficient (Gale Group1).

It worked; British Airways, an embarrassingly slovenly national carrier that very

seldom-showed profit was privatized and transformed into one of the world's best

and most profitable airlines. British Steel, which lost more than a billion pounds

in its final years as a state concern, became the largest steel company in Europe

(Gale Group 1). By the mid 1980s, privatization was a new term in world government,

and by the end of the decade more than 50 countries, on almost every continent, had set

in motion privatizations programs, floating loss-making public companies on the

stock markets and in most cases transforming them into successful private-

enterprise firms. Even left-oriented countries, which scorned the nation of

privatization, began to reduce their public sector on the sly. Governments sent

administrative and legal teams to Britain to study how it was done. It was perhaps

Britain's biggest contribution to practical economics in the world (Gale Group 1).

Thatcher became a world figure for more than just her politics. She combined a

flamboyant willpower with evident femininity. It attracted universal attention, especially

after she led Britain to a spectacular military victory over Argentina in 1982. She

understood that politicians had to give military people clear orders about ends, and then

leave them to get on with the means. One of her earliest admirers was Ronald Reagan,

who achieved power 18 months after she did. He too began to reverse the Ratchet Effect

in the U.S. by effective deregulation, tax cutting and opening up wider market

opportunities for free enterprise (Gale Group 1). They turned their mutual affection into a

potent foreign policy partnership. With Reagan and Thatcher in power, the application of

judicious pressure on the Soviet state to encourage it to reform or abolish itself, or to

implode, became an admissible policy. Thatcher warmly encouraged Reagan to rearm,

and thereby bring Russia to the negotiating table. She shared his view that Moscow ruled

an, "evil vampire," and the sooner it was dismantled the better. Together with Reagan

she pushed Mikhail Gorbachev to pursue his perestroika policy to its limits and so fatally

to undermine the self-confidence of the Soviet elite (Gale Group 1).

It was the beginning of a new historical epoch. All the forces that had made the

20ht century such a violent disappointment to idealist--totalitarianism, the gigantic state,

the crushing of individual choice and initiative were publicly and spectacularly defeated.

Ascendant instead were the values that Thatcher had supported in the faces of sometimes-

spectacular opposition: free markets and free minds (Gale Group 1). Thatcher resigned as

prime minister and Conservative Party in November1990, after losing the support of the

party. She remained in the House of Commons until 1992. In that year, Thatcher was

made a baroness for her services as prime minister. She also became a member of the

House of Lords (Young 3).

Margaret Thatcher, will always be credited for reshaping the British

government, and its economy. Moreso, the world got a "taste" of an invaluable

leader, who left a legacy of incredible values, character, and administrative

techniques, for future leaders to imitate.

Works Citied

Gale Group. Biography on A&E: Margaret Thatcher. www.biography.com Copyright 2000.

Johnson, Paul. Time100: " Leaders and Revolutionaries." Margaret Thatcher

Prime Minister from 1979-1990. www.time.com, April 13,1998.

Young, Hugo. The Iron Lady. London. Macmillan London Limited, 1989.