Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher Britain’s first ever-female prime minster had a political career that spanned over 3 decades and bring in a new type of politics Thatcherism to the table. Being a very controversial woman she still splits option to this very day. But what has to be said, is that the Falkland’s war was the turning point in Margaret Thatcher 's career and they way the future of Britain turned out. The Falklands crises was when the name Iron Lady was adopted. But how could a woman go from been the most hated prime minster to one of the most loved over night. The outbreak of the Falklands war happened on April 1982 and has been said to have saved Margaret Thatcher's first term. British forces responded in mid-June to the Falkland’s when Argentina invaded the small collections of British islands. When the military finally took power back, Margret Thatcher was glorified for it.

Before I start talking about the impact of the Falklands we need to asses how Britain and its people were doing before the crisis, and what it was like before Margaret Thatcher took too office. During the 1960 and 1960s Britain was see to be in economic recline and so many plans were used to try and kick start the economy and bring down inflation, both political parties thought there way out of this would be changing incomes policies even trying to organise a minimum wage keeping public sector workers at 5%, was disused to the unions but this was not going to happen and with divesting effect this happened in both 1974 and also 1979 another idea was to import extra items in to the United kingdom but instead of helping inflation it hindered it and made it worse this was depressing times for Britain. In 1976 it led to the international money funds, which tried to stop the country into recession. If problems could not get worse, Jim Callahan the prime minster at the time tried to make out everything was ok by telling the nation that there was no crisis. But in the winter of 1979, came the so called “ winter of discontent” when the unions decide to strike, this led to the 3 day week and was a key example that the government was not in control and the unions were too strong and could do what they wanted because no one could handle them.

1979 was a time for change, for something different that people had never seen before, a change for left wing politics that had seen too bring the country to its down fall. And the woman to change all this was Margaret Thatcher the first female leader of the conservative party and she had new radical ideas that would put the country back in to place. First of all she wanted to keep the unions down, so she introduced a system were unions had too have a pre ballet before they could even go on strike, Margaret Thatcher thought this would keep the union quiet for the time being. Another vote winner was that she was a woman, this meant more women turned out at the poles to vote for her because they thought she new more about women than men do and would help with women’s rights “the women of this country have never had a prime minister who knew the things they know, never, never. And the things that we know are very different from what men know." It was also the first time in history that the people had the opportunity to buy their own council house, which could have been see as a benefit for some families who had never of had the money before. There was also large-scale privatisation so some of the major industries like British gas. Last of all the welfare system was change, it was more means tested for the first time making it harder for everyone to get the benefits that they need. These would have been seen as major changes to the to the way Britain was run because it was a more right wing agenda. But what was really needed was a boost in the in economy; and to get people back in employment so the unemployment rate was not so high to really get the support they needed and wanted to stay at the top. But unfortunately for Margaret Thatcher this did not happen and the economy was still in decline and inflation kept going up, so it seemed as nothing had really changed. This led to the summer riots of 1981 were people felt so unhappy with the way there country was been run that they wanted to voice there option “‘Manchester and Salford were struck by severe and widespread riots... More than 1,000 youths stormed Moss Side police station, causing severe damage before being driven back… vehicles [were] overtuned, fires started and shops destroyed and looted…. Many petrol bombs were thrown… Three policemen, including an inspector injured by a bolt from a crossbow, were casualties’. This was shown thought statistics and opinion polls of the day because the conservatives popularity dropped consolably in late 1980 from around 43% to under 40% hitting an average in 1981 of 27% another factor in this drop could be due to Britain been in one of its worse recession since after world war two. It was not looking good for Margaret Thatcher and her party, and something needed to be done, because it seemed likely that they would not win the next election even thought Margaret Thatcher, herself just kept going not letting anything faze her because she still thought she was there for the long hall even with public option of her dropping, and she was not liked by the vast majority of the people but that was about to change.

I would like to point out at this stage and also may historians would also argue that if the Falklands had not happened then, due to what the statistics of public option there could have been a chance that the labour party could have won the next election even though they had spent most of Margaret Thatcher first term verging more and more to the left of politics, and once again Britain having a sea saw effect with to which political party would be running the country just like the past 35 years.

However everything changed on 2nd April 1982 when the Falkland Island’s (which were British owned) were invaded by Argentina who was under a fascist regime at the time, which played dirty war and did not mind killing its own people so they were a dangers force to be recoded with. He invaded the islands because he didn’t think Britain was strong enough or had the will power to fight back. “But he had not reckoned on Margaret Thatcher’s steely determination who, despite the reservations expressed by senior military commanders and the Foreign Office – not to mention her own Cabinet – insisted on assembling a naval Task Force to rescue the beleaguered 1,800 islanders.” Some of the politicians at the time questioned that the government should have seen the invasion coming because they were given clues so why had they not acted any earlier, to stop it for ever even happening. But with out even hesitating Margaret Thatcher declared war on them and sent as many troops as she possible could on the 7500 mile journey to take back what Britain rightfully owned and this was the biggest naval action to be carried out since world war two. Every last rescores we had was sent out there, even curse ship like the queen Elizabeth two was commissioned to get the troops across with weapons. Even navy ships which had been retired were used, it was a full scale employment as I have already pointed out Britain had not seen anything like this since world war two. This meant of England it was a big military susses And every step of the way British public got behind her and supported her every step of the way. It showed the public that once again we had a strong leader just like when we were fighting the second world war, and Churchill leading us thought out, and in theory it lighten public sprits to think that we were a strong power once again. Epically during the on going threat of the cold war, it showed other lands epically Russia that we should not be messed with.

After the Falklands, public option grows again about Margaret Thatcher and just like in 1979 she won her election by a landslide 42.4% which is a high victory by anyone’s standers. Being nicknamed the Iron Lady by the Russians because she was now the iron lady of the western world. This showed us that she was a firm leader and with winning a war and bring Britain out of recession, catapulted the conservatives back to having a 40% advantage in the polls, which labour could have never gained that much public support with them only having 27.6% of the vote which was the lowest they has had since 1918 epically after publishing there manifesto in 1983 which was called “ the longest suicide not in history’ proved that the party was not up too date with the new bread of people in the 1980s . “Did the Falklands War save Thatcherism? In so many words, yes, it did. At the very least, it made a Conservative majority victory in 1983 a certainty before the election was even called. Revolution would not have proceeded with the same force and fury that it actually did, and the transformation of Britain engendered by Thatcherism would have been muted. Had there been a war and had Britain lost, Thatcher herself claims that she would of lost the 1983 election.”

Another impact the Falklands had on British politics, was because Margaret Thatcher became an idol in her own right because of what she had done, in some ways the labour party was shunned out of the picture because they were seen to be leaning too far left, with there leader Michal foot, and that they were been taken over by the militant union left, a part of the party that Margaret Thatcher wanted to rid off, as she called them the enemy within and with will and determination she would do so. There was still public opinion that the unions were too strong and too much power. So in 1985 when it was announced that the conservatives had put a plan into action too shut down the pits, miners went on strike. And this time Margaret Thatcher was clever as she had stock piled coal so that there was not a repeat of what happened in 1979 when there was a shortage. The miners put up a major fight back against what was happening to them because they would lose there jobs and it would also rid the communities, “We had to fight the enemy without in the Falkland we always have to be aware of the enemy within which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty” But Margaret Thatcher did not see why coal was needed anymore because she thought there would be a major move to nuclear power. Once again Margaret Thatcher won her battle even if it was not for the best of the people she got what she wanted like always and at the same time crushed the unions and to this very day they still have not been as strong as they once were.

So in conclusion it is a very strong argument that if Margaret Thatcher had decide not to go into the Falkland’s war then she would have never lasted as long as she did do, it was the boost in her career that she need, to take her from the most hated prime minster to one of the most loved in the matter of 8 short weeks, because her first term did not take off to the best of starts and this could be argued that it was because of the way the previous labour admonition had left and the amount of wrong doing that had been caused but in my option it was all due to Margaret Thatcher’s radical reforms that made her so unpopular especially with the unions and also the working classes at the time. But they did jump on her success at the Falkland’s because it showed that Britain still had a strong leader and still was a power to be recoded with. All because of the Falkland’s Margaret Thatcher got her nick name of the iron lady which has still lasted till this very day and the reasons why she stayed in office three terms was all because of this one campaign.