British Conservative Party politician and Secretary of State for Education and Science, Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) delivers a speech from the platform at the Conservative Party annual conference.
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1971
Brighton, United Kingdom
Margaret Thatcher (1925 - 2013), the Secretary of State for Education and Science, at the end of the Conservative Party Conference.
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1974
United Kingdom
British Conservative Party Education Secretary and MP for Finchley, Margaret Thatcher (1925 - 2013), poses washing dishes in a kitchen during the UK general election campaign.
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1975
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
Thatcher photographed at the White House.
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1975
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
Thatcher with President Gerald Ford in the Oval Office.
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1975
London, United Kingdom
Newly-elected Conservative Party Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Thatcher (1925 - 2013) lends her support to 'Keep Britain in Europe' campaigners in Parliament Square, the day before voting in the United Kingdom EEC referendum (or Common Market referendum).
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1975
London, United Kingdom
Newly-elected Conservative Party Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Thatcher (1925 - 2013, second from right) lends her support to 'Keep Britain in Europe' campaigners in Parliament Square, the day before voting in the United Kingdom EEC referendum (or Common Market referendum).
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1975
Conservative Party Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Thatcher speaking at a meeting of the party's campaign to keep Britain in the Common Market, watched by her predecessor Edward Heath (1916 - 2005). Thatcher is holding up a publication entitled 'Britain In Europe, The Benefits Of Membership'.
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1976
Westminster, London, England
Conservative Shadow Cabinet members Keith Joseph (1918 - 1994, far left) and Airey Neave (1916 - 1979, center) applaud Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher (1925 - 2013) after a speech to the Conservative Women's Organisation at their annual conference, Central Hall.
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1976
Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher modelling a suit for a magazine.
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1979
United Kingdom
British Conservative Party politician and Leader of the Opposition Margaret Thatcher (1925 - 2013) holding a Bank of England £1 note.
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1979
Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher hands over the deeds to the council house belonging to the King family of Milton Keynes. The Kings are one of the first families to buy their house from the local authority under a new policy introduced by the Conservative government.
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1980
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with English dj and television presenter Jimmy Savile (1926 - 2011) at an NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) fundraising presentation.
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1981
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
Thatcher and her cabinet meeting with the Reagan cabinet in the White House Cabinet Room.
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1982
Maxwell Building, 43 Crescent, Salford M5 4WT, United Kingdom
Thatcher during a visit to Salford University.
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1983
London, England
The Rt. Honarable Margaret Thatcher is the Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Conservative Member of Parliament for Finchely, Burnet. She seated alone.
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1984
London, United States
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with US President Ronald Reagan (1911 - 2004) on the steps of 10 Downing Street, the day after the official start of the G7 Seven-Nation Economic Summit.
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1990
London, United Kingdom
British Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher wipes crumbs off the table at 10, Downing Street. A painting of her predecessor Winston Churchill hangs on the wall behind her.
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
1993
Baroness Margaret Thatcher outside Chequers.
Gallery of Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Achievements
Membership
Awards
Order of Merit
Margaret received the Order of Merit
Grand Cross of the Order of Good Hope
Margaret received the Grand Cross of the Order of Good Hope.
British Conservative Party politician and Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Science, Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) speaks from the platform at the Tory Party annual conference.
British Conservative Party politician and Secretary of State for Education and Science, Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) delivers a speech from the platform at the Conservative Party annual conference.
British Conservative Party Education Secretary and MP for Finchley, Margaret Thatcher (1925 - 2013), poses washing dishes in a kitchen during the UK general election campaign.
Newly-elected Conservative Party Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Thatcher (1925 - 2013) lends her support to 'Keep Britain in Europe' campaigners in Parliament Square, the day before voting in the United Kingdom EEC referendum (or Common Market referendum).
Newly-elected Conservative Party Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Thatcher (1925 - 2013, second from right) lends her support to 'Keep Britain in Europe' campaigners in Parliament Square, the day before voting in the United Kingdom EEC referendum (or Common Market referendum).
Conservative Party Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Thatcher speaking at a meeting of the party's campaign to keep Britain in the Common Market, watched by her predecessor Edward Heath (1916 - 2005). Thatcher is holding up a publication entitled 'Britain In Europe, The Benefits Of Membership'.
Conservative Shadow Cabinet members Keith Joseph (1918 - 1994, far left) and Airey Neave (1916 - 1979, center) applaud Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher (1925 - 2013) after a speech to the Conservative Women's Organisation at their annual conference, Central Hall.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher hands over the deeds to the council house belonging to the King family of Milton Keynes. The Kings are one of the first families to buy their house from the local authority under a new policy introduced by the Conservative government.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher waves to crowds of well-wishers from the steps of her Flood Street home, the morning after winning the UK general election. The Conservative Party won the election with a majority of 43 seats, and Thatcher became the UK's first female Prime Minister.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with English dj and television presenter Jimmy Savile (1926 - 2011) at an NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) fundraising presentation.
Margaret Thatcher at the Conservative Party Conference in 1983. In 1975 she was the first woman Party leader and in 1979 the first female prime minister in British politics. She resigned in 1990.
The Rt. Honarable Margaret Thatcher is the Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Conservative Member of Parliament for Finchely, Burnet. She seated alone.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with US President Ronald Reagan (1911 - 2004) on the steps of 10 Downing Street, the day after the official start of the G7 Seven-Nation Economic Summit.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher stands on the red carpet as she awaits the arrival of U.S. President Ronald Reagan for the start of the ceremonial ceremony at Kensington Palace Gardens at the start of the G7 Seven-Nation Economic Summit.
British Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher wipes crumbs off the table at 10, Downing Street. A painting of her predecessor Winston Churchill hangs on the wall behind her.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is seen giving her last speech as Prime Minister at the Conservative Party Conference before being removed by her own colleagues a few weeks afterward.
Former British Prime Minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher spends an afternoon watching school children playing football in Battersea Park with her carer and housekeeper Kate (C).
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher stands with her arms raised at a Conservative Party conference. The IRA tried to assassinate her with a bomb earlier in the day.
Queen Elizabeth II with Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Prime Ministers - Baroness Thatcher, Sir Edward Heath, Lord Callaghan and John Major - inside 10 Downing Street before an official dinner held to mark the start of the national celebrations for her Golden Jubilee year.
(
Margaret Thatcher
is the epic and revealing autobiogr...)
Margaret Thatcher
is the epic and revealing autobiography of Britains extraordinary former Prime Minister, the first woman in history to lead a major western democracy. Originally published in two volumesThe Path to Power and The Downing Street Years
Margaret Thatcher is the first collected omnibus edition of this towering political figures remarkable personal history.
(The first volume of memoirs by Margaret Thatcher frankly ...)
The first volume of memoirs by Margaret Thatcher frankly recalls the former British prime minister's dealings with U.S. presidents, the Falkland War, and her election victories in 1983 and 1987. 150,000 first printing. $150,000 ad/promo. Tour.
(
Before George Bush and Tony Blair, there was Ronald Rea...)
Before George Bush and Tony Blair, there was Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Together they embodied the trans-Atlantic "special relationship" and faced head-on the threat of global communism. In her eulogy for Reagan, Thatcher famously said, ?We have lost a great president, a great American, and a great man. And I have lost a dear friend.
Thatcher was a formidable and largely self-trained orator and this volume collects her greatest and most famous speeches, as well as the cream of her interviews, alongside other biographical material.
To mark the twentieth anniversary of Thatcher leaving power, Dialogue is also releasing a three-hour CD of her greatest speeches, unabridged.
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In Statecraft, Margaret Thatcher, a unique world figure...)
In Statecraft, Margaret Thatcher, a unique world figure, discusses global military, political, and economic challenges of the twenty0first century. The former British Prime Minister brings her unrivaled political experience to comment on the threats that democracy faces at the dawn of the new millennium and the role Western powers should play in the world's hotspots, especially in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.
Reflecting on the lessons of the Cold War, she outlines the foundation of U.S. dominance and its mission as the only global superpower. Thatcher offers wise observations about the dangers posed by Balkan instability, rogue states, Islamic extremism, and international terrorism -- and suggests strategies to counter them. She also examines current trends in Russia, China, India, the Far East, Europe and Great Britain, and offers guidance for the future. Noting how every contemporary problem evokes demands for a global solution, Thatcher also warns of over-reliance on international institutions at the expense of nation states.
Statecraft is an incisive treatise on power in the age of globalism, written by a legendary world statesperson with a matchless combination of principles, experience and shrewdness.
Margaret Hilda Thatcher was a prominent British stateswoman, who became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Background
Margaret Thatcher was born on October 13, 1925 in manufacturing town of Grantham, Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom. She spent her childhood in Grantham.
Alfred and Beatrice, her parents, were hard workers and careful savers, living over their shop and taking separate vacations so that the grocery would not be left unattended. Her father co-founded the Grantham Rotary Club, became president of the town Grocers' Association, local head of the National Savings Movement, and a member of both the boys' and girls' schools of Grantham. He served for 25 years on the Borough Council, beginning in 1927, and became chairman of its finance committee. For nine years, he was a town alderman, and became the mayor in 1943, as well as a justice of the peace at quarter sessions. He was also a Methodist lay preacher. Beatrice kept the house, sewed, baked, and helped to run the store.
Education
From age five to fifteen, Thatcher took piano lessons and sang in the church choir. In October 1943, Thatcher was admitted to Somerville College to study chemistry at Oxford, winning a second-class degree. In 1950 and 1951, she studied to become a barrister.
Firstly, Thatcher found employment as a research chemist, but becoming a barrister, she ran as the Conservative candidate in industrial Dartford in North Kent.
Thatcher became the youngest woman in the House of Commons in 1959, at the age of 34. Thatcher ran against Ted Heath in 1975, winning the second ballot to lead the Conservatives with 146 votes.
She became prime minister in May 1979, when the Conservatives won the majority of seats. In June 1987, her Conservative Party won its third consecutive general election victory. Thatcher appeared likely to continue as prime minister for many years. In the election, she had turned back a strong challenge from the Labour Party by renewing her commitment to conviction politics. She had boasted of the economic successes of her two previous governments as well as her strong foreign and defense policies. Yet Thatcher's third term was to be her least productive. With public opinion turning decisively against her, she was forced to resign from office in November 1990 after a struggle for leadership within the Conservative Party. She was succeeded by John Major, the chancellor of the exchequer since October 1989, who was a supporter of her policies.
Although she was no longer prime minister, Thatcher remained politically active. She became president of the Bruges Group of British lawmakers opposed to a full political union with Europe, as well as of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, designed to help bring order to the world.
On June 28, 1991, Thatcher wound up 32 years of a legislative career by announcing she would not seek to retain her seat in the House of Commons at the next election (which was called in July 1992). She had been a Member of Parliament for Barnet, Finchley, two suburbs northwest of London. She remained active with lectures and appearances over the entire world, and somehow found the time to write her memoirs.
Following a series of minor strokes, she retired from public speaking in 2002. She celebrated her 80th birthday on 13 October at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hyde Park, London; guests included the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Alexandra and Tony Blair. In 2006, Thatcher attended the official Washington, D.C. memorial service to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the 11 September attacks on the US. She was a guest of Vice President Dick Cheney, and met Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit.
Thatcher died on 8 April 2013, at the age of 87, after suffering a stroke.
Thatcher's childhood family life revolved around the Methodist church, attending services three times a week, saying grace before every meal, and strictly observing the Sabbath.
Politics
Thatcher was a Conservative Party politician. She became known for sticking to her deeply felt, but unpopular beliefs which included quality, standards, and choice in education, for equal opportunity, and for aligning universities with industry.
She pursued a radical conservative agenda. Her aim was to promote individualism through a further dismantling of state controls.
Thatcher continued the policy of privatization, notably in two key areas: water and electricity. Legislation was passed setting up private companies and selling stock in them to the public. This had the double advantage of producing short-term financial gains for the government and helping to create what Thatcher referred to as a property-owning democracy.
Thatcher's government also initiated dramatic changes in the National Health Service, established in 1948. Thatcher favored a significant increase in private medical care and insurance to complement the state-run system. Some of her plans had to be modified, but a major reorganization of the N. H. S. was commenced in 1989 after the publication of a White Paper at the beginning of the year. Market principles were introduced into the N. H. S. Family doctors were given control over their budgets and hospitals were encouraged to opt out of local health authority administration. Similar market provisions were introduced into state education. Schools were given the power to free themselves from local authority control and to make budgetary decisions, while a national curriculum was developed. The principle of free higher education was virtually abandoned, with universities being encouraged to seek private support.
Thatcher likewise sought to reduce monopoly control of the professions. Legal reforms were initiated with the intent of lessening the traditional division of functions between solicitors and barristers. Solicitors previously had lost their exclusive power to conduct real estate transactions. Further legislation gave them the right to try cases in the higher courts along with barristers.
The reform that turned public opinion against Thatcher and ultimately led to her downfall was the introduction of the poll tax, or community charge, in 1988. This tax was levied on individuals in a particular district at the same rate, although rebates were available for the poor. It was intended to replace property taxes, hitherto the mainstay of local finance. Since local councils determined the rate of the tax, Thatcher believed that voters would repudiate the higher-spending councils dominated by the Labour Party. There were violent demonstrations against the poll tax in London and other cities, and opposition to it developed within the Conservative Party itself. Major, the new prime minister in 1990, promised to take steps to make the tax more equitable.
The immediate issue that brought about Thatcher's resignation as prime minister was her unyielding opposition to European integration. Britain had joined the European Community in 1973 when Edward Heath was prime minister. Although Thatcher supported integration at the time, in subsequent years she turned down every proposal that seemed to bring the concept of a federal Europe closer to reality. She aligned her foreign policy with Washington rather than Europe in the belief that a special relationship existed with the United States.
Views
Quotations:
"I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end."
"If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman."
"Power is like being a lady. .. if you have to tell people you are, you aren't."
"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it."
"It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the eggs. "
"Plan your work for today and every day, then work your plan. "
"Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy. "
Membership
In 1979 Thatcher became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry and in 1983 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Personality
The Soviet Union gave Thatcher the nickname she was best known by: the Iron Lady. She was proud of it, and her policies, though controversial, reflect a determination and consistency of vision that few political leaders can hope to equal.
Quotes from others about the person
Tony Bray recalled that she was "very thoughtful and a very good conversationalist. She was good at general subjects".
Connections
Margaret met Denis Thatcher, who managed his family's company in North Kent. The two were married on December 13, 1951 and became the parents of twins, Mark and Carol, in August 1953. Thatcher's husband received a baronetry (to become Sir Denis).
In the month following the Thatcher resignation, Queen Elizabeth II appointed the former prime minister a member of the Order of Merit, one of only 24 members (a vacancy occurred with the 1989 death of Laurence Olivier).
In the month following the Thatcher resignation, Queen Elizabeth II appointed the former prime minister a member of the Order of Merit, one of only 24 members (a vacancy occurred with the 1989 death of Laurence Olivier).
Order of the Garter
She was appointed a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter (LG) in 1995, the highest order of chivalry for women.
She was appointed a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter (LG) in 1995, the highest order of chivalry for women.