Margaret Hilda Thatcher Baroness Thatcher LG OM PC FRS was a British politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990 ID: 1029760
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1. Margaret ThatcherWho was she?
2. Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS was a British politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990.
3. She was a bit like Marmite – you either loved her or hated her…..MAGGIE
4. Thatcher was born Margaret Hilda Roberts in Grantham, Lincolnshire, on 13 October 1925. Her father was Alfred Roberts, originally from Northamptonshire, and her mother was Beatrice Ethel from Lincolnshire. She spent her childhood in Grantham, where her father owned two grocery shops.
5. In the 1950 and 1951 general elections she was the Conservative candidate for the safe Labour seat of Dartford. Though unsuccessful in the elections themselves, she did attract media attention as the youngest and the only female candidate.
6. Margaret thatcher was elected as Conservative member of parliament for Finchley in 1959. She was named Education Secretary in 1970 by then prime minister Edward Heath, whom she defeated as leader of the party five years later. In 1979 she became the first female Prime Minister.
7. When she entered office in 1979, she promised that the Conservatives would cut income tax, reduce public expenditure, make it easier for people to buy their own homes and curb the power of the unions. She cultivated the image of the "iron lady."
8. She enhanced her tough reputation with a decisive response to the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982. She sent a naval task force and the islands were re-taken when the Argentine forces surrendered. Victory in the Falklands ensured a Conservative landslide in the 1983 election.
9. Thatcher formed a special relationship with US President Ronald Reagan. On his death she described Reagan as a great American who "won the Cold War."
10. In 1984, the National Union of Miners went on strike over pit closures. Margaret Thatcher took on the miners by stockpiling coal at power stations and using the police to break picket lines.
11. Only three deep coal pits now remain in the UK. 170 were in operation in 1984 employing 190,000 people.
12. An IRA bomb exploded in the Conservative Party conference hotel in Brighton in southern England in October 1984, where Thatcher was staying. Five people died and many others were seriously injured, but Thatcher survived.
13. In the spring of 1990 Margaret Thatcher introduced the Community Charge, commonly known as the Poll Tax. Local council rates were replaced with a flat rate paid by every resident regardless of income. This was a huge political mistake, leading to riots and marches across the UK.
14. Despite winning a third election victory in 1987, Margaret Thatcher resigned in 1990 after facing a leadership challenge. John Major was elected her successor and Margaret Thatcher returned to the back benches, finally standing down as a member of parliament in 1992 when the Conservatives, against all predictions, were again returned to power