- Born
- Died
- Birth nameMargaret Hilda Roberts
- Nicknames
- The Iron Lady
- Maggie
- Thatcher, the Milk Snatcher
- Height5′ 5″ (1.65 m)
- Margaret Thatcher was born on October 13, 1925 in Grantham, England, the younger daughter of Alfred and Beatrice Roberts. Her father was a greengrocer and respected town leader, serving as lay-leader with their church, city-alderman and then as mayor. He taught Margaret never to do things because other people are doing them; do what you think is right and persuade others to follow you.
She attended Oxford University from 1943 to 1947 and earned a degree in Chemistry, but it was clear from early on that politics was her true calling. She stood as a Conservative candidate from Dartford in the 1950 and 1951 elections. She married Denis Thatcher in December 1951 and they had twin children, Mark Thatcher and Carol Thatcher. She practiced tax law for a time in the 1950s, but was elected to Parliament from Finchley in 1959. Two years later, she was appointed to the cabinet as Minister of Pensions. In 1970, she was appointed Minister for Education and earned the title "Thatcher the Milk Snatcher", for eliminating free milk for schoolchildren in a round of budget-cutting. After the Conservative Party lost both general elections in 1974, she defeated Edward Heath for the leadership of the party.
She was elected Prime Minister in May 1979 and served for eleven and a half years, longer than any other British Prime Minister in the 20th Century. As Prime Minister, she was staunchly capitalist and bent on wiping socialism from the face of Britain. During her tenure, she cut direct taxes, spending and regulations, privatized state-industries and state-housing, reformed the education, health and welfare systems, was tough on crime and espoused traditional values. Her time in office was eventful, having to contend with an economic recession, inner-city riots and a miners' strike.
Her first great triumph in office was the Falklands War in 1982, when she sent British troops to reclaim British possessions off the coast of South America that had been invaded and occupied by Argentina. The British won that war and it showed the world that Britain was once again a power to be reckoned with. Her time in office saw unprecedented economic prosperity among the middle and upper classes, but this was contrasted by unemployment levels not seen since the 1930s, a rise in homelessness and the end of Britain's major industries. She was a staunch political ally of Republican American President Ronald Reagan. They both advocated tough foreign and defence policies, but they also developed a constructive relationship with reforming Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev which helped to bring the Cold War to an end. Thatcher also persuaded President George Bush to send troops to Saudi Arabia right after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.
Her staunch advocacy of the Poll Tax and her refusal to endorse a common currency for Europe led the Conservative party to force her out of office in a bloody internal coup. She was forced to resign as Prime Minister in November 1990. Since she left office, she was introduced to the House of Lords in 1992 as Baroness Thatcher. She travelled the world, touring the lecture circuit promoting her causes and was president of numerous organizations dedicated to her causes. In the last few years, her health suffered and she no longer spoke in public.- IMDb Mini Biography By: jeff fallis
- SpouseDenis Thatcher(December 13, 1951 - June 26, 2003) (his death, 2 children)
- Children
- ParentsAlfred RobertsBeatrice Ethel Stephenson
- Asprey handbag
- Helmet hair
- Power suits
- Received pronunciation
- Often wore a pearl necklace
- She was voted the 3rd worst Briton in Channel Four's poll of the 100 Worst Britons. #2 was the model Jordan (Katie Price) and #1 was then-Prime Minister Tony Blair.
- During her time as British Prime Minister, she cut income tax on the country's top earners by more than half. When she was elected in 1979, the top rate of income tax had stood at 83% since 1974. She immediately reduced it to 60% and in 1988 her government reduced it again, this time to 40%.
- Although Thatcher was widely associated with the closure of the coal mines, twice as many coal mines had closed in the 1960s and 1970s under Harold Wilson. Coal mining would have ended anyway in the UK due to the Climate Change Act.
- She was the subject of several songs, none of them complimentary, including The Beat's song "Stand Down Margaret" in 1980, "Tramp the Dirt Down" by Elvis Costello (Costello says in the song that he will dance on her grave when she dies), "Let's Start a War Said Maggie One Day" by The Exploited and the Morrissey song "Margaret on the Guillotine". She is also mentioned in the Pink Floyd song "The Post War Dream" from their 1983 album "The Final Cut" (an album that was written as a rebuke to the Falklands War, abandoning its original concept as a soundtrack for the movie Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)) and Mark Knopfler's song "Why Aye Man" (written about unemployed Geordie bricklayers and used for the third series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983)) . After Roger Waters left Pink Floyd in 1984, when performing "Pigs (Three Different Ones"), from 1977's "Animals," which originally attacked British censor Mary Whitehouse in the third verse, he would sing Thatcher's name in Whitehouse's place.
- Before entering politics she was a scientist, at one time working on the chemistry of ice cream.
- If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.
- Capitalism only works by spreading to more of the population what used to be the privileges of the few.
- Free choice is ultimately what life is about.
- Good conservatives always pay their bills. Unlike socialists, who just run up other people's.
- I would never be prepared to give up our own currency.
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