She wrote about her experiences as a world leader and a pioneering woman in the field of politics in two books: The Downing Street Years and The Path to Power In , she published the book Statecraft , in which she offered her views on international politics.
Around this time, Thatcher suffered a series of small strokes. She then suffered a great personal loss in , when her husband of more than 50 years, Denis, died. The following year, Thatcher had to say goodbye to an old friend and ally, Ronald Reagan. In fragile health, Thatcher gave a eulogy at his funeral via video link, praising Reagan as a man who "sought to mend America's wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world, and to free the slaves of communism.
In , Thatcher celebrated her 80th birthday. A huge event was held in her honor and was attended by Queen Elizabeth II , Tony Blair and nearly other friends, family members and former colleagues. Two years later, a sculpture of the strong conservative leader was unveiled in the House of Commons. Thatcher's health made headlines in , when she missed a celebration at 10 Downing Street, held in honor of her 85th birthday by David Cameron.
Later, in November , Thatcher spent two weeks in the hospital for a condition that was later revealed to cause painful muscle inflammation. In , she sat out such a number of major events, including the wedding of Prince William in April, and the unveiling of the Ronald Reagan sculpture in London in July. Additionally, in July , Thatcher's office in the House of Lords was permanently closed.
The closure has been seen by some to mark the end of her public life. Battling memory problems in her later years due to her strokes, Thatcher retreated from the spotlight, living in near seclusion at her home in London's Belgravia neighborhood. Thatcher died on April 8, , at the age of She was survived by her two children, daughter Carol and son Sir Mark. Thatcher's policies and actions continue to be debated by detractors and supporters alike, illustrating the indelible impression that she has left on Britain and nations worldwide.
Gillian Anderson portrayed the former prime minister in season 4 of The Crown. We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!
Subscribe to the Biography newsletter to receive stories about the people who shaped our world and the stories that shaped their lives. Margaret Mead was a cultural anthropologist and writer best known for her studies and publications on the subject. Baroness Thatcher was the UK's first and only female prime minister. She died peacefully, aged 87, on Monday the 8th of April She was given a ceremonial funeral with full military honours on 17 April.
From the start of her time as prime minister Margaret Thatcher divided opinion. When she came to power in she wanted to make big changes to how the country was run - and she transformed Britain.
One of her biggest changes was that she wanted private companies and people, and not officials, to run government-owned things like British Gas and BT British Telecom. She believed that private companies would run the services better. There were lots of other arguments too, and she was unhappy for a time, but it the end she was made stronger by the experience and many of her critics came to realise how tough a person she was.
Sadly she did not got on very well with the PM the man in the picture on the left. His government had to cope with serious economic problems. There were many strikes in Britain, great crises abroad, and he changed his plans in what became called "the U turn" named after someone turning their car all the way round to go in the opposite direction to the one they started in.
After only four years he was beaten at an election in February and lost power. After the election the Conservatives argued about what had gone wrong. Had the U turn been a mistake? MT thought it had been, and later made a famous speech when she said "You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning". There was another election in October and they lost that one too. Many Conservatives were very critical of their leader and to almost everyone's surprise in February MT was voted by Conservative MPs to replace him.
Even her husband Denis told her she wouldn't win. There were many men who had been hoping and expecting to get the job, some of whom were bad losers. Others were very nice about it. She became the first woman ever to lead a political party in a country like Britain. Because her party wasn't in power, but was much the largest party opposed to the government, she became "Leader of the Opposition".
She did that job for four years. The Labour Government she opposed struggled with terrible economic problems, which Conservatives thought they made far worse by having the wrong policies.
The big argument was over how to make the economy work better. Conservatives thought the thing was to reduce the amount that government did, and especially the amount it spent and took from people in taxes to pay for spending. They thought too that there should be fewer strikes and wanted to change the law to bring that about for example, by making trade unions hold a vote before calling a strike. The Labour Party said the Conservative plans would make the economy worse and were unfair.
For a long time it was not clear who would win the argument. The newspapers called it "the Winter of Discontent". The government lost an important vote in the House of Commons and had to hold an election, which the Conservatives won easily.
The photo above left of MT holding a calf comes from that election campaign, when she went to a farm and the photographers wanted good pictures for tv and the newspapers.
It seemed a bit silly to her, but she didn't mind: in politics you sometimes have to do odd things like that so that people will notice you and remember. The day after the election, 4 May , MT became Prime Minister and spoke to people outside Downing Street explaining what she hoped to do.
You can watch film of what she said from a link lower down this page. The last few PMs had had a rough time and MT found things no different in her new job. Her government felt it had to do some painful things, particularly putting up interest rates to stop prices rising too fast which is called inflation. As a result lots of people lost their jobs known as unemployment.
The policies were very unpopular at first and there were many protests and criticisms. But in time things began to improve. Prices stopped rising so fast and the economy began to grow again. Then there was an unpredicted event: a war began over the Falklands Islands, 8, miles from Britain off the coast of South America.
The islands were British and the people living there wanted things to stay that way. But the government of Argentina claimed the islands were theirs and invaded them in April Britain sent a Task Force of ships and soldiers to recapture them.
On the back of the housing boom, much of Britain mortgaged itself up to the hilt and household debt reached record levels. Winning the Falklands war in transformed Thatcher's standing in the opinion polls. Fighting it put the armed forces back on the centre stage for the first time since Suez. The Falklands revived the prestige of soldiering, as huge crowds gathered to wave off and welcome home the troops in Portsmouth.
No one talks about abolishing private schools any more. Unilateral nuclear disarmament is not embraced by any of the three main political parties. Losing three times to Thatcher led directly to the creation of New Labour and the emergence of Tony Blair as a leader who embraced her emphasis on choice, competition and an expanding role for the private sector in the economy.
Following the crash of , Labour under Ed Miliband has still to decide whether to make the break from that consensus. The observation that the Church of England amounts to "the Tory party at prayer" is thought to date to the 18th century.
Thatcher's terms of office severely damaged that relationship, possibly beyond repair. The publication in of the C of E report Faith in the City, A Call to Action by Church and Nation, caused an almighty political row between the church and the Conservative party which has reverberated to the present day.
Endorsed by Dr Robert Runcie, then archbishop of Canterbury, the document followed riots in Britain's inner cities. It was a cry of anguish over the dilapidated, alienated state of the inner cities, after years of recession, gloom and rising unemployment.
Relations between the Tories and the established church have never truly recovered. Thatcher saw the BBC licence fee as a tax imposed on television viewers irrespective of whether they wanted to watch BBC programmes or not.
As prime minister, she believed that a leftwing bias permeated its coverage. During the Falklands war, rightwingers renamed the corporation the Stateless Persons Broadcasting Corporation — a dig at its refusal to describe British troops as "our" troops and Argentinian soldiers as "the enemy". But the legacy of the Thatcher era has been to drag the BBC into a perpetual culture war. And she helped create Channel 4 in , probably not anticipating that it would popularise fiercely anti-establishment output.
Defeat in the Falklands war signalled the end of the road for Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri Castelli, head of Argentina's last military dictatorship. Thatcher's friendship with Mikhail Gorbachev helped hasten the cold war to its end, as the economically moribund Soviet Union collapsed. However, her refusal to back sanctions on apartheid South Africa, and description of Nelson Mandela as a "terrorist", arguably delayed the fall of that regime. Margaret Thatcher: 20 ways that she changed Britain.
From the economy to women's fashion, no PM in living memory has had such far-reaching influence on the social landscape. Reuse this content. Education Schools Teachers Universities Students.
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