Baroness Margaret Thatcher

1
Baroness Margaret Thatcher
1983
2005
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Background- The Rt. Honourable Mrs. Thatcher

• Name Margaret Hilda Thatcher
• Date of Birth 13 October 1925
• Place of Birth Grantham, England
• Period in Office 4 May 1979- 28
  November 1990
• PM Predecessor James Callaghan
• PM Successor John Major
• Political Party Conservative (Tory)
• Retirement Honour Order of The Garter
• Life Barony
• Order of Merit

3
Life until leadership

• Born Margaret Hilda Robert in the town of
  Grantham in 1925.
• Father, Alfred Roberts, a Grocer and alderman,
  was a Tory.
• Labour ousted her father and this affected her
  deeply.
• Her Mother was called Beatrice, and her sister is
  called Muriel.
• She went to Grammar school and then onto
  Somerville College, Oxford in 1944, to study
  chemistry.
• At Oxford, she became head of the Oxford
  University Conservative Association, only the
  third woman to do so, in 1946.
• She became the youngest ever Tory candidate and
  was eventually elected in 1958.
• She became a member of the cabinet under Heath.
• She eventually became PM in 1979.

4
The Second Term

• In the June 1983 elections, the conservative
  party won a landslide victory over labour, giving
  Margaret Thatcher her second term as Prime
  Minister.
• She had some serious problems in 1984-5, due to
  the miners strike, which went on for a full year.
• She also faced problems from across the seas. On
  October 12, 1984 Thatcher narrowly escaped death
  when the Provisional IRA bombed Brighton's grand
  hotel during a Tory Party conference killing
  five people.
• During her time as PM she tried to create strong
  links between the USA and the UK supporting
  unpopular bombing raids on Libya, in a fashion
  similar to Tony Blair.
• In 1985, Oxford University refused to give her an
  honorary degree, in protest to her cutbacks on
  education spending. Her policies included many
  such cutbacks in many sectors.

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Record Third Term

• By winning the 1987 General Election, Thatcher
  became the longest serving prime minister since
  Lord Liverpool (1812-1827), and the first to
  serve three successive terms since Lord
  Palmerston in 1865.
• By this point she was starting to become
  unpopular in some peoples eyes. Although she was
  supported by most newspapers (except the guardian
  and daily mirror),her extreme unpopularity on the
  left was obvious looking at some pop songs( e.g.
  stand down Margaret ( the beat)).
• She tried to improve unemployment in the north
  caused by closure of industry during her earlier
  terms, by introducing employment schemes.
• She lost popularity again in 1989 when the
  economy was suffering from high interest rates
  imposed to slow down an unsustainable boom.
• In November 1989 Thatcher was challenged for
  leadership of the Tory party by Sir Anthony
  Meyer, a virtually unknown back-bencher. He was
  seen as a stalking horse candidate for more
  prominent members of the party, and Thatcher won
  easily but 60 ballots were either cast for Meyer
  or abstaining, which is a large number for a
  sitting PM.

6
Fall from favour

• Thatcher had been becoming more and more
  unpopular throughout her third term as PM.
• In 1990 she introduced Community Charge (poll
  tax), as a system to replace local government
  rates. This tax cost the same for each person,
  with only a limited discount for low earners.
  This became the most universally unpopular policy
  of her premiership. She introduced it a year
  early in Scotland to test it. This led to
  accusations of her using Scotland as a testing
  ground.
• Problems emerged when councils then started
  charging more than previously predicted.
• A large London demonstration took place on March
  31, 1990, the day before the tax was introduced
  in England, and turned into a riot. Millions
  resisted the tax. People banded together against
  bailiffs and court hearings of debtors. Thatcher
  refused to change the tax!!
• She tried to persuade George. H. W. Bush to
  deploy troops in the Middle East

7
Fall From Power

• By 1990, the Tories seemed particularly
  vulnerable due to high interest rates (15) and
  Thatchers Euroscepticism.
• Sir Geoffrey Howe resigned from the Tory party
  and in his resignation speech he condemned
  Thatchers Policy on the European community as
  devastating to British interests
• This led to Michael Heseltine challenging for
  party leadership. In the first ballot Maggie was
  2 votes short of winning automatic re-election, a
  small but critical margin.
• Her cabinet colleagues suggested to her that the
  first round not being a clear win, the second
  would be unlikely.
• On November 22, 1990, just after 930am, Mrs.
  Thatcher announced that she would not take part
  in the second ballot.