Margaret Thatcher - biography, information, personal life. History of success

In 1967, Thatcher was introduced into the shadow cabinet (a cabinet formed by a party that is in opposition to the ruling party in Britain). Under Edward Heath, prime minister from 1970-1974, Margaret Thatcher, being the only woman in government. Despite the fact that in 1975 the Conservatives lost the election, Mrs. Thatcher retained her ministerial portfolio even in the Liberal government.

In February 1975, Thatcher became leader of the Conservative Party.

The landslide victory of the Conservatives in 1979 in the elections to the House of Commons made Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister. Until now, she has remained the only woman to hold this post in the UK.

During the years of tenure as head of government, Margaret Thatcher: in her cabinet, all work was based on a clear hierarchy, accountability and high personal responsibility; she was an ardent defender of monetarism, restricting the activities of trade unions by a rigid framework of laws. During her 11 years as head of the British Cabinet, she carried out a series of tough economic reforms, initiated the transfer to private hands of sectors of the economy where the state monopoly traditionally reigned (British Airways, gas giant British Gas and the telecommunications company British Telecom) advocated tax increases.
After Argentina occupied the disputed territory of the Falklands in 1982, Thatcher sent warships into the South Atlantic, and British control over the islands was restored in a matter of weeks. This was a key factor in the second victory of the Conservatives in the parliamentary elections, in 1983.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher(English) Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher; nee Roberts; October 13, 1925, Grantham, Lincolnshire, England - April 8, 2013, London, England) - 71st Prime Minister of Great Britain (Conservative Party of Great Britain) in 1979-1990, Baroness since 1992. The first and so far the only woman to hold this post, as well as the first woman to become the prime minister of a European state. Thatcher's premiership was the longest in the 20th century. Nicknamed the "iron lady" for her sharp criticism of the Soviet leadership, she implemented a series of conservative measures that became part of the policy of the so-called "Thatcherism".

Educated as a chemist, she became a lawyer, and in 1959 was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley. In 1970 she was appointed Minister of Education and Science in the Conservative government of Edward Heath. In 1975, Thatcher defeated Heath in the election of the new head of the Conservative Party and became the head of the parliamentary opposition, as well as the first woman to lead one of the main parties in Britain. After the victory of the Conservative Party in the 1979 general election, Margaret Thatcher became prime minister.

As head of government, Thatcher introduced political and economic reforms to reverse what she saw as the country's decline. Its political philosophy and economic policy were based on the deregulation of the financial system in particular, the provision of a flexible labor market, the privatization of state-owned companies and the reduction of the influence of trade unions. Thatcher's high popularity during the first years of her reign was diminished by the recession and high level unemployment, but increased again during the 1982 Falklands War and economic growth, which led to her re-election in 1983.

Thatcher was re-elected for a third time in 1987, but the proposed poll tax and views on Britain's role in the European Union were unpopular with members of her government. After Michael Heseltine challenged her leadership of the party, Thatcher was forced to resign as head of the party and prime minister.

Thatcher is a life member of the House of Lords.

Early life and education

The house in Grantham, where M. Thatcher was born.

Commemorative plaque on the house where M. Thatcher was born

Margaret Roberts was born October 13, 1925. Father - Alfred Roberts is from Northamptonshire, mother - Beatrice Itel (nee Stephenson) is from Lincolnshire. She spent her childhood in the city of Grantham, where her father owned two grocers. Together with her older sister, Muriel was raised in an apartment above one of her father's grocers, located near the railroad. Margaret's father was actively involved in local politics and the life of the religious community, as a member of the municipal council and a Methodist pastor. For this reason, his daughters were brought up by him in strict Methodist traditions. Alfred himself was born into a family of liberal views, however, as was then customary in local governments, he was non-partisan. Between 1945 and 1946 he was mayor of Grantham, and in 1952, after the landslide victory of the Labor Party in the municipal elections of 1950, as a result of which the party won a majority in Grantham Council for the first time, he ceased to be an alderman.

Roberts attended primary school on Huntingtower Road, then received a scholarship to study at the Kesteven and Grantham School for Girls. Margaret's academic progress reports testify to the diligence and constant work of the student on self-improvement. She took extracurricular classes in piano, field hockey, swimming and race walking, and poetry classes. In 1942-1943 she was a senior student. In her senior year at university preparatory school, she applied for a scholarship to study chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford University. Although initially refused, after the refusal of another applicant, Margaret still managed to get a scholarship. In 1943 she came to Oxford and in 1947, after four years of studying chemistry, she graduated with a second degree, becoming a bachelor of science. In her senior year, she worked in X-ray diffraction analysis under Dorothy Crowfoot-Hodgkin.

In 1946, Roberts became chairman of the Oxford University Conservative Party Association. The greatest influence on her political views while at university was Friedrich von Hayek's The Road to Slavery (1944), which saw government intervention in the country's economy as a forerunner of the authoritarian state.

After graduation, Roberts moved to Colchester in the English county of Essex, where she worked as a research chemist for the company BX Plastics. At the same time, she joined the local association of the Conservative Party and took part in the party conference in Llandudno in 1948 as a representative of the Conservative Alumni Association of the University. One of Margaret's Oxford friends was also a friend of the chairman of the Dartford Conservative Party Association in Kent, which was looking for candidates for the election. The chairmen of the association were so impressed with Margaret that they persuaded her to take part in the elections, although she herself was not included in the approved list of candidates from the Conservative Party: Margaret was elected a candidate only in January 1951 and included in the electoral list. At a celebratory dinner organized after her official confirmation as a Conservative Party candidate in Dartford in February 1951, Roberts met the successful and wealthy divorced businessman Denis Thatcher. In preparation for the election, she moved to Dartford, where she took a job as a research chemist with J. Lyons and Co. developing emulsifiers for use in ice cream.

The beginning of a political career

In the general elections of February 1950 and October 1951, Roberts took part in the elections for the Dartford constituency, where Labor traditionally won. As the youngest candidate and the only woman to run, she attracted the attention of the press. Despite losing on both occasions to Norman Dodds, Margaret managed to reduce Labor's support among the electorate, first by 6,000 votes and then by another 1,000 votes. During the election campaign, she was supported by her parents, as well as Denis Thatcher, whom she married in December 1951. Denis also helped his wife become a member of the bar association; in 1953 she became a barrister with a specialization in taxation.

In the same year, twins were born in the family - daughter Carol and son Mark.

Member of parliament

In the mid-1950s, Thatcher resumed her struggle for a seat in Parliament. In 1955, she failed to become a Conservative Party candidate in the Orpington constituency, but in April 1958 she became a candidate in the Finchley constituency. In the 1959 elections, Thatcher, during a difficult election campaign, nevertheless won, becoming a member of the House of Commons. In her first speech as a parliamentarian, she spoke in support of the Law on government bodies, demanding publicity from local councils for their meetings, and in 1961 refused to support the official position of the Conservative Party, voting for the restoration of the punishment of flogging.

In October 1961, Thatcher was nominated to the position of Parliamentary Deputy Minister of Pensions and State Social Insurance in the cabinet of Harold Macmillan. After the defeat of the Conservative Party in the 1964 parliamentary elections, she became the party's spokesperson for housing and land ownership, defending the right of tenants to buy council housing. In 1966, Thatcher became a member of the Treasury's shadow team and, as a delegate, opposed Labor's proposed mandatory price and income controls, arguing that it would backfire and destroy the country's economy.

At the 1966 Conservative Party Conference, she criticized the high tax policy pursued by the Labor government. In her opinion, it was "not just a step towards socialism, but a step towards communism". Thatcher stressed the need to keep taxes low as an incentive to work hard. She was also one of the few members of the House of Commons who supported the decriminalization of homosexuals and voted for the legalization of abortion and the ban on hunting a hare with greyhounds "by sight".

In addition, Thatcher supported the preservation death penalty and voted against weakening the divorce law.

In 1967, she was selected by the US Embassy in London to participate in the International Visitors Program, which gave Thatcher the unique opportunity of a six-week professional exchange program to visit US cities, meet various political figures and visit international organizations such as the IMF. A year later, Margaret became a member of the Shadow Cabinet of the official opposition, overseeing issues related to the fuel sector. Shortly before the 1970 general election, she was involved in transportation and then education.

Minister of Education and Science (1970-1974)

From 1970-1974, Margaret Thatcher was Minister of Education and Science in the cabinet of Edward Heath.

The 1970 parliamentary elections were won by the Conservative Party under the leadership of Edward Heath. In the new government, Thatcher was appointed Minister of Education and Science. In her first months in office, Margaret gained public attention for her attempt to cut costs in this area. She prioritized academic needs in schools and lowered spending on the public education system, resulting in the abolition of free milk distribution to schoolchildren between the ages of seven and eleven. At the same time, one-third of a pint of milk was given to younger children. Thatcher's policies caused a flurry of criticism from the Labor Party and the media, who called Margaret "Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher"(translated from English - "Margaret Thatcher, the milk thief"). In her autobiography, Thatcher subsequently wrote: “I learned a valuable lesson. Incurred the maximum political hatred for the minimum political benefit..

The period of Thatcher's tenure as Minister of Education and Science was also marked by proposals for a more active closure of literacy schools by local education authorities and the introduction of a unified secondary education. Overall, despite Margaret's intention to keep the literacy schools, the proportion of students attending integrated secondary schools rose from 32 percent to 62 percent.

Leader of the Opposition (1975-1979)

Margaret Thatcher (1975)

After a series of difficulties faced by the Heath government during 1973 (oil crisis, union demands for higher wages), the Conservative Party was defeated by Labor in the February 1974 parliamentary elections. In the next general election, held in October 1974, the result of the conservatives was even worse. Against the background of declining support for the party among the population, Thatcher entered the struggle for the post of chairman of the Conservative Party. Promising party reforms, she enlisted the support of the so-called 1922 Committee of the Conservative members of Parliament. In 1975, in the election of party chairman, Thatcher defeated Heath in the first round of voting, who was forced to resign. In the second round, she defeated William Whitelaw, who was considered the most preferred successor to Heath, and already on February 11, 1975, she officially became the chairman of the Conservative Party, appointing Whitelaw as her deputy.

After her election, Thatcher began to regularly attend formal dinners at the Institute for Economic Relations, a think tank founded by tycoon Anthony Fischer, a student of Friedrich von Hayek. Participation in these meetings significantly influenced her views, now formed under the influence of the ideas of Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon. As a result, Thatcher became the face of an ideological movement opposed to the idea of a welfare state. The institute's pamphlets offered the following recipe for the recovery of the British economy: less government intervention in the economy, lower taxes and more freedom for businesses and consumers.

The Russians are set on world domination, and they are rapidly acquiring the means necessary to become the most powerful imperial state the world has ever seen. The men in the Soviet Politburo need not worry about the rapid change in public opinion. They chose guns over butter, while for us almost everything else is more important than guns.

In response, the newspaper of the USSR Ministry of Defense "Red Star" called Thatcher "iron lady". Soon the translation of this nickname in the English newspaper "The Sunday Times" as "The Iron Lady" firmly entrenched in Margaret.

Despite the recovery of the British economy in the late 1970s, the Labor government was faced with the problem of public anxiety about the future course of the country, as well as a series of strikes in the winter of 1978-1979 (this page in British history became known as the "Winter of Dissent"). The Conservatives, in turn, staged regular attacks on Labor, primarily blaming them for record unemployment. After the government of James Callaghan received a vote of no confidence in early 1979, snap parliamentary elections were announced in the UK.

The Conservatives built their campaign promises around economic issues, arguing for the need for privatization and liberal reforms. They promised to fight inflation and work to weaken the unions, since the strikes they organized caused significant damage to the economy.

Domestic politics

According to the results of the elections on May 3, 1979, the Conservatives confidently won, receiving 43.9% of the vote and 339 seats in the House of Commons (Labor received 36.9% of the vote and 269 seats in the House of Commons), and on May 4, Thatcher became the first woman Prime Minister UK. In this position, Thatcher launched a vigorous effort to reform the British economy and society as a whole.

In the parliamentary elections of 1983, the Thatcher-led Conservatives received the support of 42.43% of the voters, while the Labor Party received only 27.57% of the vote. This was also facilitated by the crisis in the Labor Party, which proposed a further increase in public spending, the restoration of the public sector in the previous volume and an increase in taxes for the rich. In addition, a split occurred in the party, and an influential part of the Laborites (“gang of four”) founded the Social Democratic Party, which came out in these elections together with the Liberal Party. Finally, factors such as the aggressiveness of neoliberal ideology, populism of Thatcherism, the radicalization of trade unions, as well as the Falklands War, played against the Laborites.

In the 1987 parliamentary elections, the Conservatives again won, receiving 42.3% of the vote against 30.83% for the Labor Party. This was due to the fact that Thatcher, thanks to her tough and unpopular measures in the economy and the social sphere, managed to achieve stable economic growth. Foreign investments that began to actively flow into the UK contributed to the modernization of production and an increase in the competitiveness of manufactured products. At the same time, the Thatcher government long time managed to keep inflation at a very low level. In addition, by the end of the 1980s, thanks to the measures taken, the unemployment rate was significantly reduced.

In response to this article, the Queen's representatives issued an official rebuttal, rejecting any possibility of a constitutional crisis in Britain. After Thatcher's departure from the post of prime minister, the entourage of Elizabeth II continued to call "nonsense" any allegations that the queen and the prime minister were in conflict with each other. Subsequently, the former prime minister wrote: “I have always considered the attitude of the Queen to the work of the Government perfectly correct ... stories about the contradictions between “two powerful women” were too good not to invent them”.

Economics and taxation

Significant impact on economic policy Thatcher was influenced by the ideas of monetarism and the work of economists such as Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek. Together with Chancellor of the Exchequer Geoffrey Howe, Thatcher pursued a policy aimed at reducing direct taxes on income and raising indirect taxes, including value added tax. In order to reduce inflation and money supply, the discount rate was increased. In turn, extremely unpopular measures were taken to combat the budget deficit: subsidies to the remaining state-owned enterprises were cut, assistance to depressed regions was cut, and spending on the social sphere (education and housing and communal services) was reduced. Cutting spending on higher education led to Thatcher becoming the first post-war Prime Minister of Great Britain who graduated from Oxford University, who did not receive the status of an honorary doctorate from the university (not only students opposed this, but the governing council voted). The urban technology colleges she created were not very successful. To control education spending by opening and closing schools, the Consolidated Schools Agency was established, which the Social Market Fund said used "unusually dictatorial powers".

Some members of the Conservative Party from the supporters of Edward Heath, who were members of the Cabinet, did not share Thatcher's policy. After the British riots in 1981, the British media openly talked about the need for fundamental changes in the country's economic course. However, at the 1980 Conservative Party Conference, Thatcher openly stated: “Turn around if you want. Lady doesn't turn!"

In December 1980, Thatcher's approval rating dropped to 23%, the lowest ever for a British prime minister. After the worsening of the situation in the economy and the deepening of the recession in the early 1980s, Thatcher, despite the worries of leading economists, raised taxes.

By 1982, there were positive developments in the UK economy, indicating its recovery - the inflation rate fell from 18% to 8.6%. Nevertheless, for the first time since the 1930s, the number of unemployed was over 3 million people. By 1983, economic growth accelerated, and inflation and mortgage lending rates were at their lowest levels since 1970. Despite this, the volume of production compared with 1970 fell by 30%, and the number of unemployed reached its peak in 1984 - 3.3 million people.

By 1987, the country's unemployment rate had fallen, the economy had stabilized, and inflation was relatively low. Quite a few important role The UK economy was supported by the 90% tax on North Sea oil, which was also actively used to implement reforms during the 1980s.

According to public opinion polls, the Conservative Party enjoyed the greatest support among the population, and the successful results of local council elections for the Conservatives prompted Thatcher to call parliamentary elections for June 11, although the deadline for holding them was only 12 months later. According to the election results, Margaret retained the post of Prime Minister of Great Britain for a third term.

In 1989 this type of tax was introduced in Scotland, and in 1990 in England and Wales. The reform of the tax system became one of the most unpopular measures during Thatcher's premiership. On March 31, 1990, public discontent resulted in large demonstrations in London, in which about 70,000 people took part. The demonstrations in Trafalgar Square eventually turned into riots, during which 113 people were injured and 340 arrested. Extreme popular dissatisfaction with the tax led Thatcher's successor, John Major, to cancel it.

Foreign policy

Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, Camp David, 1986

In foreign policy Thatcher was guided by the United States and supported the initiatives of Ronald Reagan in relation to the USSR, to which both politicians treated with distrust. During her first term as prime minister, she supported NATO's decision to deploy BGM-109G ground-launched missiles and Pershing-1A short-range missiles in Western Europe, and also allowed the US military, starting November 14, 1983, to deploy more than 160 cruise missiles on US Air Force Base Greenham Common, located in Berkshire, England, which caused massive protests from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In addition, Great Britain under Thatcher bought more than £12 billion (in 1996-1997 prices) of Trident missiles to be installed on its SSBNs, which were supposed to replace the Polaris missiles. As a result, the country's nuclear forces have tripled.

Thus, in matters of defense, the British government relied entirely on the United States. In January 1986, the Westland Affair received significant publicity. Thatcher made every effort to ensure that the national helicopter manufacturer Westland refused a merger proposal from the Italian company Agusta in favor of an offer from American company Sikorsky Aircraft. Subsequently, British Secretary of State for Defense Michael Heseltine, who supported the Agusta deal, resigned.

On April 2, 1982, Argentine troops, on the orders of the ruling military junta, landed on the British Falkland Islands, provoking the start of the Falklands War. The onset of the crisis, as history has shown, was a key event in the years of premiership. At the suggestion of Harold Macmillan and Robert Armstrong, Thatcher became the founder and chairman of the War Cabinet, which by 5-6 April tasked the British Navy with regaining control of the islands.

On June 14, the Argentine military surrendered, and the military operation ended in success for the British side, although 255 British soldiers and 3 residents of the Falkland Islands were killed during the conflict. The Argentine side lost 649 people (of which 323 people died as a result of the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano by the British nuclear submarine). During the conflict, Thatcher was criticized for neglecting the defense of the Falkland Islands, as well as for the decision to sink the General Belgrano.

Nevertheless, Thatcher was able to use all military and diplomatic options to restore British sovereignty over the islands. This policy was welcomed by the British, which markedly strengthened the faltering position of the Conservatives and Thatcher's leadership in the party before the 1983 parliamentary elections. Thanks to the "Falklands factor", the economic recovery of early 1982 and the divisions among the Labor Party, the Conservative Party, led by Thatcher, managed to win the election.

Margaret strongly opposed the country's participation in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, the predecessor of the European Monetary Union, believing that this would impose restrictions on the British economy. However, John Major managed to convince Thatcher, and in October 1990 the UK became a member of the mechanism.

The role of the British Commonwealth has diminished under Thatcher. Thatcher's disappointment in this organization was explained by the increased, from her point of view, interest of the Commonwealth in resolving the situation in southern Africa on terms that did not meet the requirements of the British conservatives. Thatcher saw the Commonwealth only as a useful structure for negotiations of little value.

Thatcher was one of the first Western politicians to positively assess the reformist sentiments of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Back in November 1988 - a year before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Eastern European socialist regimes - she announced the end of the Cold War openly for the first time: "Now we are not in a cold war", because "the new relationship is broader than ever". In 1985, Thatcher visited the Soviet Union and met with Mikhail Gorbachev and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Nikolai Ryzhkov. Initially, she opposed the possible unification of Germany. According to her, this “will lead to a change in post-war borders, and we cannot allow this, since such a development of events will call into question the stability of the entire international situation and may threaten our security”. In addition, Thatcher feared that a united Germany would be in more cooperate with the USSR, relegating NATO to the background. At the same time, the Prime Minister spoke out in support of the independence of Croatia and Slovenia.

Resignation

Thatcher in 1990

During the election of the chairman of the Conservative Party, held in 1989, Thatcher's rival was a little-known member of the House of Commons, Anthony Mayer. Of the 374 members of parliament who were members of the Conservative Party and had the right to vote, 314 people voted for Thatcher, while 33 people voted for Mayer. Her party supporters considered the result a success and dismissed any claims that there were divisions within the party.

During her premiership, Thatcher had the second lowest average level of support among the population (about 40%) of all post-war Prime Ministers of Great Britain. Opinion polls indicated that her popularity was below that of the Conservative Party. However, the self-confident Thatcher always insisted that she had little interest in various ratings, pointing to record support during the parliamentary elections.

According to public opinion polls conducted in September 1990, Labor's rating was 14% higher than that of the Conservatives, and by November the Conservatives were already 18% behind Labor. The above ratings, as well as Thatcher's militant personality and her disregard for the opinions of her colleagues, have become a cause of controversy within the Conservative Party. As a result, it was the party that was the first to get rid of Margaret Thatcher.

On November 1, 1990, Geoffrey Howe, the last of the first Thatcher Cabinet in 1979, left the post of Deputy Prime Minister after Thatcher refused to agree on a timetable for Britain to join the European single currency.

The next day, Michael Heseltine announced his desire to lead the Conservative Party. According to public opinion polls, it was his personality that could help the Conservatives overtake Labor. Although Thatcher managed to take first place in the first round of voting, Heseltine secured enough votes (152 votes) for a second round. Margaret initially intended to continue the fight to a victorious end in the second round, but after consultation with the Cabinet, she decided to withdraw from the election. After an audience with the Queen and her final speech in the House of Commons, Thatcher resigned as prime minister. She considered her removal from office a betrayal.

The post of Prime Minister of Great Britain and chairman of the Conservative Party passed to John Major, at the head of which the Conservative Party managed to win the 1992 parliamentary elections.

After resignation

After leaving the premiership, Thatcher was a member of the House of Commons for Finchley for two years. In 1992, at the age of 66, she decided to leave the British Parliament, which, in her opinion, gave her the opportunity to more openly express her opinion on certain events.

After leaving the House of Commons

After leaving the House of Commons, Thatcher became the first former British Prime Minister to establish a foundation. It was closed in 2005 due to financial difficulties. Thatcher wrote two volumes of memoirs: "The Downing Street Years"(1993) and "The Path to Power" (1995).

In July 1992, Margaret was hired by a tobacco company "Philip Morris" as "geopolitical consultant" with an official salary of $250,000 and an annual contribution of $250,000 to her foundation. In addition, for each public performance, she received $50,000.

In August 1992, Thatcher called on NATO to stop the Serb massacres in the Bosnian cities of Gorazde and Sarajevo, putting an end to the ethnic cleansing of the Bosnian War period. She compared the situation in Bosnia to "the worst extremes of the Nazis", stating that the situation in the region could become a new Holocaust. Thatcher also spoke in the House of Lords with criticism of the Maastricht Treaty, which, according to her, "she would never sign".

Against the background of the growing interest of Western oil companies in the energy resources of the Caspian Sea, in September 1992, Thatcher visited Baku, where she took part in the signing of an agreement on the appraisal development of the Chirag and Shah Deniz fields between the Government of Azerbaijan and the British British Petroleum and Norwegian Statoil.

Thatcher with Gorbachev (left) and Mulroney (center) at Reagan's funeral

In the period from 1993 to 2000, Thatcher was the honorary rector of the College of William and Mary in the US state of Virginia, and from 1992 to 1999 - the honorary rector of the University of Buckingham (the first private university in the UK, established by her in 1975).

After the election of Tony Blair as Chairman of the Labor Party in 1994, Thatcher called him "the most dangerous Labor leader since Hugh Gaitskell".

In 1998, after the arrest by Spanish authorities of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who was to stand trial for massive violations of human rights, Thatcher called for his release, citing his support for Britain during the Falklands conflict. In 1999, she visited a former politician who was under house arrest in a suburb of London. Pinochet was released by Home Secretary Jack Strow in March 2000 for medical reasons.

During the 2001 parliamentary elections, Thatcher supported the Conservatives, although she did not approve the candidacy of Ian Duncan Smith for the post of leader of the Conservative Party, as was the case with John Major and William Hague. Nevertheless, immediately after the election, she favored Duncan Smith over Kenneth Clark.

In March 2002, Thatcher published a book "The Art of Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World", which she dedicated to Ronald Reagan (the book was also published in Russian). In it, Margaret expressed her position on a number of international political events and processes. She argued that there would be no peace in the Middle East until Saddam Hussein was overthrown; wrote about the need for Israel to sacrifice territory in exchange for peace, the utopianism of the European Union. In her opinion, Britain needs to reconsider the terms of its membership in the EU or even leave the integration entity by joining NAFTA.

After 2002

On June 11, 2004, Thatcher attended the funeral of Ronald Reagan. Due to health problems, a video recording of her funeral speech was made in advance. Then Thatcher, along with Reagan's entourage, went to California, where she attended a memorial service and burial ceremony at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Thatcher at a memorial service in honor of the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Right - Dick Cheney and his wife

Margaret celebrated her 80th birthday on October 13, 2005 at a London hotel. Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Among the guests were Elizabeth II, Duke of Edinburgh, Alexandra of Kent and Tony Blair. Geoffrey Howe, who also attended the celebrations, stated that “her real triumph transformed not only one, but both parties, so when Labor returned to power, most of the principles of Thatcherism were taken for granted”.

In 2006, Thatcher, as a guest of Dick Cheney, attended an official memorial service in Washington to commemorate the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. During the visit, Margaret met with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In February 2007, Thatcher became the first British Prime Minister to have a monument erected in the British Parliament during his lifetime (the official opening took place on February 21, 2007 in the presence of a former politician). Bronze statue with an elongated right hand located opposite the statue of political idol Thatcher - Winston Churchill. Thatcher gave a short speech in the House of Commons, declaring that “I would rather have an iron statue, but bronze will do too ... It will not rust”.

At the end of November 2009, Thatcher briefly returned to 10 Downing Street to present her official portrait to the public by artist Richard Stone (who also painted portraits of Elizabeth II and her mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon). This event was a manifestation of special respect for the former prime minister, who was still alive.

In 2002, Thatcher experienced several minor strokes, after which the doctor advised her to refuse to participate in public events and move away from public and political activity. After collapsing during a dinner in the House of Commons on 7 March 2008, she was taken to St Thomas' Hospital in central London. In June 2009, she was hospitalized due to a broken arm. Until the end of her life she suffered from dementia (senile dementia).

At the 2010 Conservative Party Conference, the country's new prime minister, David Cameron, announced that he would once again invite Thatcher to 10 Downing Street on the occasion of her 85th birthday, which would be marked by celebrations with the participation of former and current ministers. However, Margaret ruled out any celebrations, citing the flu.

April 29, 2011 Thatcher was invited to the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, but did not attend the ceremony due to poor health.

Margaret Thatcher passed away on April 8, 2013 at the age of 87. The cause of death was a stroke (according to other sources - a heart attack).

Heritage

For Thatcher's supporters, she remains a political figure who was able to restore the British economy, deal a significant blow to trade unions and restore Britain's image as a world power. During her premiership, the number of British residents who owned shares increased from 7 to 25%; more than a million families have purchased houses formerly owned by municipal councils, increasing the number of homeowners from 55% to 67%. Overall personal wealth increased by 80%. Victory in the Falklands War and a close alliance with the United States are also considered one of her most important achievements.

At the same time, Thatcher's premiership was marked by high unemployment and regular strikes. In the issue of unemployment, most critics blame her economic policy, which was heavily influenced by the ideas of monetarism]. This problem, in turn, has led to the spread of drug addiction and family divorce. Speaking in Scotland in April 2009, on the eve of the thirtieth anniversary of her election as prime minister, Thatcher insisted that she had no regrets about her actions during the premiership, including the issue of imposing a poll tax and refusing subsidies. "an outdated industry whose markets were in decline".

Thatcher's premiership was the longest in the 20th century since Salisbury (1885, 1886-1892 and 1895-1902) and the longest continuous tenure since Lord Liverpool (1812-1827).

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher(born Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher; née Roberts; October 13, 1925, Grantham - April 8, 2013, London) - 71st Prime Minister of Great Britain (Conservative Party of Great Britain) in 1979-1990, leader of the Conservative Party in 1975-1990, baroness since 1992. The first woman to hold this post, as well as the first woman to become the prime minister of a European state. Thatcher's premiership was the longest in the 20th century. Nicknamed the "iron lady" for her sharp criticism of the Soviet leadership, she implemented a series of conservative measures that became part of the policy of the so-called "Thatcherism".

As head of government, she introduced political and economic reforms to reverse what she saw as the country's decline. Its political philosophy and economic policy were based on deregulation, especially of the financial system, the provision of a flexible labor market, the privatization of state-owned companies, and the reduction of the influence of trade unions. Thatcher's high popularity during the early years of her reign waned due to recession and high unemployment, but increased again during the 1982 Falklands War and economic growth, which led to her re-election in 1983.

Early life and education

Margaret Roberts was born October 13, 1925. Father - Alfred Roberts, originally from Northamptonshire, mother - Beatrice Itel (nee Stephenson) (1888-1960), originally from Lincolnshire, dressmaker. One of the grandfathers is a shoemaker, the other is a switchman. She spent her childhood in the city of Grantham, where her father owned two grocers. Together with her older sister, Muriel was raised in an apartment above one of her father's grocers, located near the railroad. Margaret's father was actively involved in local politics and the life of the religious community, as a member of the municipal council and a Methodist pastor. For this reason, his daughters were brought up by him in strict Methodist traditions. Alfred himself was born into a family of liberal views, however, as was then customary in local governments, he was non-partisan. Between 1945 and 1946 he was mayor of Grantham, and in 1952, after the landslide victory of the Labor Party in the municipal elections of 1950, as a result of which the party won a majority in Grantham Council for the first time, he ceased to be an alderman.

Roberts attended Huntingtower Road Primary School, then received a scholarship to study at the Kesteven and Grantham School for Girls. Margaret's academic progress reports testify to the diligence and constant work of the student on self-improvement. She took extracurricular classes in piano, field hockey, swimming and race walking, and poetry classes. In 1942-1943 she was a senior student. In her senior year at university preparatory school, she applied for a scholarship to study chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford University. Although initially refused, after the refusal of another applicant, Margaret still managed to get a scholarship. In 1943 she came to Oxford and in 1947, after four years of studying chemistry, she graduated with second-class honors, becoming a bachelor of science. In her last year of study, she worked in the laboratory of Dorothy Hodgkin, where she was engaged in X-ray diffraction analysis of the antibiotic gramicidin C.

The beginning of a political career

After graduation, Roberts moved to Colchester in the English county of Essex, where she worked as a research chemist for the company BX Plastics. At the same time, she joined the local association of the Conservative Party and took part in the party conference in Llandudno in 1948 as a representative of the Conservative Alumni Association of the University. One of Margaret's Oxford friends was also a friend of the chairman of the Dartford Conservative Party Association in Kent, which was looking for candidates for the election. The chairmen of the association were so impressed with Margaret that they persuaded her to take part in the elections, although she herself was not included in the approved list of candidates from the Conservative Party: Margaret was elected a candidate only in January 1951 and included in the electoral list. At a celebratory dinner organized after her official confirmation as a candidate for the Conservative Party in Dartford in February 1951, Roberts met the successful and wealthy divorced businessman Denis Thatcher. In preparation for the election, she moved to Dartford, where she took a job as a research chemist with J. Lyons and Co. developing emulsifiers for use in ice cream.

Member of parliament

In the mid-1950s, Thatcher resumed her struggle for a seat in Parliament. In 1955, she failed to become a Conservative Party candidate in the Orpington constituency, but in April 1958 she became a candidate in the Finchley constituency. In the 1959 elections, Thatcher, during a difficult election campaign, nevertheless won, becoming a member of the House of Commons, which she was until 1992 .. In her first speech as a parliamentarian, she spoke in support of the Law on Public Organs, demanding that local councils make their meetings public , and in 1961 she refused to support the official position of the Conservative Party, voting for the restoration of the punishment of flogging.

Minister of Education and Science (1970-1974)

From 1970-1974, Margaret Thatcher was Minister of Education and Science in the cabinet of Edward Heath.

The 1970 parliamentary elections were won by the Conservative Party under the leadership of Edward Heath. In the new government, Thatcher was appointed Minister of Education and Science. In the first months of her tenure, Margaret attracted public attention because of the attempt to cut costs in this area. She prioritized academic needs in schools and lowered spending on the public education system, resulting in the abolition of free milk distribution to schoolchildren between the ages of seven and eleven. At the same time, one-third of a pint of milk was given to younger children. Thatcher's policies caused a flurry of criticism from the Labor Party and the media, who called Margaret "Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher"(translated from English - "Margaret Thatcher, the milk thief"). In her autobiography, Thatcher later wrote: “I learned a valuable lesson. Incurred the maximum political hatred for the minimum political benefit..

Leader of the Opposition (1975-1979)

The Russians are set on world domination, and they are rapidly acquiring the means necessary to become the most powerful imperial state the world has ever seen. People in the Soviet Politburo need not worry about the rapid change in public opinion. They chose guns over butter, while for us almost everything else is more important than guns.

In response, the newspaper of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR "Red Star" published an article entitled "The Iron Lady scares ..." (January 24, 1976). In it, the author wrote that "the iron lady ... is called her in her own country." (In fact, in the UK, Margaret Thatcher was originally called differently. For example, on February 5, 1975, in the London Daily Mirror, an article about Thatcher was called "The Iron Maiden" - "Iron Maiden".). Soon the translation of this nickname in the English newspaper "The Sunday Times" as "The Iron Lady" firmly entrenched in Margaret.

Premiership

Domestic politics

In the 1987 parliamentary elections, the Conservatives again won, receiving 42.3% of the vote against 30.83% for the Labor Party. This was due to the fact that Thatcher, thanks to her tough and unpopular measures in the economy and the social sphere, managed to achieve stable economic growth. Foreign investments that began to actively flow into the UK contributed to the modernization of production and an increase in the competitiveness of manufactured products. At the same time, the Thatcher government managed to keep inflation at a very low level for a long time. In addition, by the end of the 1980s, thanks to the measures taken, the unemployment rate was significantly reduced.

Particular attention from the media was paid to the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Queen, with whom meetings were held weekly to discuss current political issues. In July 1986, a British newspaper Sunday Times published an article in which the author claimed that there was disagreement between Buckingham Palace and Downing Street on "a wide range of issues relating to domestic and foreign policy". In response to this article, the Queen's representatives issued an official rebuttal, rejecting any possibility of a constitutional crisis in Britain. After Thatcher's departure from the post of prime minister, the entourage of Elizabeth II continued to call "nonsense" any allegations that the queen and the prime minister were in conflict with each other. Subsequently, the former prime minister wrote: “I have always considered the attitude of the Queen to the work of the Government perfectly correct ... stories about the contradictions between “two powerful women” were too good not to invent them”.

Economics and taxation

The ideas of monetarism and the work of such economists as Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek had a significant impact on Thatcher's economic policy. Together with Chancellor of the Exchequer Geoffrey Howe, Thatcher pursued a policy aimed at reducing direct taxes on income and raising indirect taxes, including value added tax. In order to reduce inflation and money supply, the discount rate was increased. In turn, extremely unpopular measures were taken to combat the budget deficit: subsidies to the remaining state-owned enterprises were cut, assistance to depressed regions was cut, and spending on the social sphere (education and housing and communal services) was reduced. Cutting spending on higher education led to Thatcher becoming the first post-war Prime Minister of Great Britain who graduated from Oxford University, who did not receive the status of an honorary doctorate from the university (not only students opposed this, but the governing council voted). The urban technology colleges she created were not very successful. To control education spending by opening and closing schools, the Consolidated Schools Agency was established, which the Social Market Fund said used "unusually dictatorial powers".

By 1982, there were positive developments in the UK economy, indicating its recovery: the inflation rate fell from 18% to 8.6%. Nevertheless, for the first time since the 1930s, the number of unemployed was over 3 million people. By 1983, economic growth accelerated, and inflation and mortgage lending rates were at their lowest levels since 1970. Despite this, the volume of production compared with 1970 fell by 30%, and the number of unemployed reached its peak in 1984 - 3.3 million people.

By 1987, the country's unemployment rate had fallen, the economy had stabilized, and inflation was relatively low. An important role in supporting the UK economy was played by the revenues from the 90% tax on North Sea oil, which were also actively used to implement reforms during the 1980s.

During her third premier term, Thatcher introduced a reform of taxation, the proceeds of which went to the budgets of local governments: instead of a tax based on the nominal rental value of a house, the so-called “communal tax” (poll tax) was introduced, which at the same rate was supposed to pay each adult resident of the house. In 1989 this type of tax was introduced in Scotland, and in 1990 in England and Wales. The reform of the tax system became one of the most unpopular measures during Thatcher's premiership. On March 31, 1990, public discontent resulted in large demonstrations in London, in which about 70,000 people took part. The demonstrations in Trafalgar Square eventually turned into riots in which 113 people were injured and 340 arrested. Extreme popular dissatisfaction with the tax led Thatcher's successor, John Major, to cancel it.

Privatization

The policy of privatization has become an integral part of the so-called "Thatcherism". After the 1983 elections, the sale of state-owned enterprises on the market utilities accelerated. In total, the government raised more than £29bn from the sale of state-owned industrial enterprises (for example, the two-stage privatization of aircraft and industrial engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce brought in £1.6bn), and another £18bn from the sale of council houses.

The process of privatization, especially of unprofitable state-owned industrial enterprises, has contributed to the improvement of a number of indicators of these enterprises, especially labor productivity. A number of mining enterprises were privatized natural gas, water supply and electricity supply, which, nevertheless, remained natural monopolies, so their privatization could not lead to competition in the market. Despite the fact that Thatcher had always opposed the privatization of the railway, believing that it would be for the British government what Waterloo was for Napoleon I, shortly before her resignation, she agreed to the privatization of British Rail, which was already implemented by her successor in 1994. A number of companies undergoing privatization demonstrated good performance and under government control. British Steel, for example, increased its productivity significantly while remaining a state-owned enterprise controlled by a government-appointed chairman, Ian McGregor, who over the years faced strong union discontent over plant closures and job cuts. To compensate for the loss of direct state control over the privatized enterprises, the UK government significantly expanded the regulation of this industry: regulators such as the Gas Control Authority, the Ministry of Telecommunications and the National Rivers Authority were created.

Overall, the results of privatization have been mixed, although consumers have benefited from lower prices and better productivity. In addition, thanks to mass privatization, many Britons became shareholders, which formed the basis of "people's capitalism".

The privatization of state assets was accompanied by financial deregulation to support economic growth. Geoffrey Howe deregulated foreign exchange in 1979, allowing more capital investment in foreign markets. And the so-called "Great Shock" of 1986 led to the removal of most of the restrictions on the London Stock Exchange. The Thatcher government supported growth in the financial and service sectors as compensation for the depressing trends in industry. According to political economist Susan Strange, this policy led to the formation of "casino capitalism" (eng. casino capitalism), as a result of which speculation and financial trading began to play a more important role in the country's economy than industrial production.

Labor Relations

During her premiership, Thatcher actively fought against the influence of trade unions, which, in her opinion, had a negative impact on parliamentary democracy and economic results due to regular strikes. Margaret's first premier term was marked by a series of strikes organized by some of the trade unions in response to new legislation that limited their powers. In 1981, there were serious riots in Brixton, which were associated with rising unemployment, but the Thatcher government did not soften its economic policy, which was the cause of the increase in unemployment. Ultimately, the confrontation between the trade unions and the government ended in vain. Only 39% of union members voted for the Labor Party in the 1983 parliamentary elections. According to the BBC, Thatcher "succeeded in depriving the unions of power for almost a generation."

During her second premier term, Thatcher, without making any indulgence in her policy, continued to pursue the previous economic course, and also began a more active struggle against the influence of trade unions: laws were passed banning forced entry into a trade union, banning "solidarity strikes", mandatory prior warning to employers about the start of a strike and mandatory secret ballot to decide on the start of a strike. In addition, the rule of the "closed shop" on the priority hiring of members of the trade union leading at the given enterprise, the agreement with trade unions on the minimum guaranteed salary, was canceled. Representatives of trade unions were also excluded from advisory government commissions on economic and social policy.

Although Thatcher's efforts were aimed at preventing the mass strikes that had become frequent in Britain, she urged the British that these measures would help increase the democratic nature of trade unions. However, together with significant layoffs in privatized unprofitable enterprises and a rapid increase in unemployment, this policy resulted in large strikes.

The miners' strike of 1984-1985 was the biggest confrontation between unions and the British government. In March 1984, the National Coal Industry Administration made a proposal to close 20 of the 174 state-owned mines and cut 20,000 jobs (a total of 187,000 people worked in the industry). Two-thirds of the country's miners, led by the National Union of Mine Workers, went on a nationwide strike, and in the summer transport and metallurgy workers joined the miners. The strike swept the whole country and affected many sectors of the economy. Thatcher refused to accept the strikers' terms and compared the miners' claims to the Falklands conflict two years prior: “We had to fight the enemy outside the country, in the Falkland Islands. We must always be aware of the enemy within the country, which is more difficult to fight and which poses a greater danger to freedom.. A year after the strike began, in March 1985, the National Union of Miners was forced to retreat. The damage to the country's economy from these events was estimated at least £ 1.5 billion. In addition, the strikes caused a strong depreciation of the pound sterling against the US dollar. The UK government closed 25 unprofitable mines in 1985, and by 1992 their number was 97. The remaining mines were privatized. The subsequent closure of another 150 coal mines, some of which were not unprofitable, led to the fact that tens of thousands of people lost their jobs.

As you know, the miners contributed to the resignation of Prime Minister Heath, so Thatcher was determined to succeed where he failed. To minimize the effects of the strike, the British government boosted North Sea oil production and increased oil imports, as well as ensuring the work of those who, for fear of losing their jobs, did not join the strikers, and turned public opinion against the strikers and trade unions. The strategy of creating national stocks of combustible fuel, the appointment of Ian MacGregor, who led the fight against trade unions, as head of the national coal industry, as well as preparations for possible strikes and riots by the British police, made a significant contribution to Thatcher's victory over the unions. The result of government action was the end of the strike in 1985.

In 1979, the number of strikes in the UK reached its peak (4583 strikes, the number of lost working days - more than 29 million). In 1984, the year of the miners' strikes, there were 1221 strikes in the country. In the subsequent years of Thatcher's premiership, the number of strikes steadily fell: in 1990 there were already 630 of them. The number of trade union members also fell: from 13.5 million in 1979 to 10 million people in 1990 (the year of Thatcher's resignation).

To combat rising unemployment, the Thatcher government also revised the system of assistance to the unemployed: social assistance was cut, the regulation of rent by the state was removed, part-time work was stimulated, earlier retirement, professional retraining for more demanded specialties, moving to less prosperous regions of the country. In addition, the development of small businesses was stimulated. Despite significant unemployment in the early and mid-1980s, by moving away from the traditional post-war policy of full employment, many industrial enterprises were able to significantly improve their competitiveness by reducing costs. In turn, this contributed to economic growth.

Social sphere

Thatcher's neo-conservative policy touched not only the sphere of economy, finance and labor relations, but also the social sphere, to which the country's government sought to extend the same principles and use an identical strategy - cost reduction, privatization and deregulation. Such a policy made it possible, on the one hand, to spread elements of the market in this area, on the other hand, to strengthen control over it by the central government.

Education

In the early years of Thatcher's premiership, the education sector was not a top priority for the country's government, which was more busy fighting inflation and trade unions, but already in 1981, after the appointment of Joseph Keith as Minister of Education, there was a turn in politics, which was a reflection of Thatcher's desire to take under control activity educational institutions and at the same time apply to them market laws according to which the strongest survive, that is, the schools that are most popular.

Among the important achievements of Thatcher in this area was the introduction of the so-called district subsidy schemes, according to which the education of students could be partially or completely paid for by public funds. This allowed talented children from poor families to attend private schools, where education was paid. In addition, the parents of students were given the right to independently determine the place of education of their children, and not send them to the schools to which they were assigned, and also to be members of the governing boards of schools.

Law on educational reform In 1988, the National Curriculum was introduced in the UK, which was based on the idea of obtaining a similar education for students, regardless of the type of school and its location. The "core subjects" were identified, which included English, mathematics and science, as well as the "fundamental subjects" - history, geography, technology, music, art and physics. Compulsory study of a foreign language was introduced in secondary school.

Serious measures were taken by Thatcher to reduce the role and independence of local public education authorities, which were engaged in the financial management of schools. Instead, finances were placed under the control of managers, among whom were many parents of students.

The 1988 law also introduced a new type of secondary education institution, the city's colleges of technology, which received financial support from the state (and were also funded by private sponsors and charitable contributions). Education in these colleges was free.

healthcare

During Thatcher's premiership, the emergence of the AIDS epidemic occurred, but initially the Government of the country remained indifferent to this issue. The topic of HIV was raised only in 1984, when the question arose of the need to ensure the safety of donated blood. As a result, between 1984 and 1985, the problem of AIDS developed primarily in the context of blood transfusion and the fight against drug addiction.

The unpopularity of this topic within the framework of the activities of the British government was due to several reasons. First, there was an idea that the new virus was spread primarily among homosexuals and, to a lesser extent, among marginalized groups, so it threatened little of the majority of the country's citizens. Secondly, the Conservative Party sought to oppose the Labor Party, which supported the rights of sexual minorities. To a large extent, this was due to the commitment of conservatives to more conservative views on the issue of family relations and family values. On this basis, in 1986, the Ministry of Education launched a campaign in schools against the creation of a positive image of homosexuality, and in 1988 a well-known amendment to the Law on Local Government was passed, which ordered local governments “not to allow assistance in the dissemination of homosexuality or materials with the purpose of its encouragement” and “prevent materials about the acceptability of homosexuality from being taught in schools.”

At the same time, the new AIDS policy adopted in 1986, which consisted in the dissemination of sexual education among the population as the only effective way to combat the epidemic, assumed the cooperation and participation in its implementation of the groups most at risk, primarily the LGBT community. Thus, by this time, the government was more likely to adhere to a strategy of preventive measures (a call to use condoms, disposable syringes), rather than a policy of punishment or alienation of the main risk groups, although it maintained the image of homosexuality as an abnormal phenomenon. To a large extent, this change in policy was caused by the fear of the AIDS epidemic among heterosexual couples, as well as scientific publications by American specialists.

However, already in 1989, as public anxiety about the AIDS epidemic disappeared, another change in policy on this issue took place. Thatcher, convinced of the exaggeration of the problem, dissolved the special department for AIDS in the Ministry of Health, and also refused to fund academic research in the field of sexual behavior. As a result, the media began to write about this problem again as a problem for the LGBT community, and not for traditional sexual couples.

Northern Ireland issue

In 1981, representatives of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the Irish National Liberation Army, who were serving prison terms in Northern Ireland's Maze prison, went on a hunger strike, demanding that they be returned to the status of political prisoners, which they had been deprived of by the previous Labor government. The hunger strike was started by Bobby Sands, who declared that he was ready to starve to death if the government did not improve the conditions of his cellmates. However, Thatcher refused to make concessions. According to her, “crimes are crimes, and there is no political aspect in this case”. However, the British government held secret negotiations with republican leaders in an attempt to end the hunger strike. After the death of Sands and nine other prisoners who had been on a hunger strike for 46 to 73 days, Irish Nationalist prisoners were given equal rights with other militias, but Thatcher categorically refused to grant them political status. The hunger strike escalated violence in Northern Ireland, and in 1982 Sinn Féin politician Danny Morrison called Thatcher "the greatest scum we've ever known"(English the biggest bastard we have ever known).

On October 12, 1984, the Irish Republican Army assassinated Thatcher by bombing a hotel in Brighton during a Conservative conference. As a result of the attack, five people were killed, including the wife of one of the members of the Cabinet of Ministers. Thatcher herself was unharmed and opened the party conference the next day. As scheduled, she gave a speech, which drew support from political circles and increased her popularity among the public.

On November 6, 1981, Thatcher and Irish Prime Minister Garrett Fitzgerald established the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Council, within which regular meetings were held between representatives of both governments. On November 15, 1985, Thatcher and Fitzgerald signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement at Hillsborough Castle, according to which the reunification of Ireland was to take place only if this idea was supported by the majority of the population of Northern Ireland. In addition, for the first time in history, the British Government has given the Republic of Ireland an advisory role in the administration of Northern Ireland. An intergovernmental conference of Irish and British officials was ordered to discuss political and other matters relating to Northern Ireland, with the Republic of Ireland representing the interests of Northern Irish Catholics.

The signed agreement provoked sharp criticism from the Unionists, who represented mainly the interests of the Protestant population and advocated the preservation of Ulster as part of the UK and against Irish interference in the affairs of Northern Ireland. Democratic Unionist deputy head Peter Robinson even called him "an act of political prostitution". More than 100 thousand people joined the protest campaign under the slogan "Ulster says no" led by the Unionists.

Conservative Party member Ian Gow resigned as Minister of State in the Treasury and all 15 Unionist members of the House of Commons left their seats; only one of them returned as a result of the parliamentary by-elections that followed on January 23, 1983.

Foreign policy

In foreign policy, Thatcher was guided by the United States and supported the initiatives of Ronald Reagan in relation to the USSR, to which both politicians treated with distrust. During her first term as prime minister, she supported NATO's decision to deploy BGM-109G ground-launched missiles and Pershing-1A short-range missiles in Western Europe, and also allowed the US military, starting November 14, 1983, to deploy more than 160 cruise missiles on US Air Force Base Greenham Common, located in Berkshire, England, which caused massive protests from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In addition, Great Britain under Thatcher bought more than £12 billion (in 1996-1997 prices) of Trident missiles to be installed on its SSBNs, which were supposed to replace the Polaris missiles. As a result, the country's nuclear forces have tripled.

Thus, in matters of defense, the British government relied entirely on the United States. In January 1986, the Westland Affair received significant publicity. Thatcher went out of her way to ensure that Westland, the national helicopter manufacturer, refused a merger offer from the Italian company Agusta in favor of an offer from the American company Sikorsky Aircraft. Subsequently, British Secretary of State for Defense Michael Heseltine, who supported the Agusta deal, resigned.

On April 2, 1982, Argentine troops landed in the British Falkland Islands, provoking the start of the Falklands War. The onset of the crisis, as history has shown, was a key event in the years of premiership. At the suggestion of Harold Macmillan and Robert Armstrong, Thatcher became the founder and chairman of the War Cabinet, which by 5-6 April tasked the British Navy with regaining control of the islands. On June 14, the Argentine military surrendered, and the military operation ended in success for the British side, although 255 British soldiers and three residents of the Falkland Islands were killed during the conflict. The Argentine side lost 649 people (of which 323 people died as a result of the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano by the British nuclear submarine). During the conflict, Thatcher was criticized for neglecting the defense of the Falkland Islands, as well as for the decision to sink the General Belgrano. Nevertheless, Thatcher was able to use all military and diplomatic options to restore British sovereignty over the islands. This policy was welcomed by the British, which markedly strengthened the faltering position of the Conservatives and Thatcher's leadership in the party before the 1983 parliamentary elections. Thanks to the "Falklands factor", the economic recovery of early 1982 and the divisions among the Labor Party, the Conservative Party, led by Thatcher, managed to win the election.

Thatcher, unlike many conservatives, was cool about the idea of further deepening European integration. In 1988, in a speech in Bruges, she opposed the initiatives of the EEC to increase the centralization of decision-making and the creation of federal structures. Although in general Thatcher advocated the membership of Great Britain in the integration association, she believed that the role of the organization should be limited to issues of ensuring free trade and effective competition. Despite the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson and Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe, Margaret strongly opposed the country's participation in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, the predecessor of the European Monetary Union, believing that this would impose restrictions on the British economy. However, John Major managed to convince Thatcher, and in October 1990 the UK became a member of the mechanism.

Thatcher was one of the first Western politicians to positively assess the reformist sentiments of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, with whom she first held talks in London in December 1984. Her phrase about Gorbachev after these negotiations is known: "You can deal with this person." Back in November 1988 - a year before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Eastern European socialist regimes - Thatcher for the first time openly announced the end of the Cold War: "Now we are not in a cold war", because "the new relationship is broader than ever". In 1985, Thatcher visited the Soviet Union and met with Mikhail Gorbachev and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Nikolai Ryzhkov. Initially, she opposed the possible unification of Germany. According to her, this “will lead to a change in post-war borders, and we cannot allow this, since such a development of events will call into question the stability of the entire international situation and may threaten our security”. In addition, Thatcher feared that a united Germany would cooperate more with the USSR, relegating NATO to the background. At the same time, the Prime Minister spoke out in support of the independence of Croatia and Slovenia.

Resignation

The post of Prime Minister of Great Britain and chairman of the Conservative Party passed to John Major, at the head of which the Conservative Party managed to win the 1992 parliamentary elections.

After resignation

After leaving the House of Commons

After the election of Tony Blair as Chairman of the Labor Party in 1994, Thatcher called him "the most dangerous Labor leader since Hugh Gaitskell".

After 2002

Thatcher at a memorial service in honor of the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Right - Dick Cheney and his wife

Margaret celebrated her 80th birthday on October 13, 2005 at a London hotel. Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Among the guests were Elizabeth II, Philip of Edinburgh, Alexandra of Kent and Tony Blair. Geoffrey Howe, who also attended the celebrations, stated that “her real triumph transformed not only one, but both parties, so when Labor returned to power, most of the principles of Thatcherism were taken for granted”.

In February 2007, Thatcher became the first British Prime Minister to have a monument erected in the British Parliament during his lifetime (the official opening took place on February 21, 2007 in the presence of a former politician). A bronze statue with an outstretched right arm is located opposite the statue of Thatcher's political idol - Winston Churchill. Thatcher gave a short speech in the House of Commons, declaring that “I would rather have an iron statue, but bronze will do too ... It will not rust”.

In 2002, Thatcher experienced several minor strokes, after which the doctor advised her to refuse to participate in public events and move away from public and political activities. After collapsing during a dinner in the House of Commons on 7 March 2008, she was taken to St Thomas' Hospital in central London. In June 2009, she was hospitalized due to a broken arm. From 2005 until the end of her life she suffered from dementia (senile dementia).

Illness and death

In the last years of her life, Margaret Thatcher was seriously ill. On December 21, 2012, she underwent surgery to remove a bladder tumor. Thatcher died in the early morning of April 8, 2013, at the age of 88, at the Ritz Hotel in central London, where she had been living after being discharged from the hospital at the end of 2012. The cause of death was a stroke.

The funeral service was held at St. Paul's Cathedral in London with military honors. Back in 2005, Thatcher drew up a detailed plan for her funeral, and preparations for them have been carried out since 2007 - all events in which the Queen takes part are planned in advance. At her funeral, according to the plan, the "Iron Lady" wished the presence of Queen Elizabeth II, members of the royal family, as well as major political figures of the Thatcher era, including ex-USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev (he could not arrive for health reasons). According to Thatcher's last will, the orchestra performed selected works by the English composer Edward Elgar. After the memorial service, a cremation took place, and the ashes, according to the will of the deceased, were buried next to her husband Denis in the cemetery of the military hospital in the London district of Chelsea. The funeral took place on April 17 and cost 6 million pounds.

Thatcher's opponents, who are also quite a few, vigorously celebrated and held street parties in honor of the death of the ex-premier. At the same time, the song "Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead" from the movie "The Wizard of Oz", released in 1939, was performed. In the April days of 2013, the song became popular again and took second place in the official UK composite chart.

Heritage

At the same time, Thatcher's premiership was marked by high unemployment and regular strikes. In the issue of unemployment, most critics blame her economic policy, which was heavily influenced by the ideas of monetarism. This problem, in turn, has led to the spread of drug addiction and family divorce. Speaking in Scotland in April 2009, on the eve of the thirtieth anniversary of her election as prime minister, Thatcher insisted that she had no regrets about her actions during the premiership, including the issue of imposing a poll tax and refusing subsidies. "an outdated industry whose markets were in decline".

Thatcher's premiership was the longest in the 20th century since Salisbury (1885, 1886-1892 and 1895-1902) and the longest continuous tenure since Lord Liverpool (1812-1827).

Fame and popularity

Time magazine named Margaret Thatcher one of the 100 Greatest People of the 20th century in the Leaders and Revolutionaries category.

Awards

Having taken the post of Minister of Education and Science in 1970, Thatcher became a member of the British Privy Council. Two weeks after leaving office, she received the Order of Merit - a distinctive sign of members of a limited society (order), established in Great Britain in 1902 by King Edward VII. At the same time, Denis Thatcher became the owner of the hereditary title - a baronet. In 1992, Thatcher became a member of the House of Lords with a life peerage with the title of Baroness Kesteven in Lincolnshire and a coat of arms. In 1995, she was appointed Dame of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (the highest order of chivalry in Great Britain) by Elizabeth II.

In 1983, Thatcher was elected a member of the Royal Society of London, and after being elected leader of the Conservative Party in 1975, she became the first female full member (as an honorary member) of the Carleton Club.

In the Falkland Islands, since 1992, every year on January 10, Margaret Thatcher Day is celebrated in memory of her visit to the islands in 1983. In addition, a street in Stanley was named after the politician, as well as a peninsula in South Georgia.

Thatcher was awarded the Republican Senatorial Medal of Freedom, as well as one of the two highest US civilian awards given by the President of the United States, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In addition, she became the recipient of the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award. Thatcher provided assistance to the US Heritage Foundation, a strategic research institute, under which the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom was established in 2005.

In 1998, Thatcher was awarded the title of honorary citizen of Zagreb. She was a member of the Bilderberg Club.

Mentions in culture

The personality of Margaret Thatcher has been mentioned in a number of fictional works, including literary texts, television programs, feature films and documentaries, theatrical performances, musical compositions. In the 2002 BBC4 docudrama The Falkland Game, actress Patricia Hodge played the role of the British Prime Minister, and Andrea Riceborough played the role of the British Prime Minister in Margaret Thatcher: Long Way to Finchley. In addition, Thatcher became the main character in films such as Margaret (2009; Lindsay Duncan played the role) and The Iron Lady (2011; Meryl Streep played the role). For her role as Thatcher in the last film, Meryl Streep won the eighth statuette of the Golden Globe Award, the second statuette of the award. BAFTA and won her third Oscar.

The article about Thatcher in the Oxford Biographical Directory ranks third in terms of volume - more than 33 thousand words. More only articles about Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth II.

Cinema

Janet Brown - "Decision 79" (1979), "For Your Eyes Only" (1981).
Caroline Bernstein - "Back to Business" (2007), "I'm Bob" (2007).
Meryl Streep - "Iron Lady" (2011).

A television

Angela Thorne - "Anyone for Denis?" (1982), "Danrulin" (1990).
Steve Nallon - "The Poured Portrait" (1985-1987), "Live from London" (1988), "KYTV" (1989), "Bullseye!" (1990), "Ben Elton: The Man from Onti" (1990), "New Statesman" (1987-1990), "Pallas" (1992), "Night with a Thousand Faces" (2001), "Looking for La Che" ( 2011).
Hilary Turner - "First Among Equals" (1986).
Maureen Lipman - "About the Face" (1989).
"House of Cards" (1990).
Sylvia Sims - "Thatcher: The Last Days" (1991).
"The Last Take" (1995).
Patricia Hodge - "Falkland Game" (2002).
Louise Gold - "The Diaries of Alan Clark" (2004).
Anna Massey - "Pinochet in the suburbs" (2006).
Kika Markham - "Beauty Line" (2006).
Caroline Blakiston - "The Cup!" (2006).
Elizabeth Shepherd - "Shades of Black: The Conrad Black Story" (2006).
Andrea Riseborough - "Margaret Thatcher: Long Way to Finchley" (2008).
Lindsey Duncan - "Margaret" (2009).
Leslie Manville - "Queen" (2009).
“Thatcher. A Woman at the Top of Power (documentary, 2010).
“Historical chronicles with Nikolai Svanidze”, 84 series - “1982. Margaret Thatcher and the USSR (documentary, 2012).

Theatre

Billy Elliot the Musical (Lee Hall, Stephen Daldry, 2005 - present)

Literature

"First Among Equals" (Jeffrey Archer, 1984)
"The Fourth Protocol" (Frederick Forsyth, 1984).
The Negotiator (Frederick Forsyth, 1989).
"Deceiver" (Frederick Forsythe, 1991).
"The Diaries of Alan Clark" (Alan Clark, 1993, 2000).
"The Fist of Allah" (Frederick Forsyth, 1994).
"Icon" (Frederick Forsyth, 1997).
Beauty Line (Alan Hollinghurst, 2004).

Music

Cover of the single "Women in Uniform" (Iron Maiden, 1980)
"The Final Cut" (Pink Floyd, 1983)
"Maggie" (The Exploited, 1985)
"Maggie" (Chaos U.K., 1982)
"Heartland" (The The, 1986)
"Margaret On The Guillotine" (Morrissey, 1988)
"All My Trials" (Paul McCartney, 1990)
"Margaret" (gr. "Electrophoresis", 2012)

First female Prime Minister of Great Britain from the Conservative Party, Baroness Margaret Thatcher. Full name - Margaret Hilda Thatcher, before marriage bore the surname Roberts. Margaret Thatcher the first woman in everything, she was the Prime Minister of England longer than all her colleagues, this period in history is called "Thatcherism". For sharp criticism of the policy of the USSR Margaret Thatcher nicknamed the "Iron Lady".

Margaret Thatcher was born in Grantham. Her father, Alfred Roberts, ran two grocers and was also active in political life city, was a member of the city council, was the mayor of Grantham for a year.

At school Margaret Roberts I studied diligently, constantly worked on myself. She studied piano, field hockey, swimming, race walking, and poetic skills. Before leaving school, she received a scholarship to study chemistry at Oxford College. In 1947 Margaret graduated from Oxford with a Bachelor of Science degree.

Political activities of Margaret Thatcher / Margaret Thatcher

some time Margaret Roberts worked as a research chemist in Colchester, then joined the association of the Conservative Party. In 1951, she was elected as the party's candidate for the Dartford elections, where she later moved.

Margaret immediately attracted the attention of the press. She was the youngest candidate, and also a woman. Despite the loss, it markedly undermined the strength of the Labor Party.

Every woman who is familiar with the problems of housekeeping comes close to understanding the problems of running a country.

In 1959 Finchley constituency elections Margaret Thatcher won and became a member of the House of Commons. For ten years of representation of the Conservative Party in various government bodies Margaret Thatcher has put forward and supported many bills: on the right of tenants to buy municipal residential buildings, against mandatory price and income controls, supported the release of homosexuals from criminal liability and the legalization of abortion.

In 1975 Margaret Thatcher won over Edward Heath for the chair of the Conservative Party.

In 1976 Thatcher spoke sharply about the policy of the USSR:

Newspaper "A red star" responded to this remark by naming Thatcher"iron lady".

On May 3, 1979, the Conservative Party won the election to the House of Commons, and Margaret Thatcher became the first female prime minister of Great Britain. Thatcher served three terms as prime minister. She reformed taxation, privatization, trade unions, and education. Over the years the streets of London have seen many strikes, rallies and even riots.

I won't say I'm lucky. I just deserve it.

Over the years, the image of the "iron lady" has become negatively perceived by the British. In 1990, the Labor Party's ratings were higher than those of the Conservatives, who were split. Margaret Thatcher did not want to listen to the opinion of their colleagues, after which Michael Heseltine announced his candidacy for the presidency. Thatcher won in the first round, but after conferring with her cabinet and the Queen, she herself resigned as prime minister. She took this resignation as a betrayal.

In 2007 Margaret Thatcher erected a monument in the British Parliament. The statue is placed in front of the statue Winston Churchill.

Personal life of Margaret Thatcher / Margaret Thatcher

In 1951, Margaret met a divorced businessman Denis Thatcher at the official dinner on the occasion of her election as a candidate from the Conservative Party. They got married in December of the same year. In 1953, they had twins: daughter Carol and son Mark.

After leaving politics Margaret Thatcher organized a fund, which soon closed, wrote two autobiographies. In March 2002, she released a book "The Art of Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World" which has been dedicated Ronald Reagan.

In 2002 Thatcher survived several microstrokes, after which the doctors advised her to move away from public and political life. Her husband Denis passed away in 2003.

In 2009 Margaret Thatcher broke her arm. She did not appear in public again, citing poor health.

Films about Margaret Thatcher / Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher became the heroine of many series and films. In docudrama "Falkland Game" played it Patricia Hodge, in the film "Iron Lady" - Meryl Streep. For this role, Streep won her eighth Golden Globe Award, her second BAFTA and her third Oscar.

1979 - Decision 79 - Janet Brown
1981 - For Your Eyes Only - Janet Brown
1982 - Anyone for Denis? - Angela Thorne
1985-1987 - Poured portrait - Steve Nallon
1986 - First Among Equals - Hilary Turner
1987-1990 - New statesman - Steve Nallon
1988 - Live from London - Steve Nallon
1989 - About the face - Maureen Lipman
1990 - Ben Elton: The Man from Onti - Steve Nallon
1990 - Dunrulin - Angela Thorne
1990 - House of Cards
1990 - Apple! — Steve Nellon
1991 - Thatcher: The Last Days - Sylvia Sims
1992 - Pallas - Steve Nallon
1995 - Last double
2001 - Night with a Thousand Faces - Steve Nallon
2002 - Falkland Game - Patricia Hodge
2004 - Alan Clark's Diaries - Louise Gold
2006 - Cup! — Caroline Blakiston
2006 - Beauty Line - Kika Markham
2006 - Shades of Black: The Conrad Black Story - Elizabeth Shepherd
2006 - Pinochet in the suburbs - Anna Massey
2007 - Back to business - Caroline Bernstein
2007 - I'm Bob - Caroline Bernstein
2008 - Margaret Thatcher: Long Way to Finchley - Andrea Riseborough
2009 - Queen - Leslie Manville
2009 - Margaret - Lindsay Duncan
2010 - Thatcher. Woman at the pinnacle of power
2011 - In Search of La Che - Steve Nallon
2011 - Iron Lady - Meryl Streep

Margaret Thatcher was born on October 13, 1925, north of London, in the small English town of Grantham, known only for being the birthplace of Isaac Newton.

Even before school, Margaret studied music and poetry. From childhood, her father taught her to play sports, developed his daughter's oratory skills. Margaret grew up beyond her age as a serious child, she had practically no friends, except for her father.

Then she entered a school for girls, where she studied well and took part in sports competitions, becoming the captain of her school's team. At the age of nine, Margaret won a poetry competition, showing character. When she won first place, the headmistress of the school told her: "You are very lucky, Margaret," but the girl in response to her objected: "It's not luck, madam. It's a merit!" Since then, the school began to call Margaret Toothpick - perhaps for her sharp mind, and maybe for her sharp tongue.

At the age of 12, she began attending political meetings, and at 13, despite the fact that her father supported the policy of the Conservatives, she made her choice in favor of the Labor Party. Margaret still had enough time to work in her family's grocery store. In the meantime, her father, through hard work and determination, had succeeded in getting him elected mayor of Grantham.

Four years before graduation, Margaret decided that she would study at Somerville, the best women's college in Oxford. To qualify for a scholarship, it was necessary to learn Latin perfectly. For four years of hard work and cramming, Margaret achieved this.

Margaret devoted all her free time only to her studies. The only activity that could tear her away from textbooks was her participation in political debates that were popular at that time. Participating in them, Margaret honed her oratory skills, learned to defend her beliefs among men.

Later, already at Oxford University, Margaret Roberts joined the Conservative Association. In 1947, Margaret Roberts received her bachelor's degree and began working as a research assistant at the Mannington Laboratory. She then moved to London, where she also worked in a chemical laboratory. However, all Margaret's thoughts were occupied by politics. In 1948, she decided to try for a seat in the Dartford branch of the Conservative Party.

Margaret Roberts lost the election, but even during the election campaign she met one of her party comrades, industrialist Denis Thatcher, with whom they married two years later, in 1951. Shortly after their marriage, Margaret entered law school. In 1953, she gave birth to twins, whom she named Carol and Mark, and passed her bar exam just four months later.

Margaret Thatcher often talked about balancing family and professional responsibilities. Her opinion was always unambiguous. The following years, Margaret Thatcher worked as a lawyer, then became an excellent specialist in patent and tax law. Before her, there was practically no place for women in this area of jurisprudence in those years.

In 1959, Margaret Thatcher took part in parliamentary elections for the second time and this time she won. She became a member of the House of Commons at the age of 33!

Since then, she has gradually moved up the political ladder and in May 1979 became Prime Minister of Great Britain, gaining almost 44% of the vote.