Politician and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher also nicknamed as “Iron Lady” was born as Margaret Hilda Roberts on October 13th, 1925, in Grantham, England. Margaret Thatcher was the prime minister of England from the year 1979 to the year 1990. Her father was a local businessman, she was educated at the Grantham Girls’ high school. Her family ran a grocery shop and used to live in an apartment above the store.
In her early years, Thatcher was familiarized to traditional politics by her father, who himself was a member of the town’s council. She was a good student and was accepted to Oxford, where she studied chemistry.She actively participated in politics in her youth, Margaret Thatcher served as the president of the Conservative Association at the university. She graduated in the subject of chemistry in 1947, and worked as research chemist in Colchester and Dartford.
After graduation in 1950, Thatcher ran as the conservative candidate; her first bid in politics. Although she lost that contest, she won respect of her political party with her speeches. She was unaffected by this defeat, she tried for the same the next year. She lost again, after the 2nd loss, she got married to Denis Thatcher in the next two months.
In 1952, she sidelined politics and started her studies in law, thatcher became a barrister in 1953. She couldn’t keep herself away from politics for long, she won a seat in the House of Commons in 1959. In 1961, she was appointed as a parliamentary undersecretary for pensions and national insurance.
Later on, she became the member of the Shadow Cabinet, it was a group of leaders, who hold cabinet-level posts when their party was in power. In 1970, Margaret Thatcher was appointed as the secretary of state for science and education. Although, it is said that thatcher found her position rather frustrating because she had difficulty conveying her ideas to Prime Minister Edward Heath.
Thatcher emerged as a dominant force for the conservative party, when the party lost power in 1974. She won against Edward Heath as the leader of conservation party in the year 1975. This victory made Thatcher as the first woman to serve as the leader of the opposition in the House of Commons.
At the time when England was struggling with economic and political chaos and the government was almost bankrupt. All this led the conservative party to come to power and as the party leader, in May 1979, Margaret Thatcher was appointed the first woman prime minister of Britain.
After becoming the PM of Britain, Margaret Thatcher raised the interest rates to control inflation. She was best known for the enormous privatization of public transports and social housing. US President and Fellow conservative Ronald Reagan was one of her firmest associate, both of them shared similar political philosophies.
The second time, when Thatcher became the Prime Minister during 1983 and 1987. There was made many attempts to kill her. In a plot by the Army of Irish Republic, there was a bomb planted at the conservative conference. Thatcher was unharmed andgave the speech fearlessly.In 1986, Margaret Thatcher supported Ronald Reagan’s air raids on Libya and permitted US forces to access British bases to carry out the attacks.
On her third term as a PM, she planned to implement a standard educational curriculum in Britain and also to improve the socialized medical system in the nation but she lost on support from other party members and others because of her actions to implement a fixed rate local tax, which resulted in public protests.All this led to Thatcher deciding to resign and eventually on November 28th, 1990, Margaret Thatcher left10 Downing Street, the official residence for the Prime Minister, for the last time.
Soon after leaving office, in 1992, Thatcher was appointed as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven to the House of Lords. After her resignation, she wrote three books; The Downing Street Years in 1993, The Path to Power in 1995 and Statecraft in 2005. She wrote about her experiences as a leader in the field of politics and offered her views about international politics in her third book.
In 2003, she lost her husband, Denis Thatcher and in the following year, she lost old friend and associate Ronald Reagan. Thatcher celebrated her 80th birthday, this event was attended by Queen Elizabeth II, Tony Blair and almost 600 other friends.
Margaret Thatcher’s health was noticed by everyone in 2010, when she couldn’t attend her 85th birthday celebration organized by now Prime Minister, David Cameron. After that, she missed several important events, such as the wedding of Prince William and the unveiling of the Ronald Reagan’s sculpture in April and July 2011. Moreover, in July, 2011, her office in the House of Lords was closed permanently, which was remarked by some as the end to her public life.
Margaret Thatcher died on Monday, 08th of April, 2013 at the age of 87. Margaret Thatcher are still debated by critics and supporters, which shows the permanent impression she made on the face of Britain and other nations worldwide.
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