Margaret Thatcher

M argaret Thatcher’s political career has been one of the most remarkable of modern times. She was born in October 1925 at Grantham, a small market town in eastern England and became the first (and for two decades the only) woman to lead a major Western democracy. She won three successive General Elections and served as British Prime Minister for more than eleven years (1979-90), a record unmatched in the twentieth century.

Early life and education

Margaret Thatcher’s home and early life in Grantham played a large part in forming her political views. Her parents, Alfred and Beatrice Roberts, were Methodists. The family lived largely within the local community, following strong traditions of self-help, charitable work, and personal truthfulness.

The Roberts family ran a grocery business, bringing up their two daughters in a flat over the shop. Margaret Roberts attended a local state school and from there won a place at the Chemistry Department of Somerville College at Oxford (1943-47). However, chemistry took second place to politics in Margaret Thatcher’s future plans as conservative politics had always been a feature of her home life. While she was studying at Somerville College, she was elected president of the student Conservative Association at Oxford and met many prominent politicians, making herself known to the leadership of her party at the time of its defeat by Labour at the General Election of 1945.

Later life and political career

She first ran for Parliament in 1950 but lost and continued to work as a research chemist. At that time she was the youngest ever female Conservative candidate for office. The following year she married Dennis Thatcher, who was a wealthy businessman and funded his wife’s studies for the Bar. Soon their twin children Carol and Mark were born. Although in 1951 Margaret again lost the election to Parliament, eight years later she succeeded in winning a Conservative seat.

After the Conservatives won the May 1979 elections, Thatcher became the first woman Prime Minister of Britain. By the time she took office, she had already held several government posts and had been leader of the Opposition.

Her first years in office were not easy. Unemployment was very high, but the economy gradually showed improvement. She brought more of her supporters into the Cabinet, and the government followed a radical programme of privatisation and deregulation, reform of the Trade Unions, tax cuts and the introduction of market mechanisms into health and education. The aim was to reduce the role of government and increase individual self-reliance. In addition, she became a familiar figure internationally, striking up a famous friendship with US President Reagan and gaining the praise of Soviet leader Gorbachev.

The third-term Thatcher Government proposed the most ambitious legislative platform that had ever been put forward by a British administration. However, opposition concerning her economic policies increased and in November 1990 Thatcher was eventually persuaded to leave.

She had held a parliamentary seat until 1992, when she was appointed to the House of Lords as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven.

Today Margaret Thatcher remains an intensely controversial figure in Britain. Critics claim that her economic policies were divisive socially, that she was harsh in her politics, and hostile to the institutions of the British welfare state. On the contrary, defenders point to a transformation in Britain's economic performance over the course of the Thatcher Governments, which have created better economic prospects for Britain than seemed possible when she became Prime Minister.

(Adapted from http://www.margaretthatcher.org/essential/biography.asp)