While there she studied chemistry and joined the Oxford Union Conservative Association, becoming president of the organization in After graduation she worked as a research chemist, but her real interest was politics. In December Margaret married Denis Thatcher, a wealthy businessman. Less than two years later she gave birth to twins, Carol and Mark. Meanwhile, she was studying for the bar exams, which she passed in early She then spent the next few years practicing law and looking for a winnable constituency.
Thatcher ran for parliament once more in —this time in the Conservative-dominated constituency of Finchley—and easily won the seat. The first bill she introduced affirmed the right of the media to cover local government meetings. Speaking about the bill in her maiden speech, she focused not on freedom of the press but instead on the need to limit wasteful government expenditures—a common theme throughout her political career.
By Thatcher had accepted an invitation to become parliamentary undersecretary in the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance. She then steadily moved up the ministerial ranks, becoming secretary of state for education and science when the Conservatives retook power in Nonetheless, she was able to keep her job, and in , with the Conservatives back in the opposition, she defeated former Prime Minister Edward Heath to take over leadership of the party.
Thatcher was now one of the most powerful women in the world. She rejected the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, who advocated deficit spending during periods of high unemployment, instead preferring the monetarist approach of Chicago economist Milton Friedman. In April , Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands , a sparsely populated British colony located miles from Argentina and 8, miles from the United Kingdom. Thatcher dispatched troops to the area.
On May 2, a British submarine controversially sank an Argentine cruiser that was outside of an official exclusion zone, killing over people on board. Later in the month, British troops landed near San Carlos Bay in East Falkland and, despite persistent air attacks, were able to capture the capital of Port Stanley and end the fighting.
The war and an improving economy propelled Thatcher to a second term in In what became a key part of her legacy, Thatcher also privatized British Telecom, British Gas, British Airways, Rolls-Royce and a number of other state-owned companies.
But people helped each other and they were very proud of their town and their country. There was no television when she was small the very first tv programmes were shown in Britain when she was 14, but she didn't see them.
And of course there were no computers and no internet. But there were cinemas! She loved films, which were a new thing when she was a child. Most came from America and she watched as many as she could. Also radio started when she was small. She was very excited the day the family got its first radio and ran all the way home from school. The whole family would listen most evenings to favourite programmes, like quizzes, comedies and news. She went to state schools - even when she was very small she had to walk several miles there and back each day except when there was a radio to run for - and worked hard, winning a place at Oxford University when she was 18 to study chemistry, a subject she loved.
Her teacher at Oxford was a famous chemist who later won a Nobel Prize for her work. But what she really wanted to do was to go into politics. Her father - she called him "Pa" - was very interested in what was happening in the world and helped to run the local council. She enjoyed listening to him talk about how things worked, and he knew a lot, so that was one reason she was became a politician.
She first helped at an election when she was 10, the age she was in the picture just above. At university she won her first election, becoming president of the student Conservative Association. It was only a small election, but some famous politicians came to speak to her club and she made some useful friends who helped her later. After university she got her first job as a chemist and tried to become the Member of Parliament or MP for a town called Dartford in Kent, on the edge of London.
She tried twice, in and She didn't come close to winning, because most voters in Dartford supported the Labour Party.
But she was the youngest woman candidate in the country, and very pretty, so her picture was in lots of newspapers. The photo to the left shows how she looked at this time. She hugely enjoyed fighting the elections. He was older than her and had fought in the war. They were a very close couple and he gave her tremendous help and support in everything she did. They had twins in , Mark and Carol. In those days fathers weren't usually present at the birth of their children. Denis was at a cricket match when they were born and when he first saw the babies said they looked like rabbits without fur on.
He was always cracking jokes. After MT got married she decided to train as a lawyer, something which she had planned to do for some years. She was always very determined and managed the hard work even though she had small children.
A nanny helped her. She tried to find other places where she could stand for Parliament but it was difficult, partly because lots of Conservatives felt that women with young children should not have careers.
But after years of trying she was chosen to be the Conservative candidate for Finchley, in north London, and finally became an MP in October Just after being elected MT entered a kind of competition among MPs to win the chance to pass a law. She won first time and got her own law written, meeting important people in Parliament and impressing other MPs with her first speech called a "maiden speech".
She gave her first ever tv interview the next day, at home on the sofa with the twins on either side of her. Soon she was asked to become a member of the government, responsible for pensions and benefits. She was good at understanding all the complicated rules, and worked hard. She began to become quite well known and in , when a man called Edward Heath became PM, she was given the important job of Education Secretary, responsible for Britain's schools and colleges.
MT had a bad time as Education Minister, especially in her first year. She was attacked by people who were annoyed that she had abolished free school milk for older children and got the nickname "milk snatcher". There were lots of other arguments too, and she was unhappy for a time, but it the end she was made stronger by the experience and many of her critics came to realise how tough a person she was.
Sadly she did not got on very well with the PM the man in the picture on the left. His government had to cope with serious economic problems.
There were many strikes in Britain, great crises abroad, and he changed his plans in what became called "the U turn" named after someone turning their car all the way round to go in the opposite direction to the one they started in. After only four years he was beaten at an election in February and lost power. After the election the Conservatives argued about what had gone wrong. Had the U turn been a mistake?
MT thought it had been, and later made a famous speech when she said "You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning".
There was another election in October and they lost that one too. The British politician enjoyed a close working relationship with Reagan, with whom she shared similar conservative views. Margaret Thatcher through the years — Thatcher and her husband, Denis, wave to the crowd at a London polling station in June She was re-elected to another term as prime minister that year with a slightly reduced majority.
Margaret Thatcher through the years — Thatcher dances with Reagan in November following a state dinner given in her honor at the White House.
The anti-apartheid activist and future South African president had been freed that year after more than 25 years as political prisoner. Margaret Thatcher through the years — Thatcher, flanked by her husband Denis, addresses the press for the last time at 10 Downing Street before her resignation as prime minister in November after an internal leadership struggle among Conservatives.
The award is the highest civilian honor bestowed in the United States. Margaret Thatcher through the years — Thatcher, with her son, Mark, and her daughter, Carol, watches the coffin of her husband, Denis, during his funeral in July in London. Denis Thatcher died at age Margaret Thatcher through the years — Thatcher touches the flag-draped coffin of Reagan as he lies in state in the U. Capitol Rotunda in June In a prerecorded video at his funeral, she called Reagan "a great president, a great American and a great man.
Margaret Thatcher through the years — An usher helps Thatcher, now a baroness, to her seat during the state opening of Parliament in November Margaret Thatcher through the years — The ex-prime minister helps unveil a portrait of herself at the opening of the Margaret Thatcher Infirmary at the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London in March Peter's Square at the Vatican in May Margaret Thatcher through the years — Thatcher attends the House of Lords during the state opening of Parliament in May Margaret Thatcher through the years — Thatcher waves from the door of her London home after a hospital stay to operate on a broken arm in June She had a pin placed in her shoulder after suffering a fall.
Margaret Thatcher through the years — Thatcher waves to journalists from her London home after another hospital visit -- this time with a bout of flu -- in November Margaret Thatcher, one of the seminal political figures of the 20th century, will be remembered for her unswerving belief in the virtues of free market capitalism and the vices of socialism, and for her role in the downfall of communism.
People might wonder why Thatcher evokes such positive emotion from young conservatives, such as me, who were children during her heyday. The answer is simple. In our era of politics in which spin seems to take precedence to substance, Margaret Thatcher was an icon for what politics should be about -- courage, spirit and the determination to change things for the better. In pursuit of the defeat of what she saw as socialist totalitarianism, she made a close alliance with U.
President Ronald Reagan and built a relationship with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, while still standing firm in opposition to the Soviet empire. Without question, she was one of America's closest and most important friends and was instrumental in winning the Cold War for the West.
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