Biography of margaret thatcher wikipedia the free

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She made history as Britain's first female prime minister and emerged as a leading voice of the Conservative Party. Thatcher's academic prowess shone through during her early schooling at Grantham Girls' High School. Over the next decade, she held a variety of positions within the Conservative Party, including roles in the Shadow Cabinet and as Secretary of State for Education and Science.

She remained a frontbencher after Labour won the 1964 General Election and entered the shadow cabinet in 1967, following two successful and happy years as deputy to the Shadow Chancellor, Iain Macleod. Both children were affected by their mother's prominent position, navigating the complexities of having a mother who was not only a groundbreaking politician but also a figure of significant controversy.

During her time as Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990, Thatcher's salary as a Member of Parliament and later as Prime Minister provided her with a comfortable income. When the Conservatives won the 1970 General Election she entered the Cabinet as Education Secretary, a post thought appropriate for a woman, which she held for the entire term of the Heath government.

Thatcher’s years at Education proved a painful, indeed at times a shattering, experience.

However, after years of stalemate on the most important questions of policy, fortune favoured Thatcher during the winter of 1978/79. Thatcher had acquired that status as early as 1976 when the Soviets obligingly dubbed her the “Iron Lady”, a politically helpful label the accuracy of which her subsequent career confirmed.

As Thatcher’s premiership progressed, the Conservative Party was often said to be increasingly Thatcherite in its policies.

Party rules dating from the end of Heath’s leadership provided for annual elections to the post and in November 1990 a contest was triggered by Michael Heseltine, following the resignation of Sir Geoffrey Howe over European policy. A crop of strikes badly damaged the credibility of the Labour government and gave her the chance to strengthen the Conservative line on reform of the trade unions.

He read widely and seriously, acquiring a great store of political knowledge: his daughter later joked that while Chancellors of the Exchequer and Treasury officials often talked to her about the Bank of England’s “fiduciary issue”, her father was the only man she had ever met who could actually define the term.

From a local state school Thatcher won a place to read chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, where she studied between 1943 and 1947.

With her appointment as prime minister, Thatcher’s political vision and innovative policies began to reshape the nation, establishing her legacy as a pivotal figure in British history. In some respects Thatcher spent the rest of her career attempting to make good what she saw as the mistakes and failures of those years.

Heath remained Conservative leader a year longer, a man uncomfortable in Opposition.

The Falklands War in 1982, where she successfully led Britain to reclaim the disputed territory from Argentina, further solidified her popularity and military stature.

Though she faced defeat in her first two attempts, she remained committed to her political aspirations and married Denis Thatcher in 1951. Raised in a family that owned a grocery store, she was deeply influenced by her father, a local businessman and town council member, who introduced her to conservative politics. She officially stepped down on November 28 after helping to assure that John Major and not Heseltine would replace her.