Margaret Thatcher (1979-90)
Margaret Roberts was born in 1925 and educated at Oxford and worked as a research chemist before studying law and becoming a barrister. She became a member of the Conservative Party and held several key positions under Heath. After the Conservative victory in 1970 Thatcher was appointed as the Secretary of State for Education and Science, she created great controversy by bringing and end to free school milk for children over seven and increased the school meal charges.

By 1975 Thatcher had challenged Heath for the Conservative leadership, and won. From then on she began her great campaign of opposition and shocked everyone with her speech that claimed people were scared of being ‘swamped’ by immigrants. In 1978 the Labour government’s great cuts in public spending led to a wave of strikes throughout Britain and a ‘Winter of Discontent’.

Following this the Labour Party was easily defeated and Thatcher became Britain’s first female Prime Minister. During the first ten years of her reign inflation was decreased but unemployment doubled and during this particular period she became arguably the most unpopular Prime Minister in British history. Her government continued to try and raise money and she introduced a system of privatization by denationalizing British Telecom, British Airways, Rolls Royce and British Steel.

Thatcher’s ever increasing unpopularity was turned around after the success of the Falkland’s War and the Conservatives won the 1983 General Election with a great majority. She again won the 1987 election to become Britain’s longest serving Prime Minister for over a hundred years. By 1990 she had introduced a Community Charge (Poll Tax) and this was her downfall as it led to nationwide demonstrations against it. In November 1990 she was challenged for the leadership of the Conservative Party and lost – she was replaced by John Major.

Thatcher, General Election – 1950:
“We are going into one of the biggest battles this country has ever known - a battle between two ways of life, one which leads inevitably to slavery and the other to freedom. Our opponents like to try and make you believe that Conservatism is a privilege of the few. But Conservatism conserves all that is great and best in our national heritage. What is one of the first tenets of Conservatism? It is that of national unity. We say one nation, not one class against another. You cannot build a great nation or a brotherhood of man by spreading envy or hatred.

Our policy is not built on envy or hatred, but on liberty for the individual man or woman. It is not our policy to suppress success: our policy is to encourage it and encourage energy and initiative. In 1940 it was not the cry of nationalization that made this country rise up and fight totalitarianism. It was the cry for freedom and liberty”.

Thatcher, The Path of Power – 1995:
“I was hailed in a modest way as the saviour of the Open University. In Opposition both lain Macleod and Edward Boyle, who thought that there were educational priorities more deserving of Government help, had committed themselves in public against it. And although its abolition was not in the manifesto, many people expected it to perish.

But I was genuinely attracted to the concept of a 'University of the Airwaves', as it was often called, because I thought that it was an inexpensive way of giving wider access to higher education, because I thought that trainee teachers in particular would benefit from it, because I was alert to the opportunities offered by technology to bring the best teaching to schoolchildren and students, and above all because it gave people a second chance in life.

In any case, the university was due to take its first students that autumn, and cancellation would have been both expensive and a blow to many hopes. On condition that I agreed to reduce the immediate intake of students and find other savings, my Cabinet colleagues allowed the Open University to go ahead”.

Thatcher, The Path of Power – 1995:
“I felt sorry for Ted Heath personally. He had his music and a small circle of friends, but politics was his life. That year, moreover, he had suffered a series of personal blows. His yacht, Morning Cloud, had sunk and his godson had been among those lost. The election defeat was a further blow.

Nonetheless, I had no doubt that Ted now ought to go. He had lost three elections out of four. He himself could not change and he was too defensive of his own past record to see that a fundamental change of policies was needed.

I arranged to see Ted on Monday 25 November. He was at his desk in his room at the House. I need not have worried about hurting his feelings. I went in and said: 'I must tell you that I have decided to stand for the leadership.' He looked at me coldly, turned his back, shrugged his shoulders and said: "If you must." I slipped out of the room”.
Thatcher, The Daily Telegraph – 30th January 1975:

“I was attacked (as Education Secretary) for fighting a rear-guard action in defence of 'middle-class interests'. The same accusation is levelled at me now, when I am leading Conservative opposition to the socialist Capital Transfer Tax proposals.

Well, if 'middle-class values' include the encouragement of variety and individual choice, the provision of fair incentives and rewards for skill and hard work, the maintenance of effective barriers against the excessive power of the state and a belief in the wide distribution of individual private property, then they are certainly what I am trying to defend ... If a Tory does not believe that private property is one of the main bulwarks of individual freedom,

then he had better become a socialist and have done with it. Indeed one of the reasons for our electoral failure is that people believe too many Conserva- tives have become socialists already. Britain's progress towards socialism has been an alternation of two steps forward with half a step back. And why should anyone support a party that seems to have the courage of no convictions?”

"Economics are the method; the object is to change the soul"

"It will be years before a woman either leads the Conservative Party or becomes Prime Minister. I don't see it happening in my time"
"You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning"