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Margaret Thatcher Facts

Margaret Thatcher Facts
Margaret Thatcher was a British politicians best known for being the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. Her tenure as prime minister was marked by active policies on both the domestic and international fronts. Domestically, Thatcher promoted her Conservative Party's views on economic and social issues, which later became known as "Thatcherism." Thatcherism domestic policies included deregulation, lower taxes and spending, and often opposition to the labor unions. In geopolitics, Thatcher moved the United Kingdom even closer to the United States by increasing support of NATO and reestablished the UK as a military force by defeating Argentina in the Falklands War of 1982. Margaret Thatcher was one of the most important politicians in British history and one of the most pivotal personalities of the Cold War. She was born Margaret Hilda Roberts on October 13, 1925 in Grantham, England to Alfred and Beatrice Roberts. She was a good primary school student, earning a scholarship to Oxford, where she graduated with a degree in biology in 1947. Margaret's true passion was in politics, though, which is how she met her husband, David Thatcher. The couple married in 1951 and would have a son and a daughter.
Interesting Margaret Thatcher Facts:
Thatcher studied law in the early 1950s and became a barrister in 1953.
Her son and daughter are twins.
She first entered parliament after winning a seat in the general election of 1959.
Thatcher rose quickly to a leadership role in the Conservative Party, but never believed that she would be prime minister. She is quoted as saying, "There will not be a woman prime minister in my lifetime - the male population is too prejudiced.
Thatcher became the leader of the opposition in 1975 until the Conservative Party came to power in 1979.
One of the factors that helped the Conservatives come to power in 1979 was the weakness of the global economy. The United Kingdom was suffering from a recession as bad as the one in the United States. Unemployment was extremely high in the country, as was inflation.
Thatcher's tough stance against communism in general and the Soviet Union in particular earned her the nickname "The Iron Lady." The nickname was first coined by a Soviet journalist in 1976 as an insult. Instead of being offended by the nickname, Thatcher made in part of her public image.
Along with her tough stance against communism, Thatcher took a hardline against the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and its various republican splinter groups. The hardline led the IRA to attempt an assassination on her in 1984.
After leaving the government, Thatcher supported several nonprofit groups and charities around the world.
Thatcher died on April 8, 2013 due to complications from a stroke at the age of eighty-seven. She was interred on the ground of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.


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