Famous British people: Margaret Thatcher

Yet under party rules the margin was insufficient, and a second ballot was required. Receiving the news at a conference in Paris, she immediately announced her intention to fight on.

But a political earthquake occurred the next day on her return to London, when many colleagues in her cabinet — unsympathetic to her on Europe and doubting that she could win a fourth General Election — abruptly deserted her leadership and left her no choice but to withdraw. She resigned as Prime Minister on November 28 1990. John Major succeeded her and served in the post until the landslide election of Tony Blair’s Labour Government in May 1997.

Mrs Thatcher retained her parliamentary seat in the House of Commons as MP for Finchley for two years, returning to the backbenches after leaving the premiership. She supported John Major as her successor and he duly won the leadership contest, although in the years to come her approval of Major would fall away. She occasionally spoke in the House of Commons after she was Prime Minister, commenting and campaigning on issues regarding her beliefs and concerns. In 1991, she was given an unprecedented five minute standing ovation at the party’s annual conference. She retired from the House at the 1992 election, at the age of 66 years; she said that leaving the Commons would allow her more freedom to speak her mind.

After leaving the House of Commons, Thatcher remained active in politics. She wrote two volumes of memoirs: The Downing Street Years, published in 1993 and The Path to Power published in 1995.

In August 1992 Thatcher called for NATO to stop the Serbian assault on Goražde and Sarajevo in order to end ethnic cleansing and to preserve the Bosnian state. She described the situation in Bosnia as «reminiscent of the worst excesses of the Nazis», warning that there could be a «holocaust» in Bosnia and described the conflict as a «killing field the like of which I thought we would never see in Europe again.» She made a series of speeches in the Lords criticising the Maastricht Treaty, describing it as «a treaty too far» and stated «I could never have signed this treaty». She cited A. V. Dicey, to the effect that, since all three main parties were in favour of revisiting the treaty, the people should have their say.

From 1993 to 2000, Lady Thatcher served as Chancellor of the College of William and Mary in Virginia, which was established by Royal Charter in 1693. She was also Chancellor of the University of Buckingham, the UK’s only private university.

After Tony Blair’s election as Labour Party leader in 1994, Thatcher gave an interview in May 1995 in which she praised Blair as «probably the most formidable Labour leader since Hugh Gaitskell. I see a lot of socialism behind their front bench, but not in Mr Blair. I think he genuinely has moved.»

Lady Thatcher visited former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet, once a key British ally during the 1982 Falklands War, while he was under house arrest in Surrey in 1998. Pinochet was fighting extradition to Spain for alleged human rights abuses committed during his tenure. Thatcher expressed her support and friendship for Pinochet, who had swept to power on a wave of military violence and torture in the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, thanking him for supporting Britain in the Falklands War and for «bringing democracy to Chile.»

In 1999, during Thatcher’s first speech to a Conservative Party conference in nine years, she contended that Britain’s problems came from continental Europe. Her comments aroused some criticism from Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former Foreign Secretary under Sir John Major, who said that Lady Thatcher’s comments could give the impression that Britain is prejudiced against Europe.

In the 2001 general election, Lady Thatcher supported the Conservative general election campaign but this time did not endorse Iain Duncan Smith in public as she had done previously for John Major and William Hague. In the Conservative leadership election shortly after, she supported Iain Duncan Smith because she believed he would «make infinitely the better leader» than Kenneth Clarke.

I n March 2002 Thatcher published Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, detailing her thoughts on mainly international relations and dedicated to Ronald Reagan. S he claimed there would no peace in the Middle East until Saddam Hussein was toppled and said if he was found to be involved in the attacks on 11 September 2001, war was right. S he also said Israel must trade land for peace as part of an equitable settlement. T he most controversial part, however, dealt with the European Union.

I t was «fundamentally unreformable» and «a classic utopian project, a monument to the vanity of intellectuals, a programme whose inevitable destiny is failure». She argued that Britain should renegotiate its terms of membership but if this failed Britain should leave the EU and join the North American Free Trade Area. T his book was serialised in The Times on Monday 18 March and caused a sensation. Having dominated the media all week with her views on the EU, on Friday 23 March she announced that on the advice of her doctors she would cancel all planned speaking engagements and accept no more.

In July 2002, theatre producer Paul Kelleher, 37, decapitated a £150,000, 8 ft marble sculpture of Thatcher. Using a cricket bat hidden in his trousers, Kelleher took a swipe at the statue on display at the Guildhall Art Gallery, central London. When he failed to knock off the head, he grabbed a metal pole to complete the act. He was jailed.

Thatcher’s life since 2003

T hatcher was widowed upon the death of Sir Denis Thatcher on 26 June 2003. A funeral service was held honouring him at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea on 3 July with Thatcher present, as well as her children Mark and Carol. T hatcher paid tribute to him by saying, «Being Prime Minister is a lonely job. I

n a sense, it ought to be — you cannot lead from a crowd. B ut with Denis there I was never alone. W hat a man. W hat a husband. What a friend".

At a secret meeting of the No Turning Back group of Conservative MPs, she spoke against the Labour government’s plans for compulsory identity cards, saying: «Identity cards are a Germanic concept and completely alien to this country. I don’t see why we should have them». She claimed they would not protect Britain from a terrorist attack nor reduce crime.

Now in her declining years, she began complaining about her «lost» family (Mark in South Africa, Carol in Switzerland), but her daughter was less than sympathetic: «A mother cannot reasonably expect her grown-up children to boomerang back, gushing cosiness and make up for lost time. Absentee Mum, then Gran in overdrive is not an equation that balances.»

The following year, on 11 June, Thatcher travelled to the United States to attend the state funeral service for former US President Ronald Reagan, one of her closest friends, at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Thatcher delivered a eulogy via videotape to Reagan; in view of her failing mental faculties following several small strokes, the message had been pre-recorded several months earlier. Thatcher then flew to California with the Reagan entourage, and attended the memorial service and interment ceremony for President Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Thatcher attends the Washington memorial service marking the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, pictured with Dick Cheney and his wife.

Thatcher marked her 80th birthday with a celebration at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hyde Park, London on 13 October 2005, where the guests included the Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Alexandra and Tony Blair. There, Geoffrey Howe, now Lord Howe of Aberavon, said of his former boss, «Her real triumph was to have transformed not just one party but two, so that when Labour did eventually return, the great bulk of Thatcherism was accepted as irreversible.»

In 2006, Thatcher attended the official Washington, D.C. memorial service to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States. She attended as a guest of the US Vice President, Dick Cheney, and met with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit. On 12 November, she appeared at the Remembrance Day parade at the Cenotaph in London, leaning heavily on the arm of Sir John Major. On 10 December she announced she was «deeply saddened» by the death of Augusto Pinochet.

In February 2007, she became the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to be honoured with a statue in the Houses of Parliament while still living. The statue is made of bronze and stands opposite her political hero and predecessor, Sir Winston Churchill. The statue was unveiled on 21 February 2007 with Lady Thatcher in attendance; she made a rare and brief speech in the members' lobby of the House of Commons, responding: «I might have preferred iron — but bronze will do… It won’t rust.» The statue shows her as if she were addressing the House of Commons, with her right arm outstretched. Thatcher said she was thrilled with it.

On 13 September 2007, Thatcher was invited to 10 Downing Street to have tea with Gordon Brown and his wife. Brown referred to Lady Thatcher as a «conviction politician.» On 30 January 2008, Thatcher met David Cameron at an awards ceremony at London’s Guildhall where she was presented with a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award'. In May 2009, she travelled to Rome to meet Pope Benedict XVI in a private audience at the Vatican. She had previously met Paul VI in 1977 and John Paul II in 1980. On 8 June 2010 she again returned to Downing Street to have tea with the Prime Minister, David Cameron and his wife Samantha Cameron, where she said it was ‘good to be back in Downing Street'.

Lady Thatcher was invited back to Number 10 in late November 2009 to be at the unveiling of an official portrait by the artist, Richard Stone, who had previously painted The Queen and the late Queen Mother. Lady Thatcher was invited along with guests including David Cameron, as well as former members of Lady Thatcher’s Cabinet and members of the Conservative-supporting newspapers throughout the 1980s including the Chief Political Commentator of The Telegraph, Benedict Brogan, and former Sun editor, Kelvin MacKenzie.

It is a rare honour for a living Prime Minister to have a commissioned painted portrait hanging in the Prime Minister’s residence: all other living prime ministers having photographs only that line the stair walls of Number 10. Baroness Thatcher and only two other Prime Ministers have their portraits painted as well as a hung photograph on display. Sir Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George are the only other Prime Ministers to have hung painted portraits on display in Number 10 Downing Street.

Lady Thatcher was among one of four former British Prime Ministers whom were addressed by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI on 17 September 2010 in Westminster Hall, Lady Thatcher was seated on the front row sitting in front of senior coalition Cabinet ministers and members of the Labour opposition. She sat next to Sir John Major, who provided her with support when she was meeting with the Pope after his speech.

Conclusion

After 1990 Lady Thatcher remained a potent political figure. She wrote two best-selling volumes of memoirs — The Downing Street Years (1993) and The Path to Power (1995) — while continuing for a full decade to tour the world as a lecturer. A book of reflections on international politics — Statecraft — was published in 2002. During the period she made some important interventions in domestic British politics, notably over Bosnia and the Maastricht Treaty.

In March 2002, following several small strokes, she announced an end to her career in public speaking. Denis Thatcher, her husband of more than fifty years, died in June 2003, receiving warm tributes from all sides.

Margaret Thatcher remains an intensely controversial figure in Britain. Critics claim that her economic policies were divisive socially, that she was harsh or 'uncaring' in her politics, and hostile to the institutions of the British welfare state. Defenders point to a transformation in Britain’s economic performance over the course of the Thatcher Governments and those of her successors as Prime Minister. Trade union reforms, privatisation, deregulation, a strong anti-inflationary stance, and control of tax and spending have created better economic prospects for Britain than seemed possible when she became Prime Minister in 1979.

Critics and supporters alike recognise the Thatcher premiership as a period of fundamental importance in British history. Margaret Thatcher accumulated huge prestige over the course of the 1980s and often compelled the respect even of her bitterest critics. Indeed, her effect on the terms of political debate has been profound. Whether they were converted to ‘Thatcherism', or merely forced by the electorate to pay it lip service, the Labour Party leadership was transformed by her period of office and the ‘New Labour' politics of Tony Blair would not have existed without her.

Margaret Thatcher was Britain’s first female prime minister and served three consecutive terms in office. She is one of the dominant political figures of 20th century Britain, and Thatcherism continues to have a huge influence.

The lesson to be drawn is quite simple and not particularly encouraging: Mrs. Thatcher’s success owes much to the intellectual revolution in economic theory. She did not invent anything new; there was nothing novel or original in her economic policies. However, while those ideas had been available for a long time, they had not been translated into policy changes until she came about. It was her leadership, courage, determination, and intellectual integrity that allowed those intellectual insights to inspire actual economic policies and change Britain.

Which brings me to my unpleasant conclusion: The limiting factor in politics today is not the comprehension of the nature of social problems and of their desirable solution — even though we still have a long way to go to make the case for economic freedom fully grasped by the majority of public opinion and of politicians. The really scarce resource is leadership. A principled and uncompromising leader capable of building a coalition, a majority consensus around his platform is essential if we want to move toward a freer world.

Unfortunately, however, the likes of Thatcher and Reagan are not in large supply, and we can’t wait for another one to come about. «So long as the people of any country place their hopes of political salvation in leadership of any description, so long will disappointment attend them.» We must continue polishing our case, making it more convincing, exploring new ways to enlarge our freedoms, and above all converting politicians to our cause.

Literature

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