Margaret
Hilda Thatcher
Former Prime Minister
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, former Prime
Minister of England, commonly known as the
“Iron Lady”, was born 13th October 1925 in
Grantham, UK. The ex PM is now referred to as
Baroness Thatcher.
Margaret Thatcher, then known as Margaret
Roberts, started her working life as a
research Chemist. Her family ran a grocery
shop with her father being her main political
influence.
In 1950-51 elections, Margaret fought for the
Labour seat of Dartford. She was the youngest
woman conservative candidate. Margaret’s
activity in the Kent conservative party led
her to meet Denis Thatcher, a wealthy
businessperson, whom she married in 1951.
Denis funded his new wife to train as a
lawyer. Margaret qualified in 1953, the same
year that she had twins, Carole and Mark.
By 1959 Margaret had returned to work and ran
for the Finchley seat, (one of the prime local
areas in the UK which was under the
Conservative party.) at the April elections
which she won earning her a seat in the Houses
of Parliament. Promotion was won early to the
front bench as Parliamentary Secretary in
1961, a post she held until the Conservatives
lost power in the ’64 elections.
Next for Margaret was to take her seat as
Education Minister in 1969 where people
believed her political career had peeked.
Margaret had other ideas, and in ’75 she
challenged Edward Heath for the Conservative
leadership.
It is publicly noted that when Margaret
informed Heath of the challenge, he never once
looked up from his desk and simply stated
“You’ll lose. Good day to you.” The first
ballot in February saw her defeat Heath, with
the second an outright win over him. This made
Margaret the first woman to lead a western
political party and serve as leader of the
opposition in the House of Commons.
It was May 1979 that saw Margaret take the
place as the first woman Prime Minister of the
UK when the conservatives won the general
election. The Prime Minister set about to
transform the UK economy and to stop the trade
unionists from further action.
One of the most memorable moments in British
history is when Margaret went to war with
Argentina. Few British leaders would have
chosen a military invasion for the re-claiming
of the Falkland Islands, but after diplomatic
talks failed Argentina landed on the Islands
and flew their flag, the first act of war. Due
to the small numbers of casualties suffered,
the war was never regarded as a major conflict
by the rest of the world. However, it gave the
people of the UK a renewed sense of
patriotism.
Margaret went on to win a further three
consecutive elections, until her demise was
set in motion when she replaced an unpopular
local government rates with an even less
popular “Poll Tax”. The Poll Tax is famous for
seeing huge numbers of riots break out across
the UK in protest of the new taxes. Her
resignation was made in November 1990.
Many of her followers saw Margaret Thatcher as
the person who single-handed rejuvenated the
British economy. Opponents say she was
responsible for mass unemployment and the main
cause of a vast inequality between the rich
and poor.
In 1992, Margaret was given the title Baroness
Thatcher. For the last few years, her health
has continued to decline. Most of the
Baroness’s direct political work is carried
out as the head of the Thatcher Foundation.
Kelly Smyrk started her writing career at
the age of 12, when she won first prize at
the local school she attended, for a
writing competition. Since then Kelly has
dreamed of becoming a published author for
her non-fiction work.
After deciding to have a family first, it
is only in the last year that Kelly has
dedicated full time hours to her writing.
She now has interest from over 12
newspapers, magazines and online
publications for upcoming work.
At the age of 29, Kelly and her husband
have four children between them ranging
from 15 down to 4 years old. Kelly hopes
to continue her work for many years to
come.
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