Ten years after Thatcher’s death, adored by some, rejected by others

Adored by some, rejected by others, the conservative Margaret Thatcher died a decade ago in the Ritz hotel in London23 years after leaving the Government of United Kingdomwhich he handled with a firmness that bordered on the authoritarianism.

Thatcher, who died on April 8, 2013 at the age of 87, was the first woman to access the highest position in British politics -on May 4, 1979-. Years later, she would be followed by two other women, Theresa May (2016-19) and Liz Truss (2022), also “Tories”.

The big step in politics came in 1959 when she entered the British Westminster Parliament as a deputy for the Finchley constituency in north London, but in the shadow of a male-dominated ruling class at the time.

His eleven years in power were intense, both in national and international politics. Thatcher marked the path that the conservatives took years later towards Brexit, by standing up again and again before the then European Economic Community (EEC) when it was her turn to defend British interests.

Economic crisis in 1979

Upon reaching the Executive, she found a country in crisis due to the difficult economic situation and the continuous strikes, but the former prime minister dared everything when dealing with transformative measures, from the near destruction of unions, the wave of privatizations -the telephone, the gas or the railways-until a war against Argentina for the possession of the Malvinas Islands (1982).

With his neoliberal economic policy and labor flexibility, which caused an increase in unemployment, a whole generation of young people emerged Tories who followed her to the point of worship.

Thatcher was known as the “Iron lady”so called by the media of the extinct Soviet Union for his deep opposition to communism.

From the inside out, his personal situation was difficult when his twin children, Mark and Carol, were young, as he was faced with his enormous personal ambitions and family responsibilities, according to what his biographer, Charles Moore, told EFE in 2013.

Thatcher “she wasn’t cold, but she didn’t know how to play with small children” and could only be with them if the time was structured because “she was always working”said Moore.

The policy was born on October 13, 1925 in Grantham (northern England), in a family of modest income since his father owned two grocery stores.

The tenacity for the study allowed Thatcher to enter a selective public secondary school –grammar school– and later entered the University of Oxford, where he studied Chemistry.

Later she would realize that her passion was politics, so she studied Law and graduated as a lawyer.

leader of the conservative party

With the victory of tory Edward Heath in 1970, Thatcher took over the Education portfolio, but when the Conservatives lost the general election in 1974, she challenged that leadership and, to the surprise of many, emerged victorious.

Since then, his run for 10 Downing Street, the prime ministers’ residence, was meteoric as he won the 1979 election. The initial euphoria over his rise to power soon turned into frustration, to the point that polls predicted defeat for Thatcher at the 1983 generals.

Malvinas War:

However, the unexpected occupation of the Malvinas by the Argentine military on April 2, 1982 changed the course of history. The British victory in June of that year sealed the fate of Thatcher, who won the generals a year later.

With that triumph would come hard times for Thatcher, as she faced the terrorist campaign of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which demanded the British withdrawal from Northern Ireland and the unification of the province with the Republic of Ireland.

His years in power were also marked by his strong alliance with former US Republican President Ronald Reagan and his good relationship with Soviet reformer Mikhail Gorbachev.

But Thatcher’s decline came in the late 1980s with her unpopular poll taxa municipal tax whose non-payment was punishable by the denial of the right to vote, in addition to his continued intransigence on European integration.

Thatcher was forced to resign on November 28, 1990 following an internal revolt within her formation.

Source: EFE