Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has died today aged 87, after suffering a stroke. Baroness Thatcher will be remembered as one of Britain’s greatest leaders with a legacy that endures to this day.
Margaret Thatcher was the daughter of a humble greengrocer. Her father was also a town councillor and lay preacher in the Methodist church, his example would play a big role in shaping her political beliefs. Thatcher’s formidable intellect and indomitable character helped her rise to the position of leader of the Conservative Party, a position many would have thought unreachable for a woman.
Baroness Thatcher came to power in the difficult days of 1979, inheriting a nation on the brink of bankruptcy, crippled by years of industrial action and powerful trade unions. Thatcher won many enemies in her battle with the powerful left. She managed to break the power of the trade unions, and release Britain into the free market. She forged a strong relationship with US President Ronald Reagan, with whom she shared many political ideologies. Internationally, Thatcher made Britain once more a force to be listened to. She played a key role in helping see an end to communism in Eastern Europe, and she will always be held with the highest esteem by the residents of the Falkland Islands, for leading Britain in the Falkland’s war, after Argentina invaded the islands in 1982. It was Thatcher’s communist enemies who first called her The Iron Lady, a title she relished.
In recent years Baroness Thatcher’s health began to fail, and doctors advised she no longer give speeches. Her later years were lived in relative isolation in London.
Her own parties divisions over Europe were to bring about her fall from power. As the pro-Europe wing of her party grew in power she was forced to resign. Now, more than 20 years on from her leaving power, her warnings on Europe read more like prophecy than political rhetoric.
