76-670: Wieland Herzfelde ( né Herzfeld; 11 April 1896 – 23 November 1988) was a German publisher and writer. He is particularly known for his links with German avant-garde art and Marxist thought, and was the brother of the photo montage artist John Heartfield , with whom he often worked. Herzfelde was born in Weggis . His parents were Franz Held (whose surname was an abbreviation of his original name Herzfeld), an anarchist writer, and political activist Alice Stolzenberg. Orphaned since 1899, in 1914 he followed his older brother Helmut, later known as John Heartfield, to Berlin . In 1916, he founded
152-534: A barrister in 1953 and specialised in taxation. Later that same year their twins Carol and Mark were born, delivered prematurely by Caesarean section. In 1954, Thatcher was defeated when she sought selection to be the Conservative Party candidate for the Orpington by-election of January 1955. She chose not to stand as a candidate in the 1955 general election , in later years, stating: "I really just felt
228-523: A realignment towards neoliberal policies in Britain; the complex legacy attributed to this shift continues to be debated into the 21st century. Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on 13 October 1925 in Grantham , Lincolnshire. Her parents were Alfred Roberts (1892–1970), from Northamptonshire, and Beatrice Ethel Stephenson (1888–1960), from Lincolnshire. Her father's maternal grandmother, Catherine Sullivan,
304-484: A research chemist before becoming a barrister . She was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959 . Edward Heath appointed her secretary of state for education and science in his 1970–1974 government . In 1975, she defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become leader of the opposition , the first woman to lead a major political party in the UK. On becoming prime minister after winning
380-468: A 1991 interview for Today , Thatcher stated that she thought Powell had "made a valid argument, if in sometimes regrettable terms". Around this time, she gave her first Commons speech as a shadow transport minister and highlighted the need for investment in British Rail . She argued: "[I]f we build bigger and better roads, they would soon be saturated with more vehicles and we would be no nearer solving
456-535: A busy itinerary focused on economic issues, including Paul Samuelson , Walt Rostow , Pierre-Paul Schweitzer and Nelson Rockefeller . Following the visit, Heath appointed Thatcher to the Shadow Cabinet as fuel and power spokeswoman. Before the 1970 general election , she was promoted to shadow transport spokeswoman and later to education. In 1968, Enoch Powell delivered his "Rivers of Blood" speech in which he strongly criticised Commonwealth immigration to
532-555: A former television producer. By chance, Reece met the actor Laurence Olivier , who arranged lessons with the National Theatre 's voice coach. Thatcher began attending lunches regularly at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a think tank founded by Hayekian poultry magnate Antony Fisher ; she had been visiting the IEA and reading its publications since the early 1960s. There she
608-476: A job at Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) but was rejected after the personnel department assessed her as "headstrong, obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated". Jon Agar in Notes and Records argues that her understanding of modern scientific research later impacted her views as prime minister. Roberts joined the local Conservative Association and attended the party conference at Llandudno , Wales, in 1948, as
684-480: A person upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname , the given name , or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth register may by that fact alone become the person's legal name . The assumption in the Western world is often that the name from birth (or perhaps from baptism or brit milah ) will persist to adulthood in
760-471: A personal assistant to the company's head of research and development, providing opportunities to learn about operations management : "But on my arrival it was decided that there was not enough to do in that capacity." Instead, she seems to have researched methods of attaching polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to metals. While with the firm, she joined the Association of Scientific Workers . In 1948, she applied for
836-472: A precursor to an authoritarian state. After graduating, Roberts secured a position as a research chemist for British Xylonite ( BX Plastics ) following a series of interviews arranged by Oxford; she subsequently moved to Colchester in Essex to work at the firm. Little is known about her brief time there. By her own account, she was initially enthusiastic about the position, as she had been intended to function as
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#1733085908991912-762: A representative of the University Graduate Conservative Association. Meanwhile, she became a high-ranking affiliate of the Vermin Club , a group of grassroots Conservatives formed in response to a derogatory comment made by Aneurin Bevan . One of her Oxford friends was also a friend of the Chair of the Dartford Conservative Association in Kent , who were looking for candidates. Officials of
988-584: A sensible, well-read essay." She opted to read for a classified honours degree , entailing an additional year of supervised research. As her thesis supervisor, Hodgkin assigned Roberts to work with Gerhard Schmidt , a researcher in Hodgkin's lab, to determine the structure of the antibiotic peptide gramicidin S . Although the research made some progress, the peptide's structure proved more complex than anticipated, and Schmidt would only determine its full structure much later; Roberts (by then Thatcher) learned this in
1064-505: A very attractive creature – very reserved but quite nice". In preparation for the election, Roberts moved to Dartford, while she supported herself by working as a research chemist for J. Lyons and Co. in Hammersmith , reportedly as part of a team developing emulsifiers for ice cream . As the work was more theoretical in nature than during her prior role with BX Plastics, Roberts found it "more satisfying". While at Lyons, she worked under
1140-429: A women's college. Twice a week outside study she worked in a local forces canteen. During her time at Oxford, Roberts was noted for her isolated and serious attitude. Her first boyfriend, Tony Bray (1926–2014), recalled that she was "very thoughtful and a very good conversationalist. That's probably what interested me. She was good at general subjects". Roberts's coursework involved subjects beyond chemistry as she
1216-531: Is discord, may we bring harmony; Where there is error, may we bring truth; Where there is doubt, may we bring faith; And where there is despair, may we bring hope. In office throughout the 1980s, Thatcher was frequently referred to as the most powerful woman in the world. Thatcher was the Opposition leader and prime minister at a time of increased racial tension in Britain. During the 1977 local elections , The Economist commented: "The Tory tide swamped
1292-461: Is the masculine form. The term née , having feminine grammatical gender , can be used to denote a woman's surname at birth that has been replaced or changed. In most English-speaking cultures, it is specifically applied to a woman's maiden name after her surname has changed due to marriage. The term né can be used to denote a man's surname at birth that has subsequently been replaced or changed. The diacritic mark (the acute accent ) over
1368-527: The 1950 and 1951 general elections, Roberts was the Conservative candidate for the Labour seat of Dartford . The local party selected her as its candidate because, though not a dynamic public speaker, Roberts was well-prepared and fearless in her answers. A prospective candidate, Bill Deedes , recalled: "Once she opened her mouth, the rest of us began to look rather second-rate." She attracted media attention as
1444-548: The 1979 general election , Thatcher introduced a series of economic policies intended to reverse high inflation and Britain's struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an oncoming recession . Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised greater individual liberty , the privatisation of state-owned companies , and reducing the power and influence of trade unions . Her popularity in her first years in office waned amid recession and rising unemployment. Victory in
1520-591: The Big Bang . Thatcher was re-elected for a third term with another landslide in 1987 , but her subsequent support for the Community Charge (also known as the "poll tax") was widely unpopular, and her increasingly Eurosceptic views on the European Community were not shared by others in her cabinet. She resigned as prime minister and party leader in 1990, after a challenge was launched to her leadership , and
1596-645: The February 1974 general election . Labour formed a minority government and went on to win a narrow majority in the October 1974 general election . Heath's leadership of the Conservative Party looked increasingly in doubt. Thatcher was not initially seen as the obvious replacement, but she eventually became the main challenger, promising a fresh start. Her main support came from the parliamentary 1922 Committee and The Spectator , but Thatcher's time in office gave her
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#17330859089911672-493: The Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 , requiring local authorities to hold their council meetings in public; the bill was successful and became law. In 1961 she went against the Conservative Party's official position by voting for the restoration of birching as a judicial corporal punishment . Thatcher's talent and drive caused her to be mentioned as a future prime minister in her early 20s although she herself
1748-456: The e is considered significant to its spelling, and ultimately its meaning, but is sometimes omitted. According to Oxford University 's Dictionary of Modern English Usage , the terms are typically placed after the current surname (e.g., " Margaret Thatcher , née Roberts" or " Bill Clinton , né Blythe"). Since they are terms adopted into English (from French), they do not have to be italicized , but they often are. In Polish tradition ,
1824-520: The epithet a week later; in a speech to Finchley Conservatives she likened it to the Duke of Wellington 's nickname "Iron Duke". The "Iron" metaphor followed her throughout ever since, and would become a generic sobriquet for other strong-willed female politicians. Thatcher became prime minister on 4 May 1979. Arriving at Downing Street she said, paraphrasing the Prayer of Saint Francis : Where there
1900-496: The 1960s while visiting the Weizmann Institute , where her former research partner was then working. Roberts graduated in 1947 with a second-class honours degree in chemistry, and in 1950 also received the degree of Master of Arts (as an Oxford BA, she was entitled to the degree 21 terms after her matriculation ). Although Hodgkin would later be critical of her former student's politics, they continued to correspond into
1976-420: The 1980s, and Roberts in her memoirs would describe her mentor as "ever-helpful", "a brilliant scientist and a gifted teacher". As prime minister, she would keep a portrait of Hodgkin at 10 Downing Street . Later in life, she was reportedly prouder of becoming the first prime minister with a science degree than becoming the first female prime minister. While prime minister she attempted to preserve Somerville as
2052-590: The 1982 Falklands War and the recovering economy brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her landslide re-election in 1983 . She survived an assassination attempt by the Provisional IRA in the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing and achieved a political victory against the National Union of Mineworkers in the 1984–85 miners' strike . In 1986, Thatcher oversaw the deregulation of UK financial markets , leading to an economic boom , in what came to be known as
2128-536: The Cabinet, the so-called " wets ", expressed doubt over Thatcher's policies. The 1981 England riots resulted in the British media discussing the need for a policy U-turn . At the 1980 Conservative Party conference, Thatcher addressed the issue directly with a speech written by the playwright Ronald Millar , that notably included the following lines: To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase,
2204-515: The Conservatives lost the 1964 election , she became spokeswoman on housing and land. In that position, she advocated her party's policy of giving tenants the right to buy their council houses . She moved to the Shadow Treasury team in 1966 and, as Treasury spokeswoman, opposed Labour's mandatory price and income controls, arguing they would unintentionally produce effects that would distort
2280-628: The Foreign Leader Program), a professional exchange programme that allowed her to spend about six weeks visiting various US cities and political figures as well as institutions such as the International Monetary Fund . Although she was not yet a Shadow Cabinet member, the embassy reportedly described her to the State Department as a possible future prime minister. The description helped Thatcher meet with prominent people during
2356-471: The Opposition on 11 February 1975; she appointed Whitelaw as her deputy . Heath was never reconciled to Thatcher's leadership of the party. Television critic Clive James , writing in The Observer prior to her election as Conservative Party leader, compared her voice of 1973 to "a cat sliding down a blackboard". Thatcher had already begun to work on her presentation on the advice of Gordon Reece ,
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2432-555: The Queen's attitude towards the work of the Government absolutely correct [...] stories of clashes between 'two powerful women' were just too good not to make up." Thatcher's economic policy was influenced by monetarist thinking and economists such as Milton Friedman and Alan Walters . Together with her first chancellor , Geoffrey Howe , she lowered direct taxes on income and increased indirect taxes. She increased interest rates to slow
2508-407: The Queen. The answer is that their relations were punctiliously correct, but there was little love lost on either side. As two women of very similar age – Mrs Thatcher was six months older – occupying parallel positions at the top of the social pyramid, one the head of government, the other head of state, they were bound to be in some sense rivals. Mrs Thatcher's attitude to the Queen was ambivalent. On
2584-609: The USA where he published works by exiled German writers. In 1949 he returned to what was by then East Germany , becoming a professor of literature at the University of Leipzig ; he also wrote poetry and fiction, and worked as a translator. He died in 1988 and was buried in the Dorotheenstadt cemetery in Berlin. Birth name#Maiden and married names A birth name is the name given to
2660-569: The United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the position. As prime minister, she implemented economic policies known as Thatcherism . A Soviet journalist dubbed her the " Iron Lady ", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style . Thatcher studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford , and worked briefly as
2736-453: The United Kingdom and the then-proposed Race Relations Bill . When Heath telephoned Thatcher to inform her that he would sack Powell from the Shadow Cabinet, she recalled that she "really thought that it was better to let things cool down for the present rather than heighten the crisis". She believed that his main points about Commonwealth immigration were correct and that the selected quotations from his speech had been taken out of context. In
2812-514: The United States in 1975 and met President Gerald Ford , visiting again in 1977, when she met President Jimmy Carter . Among other foreign trips, she met Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during a visit to Iran in 1978. Thatcher chose to travel without being accompanied by her shadow foreign secretary , Reginald Maudling , in an attempt to make a bolder personal impact. In domestic affairs, Thatcher opposed Scottish devolution ( home rule ) and
2888-431: The United States, said she had done "a very good job" on the project, "showing great determination". She sent Jellinek a congratulatory letter upon his retirement in 1984, and another letter shortly before his death two years later. Roberts married at Wesley's Chapel and her children were baptised there, but she and her husband began attending Church of England services and would later convert to Anglicanism . In
2964-660: The Western world. In 1976, Thatcher gave her "Britain Awake" foreign policy speech which lambasted the Soviet Union, saying it was "bent on world dominance". The Soviet Army journal Red Star reported her stance in a piece headlined "Iron Lady Raises Fears", alluding to her remarks on the Iron Curtain . The Sunday Times covered the Red Star article the next day, and Thatcher embraced
3040-777: The artistic journal Neue Jugend , and the following year started the publishing house Malik-Verlag, known for its works on art and Marxism. Towards the end of World War I , he briefly worked on propaganda films for the German government. After the war, he continued his publishing activities and also founded an art gallery, Grosz-Galerie , and a bookshop, as well as helping to organize the First International Dada Fair in 1920, which included works by Hans Arp , Max Ernst , Georg Scholz , Johannes Theodor Baargeld , and Otto Dix . Following Hitler 's rise to power, he fled to Prague in 1933, later moving to London, and in 1939 to
3116-586: The association were so impressed by her that they asked her to apply, even though she was not on the party's approved list; she was selected in January 1950 (aged 24) and added to the approved list post ante . At a dinner following her formal adoption as Conservative candidate for Dartford in February 1949, she met divorcé Denis Thatcher , a successful and wealthy businessman, who drove her to her Essex train. After their first meeting, she described him to Muriel as "not
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3192-621: The creation of a Scottish Assembly . She instructed Conservative MPs to vote against the Scotland and Wales Bill in December 1976, which was successfully defeated, and then when new Bills were proposed, she supported amending the legislation to allow the English to vote in the 1979 referendum on Scottish devolution. Britain's economy during the 1970s was so weak that then Foreign Secretary James Callaghan warned his fellow Labour Cabinet members in 1974 of
3268-521: The direction of her foreign policy for a Conservative government, Thatcher was distressed by her repeated failure to shine in the House of Commons. Consequently, Thatcher decided that as "her voice was carrying little weight at home", she would "be heard in the wider world". Thatcher undertook visits across the Atlantic, establishing an international profile and promoting her economic and foreign policies. She toured
3344-625: The economy. Jim Prior suggested Thatcher as a Shadow Cabinet member after the Conservatives' 1966 defeat , but party leader Edward Heath and Chief Whip William Whitelaw eventually chose Mervyn Pike as the Conservative shadow cabinet 's sole woman member. At the 1966 Conservative Party conference, Thatcher criticised the high-tax policies of the Labour government as being steps "not only towards Socialism, but towards Communism", arguing that lower taxes served as an incentive to hard work. Thatcher
3420-459: The government's attempts to cut spending. She gave priority to academic needs in schools, while administering public expenditure cuts on the state education system, resulting in the abolition of free milk for schoolchildren aged seven to eleven. She held that few children would suffer if schools were charged for milk but agreed to provide younger children with 0.3 imperial pints (0.17 L) daily for nutritional purposes. She also argued that she
3496-428: The growth of the money supply, and thereby lower inflation; introduced cash limits on public spending and reduced expenditure on social services such as education and housing. Cuts to higher education led to Thatcher being the first Oxonian post-war prime minister without an honorary doctorate from Oxford University after a 738–319 vote of the governing assembly and a student petition. Some Heathite Conservatives in
3572-405: The normal course of affairs—either throughout life or until marriage. Some reasons for changes of a person's name include middle names , diminutive forms, changes relating to parental status (due to one's parents' divorce or adoption by different parents), and gender transition . The French and English-adopted née is the feminine past participle of naître , which means "to be born". Né
3648-476: The one hand she had an almost mystical reverence for the institution of the monarchy [...] Yet at the same time she was trying to modernise the country and sweep away many of the values and practices which the monarchy perpetuated. Michael Shea , the Queen's press secretary, in 1986 leaked stories of a deep rift to The Sunday Times . He said that she felt Thatcher's policies were "uncaring, confrontational and socially divisive". Thatcher later wrote: "I always found
3724-487: The piano, field hockey, poetry recitals, swimming and walking. She was head girl in 1942–43, and outside school, while the Second World War was ongoing, she voluntarily worked as a fire watcher in the local ARP service . Other students thought of Roberts as the "star scientist", although mistaken advice regarding cleaning ink from parquetry almost caused chlorine gas poisoning . In her upper sixth year , Roberts
3800-620: The policy but had been forced into it by the Treasury. Her decision provoked a storm of protest from Labour and the press, leading to her being notoriously nicknamed "Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher". She reportedly considered leaving politics in the aftermath and later wrote in her autobiography: "I learned a valuable lesson. I had incurred the maximum of political odium for the minimum of political benefit." The Heath government continued to experience difficulties with oil embargoes and union demands for wage increases in 1973, subsequently losing
3876-456: The polls. Thatcher reacted to this by branding the Labour government "chickens", and Liberal Party leader David Steel joined in, criticising Labour for "running scared". The Labour government then faced fresh public unease about the direction of the country and a damaging series of strikes during the winter of 1978–79, dubbed the " Winter of Discontent ". The Conservatives attacked the Labour government's unemployment record, using advertising with
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#17330859089913952-466: The possibility of "a breakdown of democracy", telling them: "If I were a young man, I would emigrate." In mid-1978, the economy began to recover, and opinion polls showed Labour in the lead, with a general election being expected later that year and a Labour win a serious possibility. Now prime minister, Callaghan surprised many by announcing on 7 September that there would be no general election that year and that he would wait until 1979 before going to
4028-567: The problem." Thatcher made her first visit to the Soviet Union in the summer of 1969 as the Opposition transport spokeswoman, and in October, delivered a speech celebrating her ten years in Parliament. In early 1970, she told The Finchley Press that she would like to see a "reversal of the permissive society". The Conservative Party, led by Edward Heath, won the 1970 general election, and Thatcher
4104-490: The reputation of a pragmatist rather than that of an ideologue. She defeated Heath on the first ballot, and he resigned from the leadership. In the second ballot she defeated Whitelaw, Heath's preferred successor. Thatcher's election had a polarising effect on the party; her support was stronger among MPs on the right, and also among those from southern England, and those who had not attended public schools or Oxbridge . Thatcher became Conservative Party leader and Leader of
4180-462: The richness and variety of this country. The moment the minority threatens to become a big one, people get frightened". In the 1979 general election, the Conservatives had attracted votes from the NF, whose support almost collapsed. In a July 1979 meeting with Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington and Home Secretary William Whitelaw, Thatcher objected to the number of Asian immigrants, in the context of limiting
4256-516: The slogan " Labour Isn't Working ". A general election was called after the Callaghan ministry lost a motion of no confidence in early 1979. The Conservatives won a 44-seat majority in the House of Commons, and Thatcher became the first female British prime minister. I stand before you tonight in my Red Star chiffon evening gown, my face softly made up and my fair hair gently waved, the Iron Lady of
4332-621: The smaller parties – specifically the National Front [NF] , which suffered a clear decline from last year." Her standing in the polls had risen by 11% after a 1978 interview for World in Action in which she said "the British character has done so much for democracy, for law and done so much throughout the world that if there is any fear that it might be swamped people are going to react and be rather hostile to those coming in", as well as "in many ways [minorities] add to
4408-411: The supervision of Hans Jellinek, who headed the company's physical chemistry section. Jellinek assigned her to research the saponification of α-monostearin ( glycerol monostearate ), which has properties as an emulsifier, stabiliser and food preservative. Agar has noted the research may have been connected with the emulsification of ice cream, but only as a possibility. In September 1951, their research
4484-456: The term z domu (literally meaning "of the house", de domo in Latin ) may be used, with rare exceptions, meaning the same as née . Margaret Thatcher [REDACTED] Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher ( née Roberts ; 13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013), was a British stateswoman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of
4560-417: The total of Vietnamese boat people allowed to settle in the UK to fewer than 10,000 over two years. As prime minister, Thatcher met weekly with Queen Elizabeth II to discuss government business, and their relationship came under scrutiny. Campbell (2011a , p. 464) states: One question that continued to fascinate the public about the phenomenon of a woman Prime Minister was how she got on with
4636-569: The twins were [...] only two, I really felt that it was too soon. I couldn't do that." Afterwards, Thatcher began looking for a Conservative safe seat and was selected as the candidate for Finchley in April 1958 (narrowly beating Ian Montagu Fraser ). She was elected as MP for the seat after a hard campaign in the 1959 election . Benefiting from her fortunate result in a lottery for backbenchers to propose new legislation, Thatcher's maiden speech was, unusually, in support of her private member's bill ,
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#17330859089914712-426: The youngest and the only female candidate; in 1950, she was the youngest Conservative candidate in the country. She lost on both occasions to Norman Dodds but reduced the Labour majority by 6,000 and then a further 1,000. During the campaigns, she was supported by her parents and by her future husband Denis Thatcher, whom she married in December 1951. Denis funded his wife's studies for the bar ; she qualified as
4788-467: Was accepted for a scholarship to study chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford , a women's college, starting in 1944. After another candidate withdrew, Roberts entered Oxford in October 1943. Following her arrival at Oxford, Roberts began studies under X-ray crystallographer Dorothy Hodgkin , the tutor in chemistry for Somerville College since 1934. Hodgkin considered Roberts a "good" student, and later recalled: "One could always rely on her producing
4864-530: Was already contemplating an entry into law and politics. Her enthusiasm for politics as a girl made Bray think of her as "unusual" and her parents as "slightly austere" and "very proper". Roberts became President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1946. She was influenced at university by political works such as Friedrich Hayek 's The Road to Serfdom (1944), which condemned economic intervention by government as
4940-487: Was an alderman and a Methodist local preacher . He brought up his daughter as a strict Wesleyan Methodist , attending the Finkin Street Methodist Church , but Margaret was more sceptical; the future scientist told a friend that she could not believe in angels , having calculated that they needed a breastbone 6 feet (1.8 m) long to support wings. Alfred came from a Liberal family but stood (as
5016-557: Was appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Education and Science . Thatcher caused controversy when, after only a few days in office, she withdrew Labour's Circular 10/65 , which attempted to force comprehensivisation , without going through a consultation process. She was highly criticised for the speed at which she carried this out. Consequently, she drafted her own new policy ( Circular 10/70 ), which ensured that local authorities were not forced to go comprehensive. Her new policy
5092-563: Was born in County Kerry , Ireland . Roberts spent her childhood in Grantham, where her father owned a tobacconist 's and a grocery shop. In 1938, before the Second World War , the Roberts family briefly gave sanctuary to a teenage Jewish girl who had escaped Nazi Germany . With her pen-friending elder sister Muriel, Margaret saved pocket money to help pay for the teenager's journey. Alfred
5168-534: Was committed to a tiered secondary modern -grammar school system of education and attempted to preserve grammar schools, during her tenure as education secretary, she turned down only 326 of 3,612 proposals (roughly 9 per cent) for schools to become comprehensives; the proportion of pupils attending comprehensive schools consequently rose from 32 per cent to 62 per cent. Nevertheless, she managed to save 94 grammar schools. During her first months in office, she attracted public attention due to
5244-467: Was influenced by the ideas of Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon and became the face of the ideological movement opposing the British welfare state . Keynesian economics , they believed, was weakening Britain. The institute's pamphlets proposed less government, lower taxes, and more freedom for business and consumers. Thatcher intended to promote neoliberal economic ideas at home and abroad. Despite setting
5320-464: Was more pessimistic, stating as late as 1970: "There will not be a woman prime minister in my lifetime – the male population is too prejudiced." In October 1961 she was promoted to the frontbench as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry for Pensions by Harold Macmillan . Thatcher was the youngest woman in history to receive such a post, and among the first MPs elected in 1959 to be promoted. After
5396-632: Was not meant to stop the development of new comprehensives; she said: "We shall [...] expect plans to be based on educational considerations rather than on the comprehensive principle." Thatcher supported Lord Rothschild 's 1971 proposal for market forces to affect government funding of research. Although many scientists opposed the proposal, her research background probably made her sceptical of their claim that outsiders should not interfere with funding. The department evaluated proposals for more local education authorities to close grammar schools and to adopt comprehensive secondary education . Although Thatcher
5472-586: Was one of the few Conservative MPs to support Leo Abse 's bill to decriminalise male homosexuality. She voted in favour of David Steel 's bill to legalise abortion, as well as a ban on hare coursing . She supported the retention of capital punishment and voted against the relaxation of divorce laws. In 1967, the United States Embassy chose Thatcher to take part in the International Visitor Leadership Program (then called
5548-553: Was published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture , a recently launched publication of the Society of Chemical Industry , as "The saponification of α-monostearin in a monolayer". This would be Roberts's sole scientific publication. In 1979, following his former assistant's election as prime minister, Jellinek, by then a professor of physical chemistry at Clarkson University in
5624-525: Was simply carrying on with what the Labour government had started since they had stopped giving free milk to secondary schools. Milk would still be provided to those children that required it on medical grounds, and schools could still sell milk. The aftermath of the milk row hardened her determination; she told the editor-proprietor Harold Creighton of The Spectator : "Don't underestimate me, I saw how they broke Keith [Joseph] , but they won't break me." Cabinet papers later revealed that she opposed
5700-768: Was succeeded by John Major , her chancellor of the Exchequer . After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher (of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire ) which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords . In 2013, she died of a stroke at the Ritz Hotel, London , at the age of 87. A polarising figure in British politics, Thatcher is nonetheless viewed favourably in historical rankings and public opinion of British prime ministers. Her tenure constituted
5776-523: Was then customary in local government) as an Independent . He served as Mayor of Grantham from 1945 to 1946 and lost his position as alderman in 1952 after the Labour Party won its first majority on Grantham Council in 1950. Roberts attended Huntingtower Road Primary School and won a scholarship to Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School , a grammar school. Her school reports showed hard work and continual improvement; her extracurricular activities included
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