Before 1980, if you asked Americans to name a British prime minister, most would invoke the name of Winston Churchill. Margaret Thatcher changed that.
Thatcher held the office longer than Churchill, who was prime minister for almost nine years, and is the only woman to have held the highest post in the U.K. She won her nation’s top job only six years after declaring in a television interview, “I don’t think there will be a woman prime minister in my lifetime.”
During her more than 11 years in office, Thatcher maintained a close and sometimes rocky relationship with American presidents. She spoke her mind when necessary and was diplomatic when the circumstances required it, but she always remained true to her conservative roots.
Tough yet feminine, she was one of the few members of the Conservative Party who did not come from a family of means. Her father, who was active in local politics, owned two grocery shops, and she and her older sister were raised in the flat above the larger of the two. She graduated from Oxford in 1947 with second-class honors in the four-year chemistry bachelor of science degree program.
When she took office following four years of Labor Party rule, the British economy was in shambles. As prime minister, she introduced a series of political and economic initiatives to reverse what she perceived to be “Britain’s precipitous national decline.”
She lowered direct taxes on income and increased indirect taxes. She increased interest rates to slow the growth of the money supply and thereby lowered inflation. She introduced cash limits on public spending and reduced expenditures on social services such as education and housing. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasized financial sector deregulation, flexible labor markets, privatizing state-owned companies and reducing the power and influence of trade unions.
She alienated many in Britain by refusing to compromise on the economic measures needed to move the country forward. She said, “If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.”
During her time at the helm of the British government, she highlighted individual rights — famously declaring, “There is no such thing as society” in 1987.
There are few people who truly make a difference. Margaret Thatcher is someone who left a legacy: a country much stronger than the one she inherited.
Perhaps her most memorable quote pertains to the inherent trouble with liberal, big government: “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
Americans might be well served to remember Margaret Thatcher’s words and actions.
Nancy Mace is the first woman to graduate from The Citadel, the military college of South Carolina. She is the author of “In the Company of Men,” published by Simon and Schuster. She is the owner of a public relations, marketing and political consulting firm, The Mace Group, based in Charleston, South Carolina. This article, reprinted with permission, originally appeared in The Daily Caller.
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20 comments
If she was an American, and still alive, she would be considered a R.I.N.O.
If she was an American, and still alive, she would be considered a R.I.N.O.
Ms. Thatcher had many very good ideas:
“The principle that adequate health care should be provided for all, regardless of ability to pay, must be the foundation of any arrangements for financing the Health Service.”
Margaret Thatcher
“The problem of global climate change is one that affects us all and action will only be effective if it is taken at the international level. Each country must contribute and those countries who are industrialized must contribute more to help those who are not.”
Margaret Thatcher
True conservative! lol…
There is something to be said for taking over a defunct, socialist economy run by the labor party and turning it around with free market principles. Nice try though.
Ms. Thatcher had many very good ideas:
“The principle that adequate health care should be provided for all, regardless of ability to pay, must be the foundation of any arrangements for financing the Health Service.”
Margaret Thatcher
“The problem of global climate change is one that affects us all and action will only be effective if it is taken at the international level. Each country must contribute and those countries who are industrialized must contribute more to help those who are not.”
Margaret Thatcher
True conservative! lol…
There is something to be said for taking over a defunct, socialist economy run by the labor party and turning it around with free market principles. Nice try though.
Man, just when I found something to agree with Mace about, she up and bails on us…
Man, just when I found something to agree with Mace about, she up and bails on us…
Nancy can you please tell us what “really” happened to this website. It went from a Cadillac Escalade in appearance to this economy Chrysler Mini-van version. A dusty-rose banner up top. That be the color of grandma’s couch. Come on now!
The previous site was one of the best on the net bar none. If this isn’t a Dollar Store level site did you lose some soft ware designers? Curious minds would like to know. Shoot me an email: majchascordite@aol.com India Company
Nancy can you please tell us what “really” happened to this website. It went from a Cadillac Escalade in appearance to this economy Chrysler Mini-van version. A dusty-rose banner up top. That be the color of grandma’s couch. Come on now!
The previous site was one of the best on the net bar none. If this isn’t a Dollar Store level site did you lose some soft ware designers? Curious minds would like to know. Shoot me an email: majchascordite@aol.com India Company
Well-written piece. Go girl!
Well-written piece. Go girl!
If by “true conservative” you mean ruthless neo-fascist, yes she was, and yet even she was more concerned with healthcare and the environment than the pathologically narcissistic right wingers trying to strangle this country these days. Go figure.
If by “true conservative” you mean ruthless neo-fascist, yes she was, and yet even she was more concerned with healthcare and the environment than the pathologically narcissistic right wingers trying to strangle this country these days. Go figure.
She was a heartless, motherfucking bitch.EC said it best:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-BZIWSI5UQ
She was a heartless, motherfucking bitch.EC said it best:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-BZIWSI5UQ
“Unfortunately, the local tax case is characteristic of the Thatcher regime. Thatcherism is all too similar to Reaganism: free-market rhetoric masking statist content. While Thatcher has engaged in some privatization, the percentage of government spending and taxation to GNP has increased over the course of her regime, and monetary inflation has now led to price inflation. Basic discontent, then, has risen, and the increase in local tax levels has come as the vital last straw. It seems to me that a minimum criterion for a regime receiving the accolade of “pro-free-market” would require it to cut total spending, cut overall tax rates, and revenues, and put a stop to its own inflationary creation of money. Even by this surely modest yardstick, no British or American administration in decades has come close to qualifying.” – Murray Rothbard
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GbCxAflXgOk/UWLDDIRNLjI/AAAAAAAALUQ/xYvBx_lw9Js/s1600/Thatcher.jpg
“Unfortunately, the local tax case is characteristic of the Thatcher regime. Thatcherism is all too similar to Reaganism: free-market rhetoric masking statist content. While Thatcher has engaged in some privatization, the percentage of government spending and taxation to GNP has increased over the course of her regime, and monetary inflation has now led to price inflation. Basic discontent, then, has risen, and the increase in local tax levels has come as the vital last straw. It seems to me that a minimum criterion for a regime receiving the accolade of “pro-free-market” would require it to cut total spending, cut overall tax rates, and revenues, and put a stop to its own inflationary creation of money. Even by this surely modest yardstick, no British or American administration in decades has come close to qualifying.” – Murray Rothbard
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GbCxAflXgOk/UWLDDIRNLjI/AAAAAAAALUQ/xYvBx_lw9Js/s1600/Thatcher.jpg