Margaret Thatcher - Biography - IMDb
Margaret Thatcher
Biography
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Overview (5)
5' 5½" (1.66 m)
Mini Bio (1)
Margaret Thatcher was born on October 13, 1925 in Grantham, England, the younger daughter of Alfred and Beatrice Roberts. Her father was a greengrocer and respected town leader, serving as lay-leader with their church, city-alderman and then as mayor. He taught Margaret never to do things because other people are doing them; do what you think is right and persuade others to follow you. She attended Oxford University from 1943 to 1947 and earned a degree in Chemistry, but it was clear from early on that politics was her true calling. She stood as a Conservative candidate from Dartford in the 1950 and 1951 elections. She married Denis Thatcher in December 1951 and they had twin children, Mark Thatcher and Carol Thatcher . She practiced tax law for a time in the 1950s, but was elected to Parliament from Finchley in 1959. Two years later, she was appointed to the cabinet as Minister of Pensions. In 1970, she was appointed Minister for Education and earned the title "Thatcher the Milk Snatcher", for eliminating free milk for schoolchildren in a round of budget-cutting. After the Conservative Party lost both general elections in 1974, she defeated Edward Heath for the leadership of the party. She was elected Prime Minister in May 1979 and served for eleven and a half years, longer than any other British Prime Minister in the 20th Century. As Prime Minister, she was staunchly capitalist and bent on wiping socialism from the face of Britain. During her tenure, she cut taxes, spending and regulations, privatized state-industries and state-housing, reformed the education, health and welfare systems, was tough on crime and espoused traditional values. Her time in office was eventful, having to contend with an economic recession, inner-city riots and a miners' strike. Her first great triumph in office was the Falklands War in 1982, when she sent British troops to reclaim British possessions off the coast of South America that had been invaded and occupied by Argentina. The British won that war and it showed the world that Britain was once again a power to be reckoned with. Her time in office saw unprecedented economic prosperity. She was staunch political allies with Ronald Reagan and through their tough foreign and defence policies, brought the Cold War to an end and a victory for the Free World. It was she who persuaded President George Bush to send troops to Saudi Arabia right after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. The Poll Tax and her refusal to endorse a common currency for Europe led the Conservative party to force her out of office in a bloody internal coup. She was forced to resign as Prime Minister in November 1990. Since she left office, she was introduced to the House of Lords in 1992 as Baroness Thatcher. She travelled the world, touring the lecture circuit promoting her causes and is president of numerous organizations dedicated to her causes. In the last few years, her health has suffered and she no longer speaks in public.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: jeff fallis
Spouse (1)
( 13 December  1951            - 26 June  2003) (his death) (2 children)
Trade Mark (5)
Often wore a pearl necklace
Trivia (32)
She served as the United Kingdom's first female Prime Minister and was the only one until Theresa May assumed the office on July 13, 2016 after David Cameron resigned following the "Brexit" vote, which was the United Kingdom voting to leave the European Union.
She was raised to the peerage in 1992, thereafter known as Baroness Thatcher.
She was targeted for assassination by the IRA. In 1984, she was staying at the Grand Hotel in Brighton for the annual Tory Conference. She was working on her speech when a bomb exploded in the Hotel. She escaped unharmed, but the bomb was meant to kill her. One Conservative MP, one Conservative politician and 4 female attendees all lost their lives. Other members of her government to suffer injuries included Norman Tebbit and John Wakeham .
Children: twins Mark Thatcher and daughter Carol Thatcher .
In South Africa they have named a nectarine after her.
She was a tax lawyer and a research chemist before entering politics.
She is Britain's only 20th-century PM to serve three consecutive terms.
Although she was known to dislike the BBC, she was an enthusiastic fan of its comedy series Yes Minister (1980). One of its stars, Paul Eddington , was later awarded a CBE for his services to acting on her recommendation.
Before entering politics she was a scientist, at one time working on the chemistry of ice cream.
She was voted the 3rd worst Briton in Channel Four's poll of the 100 Worst Britons.
She was the subject of several songs, none of them complimentary, including The Beat 's song "Stand Down Margaret" in 1980, "Tramp the Dirt Down" by Elvis Costello (Costello says in the song that he will dance on her grave when she dies) and the Morrissey song "Margaret on the Guillotine". She is also mentioned in the Pink Floyd song "The Post War Dream" from their 1983 album "The Final Cut" (an album that was written as a rebuke to the Falklands War, abandoning its original concept as a soundtrack for the movie Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)) and Mark Knopfler 's song "Why Aye Man" (written about unemployed Geordie bricklayers and used for the third series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1983)) . After Roger Waters left Pink Floyd in 1984, when performing "Pigs (Three Different Ones"), from 1977's "Animals," which originally attacked British censor Mary Whitehouse , he would sing Thatcher's name in Whitehouse's place in the third verse.
She has her look-alike puppet in the French show Les guignols de l'info (1988).
She was the inspiration for a Doctor Who (1963) villain, Helen A (played by Sheila Hancock ), in Doctor Who: The Happiness Patrol: Part One (1988).
Her likeness was used on the sleeves of two Iron Maiden singles; on the cover of the single 'Sanctuary', she is depicted as having been killed by Maiden's demonic mascot, Eddie, for apparently ripping up and Iron Maiden poster. She gets her revenge, however, on the cover of the single 'Women In Uniform' as a military uniform-wearing Maggie holding a machine gun waits around a corner to ambush Eddie as he approaches with a woman in uniform on either arm. However, despite the graphic sleeves, Maggie finally met with Iron Maiden in 1981.
She was educated at Huntingtower Road Primary School and then Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School.
She was a descendant from the first marriage, with John Grey, 7th Lord Ferrers of Gorby, of Elizabeth Widville, Queen of England by her second marriage with King Edward IV.
In August 2008, daughter Carol Thatcher revealed that her mother had been displaying symptoms of dementia for the previous seven years.
She broke her right arm in a fall at her London home in June 2009 and underwent surgery.
During her time as British Prime Minister, she cut income tax on the country's top earners by more than half. When she was elected in 1979, the top rate of income tax had stood at 83% since 1974. She immediately reduced it to 60% and in 1988 her government reduced it again, this time to 40%.
She died at London's Ritz Hotel.
Many of her political and economic reforms, which were highly controversial at the time they were made, have been adhered to by all subsequent Conservative and Labour governments, including her reductions to income taxation (the top rate of income tax has never exceeded 50% since), her deregulation of the financial sector, her privatisation of public utilities and her sales of council housing stock.
Thatcher was a huge admirer of British television presenter and charity fundraiser Jimmy Savile . She regularly invited him to Chequers while she was prime minister and he was knighted on her recommendation in 1990. She wrote a special tribute to him for his episode of This Is Your Life (1962) in 1990, describing him as "truly a Great Briton". Since his death in 2011, Savile has been revealed to be the country's most prolific sexual offender, with hundreds of reports of sexual abuse against children and adults being recorded by British police.
She retired from the lecture/ after dinner speech circuit after several small strokes left her frail in 2004.
She was pictured on one of a set of eight British commemorative postage stamps honoring Prime Ministers, issued 14 October 2014. Other prime ministers featured in the set were William Pitt the Younger, Charles Grey, Robert Peel, William Gladstone, Winston Churchill , Clement Attlee , and Harold Wilson . Price of the Churchill, Attlee, Wilson, and Thatcher stamps on day of issue was 97p each.
Glenda Jackson stood up in the House of Commons and, during the extended tribute session, said that Margaret Thatcher had done "spiritual damage" to the country and was "not a woman, not on my terms." Although another MP spoke out against this, he was informed by the Speaker that "Nothing Unparliamentary has occurred".
Almost twice as many coal mines closed during the two premierships of Labour's Harold Wilson . More than 290 coal mines closed under Wilson, compared to about 160 under Thatcher, but Thatcher's government closed bigger mines which put far more people out of work and signaled the end of coal mining as a major industry in the UK. Coal mining in the UK would have ended anyway due to the Climate Change Act.
Originally wanted to financially compensate the Falkland Islanders for the Argentine invasion in April 1982, rather than go to war to recover the islands.
Deindustrialisation in the UK was mainly the result of globalisation and the end of the British Empire. British industries were in terminal decline after World War II and entirely dependent of Marshall Aid from the United States. The UK was overtaken economically by West Germany in 1955, and by France in the early 1960s.
Agreed to give Hong Kong back to China in 1984, even though it had been ceded forever to the UK in 1842. Only the New Territories were on a lease.
Lampooned in the Dr Who Episode "The Happiness Patrol".
A female leader who remained popular despite unpopular decisions.
Some people took to the streets in celebration on hearing of her death, and the song "Hi Ho the Witch is Dead" from the Wizard of Oz got a lot of airplay.
Personal Quotes (47)
If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.
Capitalism only works by spreading to more of the population what used to be the privileges of the few.
Free choice is ultimately what life is about.
Good conservatives always pay their bills. Unlike socialists, who just run up other people's.
I would never be prepared to give up our own currency.
The enemy is socialism and the Labour Party.
It is exciting to have a real crisis on your hands, when you have spent half your political life dealing with humdrum issues like the environment.
[the source of her famous (or infamous) quote "there is no such thing as society"] I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand "I have a problem, it is the Government's job to cope with it!" or "I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!" "I am homeless, the Government must house me!" and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then also to help look after our neighbour and life is a reciprocal business and people have got the entitlements too much in mind without the obligations.
[on her successor as Prime Minister, John Major ] I don't think I was unkind to him. I supported him a lot--I chose him!
I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near.
No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions. He had money as well.
That has been a bit of a problem for the Conservatives--Mr. Blair [ Tony Blair ] and the Labour Party sound too much like us.
Being Prime Minister is a lonely job. In a sense, it ought to be--you cannot lead from a crowd. But with Denis [husband Denis Thatcher ] there I was never alone. What a man. What a husband. What a friend.
I am profoundly concerned about unemployment. Human dignity and self-respect are undermined when men and women are condemned to idleness.
To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the U- turn, I have only one thing to say: You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning.
[on Conservative colleague William Whitelaw , aka "Willie"] Every Prime Minister needs a Willie.
I think sometimes the prime minister should be intimidating. There's not much point in being a weak, floppy thing in the chair.
The Russians said that I was an iron lady. They were right. Britain needs an iron lady.
Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.
There will never be anybody else so compelling as Enoch Powell . He had a rare combination of qualities all founded on an unfaltering belief in God, an unshakable loyalty to family and friends and an unswerving devotion to our country. He was magnetic. Listening to his speeches was an unforgettable privilege. He was one of those rare people who made a difference.
[on self-respect] Self-regard is the root of regard for one's fellows.
The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.
If you do not have charge of your own currency, you do not have charge of your own freedom. The idea that we should give up our own currency is utterly repugnant and I do not think many people would want to give it up. The moment you go to Europe - it's an awful thing, it's a spineless thing.
On my way here I passed a local cinema and it turns out you were expecting me after all, for the billboards read: The Mummy Returns (2001).
[on the need for a law to prevent the promotion of homosexuality, which became Section 28] Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay.
[on the resignation of Harold Wilson as Prime Minister in 1976] I gave Mr. Wilson a little piece of advice. It was just a suggestion but one I felt was in his interests and those of the country he's led to its present pass. "Go", I said, "and go now". It's always gratifying to be listened to.
[on the miners' strike of 1984-85] I must tell you that what we have got is an attempt to substitute the rule of the mob for the rule of law, and it must not succeed.
If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn't swim.
Our party is the party of equality of opportunity.
I am happy that my successor will carry on the excellent policies that in fact have finished with the decline of socialism and have brought great prosperity to this country, which have raised Britain's standing in the world and in fact have brought about a truly capital-owning democracy.
Some socialists seem to believe that people should be numbers in a state computer. We believe they should be individuals. We're all unequal. No one, thank heavens, is quite like anyone else, however much the socialists may pretend otherwise. And we believe that everyone has the right to be unequal. But to us, every human being is equally important. A man's right to work as he will, to spend what he earns, to own property, to have the state as servant and not as master, they're the essence of a free economy and on that freedom all our other freedoms depend.
People from my sort of background needed grammar schools to compete with children from privileged homes like Shirley Williams and Anthony Wedgwood Benn ( Tony Benn ).
I firmly believe in law and order and in standing up for authority, otherwise we should have no free society.
[in 1975, after being elected leader of the Conservative party] I am going to have to make it quite clear that Britain is a place where those who have ability can use that ability and if they're successful they can stay here. So many of our successful people intend to go overseas. We want to build a country for successful people here and we use their success to help others. I firmly believe that those who work harder or who have greater ability should get greater rewards and keep them and that as they prosper themselves, so they should prosper others. If you're prepared to save I think you should get some benefit from that.
[on the Housing Act 1980, which gave five million council house tenants in England and Wales the right to buy their house from their local authority] It was Anthony Eden who chose for us the goal of "a property-owning democracy". But for all the time that I have been in public affairs, that has been beyond the reach of so many, who were denied the right to the most basic ownership of all--the homes in which they live. They wanted to buy. Many could afford to buy. But they happened to live under the jurisdiction of a socialist council, which would not sell and did not believe in the independence that comes with ownership.
[on proposed British integration into the European Union] No, no, no and never.
[on the meaning of consensus] The process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects.
My policies are based not on some economics theory, but on things I and millions like me were brought up with: an honest day's work for an honest day's pay; live within your means; put by a nest egg for a rainy day; pay your bills on time; support the police.
"To borrow and to borrow and to borrow" is not Macbeth with a heavy cold. It is Labour Party policy.
[on being dubbed "The Iron Lady" by a Soviet journalist] If that's how they wish to interpret my defence of values and freedoms fundamental to our way of life--and by "they" I mean that somewhat strange alliance between the comrades of the Russian Defence Ministry and our own defence minister--they're welcome to call me whatever they like.
[on the caucus of the party eventually challenging her leadership] Treachery with a smile on its face.
[on entering 10 Downing Street for the first time as Prime Minister] Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. Where there is despair, may we bring hope.
[her written tribute to Sir Jimmy Savile on This Is Your Life (1962)] So many Great Britons have had a touch of eccentricity about them and Jimmy is truly a Great Briton. Miner, wrestler, dance hall manager, disc jockey, hospital porter, fundraiser, performer of good works, Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and Knight of the Realm, Jimmy, I and millions more salute you. God bless and thank you.
[to Salman Rushdie and his wife, on the fatwa] Nothing can really be done until there's a regime change in Tehran.
[on the birth of her first grandchild] We have become a grandmother.
My mother used to say that without our monarchy we would be just like . . . Belgium!
[in a 1973 interview] I don't think there will be a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime.
See also