Margaret Thatcher: The Autobiography

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The strikes began on the day the government announced its plan to cut coal production. Miners in Yorkshire were the first to down tools. Sympathy strikes soon spread to other areas of the country. I don’t think there will be a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime.” (BBC Television, 5 March, 1973) The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic around 300 miles east of the Argentinian coast. Several of the larger islands are inhabited; hundreds of the smaller islands aren’t.

Margaret Thatcher : The Autobiography - Google Books

Offering a riveting firsthand version of the critical moments of her premiership – the Falklands War, the miners' strike, the Brighton bomb and her unprecedented three election victories, the book reaches a gripping climax with an hour-by-hour description of her dramatic final days in 10 Downing Street. Now, no one knew better than Margaret that women could get on in British politics. She was a trailblazer, after all. She’d become just the fifth woman to hold a senior government position in 1970. But, she did wonder if women like her could rise to the very top. When a journalist once asked her if she could imagine herself leading the country one day, she responded saying that she didn’t expect to see a woman prime minister in her lifetime – the male population was simply “too prejudiced.” Let’s move on to One of Us by Hugo Young. I don’t know if Hugo Young would have known Margaret Thatcher personally, but this book is an unsympathetic view of Thatcher. Why is it worth reading this if you want to understand her? The second term opened with almost as many difficulties as the first. The government found itself challenged by the miners' union, which fought a year-long strike in 1984-85 under militant leadership. The labour movement as a whole put up bitter resistance to the government's trade union reforms, which began with legislation in 1980 and 1982 and continued after the General Election.Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount.

Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, Volume Three Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, Volume Three

However, although she was successful in reducing inflation, deflationary monetary policies caused a serious economic recession, in which unemployment rose to 3 million. Opinion was strongly against many of her policies. In a famous letter to The Times newspaper, 360 economists wrote a letter arguing the government should change its policies immediately. However, in true Thatcher style, she refused. Instead, she stood up at the Conservative party conference and stated: “You turn if you want to, but this lady is not for turning.” It was characteristic of her whole premiership – fierce in her beliefs and unwavering in her commitment. (See: UK economy under Mrs Thatcher, 1979-84) The campaign in Dartford marked the beginning of an eventful decade. Margaret met her husband, Denis, a fellow scientist, and gave birth to twins – Mark and Carol. Her rise through the ranks of the Conservative party continued. In 1959, she was given a safe seat of her own – Finchley, in London. I believe, The greatest prime minister that Britain has seen and her strength and focus was truly inspiring given what she had to stand up to. She took us out of the brink of the dark ages and contributed to us completely turning around our economy - we are now prosperous.Thatcher's close friend Woodrow Wyatt recounted in his diary on 3 February 1989 a conversation he had with Rupert Murdoch who wanted Thatcher to write her equivalent of Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika, explaining her philosophy and that John O'Sullivan could do all the "donkey work" for her. Wyatt countered this by stating that the chairman of the publishing house Collins had tried to get him to persuade Thatcher to publish her memoirs with Collins and Thatcher herself seemed favourable to this option. [1] The next day Wyatt put Murdoch's idea to Thatcher but she claimed she did not have the time. [2]