Wednesday, April 10, 2013 News 3
Orange County Register
1
Focus | POLITICS
The entire Western world experienced a shift to the right during the 1980s. In the U.S., that shift centered
around “The Reagan revolution.” In the United Kingdom, the center was England’s first female
prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher died Monday at age 87. A brief look at her life:
Oct. 1 3, 1 925: Margaret Hilda
Roberts is born in Grantham, Lincolnshire.
1 943: Enrolls in Somerville College, Oxford, to study chemistry.
1 946: Elected president of the
Oxford University Conservative Association.
IRON LADY
Feb. 1 1, 1 987: British Airways
is privatized.
June 1 1, 1 987: Thatcher wins
a record third term as prime minister in the general election. The
Conservative majority drops to 1 0 1
seats.
Dec. 5, 1 989: Thatcher handily
fights off a challenge for leadership of the Conservative Party
by Anthony Meyer.
1 949: Becomes the nation’s
youngest candidate for a Parliament seat when the Conservative
party nominates her for a seat
from Dartford. However, she is defeated in both 1 950 and 1 95 1. She
works as a chemist, developing
emulsifiers for ice cream.
STEVE EASON, GETTY IMAGES
March 31, 1 990: A “poll tax” –
a per-adult rate, as opposed to the
value of a home – is introduced in
England. Protests become riots
throughout London. More than
200,000 protest in Trafalgar
Square.
BOB DEAR, AP
1 951: Marries Denis Thatcher.
The next year, she begins training
to be a lawyer.
Oct. 8, 1 990: The pound joins
the European Exchange Rate
Mechanism.
1 953: Gives birth to twins, Mark
and Carol. Starts work as a lawyer.
Nov. 1, 1 990: Deputy Prime
Minister Sir Geoffrey Howe resigns
over Thatcher’s position on the European Union.
1 959: Wins a Parliament seat.
Becomes the MP for Finchley, in
the northern suburbs of London.
Nov. 20, 1 990: Thatcher is
again challenged for leadership of
the Conservative party. When she
does not win outright on the first
ballot, she announces two days later she will not contest the second
ballot.
1 96 1: Moves to Parliament’s
“front bench” as undersecretary
for the Ministry of Pensions and
National Insurance.
1 964: The Labour party wins
general elections, pushing Conservative leaders into opposition or
“shadow cabinet.” Thatcher is
named opposition spokeswoman
for Housing and Land. Over the
next six years, she moves through
a number of spokeswoman positions, ending up in Education.
1 970: Conservatives regain
control of Parliament. Thatcher is
appointed secretary of Education
and Science.
1 97 1: Thatcher’s proposal to
end free school milk for children
over the age of 7 earns her the
nickname “the milk snatcher.”
1 974: A general election puts
the Labour party in control of government. Thatcher moves back to
the shadow cabinet.
1 975: Thatcher successfully
challenges Edward Heath to become leader of the Conservative
party.
1 976: A Soviet newspaper
launches an attack on Thatcher,
calling her the “Iron Lady.” The
name sticks.
May 3, 1 979: Conservatives
win a general election with a 44seat majority. Thatcher becomes
the UK’s first female prime minister.
1 980: Thatcher succeeds in
pushing through the Housing Act,
which gives people the right to buy
Nov. 27, 1 990: John Major becomes prime minister. Thatcher
stays on as a member of Parliament.
HULTON ARCHIVE, GETTY IMAGES
October 1 985
September 1 984: Thatcher
signs an agreement that will return Hong Kong to China in 1 997.
their government-owned house at
a reduced price.
March 1 98 1: Separatists of the
Irish Republican Army begin a
highly-publicized second round of
hunger strikes. After IRA prisoner
Bobby Sands dies in May, riots
break out across Northern Ireland.
Oct. 1 2: 1 984: The IRA makes
an attempt on Thatcher’s life by
bombing the Grand Hotel in
Brighton during a Conservative
party conference. Four are killed,
including MP Anthony Berry.
March 1 98 1: The recession
deepens. Thatcher’s government
slashes public spending even
more. Her approval ratings drop to
25 percent.
Dec. 1 6, 1 984: Thatcher
meets Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for the first time. Afterward, she declares: “We can do
business together.”
Jan. 1 1, 1 982: Mark Thatcher
disappears in the Sahara during
the Paris-Dakar Rally. He’s found
three days later.
CENTRAL PRESS, GETTY IMAGES
April 2, 1 982: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands. Thatcher sends in the British Navy. Argentina surrenders two months later.
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE, AP
With Reagan in the White
House, February 1 985.
January 1 986: Thatcher’s defense secretary, Michael Heseltine,
quits after her cabinet refuses to
support his efforts to rescue the
Westland helicopter agency via European – as opposed to U.S. – help.
June 9, 1 983: Despite unemployment of 3 million, Thatcher enFebruary 1 986: Thatcher signs
joys a landslide in a general electhe Single European Act, which will
tion. The Conservative Party earns establish a single European market
a majority of 1 44 seats.
by the end of 1 992.
October 1 983: President Ro1 986: Thatcher reluctantly alnald Reagan launches an invasion
lows U.S. bombers to launch from
of Grenada in the Caribbean – a
British bases in order to retaliate
member of the British Commonagainst Libya for attacks in Europe.
wealth – but fails to consult with
Oct. 1 7, 1 986: London’s fiThatcher in advance.
nancial markets are deregulated.
March 1 984: A strike begins
among UK mine workers. The
strike would last about a year.
ADRIAN DENNIS, AP
June 1 992: Thatcher enters
the House of Lords as Baroness
Thatcher.
1 993: Thatcher publishes the
first of two volumes of memoirs.
200 1 -02: A series of small
strokes leaves Thatcher in frail
health and with failing memory.
She retires from public speaking.
June 2004: Thatcher attends
Ronald Reagan’s funeral. Because
of her reduced speaking abilities,
she prerecords her eulogy, which
is broadcast over large TV screens
in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
April 8, 20 1 3: Thatcher dies
at age 87.
Sources: The Guardian, the Telegraph, the Independent, BBC
W H Y I T M AT T E R S
Five moments that show Margaret Thatcher’s influence in American politics
BY SEAN SULLIVAN
THE WASHINGTON POST
Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister,
held the office for
more than 11 years,
including all of the
1980s. During that
time, she left a major mark on U.S.
politics, mainly
through her close
relationship with
President Ronald
Reagan.
Here’s a look back
at the five moments
that stand out:
1. “The second
most important
man in my life.”
Bound by opposition to communism,
Thatcher and
Reagan shared a
close bond throughout the 1 980s. Together, they provided a united western
counterbalance
against the Soviet
Union, and modernized Europe’s antiSoviet nuclear
shield. Thatcher
once referred to
Reagan as the “second most important
man” in her life.
2. Strains in the
relationship
The Reagan-Thatcher relationship wasn’t always so
rosy. Reagan didn’t immediately support Britain in its
conflict with Argentina in the
Falkland Islands in 1 982, urging the European ally to pursue talks. And Thatcher’s
government denounced the
Reagan-sanctioned invasion
of Grenada in 1 983.
Documents that were
newly declassified in 20 1 2
revealed some of the strains
in the Thatcher-Reagan relationship. Thatcher once described a Reagan dispatch
on the Falklands invasion as
“so vague, I didn’t think it
was worth reading.”
3. Address before
a joint session of
Congress
Thatcher addressed
the U.S. Congress in
1 985, winning rousing
applause for a speech in
which she vouched for
the Reagan administration’s foreign policies.
“In an address that
stirred applause in the
packed House chamber –
especially among Republicans – Mrs. Thatcher also stressed that she
firmly supported President Reagan’s spacebased missile defense research plan,” the New
York Times reported at
the time.
4. “No time to go wobbly.”
Toward the end of her tenure as
prime minister, Thatcher helped spur
on President George H.W. Bush to intervene militarily in the Persian Gulf
after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.
Thatcher famously declared to the
U.S. president that “this was no time
to go wobbly.”
Here’s how Thatcher described her
initial thoughts about Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait, in an interview with
PBS’s “Frontline:” “I went out for a
walk, always lovely in the mountains,
and got things worked out in my mind,
but it was perfectly clear, aggression
must be stopped. That is the lesson of
this century. And if an aggressor gets
away with it, others will want to get
away with it too, so he must be stopped, and turned back. You cannot gain
from your aggression.”
5. Spurning
Sarah Palin
In 20 1 1, the Guardian
newspaper reported
that Thatcher would not
be meeting with Sarah
Palin during Palin’s trip
to London. “Lady
Thatcher will not be
seeing Sarah Palin. That
would be belittling for
Margaret. Sarah Palin is
nuts,” the paper quoted
one Thatcher ally as
saying. The rejection
sparked an outcry
among conservatives in
the United States, lending a great deal of attention to the nonmeeting.