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Extraordinary
Margaret Thatcher was one of the most extraordinary and successful leaders in British history. As the first female prime minister in Europe, Margaret Thatcher embodied principled decisiveness and moral absolutism. She championed the rights of the individual versus those of the state. In 1987, she famously declared: "There is no such thing as society!"
Confrontation
The Soviet press nicknamed her The Iron Lady, after her 1976 speech as head of the Conservative Party, declaring that: "The Russians are bent on world domination." Margaret Thatcher later enjoyed a close working relationship with American President Ronald Reagan, and both of them survived assassination attempts.
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Humble Beginnings
Margaret Thatcher was born 13 October 1925 in the Eastern England market town of Grantham. She took pride in her modest working class background as the grocer's daughter . She studied Chemistry at Oxford and became involved in politics at a young age. She gave her first political speech at 20.
Victorious Vision
Margaret Thatcher was elected leader of the Conservative Party in 1975, when the party was in opposition. 4 Years later she made history when she became the first female Prime Minister in British history, leading the Conservatives to victory in the elections of 1979. This was the first of 3 elections in which she led her party to victory. She became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at a time when the government was facing bankruptcy, unemployment was escalating and the labour unions were paralysing the country with strikes.
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Margaret Thatcher successfully turned the country around by cutting social welfare programmes, reducing trade union powers and privatising major industries. She offered a bold plan to reverse Britain's economic decline and to reduce the role of the state in the economy.
Northern Ireland
Lady Thatcher also had to deal with the ongoing IRA terrorism which increasingly targeted the British mainland. Margaret Thatcher declared in the House of Commons: "The future of the constitutional affairs of Northern Ireland is a matter for the people of Northern Ireland, this government, this parliament, and no one else!"
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When IRA terrorists, imprisoned in Northern Ireland, went on a hunger strike to attain the status of political prisoners , Thatcher refused to budge. She declared: "Crime is crime is crime; it is not political!" She faced a firestorm of opposition as 9 of the IRA hunger strikers died. However, Thatcher's resolute determination to not be manipulated by opinion polls, or political blackmail, made the outcome a significant political defeat for the IRA.
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Resolute Action
As Newsweek declared: "The Empire strikes back!" Margaret Thatcher made Britain's position clear by sinking the Argentinian battleship Belgrado, and launching an amphibious and ground combat operation which recaptured the islands from the Argentinian military. This military achievement, at the other end of the globe, sent shockwaves throughout the Soviet block, alerting them that the West was not quite as decadent and weak as they had imagined.
Throughout the Cold War, Margaret Thatcher supported the United States President Ronald Reagan's policy of putting freedom on the offensive, directly supporting anti-communist movements in the Soviet Empire and refusing to provide any more financial loans to the Soviets and their satellites. Margaret Thatcher's success in reviving the British economy also helped to demonstrate that capitalism had a future, even while communism was bankrupting the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Margaret Thatcher's role in enabling the West to defeat the Soviet Union and win the Cold War was decisive.
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Transformation
Margaret Thatcher transformed Britain in the 1980s with a dedication to free markets and became a critical ally and ideological soul mate of President Ronald Reagan in the Cold War against Soviet Communism.
"I am afraid democracy's fundamental religious roots are weakening. There are some countries, fortunately, kept alive by faithful people. But even they are tending to weaken. In the British system children are taught Christianity. They are taught to have Faith in schools. It is a compulsory subject. In my day, the schools were places where children learned the great
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Hymns which stayed with them the rest of their lives. Hymns, prayers, Bible readings. It is really all locked together.
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century reversed that decline. It is for a new generation to take up her principles and policies and work to rescue a great nation from greater threats than it has ever faced before in history.
Unavoidably Detained
The Frontline Mission team I was leading had been arrested at Kazangulu, after refusing to bribe Zambian officials. We spent excruciating weeks of abuse at the hands of Zambian security forces, in filthy cells, blindfolded, handcuffed, interrogated and incarcerated in the overcrowded Lusaka Central Prison.
Intervention Sought
Friends of ours ensured that the British Prime Minister was informed of our plight just before her
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Double Standards
She then went on to relate how Zambians were dependent on South African maize grown in the Orange Free State, how Zambian Airways was maintained by South African Airways, how Zambian Railways was maintained by South African Railways, how South African v eterinarians cared for Zambias cattle, and how many Zambians were migrant workers in South Africa.
Hypocrisy
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Kenneth Kaunda then declared that because of South Africas human rights abuses, Britain should impose sanctions. It was at this point that Margaret Thatcher produced our information. " Who are you to speak about human rights abuses?" She challenged Kaunda. Four British missionaries are being held without trial as presidential detainees in Lusaka Central Prison, tortured and abused by your own security forces! Kaunda was dumbstruck and humiliated. He ordered our immediate release.
Dr. Peter Hammond Frontline Fellowship P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725 Cape Town South Africa Tel: 021-689-4480 Fax: 021-685-5884 Email: mission@frontline.org.za Website: www.frontline.org.za
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