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| photo credit: BBC Radio 4 via photopin cc |
She died yesterday, aged 87, after
suffering a stroke. During her life in politics some worshipped her as a
moderniser who transformed the country, others bitterly accused her of
entrenching the divide between the rich and the poor.
The abiding images of her
premiership will remain those of conflict: huge police confrontations with the
miners' union, her riding a tank in a white headscarf, and flames rising above
Trafalgar Square in the riots over a local tax which ultimately led to her downfall.
During her 11 years in power, she
clashed with the European Union, agreed to hand back the colony of Hong Kong to
China, and fought a war to recover the Falkland Islands from Argentine
invaders.
She struck up a close relationship
with U.S. President Ronald Reagan in the Cold War, backed the first President
George Bush during the 1991 Gulf War, and declared that Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev was a man she could do business with.
She opposed sanctions on South
Africa as a means to end apartheid and was a firm supporter of Augusto Pinochet,
the late Chilean dictator.
To those who crossed her she was
blunt to a degree - "the lady's not for turning", she once informed
members of her own Conservative Party who were urging her to moderate her
policies.
Others who
crossed her path, particularly in Europe, were subjected to withering diatribes
often referred to as "handbaggings", named after the glossy black
leather bag she invariably carried.
"THATCHERISM"
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| photo credit: roberthuffstutter via photopin cc |
With Reagan, she formed a strong
alliance against communism and was rewarded by seeing the Berlin Wall torn down
in 1989 though she worried a unified Germany would dominate Europe.
Gerry Adams, head of the Irish
Republican Army's political wing, said her policies in Northern Ireland, where
thousands died in a struggle over British rule, had done "great hurt"
to people there.
Her reformist - some would say
radical - conservative agenda broke the mould of British politics, changing the
status quo so profoundly that even subsequent Labour governments accepted many
of her policies.
The woman who became known simply as
"Maggie" transferred big chunks of the economy from state hands into
private ownership.
"The problem with socialism is
that eventually you run out of other people's money," she once said.
Her personal credo, founded on
competition, private enterprise, thrift and self-reliance, gave birth to a
political philosophy known as "Thatcherism".
But her tough economic medicine put
millions out of work, alienated many and largely destroyed industries such as
mining.
Her combative stance antagonised
allies in Europe and her intolerance of dissent eventually led to her downfall.
"A brilliant tyrant surrounded
by mediocrities," was how former premier Harold Macmillan described her.
"That bloody woman," was the less charitable verdict of Edward Heath,
another prime minister and her predecessor as Conservative Party leader.
At the peak of her powers,
Thatcher's sheer personality made her one of the West's best known figures. A
workaholic, she put in 18-hour days, after which she would relax over a glass
of whisky.
In 1984 an Irish Republican Army
bomb attack on her Brighton hotel nearly killed her entire cabinet. She was
unscathed, but five people died and some close colleagues were badly injured. Next
morning condemning the bombing, she told reporters: "This is a day I was
not meant to see." Within hours of the attack, and on schedule, she gave
the closing address to her party's annual conference, vowing there would be no
weakening in the fight against terrorism.
After 11 years in power, Thatcher
bowed to a revolt and pulled out of a leadership contest with her former
defence minister Michael Heseltine. A new local tax, known as the "poll
tax", which had led to riots, contributed to her downfall.
"I fight on, I fight to
win," she declared during the party leadership vote, but she resigned the
next day.
Thatcher retained enough influence
to ensure Heseltine did not succeed her, advancing the claims of her protege
John Major, who served as prime minister until 1997.
"We are leaving Downing Street
for the last time after 11 and a half wonderful years and we are very happy
that we leave the United Kingdom in a very, very much better state than when we
came here," Thatcher said with tears in her eyes.
She suffered a series of mild
strokes in late 2001 and 2002, after which she cut back on public appearances
and later cancelled her speaking schedule.
Her decline into dementia was
chronicled in the Oscar-winning film "The Iron Lady", with Meryl
Streep. Cast as a bewildered widow, the very lonely Iron Lady was left only
with her memories.
Editing by
Guy Faulconbridge and Giles Elgood
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