Right now, Live from St Paul's Cathedral in London, is the ceremonial funeral service for Baroness Margret Thatcher.
Margaret Hilda Roberts, Baroness Thatcher was born 13th October 1925.
Her years of power as Britain's first woman Prime Minister reshaped the social and economic landscape of the country. The Iron Lady was famed for her firmness and determination. 'You turn if you want,' she once said: 'the lady's not for turning.'
"She was born into a family of a self-made and prosperous grocer in Lincolnshire. Her father, Alfred Roberts, was active in local politics. A bright child, Margaret was educated at Grantham Girl's School, before going on to Oxford University to study chemistry. Not something I think many people are aware of. While at University she became President of the University Conservative Association, only the third woman to hold the position.
From 1947 Margaret was employed as a research chemist. She also continued her political activities and in 1950 and 1951 stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate for Dartford in Kent, although she increased the local Tory vote by 50 per cent. Early pictures show her hallmark blonde coiffure, feminine features and winning smile. An authoritative speaker, her unforgettable delivery was once described as a 'honey-sweet voice of solicitous purity'.
Through her involvement in the Conservative Party, Margaret met Denis Thatcher, a wealthy businessman whom she married in 1951. Dennis supported Margaret while she studied to become a barrister, which she did while pregnant with twins. In 1953 Margaret qualified, specialising in taxation, and stood for a number of constituencies before winning the seat for Finchley in North London in April 1958.
After serving as a junior minister in Harold Macmillan's government, Margaret became a member of Edward Heath's cabinet in 1970. During the Conservative government of 1970 - 74 Margaret was secretary of State for Education and Science. Between 1974 and 1979 Margaret was shadow spokesman on the environment and financial affairs and it was during this time that she criticised Edward Heath for being insufficiently Conservative. When she challenged him for the part leadership in 1974 neither her nor she expected her to win the first ballot but, having done so, she was soon party leader. For the rest of her period in opposition she united her party in opposing government spending, and argued the case for curbing trade union power and for reducing immigration.
The 1979 election followed the 'winter of discontent' during which the Labour government had struggled with the unions. The Conservatives won the election with a large majority and Margaret became Prime Minister. Her philosophy from the start was that Britain was over-governed and over-taxed. She aimed to make industry and public services more efficient by cutting subsidies, to privatise government-owned industries, to reduce trade union power, to fight inflation and to encourage home ownership.
She achieved her goal of reducing inflation but at a heavy cost: unemployment nearly tripled in her first two terms in power. In 1981 there was the worst recession in Britain since the 1930s and rioting in deprived inner-city areas. Opinion polls showed her to be the most unpopular Prime Minister since 1945. However, the surprise invasion of the British-owned Falkland Islands by the Argentinians in 1982 gave Margaret an opportunity to tackle an external challenge decisively and turn public opinion in her favour. Media acclaim for her leadership of the Falklands War helped her to another term in office.
Margaret's second term as Prime Minister was crowned by her triumphant negotiation of a 2 billion pound annual rebate from the European Union in 1984. The rebate made up the shortfall between what Britain paid into the EU and what it received from it in subsidies. The UK has continued to benefit from the agreement ever since. However, there were corresponding low points, including a long, bitter and highly divisive strike by miners during 1984-85, which the government eventually broke through the preventative measures it had taken against coal shortages. The arts and education in Britain saw cuts in funding and in protest Oxford University twice refused to award Margaret the customary honorary degree given to Prime Ministers. This slight from her former university prompted Margaret to donate her personal papers to Churchill College, Cambridge, where they are stored with Sir Winston Churchill's.
Having survived an assassination attempt by the IRA in 1984, Margaret went on to win a third consecutive term of office and become the longest-serving post-war Prime Minister. The large majority gained in the election was attributed by some commentators to the increased number of property owners that she had created through her policy of allowing tenants municipal housing to buy their houses. Thatcherism was now an accepted political phenomenon, which its stress on policies that embodied Margaret's widely quoted belief that 'there is no such thing as society. There are only individual men and woman and there families'.
Margaret was an outspoken critic of Communism and a loyal supporter of American foreign policy under the Reagan administration. However, she respected the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, saying he was a man she 'could do business with'. With President Ronal Reagan she had a genuine personal friendship. He admired her intelligence and resilience and she was charmed by his humour and easy manners. She asserted a strong commitment to NATO by the UK and upheld the importance of Britain's independent nuclear deterrent. The ironic label by which she was known in the Soviet press - the Iron Lady - delighted her and became permanently coupled with her name.
In 1989, several events were set in train that led to her eventual downfall. They included the introduction of the deeply unpopular poll tax to fund local government, quarrels with senior colleagues and a downturn in the economy. In 1990 Margaret's leadership of the Conservative Party was formally challenged while she was out of the country. her failure to win an outright victory in the first ballot of the leadership election took her by surprise. She quickly recognised that defeat was likely and resigned.
In her retirement Margaret has remained active, establishing the Thatcher Foundation to promote free enterprise and democracy throughout the world. In 1992 she was made a life peer and chose the title Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven. Since a series of minor strokes in 2002, her health was frail. Her tribute at the funeral of Ronal Reagan in June 2004, a year after the death of her husband, was one of the most moving parts of the service. Although ill health meant that she had to record her address, , she insisted on attending in person.
Many consider that Margaret Thatcher transformed Britain greatly for the better and re-established it as an economic force; others believe she damaged Britain's manufacturing base and created a divided society. She showed by example that it was possible for a woman to rise to the highest office in British politics and stay there - a feat she accomplished with a level of assertiveness rarely equalled by her male predecessors."
(Women who changed the world. Smith-Davies 2006)
Margaret Thatcher was a woman of passion and conviction. She would make her fellow colleagues go weak at the knees at her - quite simply her end message was about the freedom of the individual.
RIP Margaret Thatcher
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