Margaret Thatcher, Conservative Who Reforged Britain, Passed Away at 87
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Published: April 8, 2013 71 Comments
Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady” of British politics, who turned her country in a sharply conservative direction, led it to victory in the Falklands war and helped guide the United States and the Soviet Union through the cold war’s difficult last years, died on Monday. She was 87.
Patcnews The Patriot Conservative News Tea Party Network Reports Margaret Thatcher Passed Away at the Age of 87 © All copyrights reserved By Mark Eberle
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Prime Minister Thatcher greeted residents who gathered to see her in Moscow during a visit in 1987. More Photos »
Readers’ Comments
"She was right on a lot of things but deeply flawed on others. She changed Britain by ripping it apart. A great leader, maybe. An important one, undoubtedly."chrisnorton66, Santa Barbara, California
Her spokesman, Tim Bell, said the cause was a stroke. She had been in poor health for months and had dementia.
Her death brought tributes from Prime Minister David Cameron, who cut
short a visit to Continental Europe to return to Britain, and Queen
Elizabeth II, who authorized a ceremonial funeral — a step short of a
state funeral — to be held at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London with
military honors. A statement from the White House said that “the world
has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America
has lost a true friend.”
Mrs. Thatcher was the first woman to become prime minister of Britain
and the first to lead a major Western power in modern times.
Hard-driving and hardheaded, she led her Conservative Party to three
straight election victories and held office for 11 years — May 1979 to
November 1990 — longer than any other British politician in the 20th
century.
The tough economic medicine Mrs. Thatcher administered to a country
sickened by inflation, budget deficits and industrial unrest brought her
wide swings in popularity, culminating with a revolt among her own
cabinet ministers in her final year and her shout of “No! No! No!” in
the House of Commons to any further integration with Europe.
But by the time she left office, the principles known as Thatcherism —
the belief that economic freedom and individual liberty are
interdependent, that personal responsibility and hard work are the only
ways to national prosperity, and that the free-market democracies must
stand firm against aggression — had won many disciples. Even some of her
strongest critics accorded her a grudging respect.
At home, Mrs. Thatcher’s political successes were decisive. She broke
the power of the labor unions and forced the Labour Party to abandon its
commitment to nationalized industry, redefine the role of the welfare
state and accept the importance of the free market.
Abroad, she won new esteem for a country that had been in decline since
its costly victory in World War II. After leaving office, she was
honored as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven. But during her first years in
power, even many Tories feared that her election might prove a terrible
mistake.
In October 1980, 17 months into her first term, Mrs. Thatcher faced
disaster. More businesses were failing and more people were out of work
than at any time since the Great Depression. Racial and class tensions
smoldered so ominously that even close advisers worried that her push to
stanch inflation, sell off nationalized industry and deregulate the
economy was devastating the poor, undermining the middle class and
courting chaos.
At the Conservative Party conference that month, the moderates grumbled
that they were being led by a free-market ideologue oblivious to life on
the street and the exigencies of realpolitik. With electoral defeat
staring them in the face, cabinet members warned, now was surely a time
for compromise.
To Mrs. Thatcher, they could not be more wrong. “I am not a consensus
politician,” she had often declared. “I am a conviction politician.”
In an address to the party, she played on the title of Christopher Fry’s
popular play “The Lady’s Not for Burning” in insisting that she would
press forward with her policies. “You turn if you want to,” she told the
faltering assembly. “The lady’s not for turning.”
Her tough stance did the trick. A party revolt was thwarted, the Tories
hunkered down, and Mrs. Thatcher went on to achieve great victories. She
turned the Conservatives, long associated with the status quo, into the
party of reform. Her policies revitalized British business, spurred
industrial growth and swelled the middle class.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:Correction: April 8, 2013
An earlier version of this obituary misquoted Lady Thatcher when, in an address to her party, she played on the title of Christopher Fry’s play “The Lady’s Not for Burning.” She said: “You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning.” She did not say, “Turn if you like.”
Why are the Liberals on Twitter celebrating The death of Margaret Thatcher ????
Margaret Thatcher
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Margaret Thatcher, the only woman to ever serve as Britain's Prime Minister, died Monday morning after suffering a stroke, the UK Independent reported. Almost as soon as the announcement was made, liberals took to Twitter to celebrate her death, Twitchy said.
"My mum is phoning all her pals and away to get champagne already hahaha," one person tweeted, using the hashtag "#partytime."
"Margaret thatcher (sic) is dead... Guess my dads gunna finally be able to have the champagne he's been saving in the fridge after all these years," another person tweeted.
"Does Thatcher death dance. Grave disco. Pints of milk on me tonight," added another.
Cartoonist Ted Rall also weighed in.
"Goodbye, Maggie, and good riddance. Along with Reagan, Thatcher destroyed the safety net and the social contract in the West," he wrote. In 2010, he called for the overthrow of the U.S. government through violent revolution in his book "The Anti-American Manifesto," and discussed his ideas for revolution with MSNBC's Dylan Thomas.
"If they bury Thatcher, it will be the busiest public urinal and dance floor in the world," said another.
Twitchy posted 22 tweets celebrating the death of the woman known as the "Iron Lady."
A quick search of Twitter found many more.
One person called her a "whore," and another called her a "stuck up aristocrat."
"No other post war Prime Minister has been so admired, or so reviled," the Independent said.
The tweets that have been issued since the announcement would bear that out.
While many expressed hatred for the woman, many others offered condolences and best wishes.
The CBC posted a few of her more memorable quotes.
"If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman," she said in 1965.
"Pennies don’t fall from heaven — they have to be earned here on Earth," she said in 1979.
"Defeat? I do not recognize the meaning of the word," she said at the start of the Falklands War in 1982.
Thatcher won three general elections for Britain's Conservative Party, the Independent said, and "shaped UK politics for a generation."
She was 87 at the time of her death and will receive a special ceremonial funeral, similar to those accorded to the Queen Mother and Diana, the Princess of Wales, the Independent added.
"She was a strong leader and a fierce fighter," the Twitchy staff wrote. "She will be greatly and deeply missed."
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