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Margaret
Hilda Roberts was born on 13th October, 1925 in the southern Lincolnshire
town of Grantham. She studied
at Grantham Girls School and then at Somerville College Oxford where
she read chemistry.
Following
this she studied law and took her Bar finals in 1953. She then began
working as a lawyer specialising in tax law.
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 I
don't mind how much my ministers talk, so long as they do
what I say.
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| Margaret
Thatcher |
After
standing unsuccessfully for election in Dartford in 1950, her parliamentary
career began in 1959 when she was elected to the House of Commons.
She held various ministerial positions including Minister for Education
(1970-4) and was elected as leader of the Conservative Party in
1975.
It
was four years later that she led the Conservatives to victory in
the 1979 general election. She led her party to two more election
victories making her the only British Prime Minister in the 20th
century to be elected for three successive terms.
Margaret
Thatcher was a powerful and inspiring leader. Her policies were
often highly controversial - the introduction of the poll tax and
privatisation being just two examples.
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| The
'Iron Lady' |
In
1990 the Conservative Party was deeply divided over a number of
issues not least of which was the influence of Europe on the British
economy. This led to her resignation in November of that year and
she was succeeded by John Major.
Just
two years later Margaret Thatcher resigned from the House of Commons
and was made a life peer taking the title Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven.
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