I have to write an article for a major newspaper with Conservative
sympathies, in which I celebrate what I see as Mrs Thatcher's
achievements.

---

Request for Question Clarification by kriswrite-ga on 14 Apr 2004 13:49 PDT

What is your question?

:)

Kriswrite

Hi vencel,

Thank you for an interesting question.  :)


Margaret Thatcher to speak at Vanderbilt April 17
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/News/news/feb96/releas11.htm

"Britain's first woman prime minister and the nation's longest-serving
prime minister of the 20th century, Thatcher will speak Wednesday,
April 17, at 8 p.m. in Memorial Gymnasium. Tickets for the event are
expected to go on sale in March.

The theme for the annual student-organized symposium is "Instability
in Bosnia and Beyond: The International Response?" Young says his
committee chose to focus on the crisis in the international arena
before learning of Thatcher's availability.

"We realized she could provide an unparalleled perspective on Bosnia
and other similar situations around the world," he said. "In addition
to the European point of view, we also have invited a representative
of the Clinton administration to provide an American perspective."

The IMPACT Symposium is traditionally held in February but was
postponed to accommodate Thatcher's availability, said Young.
Additional speakers for this year's series are expected to be
announced at a later date.

As a student at Somerville College, Oxford, Thatcher was president of
the Oxford University Conservative Association. After graduating with
a degree in chemistry, Thatcher worked as an industrial chemist while
studying law. In 1954, she began practicing law, specializing in tax
issues.

The daughter of a grocer who was active in local politics as borough
councillor, alderman and mayor, Thatcher's political career was
launched with her election to the House of Commons in 1959. She was
appointed to Edward Heath's Shadow Cabinet in 1967, and she served as
secretary of state for education and science from 1970 to 1974. The
following year, Thatcher successfully challenged Heath for party
leadership and became the first woman to lead a major British party.

Thatcher was appointed prime minister, first lord of the treasury and
minister for the civil service in 1979, following the success of the
Conservative Party in the general elections. She retained the position
through contested elections in 1983 and 1987.

During her tenure as prime minister, Thatcher promoted a free-
enterprise economy; implemented tight monetary policies to control
inflation, lower taxes and reduce government spending; advocated
privatization of state-owned companies and public housing; and
introduced legislation to curb the monopoly powers of trade unions and
make their leadership more accountable to their members.

In addition to her domestic achievements, Thatcher earned a reputation
as an international statesman. A staunch supporter of the Northern
Atlantic Alliance, she maintained close relationships with U.S.
Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush. In 1982, when Argentina
invaded the Faulkland Islands, Thatcher dispatched troops to reclaim
the islands. And she traveled extensively throughout the Middle East
and Asia in an effort to improve Britain's relations in those regions.

After her resignation in 1990, Thatcher was awarded the Order of Merit
by Her Majesty the Queen. In 1992 she was elevated to the House of
Lords to become Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven, and in 1995 she was
made a member of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.

Thatcher's first volume of memoirs, "The Downing Street Years," was
published in 1993 by Harper-Collins. Her most recent book, "The Pass
to Power," was published last summer."

=================================================

http://www.dailyobjectivist.com/Heroes/MargaretThatcher.asp

http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/thatcher.html 

=================================================

Remarks by the Vice President Presenting Lady Margaret Thatcher with
the Clare Boothe Luce Award by Vice President Dick Cheney
http://www.heritage.org/Research/PoliticalPhilosophy/wm181.cfm


=================================================

Margaret Thatcher 
Lecture to the Heritage Foundation ("The Principles of Conservatism")
http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108376
 
"It is a great honour to be asked to be the inaugural speaker of this
series of Lectures on the Principles of Conservatism, organised to
celebrate..."


=================================================

Margaret Thatcher: volume two - the Iron Lady  
http://www.newstatesman.com/site.php3?newTemplate=NSReview_Bshop&newDisplayURN=300000075660

==================================

Guardian Unlimited - Obituary: Sir Denis Thatcher
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/politicsobituaries/story/0,1441,985508,00.html

"Remembrance of the life of Margaret Thatcher's oil executive husband
notes that he was "one of the most tested, impressive and amusing
consorts of all time."

=================================================

Thatcher, Margaret Hilda
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761576502/Thatcher_Margaret_Hilda.html

"Thatcher, Margaret Hilda, (1925- ), first woman to hold the office of
prime minister of the United Kingdom (1979-1990). She was born
Margaret Hilda Roberts in Grantham and educated at the University of
Oxford, where she earned degrees in chemistry; from 1947 to 1951 she
worked as a research chemist. She married Denis Thatcher in 1951. In
1953, having studied for the bar, she became a tax lawyer. Joining
the..."




Keyword search:

Margaret Thatcher
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher achievements 
Margaret Thatcher biography


Best regards,
tlspiegel

I presume that you have already written the article. I hope it went ok.
If you want the main achievements of Margaret Thatcher's three
governments then, you could do a lot worse than to choose:

1) Tackled the tyranny of the trade unions. Compare strike figures in
the late 1970s with those of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The
control that trade unions previously had over the British economy had
destroyed industries such as automobile manufacturing, with over-time
bans, secondary picketing and demarcation - all backed up by legally
sanctioned closed-shops. It was only once the more militant trade
unions had been beaten - notably the collapse of the year long miners'
strike in 1985 - and new industrial relations legislation had been
introduced, that Britain was able to adapt to the demands of the new
economy and attract new industries. Whereas secondary picketing and
strikes without ballots had meant that factories and pits could be
closed by local trade union leaders with relatively little support
from workers, Mrs Thatcher's trade union legislation banned secondary
picketing and required all strike votes and trade union elections to
be decided by postal ballots.

2. Reduction in the size of the state. Mrs Thatcher broke the post-war
"Butskillite" consensus as to how the economy should be run and what
role the state should have. Whereas previous governments (both
Conservative and Labour) had adopted broadly Keynesian programmes,
based on nationalised industry, a European social market system, a
goal of full employment to be achieved by increased public spending,
Mrs Thatcher's economic philosophy was much closer to Austrian /
Chicago school economics and to 19th century liberalism. More
importantly, she was determined to reverse the "ratchet effect",
whereby Conservative governments saw their role as to maintain the
status quo, whilst Labour governments saw theirs as to advance the
course of socialism. Mrs Thatcher was determined to advance the course
of economic freedom.
The most visible element of this was the denationalisation (which
later became known as privatisation) and liberalsiation of various
state-owned industries - such as telecoms, gas, airlines, steel. The
role of Government was to focus on providing an economic framework for
enterprise and growth, rather than to try to create such growth
through central planning and state intervention. By the mid-1980s,
privatization was a new term in world government, and by the end of
the decade more than 50 countries, on almost every continent, had set
in motion privatization programs, floating loss-making public
companies on the stock markets and in most cases transforming them
into successful private-enterprise firms. Even left-oriented
countries, which scorned the notion of privatization, began to reduce
their public sector on the sly.
Alongside denationalisation, Mrs Thatcher's governments simplified
personal taxation and reduced levels of income tax. Nigel Lawson, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) from 1983 to 1989, made
a point of either reducing or abolishing one significant tax each
year. Whereas in 1979 there had been a number of different income tax
bands - going up to 98% on income from savings above a certain level -
by the time Mrs Thatcher left Downing Street in 1990, there was just a
standard rate (25%) and a higher rate (40%).

3. Empowerment of the individual. Linked to the reduction in the role
of the state was the empowerment of the individual. Social mobility
reached levels that had not been seen since the years immediately
after the second world war. More people were given a greater say in
their own lives. The "right to buy" scheme, under which council house
tenants were given a statutary opportunity to buy the home in which
they lived at a discounted price, turned Britain into a true property
owning democracy. The privatisation programmed extended share
ownership far beyond traditional social profiles. Companies that had
previously been owned by the state were now owned by the public.
Choice was introduced into public services. First parents were given
some choice over which school their child was sent to, then elements
of choice were introduced for patients in the national health service.

4. Restoring Britain's place in the world. In 1982, Mrs Thatcher
dispatched a taskforce to regain the Falkland Islands, which had been
invaded by Argentinian forces. With a high risk of failure, the
government?s survival lay in the balance. The decision to send armed
forces around the world for the sake a few islands that were inhabited
by more sheep than people was certainly a risk. It couldn't be
justified on strategic or economic grounds but was essential to
preserve the principle of self-determination. The successful campaign
went a long way to restoring British confidence in international
affairs, which had not recovered from the Suez fiasco of 1956. That
new confidence was to be vital in the years that lay ahead.
Margaret Thatcher was one of the first western leaders to act as
though the Cold War could be won, rather than following a policy of
containment. Whilst that victory clearly depended on US military
supremacy, both Ronald Reagan and Mrs Thatcher deserve a large
personal share of the credit for the collapse of the Soviet empire and
the return of freedom and democracy to eastern Europe. Her strength of
conviction and refusal to compromise with evil led to her being given
the nickname of the Iron Lady, even before she became prime minister.
Together with Reagan she pushed Mikhail Gorbachev to pursue his
perestroika policy to its limits and so fatally to undermine the
self-confidence of the Soviet elite. The importance that she attached
to military strength and to an independent nuclear deterrent were
important factors in underlining the fact that the United States had a
reliable ally in its fight against communism.



Further material can be gained from the 1987 Conservative Party
manifesto - particularly the section on the British Revival:
http://www.margaret-thatcher.com/manifestos/1987.php#british