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Margaret Thatcher (Margaret Robins) was born in 1925.
Her father had a grocer's shop but he was also very interested
in local politics. Margaret was a good student and won a
scholarship to Oxford to study chemistry. Then she
worked as a research chemist until she met and married
Denis Thatcher, a successful businessman.
Then she decided to study law. She was already involved in politics and gave up law when she was elected to the Parliament in 1959. From 1970 to 1974 she was Secretary of State for Education. In 1975 she became leader of the Conservative Party which was the Opposition. In 1979 she beat the Labour Party and
took office as Prime Minister, Britain's first woman Prime
Minister.
Thatcher privatized publicly-owned industries and made
cuts in state education, hospitals and welfare benefits. In early
1980's, Britain was facing unemployment, inflation, problems
of Northern Ireland. In 1982, Britain became involved in an
undeclared war against Argentina in the Falkland Islands.
After the victory in the Falklands, she had an image of a
strong, authoritative leader. In the 1983 election campaign,
she won with a large majority of votes. In 1987 she won her
third term as Prime Minister defeating the Labour Party
which suffered from loss of votes due to the newly formed
alliance with Liberal.
On November 22,1990, Mrs. Thatcher resigned. The "Iron
Lady" who believed it was her destiny to reshape the British
nation shed tears as she made the historic announcement-
Three men were candidates for the post of Prime Minister.
John Major was to win.
Questions:
1. When was Margaret Thatcher born?
2. What did she study at the university?
3. What were the major steps on her way to the post of
Prime Minister?
4. What policy did Margaret Thatcher conduct?
5. How long did she stay at the post of Prime Minister?
6. When did she resign?
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