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LOVED AND LOATHED in equal measure by the public who gave her three terms in office, Margaret Thatcher’s tenure as Prime Minister – from 1979 to 1990 – was a period of major transformation for Britain, its economy, and its social institutions.
Here is a look at Thatcher’s period in power, in video.
The 1979 election was relatively unusual: amid the background of rising tensions in Northern Ireland, the Labour administration – propped up by nationalists from Scotland and Wales, and Ulster Unionists – collapsed and left all three main parties fighting an election with new leaders.
Running on a platform of resisting the trade union movement – which had become increasingly powerful and called many damaging strikes – Thatcher won a 5-per-cent swing for the Conservatives and became Britain’s first female Prime Minister.
(YouTube: hiltonhead)
Thatcher set about a plan to tackle inflation as part of a more liberal economic agenda, including the privatisation of many state bodies. The plan had not started well: unemployment had begun to rise.
Journalists expected Thatcher to wilt and admit the ill-effects of her agenda. They didn’t get the admission they expected.
(YouTube: danco28)
For some the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands was the key point of Thatcher’s tenure. With popularity waning at home, and with the public feeling sore about the slow dissolution of the British Empire after World War 2, Thatcher acted resolutely in sending military support to fight the Argentine invasion.
(YouTube: TheRoyalPalace)
The decisive victory in the Falklands won Thatcher the nickname of ‘the Iron Lady’ – a moniker that she was said to enjoy and almost relish, as a reputation to aspire to.
However unpopular she may have been beforehand, the wartime victory sent Thatcher’s popularity soaring and meant the 1983 election was an easy win. Britain’s first ever female prime minister had won her second term.
(YouTube: liarpoliticians)
At 2:54am the morning before Thatcher’s speech to the Conservative Party conference, the IRA detonated a bomb at the Grand Hotel in Brighton hoping to assassinate the entire British cabinet. Cabinet ministers were injured; the wife of one was killed.
Determined not to allow the republicans disrupt the event, Thatcher delivered a defiant speech.
(YouTube: britishpathe)
A lengthy and delicate diplomatic process between Thatcher and the Taoiseach of the day, Garret FitzGerald, culminated with the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
The deal was the first to give the Republic a consultative role in the administration of the North, while also securing Irish acknowledgement of some of the North’s administrative and policing structures.
(YouTube: ninthwave)
If the Falklands marked Thatcher’s zenith, the strikes of 1984 and 1985 marked her nadir – and is the reason she remained loathed among many in the industrial and working classes.
Britain’s trade unions declared open war on the Thatcher administration; Thatcher responded by closing many state-owned mines and led to the infamous 1984 ‘Winter of Discontent’. The miners’ campaign waned in 1985 and the tension ultimately led to union in-fighting that saw the end of the resistance.
(YouTube: iconic)
The 1987 election was not quite as decisive as four years earlier, but having dealt a near-fatal blow to the union movement and continued economic liberalisation, Thatcher took a third term in 1987 with barely a dent in her House of Commons majority.
(YouTube: MrElectionist)
By 1990, with another election coming into view, British minds were occupied by the continued development of the European Community. Thatcher had already overseen Britain’s entry into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (prompting the departure of her Chancellor).
Then, the European Commission president Jacques Delors – a committed federalist – made clear his desire that the European political institutions would be considered the prominent political vehicles in each member state.
In an assertion that has come to define the UK’s ongoing relationship with Britain, Thatcher made it clear that she would oppose a movement to make Westminster fully subservient to Brussels.
(YouTube: Ingrid Kampen)
It had become evident that, despite her assurances about the development of the European Community and Britain’s role within it, that a fourth term of office was out of the question – too many parts of British society were now too vehemently opposed to her rule.
Michael Heseltine challenged her leadership and forced the vote to a second ballot – enough for supporters to encourage her to stand down. She left Downing Street in tears, allowing John Major to become prime minister to take power (and ultimately allow the UK to ratify the Maastricht Treaty anyway).
(YouTube: iconic)
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The state of all them candidates. No competition to Michael D
@Ciarān: Mickey D is the real deal. Couldn’t think of anyone better.
@Ciarān: if president Higgins was in that group you could equally say the state of him ,I can’t say I know of anything outstanding that he’s done ,he praised some men at a funeral that I would have had little respect for in the recent past
@FlopFlipU: What more would you have asked him to do? He is an intelligent, eloquent speaker who represents us well abroad and at home and is always visibly proud to do so.
@Ciarān: Michael D isn’t a patch on McAleese, and is too old for another 7 year term. Joan Freeman will have my vote assuming her candidacy isn’t blocked. Fantastic woman, and without wishing to be sexist I think the women elected to that office have far outperformed any of the men that went before them (although gender is not why I’ll vote for Freeman, but worthy of note all the same)
@Ciarān: I thought the agenda of the last election was to eliminate Labour, let’s complete the job and give higgins the boot too.
@B-Tech Roadman: What per cent of the population actually voted for his party in the last election?
@FlopFlipU: He established TG4 for one thing, and struck the perfect balance in marking the 1916 centenary.
@Trevor Hayden: eh yeah right whatever
@Ciarān: He is a hypocrite and a champagne socialist.
Duffy. A great defender of bloodsports and hunts. No thanks
@Good Early: No joe duffy. ring him at 2 everyday.
@Sean Conway: tbh I’m in shock Duffy isn’t running. Bet he’d run under FG. If mims o Callaghan had ran ,wouldn’t she effectively have been a FF candidate ?
So Joan couldn’t answer the question in Irish. Why doesn’t it mention whether the other two could?
@Joe Lennon:
Maybe no one cared? The fact she hasn’t in the past wasted her time and energy on a useless language is the first good thing I have heard about her.
@Joe Lennon: No idea. Maybe she was the only person asked a question in Irish? They only gave Feeney a token mention, suggesting our impartial press have wrote him off already.
@P.J. Nolan: the first good thing you’ve heard about her? You know she started Pieta House right? Or were you just being facetious?
@ObsidianShine:
I was well aware of Pieta house, I’ve been there as a visitor! I should have said it was the first good thing since the start of this campaign.
@ObsidianShine: and then put god in charge of the finances. That’s a no from me
@P.J. Nolan: Gligín
Democracy means we have a contest. The issue of cost of an election should not come into it. There is no price for Democracy.
Let the Candidates declare themselves, let’s hear the debate and let’s vote. Long live the Republic.
@Gavin O’Brien: ‘Democracy means we have a contest.’ Are you sure you aren’t confusing democracy with a game show, the needs of the citizens with the needs of TV viewers and the media who profit from endless ‘polls’? We have democratically elected a man who does the job well. Even these ‘candidates’ admit this. Which begs the question: if this is the case, why are they running?
@alan: You obviously have not a clue what a democracy is or how it works if you think we have a man democratically elected. He stated he would take the job for seven years not fourteen.
Fourteen years is too long a time for one of the most powerful positions in the state in my opinion. We need to have an election to hold Michael D accountable for his actions during his term as president whether you agree with them or not you get to chose at the ballot.
@brian boru: ‘to hold Michael D accountable for his actions during his term as President’. What actions would they be?
@sean o’dhubhghaill: that’s up to everyone to find out and make a decision on. Just because some people just see the veneer and the position is powerless, doesn’t mean others don’t think he may not be the best candidate for the job of president.
@brian boru: You do not know what the job is if you think it is so powerful. There are powers but they are clearly defined and limited with various backstops.
@brian boru: Okay, you think a fourteen year term limit is too long. What’s that got to do with having an election for the role? Completely different topic that we can and will vote on if we have to. That’s like saying that you buy Smarties to send a message. No one knows what your message is, and that’s not even why we’re here in the first place.
Joan Freeman best of this bunch , by a long shot , she’s far more in touch with the what’s going in peoples lives on than others , she sees it every day .
@Margaret: yet I couldn’t possibly vote for someone who admittedly deprived citizens of equal rights.
@sequoia: Who did that as the President does not make the laws they sign off on them if they do not break the constitution. Learn about the actual powers of the job before you blame somebody for something that was not their fault
@Gary Kearney: she voted no in the 8th amendment referendum is what i think sequoia is referring to. it is also the reason that i wouldn’t vote for her.
…..President Freeman, great name for a free Republic.
@Brian McDonnell: Freeperson surely
I thought the object of the last election was to eliminate Labour, let’s give higgins the boot too.
His state funeral will cost us a fortune, lets not add to the expense.
@Trevor Hayden: How will it “add to the expense” to pay the same amount to a different person for the sake of it? What difference would it make to the main political parties? Have you noticed taxes being reduced due to savings made, or something?
Great. We’re seriously being asked to consider the likes of Duffy, who doesn’t understand the Presidency and really only wants this on his CV? Or Freeman, an uber-catholic President? Would she refuse to sign the legislation to give effect to the wishes of the people in the referendum? How does she feel about the proposed blasphemy changes? Michael D will brush the likes of them aside, and in the process they’ll have their secrets outed and reputations tattered, just like what happened Sean Gallagher.
I agree, there’s not much to offer voters. Also, internationally, who on earth cares if Duffy is a good pal of Sean Gallagher’s? He’s running for President, not trying to get into a nightclub, for Pete’s sake.
Can anyone nominate themselves , my god a sorry bunch . Spare us from iona . keep going michael d…
Has Michael d achieved anything of note personally outside of the culture of our disgraceful gombeen politics, like Freeman and Duffy? I can’t think of anything!
Duffy is clearly a champion of the patriarchy – it’s easy to imagine him beating his chest and roaring like Tarzan in celebration of his own mediocrity. Freeman is a queen of the matriarchy and if elected will suffocate the country with touchy feely mammy meetings and whinging. Higgins is wise, caring, and eloquent. His dogs would make better presidents that the other two.
@Martello Mulligan:
What do u mean that we have no other options ? Michael D couldn’t give a fiddlers about what u mentioned, he totally backed millions of state ( as in our taxes) money being poured into a vanity project in Galway. Also where did he get his accent ? Limerick, North Cork or Galway ? Hardly indigenous to any of those regions. I remain to be convinced that he’s the best on offer.
In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king.
The only way any of those massive egos is above Michael D is in height. How they can carry their self importance has me baffled. No worries there Michael D. Slainte.
What a waste of money. Michael D will destroy them on every level there is
@Tommy C: Have people forgotten which party mickey is a member of. Yes liebour who along with ffg screwed the country up. He has been paid 200,000 a year for the last 7 years and now wants another 7. He is a traitor to everything the old labour party stood for.
@Derek Poutch: He was old Labour real Labour and has never changed.
The promises are all out already for these candidate, do they not realise its just a figurehead position.
Powerless county councils are enjoying a few weeks of presidential summer glory. Then it’s back to waste collection, street lights and the administration of grants for construction and repair of footpaths.
Is Bono on the list of candidates
as he still hasn’t found what he’s looking for ?
Well this is gonna be a right sh*t show from start to finish.
Sad to not see Bosco running this year
Pieta House is one of finest initiatives in the country, but I think we need people involved in mental health so positively to stay in that field as there are few enough batting for it.
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