Free Margret Thatcher as a Political Icon Essay Sample

Introduction

Margaret Thatcher was born in the year 1925 on the month of October date thirteen. She was born in Grantham at a place called Lincolnshire. She was granted a scholarship to study at Somerville College where she studied natural science and more specifically chemistry. Her leadership started in 1946 when she was elected to be the president of the conservative association of Oxford University.

Thatcher studied crystallography and got a postgraduate degree in Bachelor of Science (Blundell, 2008).She joined the local conservative association in Colchester when working as a research chemist. In 1949 she went to Dart ford where she vied as a member of parliament. She was married in 1951 to Denis Thatcher and got two children. This paper explores the success of Margaret in achieving her political goals, the reasons for her success and the lasting consequence of her’s to her country.

Discussion

Margaret Thatcher was against socialism and communism. She was the youngest female candidate ever as a candidate in the conservative party and at the time she contested for safe labor position in Dart ford in the 1950 elections.  She was not able to win but she was able to attract a good coverage from the media from the campaign that she showcased.  Margaret showed a very great and strong urge to remain in politics no matter what. She was first elected as a member of parliament in 1959 but before this, she had experienced a lot of failure but still went strong.

Her work in the parliament got her promoted to the position of parliamentary undersecretary in the ministry of pensions and national insurance. This is when his political mileage had started growing. In 1966 she went to the shadow treasury and was against the mandatory price on labor and income control. This she believed distorted the economy.

Her strategy was to move on slowly making noticeable and positive marks wherever she went to help her remain in the political scenes. Thatcher became opposed to the high tax policy that the government had set with the view that charging low taxes would provide a motivation to people to work harder. One of her strategies was to ensure that she defends ordinary citizens from unnecessary oppression from the government. This actually helped her to have the confidence of the people who in turn voted for her (Blundell, 2008).

 Her political mileage grew even further at the time she was elected to take part in the international visitor leadership program by the United States embassy. She later transferred to shadow cabinet where she represented it as a spokes person. After the 1970 general elections, she was again promoted to shadow transport and later education. Margaret Thatcher was a very intelligent lady. As one of her political strategies she started a foundation that was more educational in nature but carried a political outfit in it. One of its major goals was to encourage acceptance of democracy, promote the rule of law and strong defense. This is in essence a political ideology (Blundell, 2008).

 Although this would do a greater deal for the masses, on the other way it publicized Thatcher and her political stand.  In fact the work of this foundation did not only make her politically famous in her own country but also in other countries especially in the west. This happened because the work of the foundation addressed some international issues such as fostering transatlantic links between Europe, North America and Britain (Berlinski, 2008).

Margaret Thatcher was among the most dynamic and disciplined leaders who were against socialism in the world.   She changed the political history in Britain. Margaret Thatcher made lots of achievements that no woman had made in the British history. She was a woman who was able to explore all her aspects of femininity to political usefulness. Her political ideologies made her shine among men to become a successful lady politician in England.

Her political strategies earned her a recognizable mark when she became the first woman as the prime minister of the United Kingdom in the year 1979. The United Kingdom was not economically fit at the time of her rise to the prime ministers seat. She however took the bull by its horns and vowed to better the United Kingdom economy (Berlinski, 2008).

The first among her strategies was to cut government’s interference to the economy. She believed that this was the cause to the country`s economic stagnation.  She set her political strategies to emphasize on reduction of free markets, entrepreneurialism and state intervention in every economic issue. She maintained the position of the prime minister for a period of eleven years. She came up with her own economic strategies and started economic reforms in the country. Among her economic policies were increasing interest rates and introduction of budget sever. She placed legal pinning on trade unions and reduced budget on social service issues like education, health care and housing. Her economic ideologies were seen to have made a positive mark to united kingdom`s economy more specifically in the year 1983 when economic growth became stronger. This lead to the start of a term called Thatcherism (Evans, 2004).

Thatcherism was not just a name because it was later used to refer to all her economic and political ideologies and Thatcher’s uncompromising way of approaching and achieving her political goals. This she continued to expand after the 1983 politics when she won again and went back to the parliament working for the government. Her economic policies which strengthened her political ideologies made her a woman of an outstanding ability in politics that the United Kingdom had not experienced before (Evans, 2004).

If we are to look at her progress within the years that she has participated in active politics, we can note that her strategies must have really worked for her. Despite the troubles and set backs that she went through she did not quit politics but instead became seasoned. When she got even the least chance to show what she is capable to do with a position in politics she made a good deal out of the opportunity to strategize and be sure that she remains in politics for as long as she could be able (Evans, 2004).

 Thatcher was in government, a military that was in rule in Argentina attacked the United Kingdom more particularly the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. Argentina had for a long time claimed South Georgia since the dispute that occurred in 1810. Thatcher `s government fought and recaptured the two islands and deported back the salvagers to Argentina. This was again something that added to Thatcher’s profile as a successful lady politician. Hand in hand with the government she was working with, Thatcher rallied resources and every other means that could help her solve the mess. Their win made a positive impact on people`s belief in Thatcher’s government. This helped the conservative party in the 1983 elections in a major way because in the elections the conservative party garnered a total of forty two percent of the total votes casted in the election. This was aided by the strategy that Thatcher had applied safeguarding the economy of the United Kingdom (Evans, 2004).

Another strategy that Margaret Thatcher applied in her politics was to cut the power and influence the trade union in the United Kingdom held. She did this by making private the mines and pits. This was the strategy that she employed that caused havoc in the country. Mine workers protested and violence erupted but the government was able to contain. Although this was not a very good idea but her way of handling this was strategized properly. Together with her government, Thatcher was able to outdo this challenge for some time (Evans, 2004).

Thatcher`s strategy on the trade unions showcased her as a strong and determined politician. The national union of the mine workers organized a strike that was directed to the law that restricted their power. This led to violence where several people were injured while others died but this did not change Thatcher’s decision.  The national union for mine workers gave up after a year of strike without any deal. Again Thatcher triumphed in all that she had ensued.

Margaret Thatcher did not agree with the European Union on their proposal that had to do with the centralization of making decisions and introducing federal system.  She was actually not of a negative view on whether Britain should join the European quoin or not. What she was really concerned with was limiting free trade and competition because she knew that these could have a negative impact to Britain`s economy. This did not go so well after Geoffrey Howe failed to persuade her leading to the split of the conservative party. Margaret Thatcher was very successful in her political career. The only issue that made her fail at the very end was the issue about her rigidity and uncompromising approach on the membership of the European Union and the trade union issue (Reitan, 2003).

Margaret Thatcher was successful in most of her political life because of some reasons. First, her success had a foundation on other women`s failure. She was very keen to put down women especially those she saw as potential threat to her political career. When she was a prime minister, she once told the 300 group that she aimed to get at least 300 women into parliament. This was done via writing. She stated that there was a progress on that but it was considerably slow (Reitan, 2003).

This was just a statement from her because when women had gotten their place at the House of Commons, she did not promote them. In fact when she was a prime minister, her government was full of men. Her largest appointment of women to the ministerial position was eight. Only one woman from this number made into a full ministerial position. The others were appointed as junior ministers. Thus she ensured that she would be the only woman who could be on the limelight in Britain`s politics at that time (Reitan, 2003).

Thatcher’s success was encouraged by the failure of the previous prime minister to respond to the county`s problems in terms of the economy. At the time when socialist clement ate was in power strikes and union interference brought a lot of problems regarding basic need supplies such as food supply, diesel shortages and other supplies of essential products. The government had allowed trade unions to control it. It went so bad that televisions in the country had to be switched off at night. This acted as an advantage to Thatcher because she had something to do for Britain`s citizenry that the previous regime failed to offer. She was very dedicated to bring economic reforms to the country (Blundell, 2008).

Throughout her campaign, Thatcher promised a cultural change in the economic sector and judging by her past record as a minister people believed her. When Thatcher was elected to the position of the prime minister, she dealt with the issue of trade unions limiting their powers and cutting taxation costs to the citizens. This changed the country`s economy and people`s attitude towards politics in the country. The manner in which she brought up the economy impressed a lot of people and this made her succeed in her political career (Blundell, 2008).

Margaret Thatcher was a woman who never gave up no matter what. There were times when she was defeated in political struggles especially when she entered in to the political scene. Judging from the perspective that at that moment in time, women were not very active in politics, her failures became her motivation to plan better for other political struggles

 Her determination is what won people`s desire to vote for her. Her courage and determination finally rewarded her when she was elected to represent dart ford in 1959. She had struggled all though since 1950 without giving up. This is a character that many women had failed to show to the public and in their political career. Her courage and determination was noted even in the work she did while in government and  after only two years in parliament, she got a promotion as the parliamentary secretary in he ministry of pensions and national insurance. This she did as a member o the front bench (Blundell, 2008).

The determination with which she worked in the positions she was given not only earned her trust from the government but also from the public.  It is therefore her courage and determination that worked to her advantage in her political career making her a successful politician.

Margaret Thatcher has lasting consequences for her country. Together with the administration that she worked with, Thatcher transformed political, economical, foreign policy, social structure and international aspects of the country. She was the person who ended the trade union menace and government control over economic issues of the country something which boosted the country`s economic status. She got the country in to years of conservatism and anti-communist and socialism sentiments in the midst of the cold war.

 Thatcher privatized ownership of British industries that is still historic up to date.  She cut income taxation considerably and made it impossible for any person to bring them back to their previous levels without a good reason. Margaret Thatcher made a mark in the education sector of her country. She established a core curriculum in state schools (Blundell, 2008).

Margaret Thatcher may have been successful in her political life transforming the economy of the country very much but her leadership came with shortfalls. Her stance on the decision that Britain should not be a member of the European Union cost the country dearly. It is because of this decision that the country lagged behind in economy in comparison to if it were a member of the union. She made economic mistakes that ended in wars. The fight started by trade unions caused death and injury to many of the people in her country because of her rigidity.

 Conclusion

Margaret Thatcher was able to make history as the first prime minister in her country. She was a woman who was very determined in her work both in politics and her own private matters. She is credited with making firm decisions, something which earned her a name referred to as the iron lady. Margaret Thatcher was a successful woman as a political leader in Britain`s politics. She made transformations in the economic sector changing it completely. In addition, she influenced her country`s stance on international relations and especially about the European union. She was of the idea that international trade should move towards free trade something that is current today. Although she was successful, like every human being, Thatcher had her downfalls towards the end of her participation in active politics something which many people believe that was the cause of her resignation. She is actually a leader who will be remembered for long.

 

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