Margaret Hilda Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher (13 Oct 1925 - 8 Apr 2013) will walk down history as one of the greats of the 20th century and remembered as one of the best Prime Ministers of Britain. She, together with Reagan and Gorbachev, were politicians that shaped an era. She will be remembered best for being a "conviction politician"- a person unafraid of sticking to fundamental beliefs in the face of strong, and at times violent opposition. For this, she earned the sobriquet of being "The Iron Lady". Her inflexibility led to her final downfall as she failed to quell a revolt within her party. She eventually left active politics in 1990.

In Reagan, Thatcher found a moneterist soulmate in the Friedman/Hayek mould. She believed in the power of free markets. Following her election as PM in 1979, Thatcher began dismantling the socialist state that Britain had built up since the war. She believed in limited government, implemented budget cuts and introduced deregulation. She fought inflation by raising interest rates. She lowered taxes. She privatised state owned companies and most importantly stared down the trade unions in the fight to create more flexible labour markets. The drastic medicine Thatcher prescribed for Britain led initially to a deepening of the recession in the early 80s, resulting in high unemployment and riots. Thatcher's job approval rating fell to 23 per cent by December 1980, lower than recorded for any previous Prime Minister. Public discourse called for a policy U-turn. She famously announced at the 1980 Conservative Party conference, and I believe her most famous quote:

"To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say. 'You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning.'"

Thatcher's deep distrust of Communism made her a strong American ally during the Cold War. She believed in a strong nuclear deterrent and believed in standing up to the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, her defining role in history will be as war leader during the Falklands War. She is famously portrayed rebuking Alexander Haig in the production "The Iron Lady" when Haig told her that he that he was trying to avert a war. Thatcher said:

"So am I. But you do not do this by appeasement. You increase its chances. You see this table? This was where Neville Chamberlain sat in 1938 when he spoke on the wireless about the Czechs as "far away people about whom we know nothing and with whom we have so little in common". Munich! Appeasement! A world war followed because of that irresponsible, woolly-minded, indecisive, slip shod attitude, and the deaths of 45 million people."

I will remember Thatcher as the conviction politician of our time, an inspiring figure who held on to clear fundamental beliefs, and doing what she thought was right. She also gave me my first taste of share ownership.  I subscribed to British Gas when it was first privatised in 1986!  She possibly rescued Britain - known as the sick man of Europe at that time - from becoming a dysfunctional state.  Even opponents had to admire her tenacity and her strength of character.

She goes down in history as the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and the only woman to have held that office. RIP Baroness Thatcher.