MARGARET THATCHER, the first woman to become “Prime Minister” of the United Kingdom for 11 years and the first to obtain three consecutive terms in the twentieth century. She has been called the “Iron Lady” because of her radical conservatism and “lack of feeling” in proceeding to massive cuts in public services, for reducing unions power, for a policy of productivity causing massive unemployment, for her ruthlessness against the miners on strike and against the hunger strikers of the IRA, and for her military victory in the Falklands. She initiated the “deregulation” with her ally Ronald Reagan with the damaging effects better understood nowadays. She fortunately supported Gorbachev, favored a stronger NATO and initiated some openings with the European Union.
Copyright: Alice Labrèque and Jean Routier, Québec, 2012-2013.