Margaret Thatcher won a place at Oxford, Where I Studied chemistry at Somerville College (1943-47). In the fifties, Margaret Thatcher Studied law, specializing in tax. When the Conservatives return to power in 1970, under the leadership of Edward Heath, won the post of secretary of education, Entering the cabinet of Prime Minister.
The Heath government itself was punished by the events of 1970-74. Having been elected on promises of economic recovery through appeasement of the unions and the introduction of free market policies, ran a series of policy changes, dubbed "U-turns, which made him a more interventionist government of British history, negotiating with unions to introduce a detailed control of wages, prices and dividends. Defeated in the general elections of February 1974, the Heath government left a legacy of inflation and industrial conflict.
Many conservatives were ready for a new approach after the Heath government and when the party lost a second general election in October 1974, Margaret Thatcher was brought against Heath to head the party and won. She became the first woman to head a political party to serve as Western and opposition leader in the House of Commons.
The Labor government of 1974-79 was one of the most given to crises in British history, leading the country into a state of virtual bankruptcy in 1976 when a collapse in the value of the currency forced the government to negotiate a loan with International Monetary Fund (IMF). The unions' wage demands led to endemic strikes and showed that the government had little influence on its allies in the labor movement. Public opinion turned against Labour and the Conservatives won a parliamentary majority in general elections in May 1979. The next day, Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
The new government promised to reverse the economic decline of the United Kingdom. In the short term, it was necessary painful measures. While direct taxes were cut to restore incentives, the budget had to be balanced so that indirect taxes were increased. The economy was entering a recession but inflation was increasing and had to climb in interest rates to control it. At the end of the first administration of Margaret Thatcher, unemployment in the United Kingdom surpassed the three million and only began to fall after 1986. Much of British industry inefficient closed. No one had predicted how hard it would be a reversal.
But victories were achieved in the long term. Inflation was controlled and the government created the expectation that they would do whatever was necessary to keep it low. The economic recovery started in the same quarter and continued a long expansion.
This achievement gave political support, but the government re-elected government is only guaranteed by an unexpected event: the Falklands War. Margaret Thatcher faced the invasion by Argentina of the Board of the islands in April 1982 with the strongest. Although he worked with the U.S. administration to seek a diplomatic solution, he commanded a British military task force to recover the islands. When diplomacy failed, military action took effect quickly and returned to the Falkland Islands remain under British control in June 1982.
The electorate was impressed. Few British or European leaders would have fought for the islands. By doing so, Margaret Thatcher paved the way for British foreign policy much more vigorously during the remainder of the eighties. When they reached the general elections of June 1983 was re-elected government with its parliamentary majority more than tripled (144 seats).
The second term started with many difficulties as the first. The mining union confronted the government with a year-long strike in 1984-85. The labor movement joined in defending the government's trade union reforms, which began with the legislation of 1980 and 1982 and continued after the general election.
The miners' strike was one of the most violent and longest in British history. The result was not clear but, after many rounds, the union was defeated. This proved a crucial result because it ensured that the Thatcher reforms remain. During the following years, the Labour opposition quietly accepted the popularity and success of trade union legislation and promised not to change their key points.
In October 1984, when the strike lasted even the Irish Republican Army (IRA) attempted to assassinate Margaret Thatcher and many members of his cabinet to set off a bomb in his hotel in Brighton during the Conservative Party's annual conference. Although she was unharmed, some of his closest colleagues were among the wounded and dead and the room was next to his severely damaged. No British Prime Minister of the twentieth century was so close to being killed.
Margaret Thatcher won a special hatred of the IRA by refusing to accept their political demands, especially during the hunger strikes of 1980-81. His policy was implacably hostile to terrorism, republican or loyalist, but he combined it with the negotiation of the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 with the Republic of Ireland. The Agreement was an attempt to improve security cooperation between the United Kingdom and Ireland and give some recognition to the political views of Catholics in Northern Ireland, an initiative that won the warm support of the Reagan administration and the United States Congress.