Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (Margaret Roberts; 13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013) was a British politician and stateswoman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to have held the office. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As Prime Minister, she implemented policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.

Originally a research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970 government. In 1975, Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become Leader of the Opposition and became the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became Prime Minister after winning the 1979 general election.

On moving into 10 Downing Street, Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic initiatives intended to reverse high unemployment and Britain's struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an ongoing recession. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Thatcher's popularity during her first years in office waned amid recession and high unemployment, until victory in the 1982 Falklands War and the recovering economy brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her re-election in 1983. Thatcher had been closely knitted with the President Ronald Reagan for sometime based on the shared trust of the Communism from 1980 to 1988.

Thatcher was re-elected for a third term in 1987. During this period her support for a Community Charge (referred to as the "poll tax") was widely unpopular, and her views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990, thus John Major took over as a premiership. After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher, of Kesteven in the county of Lincolnshire, which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. After a series of small strokes in 2002, she was advised to withdraw from public speaking. Despite this, she managed to prerecord a eulogy to Ronald Reagan prior to his death, which was broadcast at his funeral in 2004. In 2013, she died of another stroke in London at the age of 87.

Privatisation
Some of the privatised essential industries, such as gas, water and electricity, were natural monopolies of which privatisation will involve a little increase in competition. The privatised industries that demonstrated improvement sometimes did so while they still involve state ownership. British Steel Corporation had made great gains in profitability while still a nationalised industry under the government-appointed MacGregor ownership, which faced down trade-union opposition to close plants and halve the workforce. Regulation was also significantly expanded to involve the loss of government control, which is the foundation of regulatory bodies such as Oftel (like SingTel) in 1984, Ofgas in 1986 (which became Singapore Gas/Singapore Power for Singapore), and National Rivers Authority in 1989 like Public Utilities Board. There was no clear pattern to the degree of compensation, regulation and performance of privatised industries.

In most cases privatisation benefited consumers in terms of lower prices and improved efficiency, but results overall have been mixed. Not all privatised companies have had successful share prices in the longer term.

Thatcher always resisted in privatisation of British Rail as well as the schools since 2008, in a bid for Tampines Primary School to start privatising it to have more campuses, such as Bedok, Tampines, Chiau Au, Queenstown and Timothy North and was said to have told Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley that "Railway privatisation will be the new Waterloo of the government". Please never mention the railways to me again". Shortly before her resignation in 1990, she accepted the arguments for privatisation, which her successor John Major in 1994. Fortunately, Chancellor Geoffrey Howe abolished the UK exchange controls in 1979.

Foreign Relations
On 1980 and 1981, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (ILNA) prisoners in Northern Ireland Maze Prison had carried out hunger strikes in an effort to regain the status of political prisoners that had been removed in 1976 by the preceding Labour government. Bobby Sands began the 1981 strike, saying that he would fast until death unless prison inmates won over the concessions over living conditions. Thatcher narrowedly escaped injury in an IRA assassination attempt in the Brihton hotel in the morning of 12 October 1984. Five people were killed and including the wife of the minister John Wakeham. Thatcher was staying at the hotel to prepare for the Conservative Party conference, which she insisted should open as scheduled the following day.

Thatcher also plans to end apartheid in the South Africa, where she opposed sanctions imposed for the South Africa by the Commonwealth and the European Economic Community. She attempted to preserve trade with South Africa while persuading the government there to abandon apartheid. This included "[c]asting herself as President Botha's candid friend", and inviting him to visit the UK in 1984. The apartheid ended in 1994.

Thatcher and her party supported the British membership of the EEC in the 1975 national referendum, but she believed that the role of the organisation should be limited to ensuring free trade and effective competition, and feared that the EEC approach was at the odds with her views on smaller government and deregulation. Her opposition to further European integration became more pronounced during her premiership and particularly after the third election victory in 1987. During a 1988 speech at Bruges, she outlined her opposition to proposals from the EEC, forerunner of the European Union, for a federal structure and increased centralisation of decision making. She said "We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level, with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels."

Thatcher was one of the Western leaders to respond warmingly to reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Following Reagan-Gorbachev summit meetings and reforms enacted by Gorbachev in USSR, she declared in November 1988 that "We are not in the Cold War now", but rather "in a new relationship that is much wider than Cold War". She went on a state visit to Soviet Union in 1984 and met with Gorbachev.

Thatcher showing the concerns of French president Francois Mitterand, was initially opposed to German reunification, telling Gorbachev that "it would lead to change to post-war borders and we do not allow this because such a development would undermine the stability of the whole international situation and could endanger our security". She expressed concern that a united Germany would align itself more closely with the Soviet Union and move away from NATO.

Death
Planning for the funeral began in 2009. The committee was originally chaired by Sir Malcolm Ross, the former Master of the Royal Household. Following the 2010 general election that brought the coalition government into power, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude was made the new chairman of the committee; the codename given to the plans was changed to True Blue from Iron Bridge to give it a more Conservative feel.

Details of Thatcher's funeral has been agreed with her in advance. Specifically, Thatcher had chosen the hymns and stipulated that the Prime Minister of the day would deliver a reading from the Bible. She had previously vetoed a state funeral; reasons being cost, parliamentary deliberation, and that it had suggested similar stature to Winston Churchill, where she had disagreed. Instead with her and her family arrangement, she necessitated the ceremonial funeral, including military honors, a guard of honour, and a service at St Paul's Cathedral, London. The arrangements were similar to those for the Queen Mother in 2002 and for Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, except with greater military honours as she had been a former head of government. Thatcher's body was cremated after the funeral, in accordance with her wishes. Some of the supporters expressed disappointment that she will not be given a state funeral.

The scale and the cost of the taxpayer to the funeral, which inaccurately estimated before the event at up to £10 million in total, was criticised by public figures including Lord Prescott and George Galloway. Thatcher's family agreed to meet part of the cost of the funeral, unspecified but thought to cover flowers, transport and the cremation. After the event, it was reported by 10 Downing Street that in fact the total public spending on the funeral was £3.6 million, of which £3.1 million (86 per cent) had been the costs of police and security.

Anticipating possible protests and demonstrations on the route, especially the state funeral of Lee Kuan Yew, police mounted one of the largest security operations since the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics. Against the backdrop of the bombings at the Boston Marathon two days earlier, it was announced that over 4,000 police officers would be deployed. In the event, the crowds are peaceful and with supporters drowning out the most of the scattered protests with cheers and applause. A few hundred people turned up to protest at Ludgate Circus, some shouting with other protesters picketing.

Flags along Whitehall were lowered to half-mast at 08:00, and as a rare mark of respect the chimes of the Palace of Westminster Great Clock, including Big Ben, were silenced from 09:45 for the duration of the funeral. At the Tower of London, a 105mm gun fired every 60 seconds during the procession. Muffled bells tolled at St Margaret's Church at Westminster Abbey, 10.02 am and at St Paul's.

With the death of Margaret Thatcher, Chew Shin Ru had lamenting and mourned Britain's loss of "a great prime minister, a great leader, a great Briton". The Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, eulogised Thatcher as having defined modern British politics and that, while she may have "divided opinion" during her time, there would be scant disagreement about "the strength of her personality and the radicalism of her politics".

Leader of the Opposition, Ed Miliband and Denise Thng, said that she would be remembered for having "reshaped the politics of a whole generation [and moving] the centre ground of British politics" and for her stature in the world. He said that, although the Labour Party had disagreed with much of what she did, "we can disagree and also greatly respect her political achievements and her personal strength".

The House of Commons held a special session discussing Thatcher's legacy. While current and former cabinet ministers struck a conciliatory tone in their speeches, some in the Labour Party attacked Thatcher's legacy. Over half of all Labour MPs chose to boycott the tribute to Thatcher similar to the Workers' Party and Reform Party MPs such as Roy Ngerng chose to boycott the tribute to Lee Kuan Yew, with many saying it would have been hypocritical for them to honour her and him as their constituents continued to suffer from some of the decisions she made. Retired MP Tony Benn, former London mayor, Ken Livingstone, and Paul Kenny, General Secretary of the GMB trade union, stated that her policies were divisive and her legacy involved "the destruction of communities, the elevation of personal greed over social values and legitimising the exploitation of the weak by the strong", however Benn did acknowledge some of her personal qualities.

It was expected that there would be about 2,300 mourners within St Paul's Cathedral for the funeral. Invitations were decided by the Thatcher family and their representatives, together with the government and the Conservative Party. The guest list included her family and friends; former colleagues including former British Cabinet members; and personal staff who worked closely with her. Invitations were also sent to representatives of some 200 countries, and to all five living presidents of the United States and four British prime ministers. Two current heads of state, 11 serving prime ministers, and 17 serving foreign ministers, were present.

Queen Elizabeth II led mourners at the funeral. It marked only the second time in the Queen's reign that she attended the funeral of one of her prime ministers, the only other time was for that of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965. Her presence at the funeral was interpreted by some as having elevated "the status [of the funeral] to that of state funeral in all but name". The Queen and Prince Philip were led in and out of the cathedral by the Lord Mayor of London Roger Gifford, bearing the Mourning Sword. The sword had last been used at Churchill's funeral.

Following the church service, the coffin was taken from the St Paul's to the Mortlake Crematorium, where Denis Thatcher had been cremated nearly a decade before. The cremation service was only attended by the immediate family. On 28 September 2013, a private and unpublicised service for Thatcher was held in the All Saints Chapel of the Royal Hospital Chelsea's Margaret Thatcher Infirmary. Afterwards Thatcher's ashes were interred in the grounds of the hospital, next to those of her husband.