A Tribute to “The Iron Lady”

We heard yesterday of the passing of one of the world’s most renowned women, Margaret Thatcher – otherwise known as “The Iron Lady” – the lady who, virtually single handedly, re-routed a falling nation and put it back on its feet with her tireless dedication.

Margaret Thatcher who became the first woman Prime Minister in the United Kingdom rose to that place of power from very humble beginnings.  Her father was a grocer – he owned two grocery stores and the family lived in a “flat” (an apartment) above one of them.  As a child, she realized that she could do anything she set her mind to do and, that she did!

Margaret Roberts, as she was then named, was very bright academically and earned a place at Oxford University where she, when she took time away from her studies, was the President of the Conservative Association.  Her father had taught her a lot about politics, he himself being a member of the local town council and, at one point, the Mayor.  She graduated from Oxford with a degree in Chemistry and went on to become a research chemist.

Being very interested in politics, Margaret  ran as the conservative candidate in Dartford, where she was then living.  Knowing that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to defeat the incumbent liberal candidate, she lost the race.  Undaunted, she ran again and lost again.  Two months after this loss, she married Denis Thatcher.

Putting politics aside for a while, Mrs. Thatcher decided to study law and became a barrister.  Shortly thereafter, she had twins, Carol and Mark.  She was then ready to embark again on the political waves which she did, taking on various tasks and being appointed to different committees and jobs, climbing up the political ladder, and finding herself as Leader of the Opposition.

The top of the ladder came when Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister on 4 May 1979, the first woman Prime Minister the UK had seen and the first leader to win three General Elections in a row.  Arriving at 10 Downing Street, she said, in a paraphrase of the Prayer of Saint Francis:

“Where there is discord, may we bring harmony.  Where there is error, may we bring truth.  Where there is doubt, may we bring faith.  And where there is despair, may we bring hope”.

Margaret Thatcher reflected on her upbringing when she said, “I just owe almost everything to my father and it’s passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election”.

Mrs. Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were great “chums”.  They tackled things the same way, being both very conservative in their thinking.  They supported each other and confided in one another.  They shared a distrust of communism.

Being a woman in a man’s world, she had to be tough!

She accepted the title of “The Iron Lady”  by saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, I stand before you tonight in my Red Star chiffon evening gown. My face softly made up and my fair hair gently waved. The Iron Lady of the Western world. A cold war warrior, an amazon philistine, even a Peking plotter. Well, am I any of these things? … Yes I am an iron lady, after all it wasn’t a bad thing to be an iron duke. Yes, if that’s how they wish to interpret my defence of values and freedoms fundamental to our way of life”.  She did her best to blunt the power of the trade unions and to privatize companies, thus taking away even the scent of socialism.  There were rumors that she and the Queen did not get along well but these were quoshed very rapidly by Buckingham Palace.  She did manage to split the country in two with her strong held beliefs and, in 1990 felt it best for the nation to resign.  After her resignation, she was made Baroness Thatcher, a lifetime title.

One wonderful quote that is attributed to Mrs. Thatcher is, “Being powerful is like being a lady.  If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t”!

Thank you, Baroness Thatcher for all that you did for the world.  Adieu!  Farewell!  God Bless!