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Admin moved page Why was Margaret Thatcher called the Iron Lady? to Why was Margaret Thatcher called the Iron Lady
====Northern Ireland and Thatcher’s foreign affairs====
In 1984, Thatcher narrowly escaped a fatal injury in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) assassination attempt in Brighton. The organized terrorist bombing at her Conservative Party conference nearly killed Thatcher and several senior members of her government. However, she was reluctant to leave and steadily refused to reschedule the meeting as advised by her security officials. Instead, Thatcher passionately delivered her speech as planned the following day. That act of bravery was widely welcomed and supported across the political spectrum and enhanced her even greater popularity with the public.
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Despite all, the defining moment in Thatcher’s premiership was the Falklands war, started on 2 April 1982 when Argentina tried to invade the British-controlled Falkland Islands and South Georgia. Thatcher set up and chaired a small War Cabinet to take charge of the war conflict. She did not hesitate to dispatch a naval task force to retake the islands, as well as to authorize a controversial sink of Argentina’s cruiser “General Belgrano”, though it did not represent a direct threat. Argentina surrendered on 14 June and the operation was called a great success. The opposition criticized Thatcher soon after for the neglect of the Falklands’ defense that led to the war and especially for the decision to sink Argentina’s cruiser. Nevertheless, backed up by the British propaganda, the case and investigation were soon closed, and Thatcher remained generally recognized as a highly capable and committed war leader nationwide. The decisive win in the Falklands war, an economic recovery beginning in early 1982, and a bitterly divided opposition all contributed to Thatcher’s second election victory in 1983.
====The legacy of the Iron Lady====
Thatcher’s death prompted mixed reactions, including criticism as well as praise. However, in her efforts to reshape Britain Margaret Thatcher was truly unresting and persevering. One of Thatcher’s most notable achievements, still in effect today, was the weakening of the trade unions. Furthermore, she convinced her party members and general British voters that she would put their hard-earned taxes to great use in often unpopular and controversial reforms in public services, whilst appeasing their fears about immigration and mistrust of everything in Europe by negotiating rebates and exclusions from the EU and imposing stronger border controls. That forced the other member states, particularly France, to effectively pay more to offset Britain’s rebate - an outcome that increased her popularity at home but made her even more unpopular and further alienated in Europe. Her efforts to introduce massive government deregulation and promoting individualistic instead of collective society, resulted in the fact that speculation and financial trading became more important to the economy than industry and manufacturing. Moreover, Thatcher style deregulation of the financial markets has contributed to, if not caused, many of today’s world problems: the irresponsible risk taking behavior of many leading banks as well as the inadequate governmental regulation of Wall Street, the City of London and other stock markets around the globe.
Nevertheless, despite all questionable or controversial Thatcherism policies, the Iron Lady altered the course of post-war Britain and Europe. As the leader of the Conservative Party, she consolidated a determined skepticism of European integration, setting the stage for the U.K.’s ongoing efforts to keep its distance from the European Union, making it more pro-US and anti-EU. She also liberalized the British economy and set a gold standard for Anglo-American relations, forging a close solid relationship between the two Superpowers. Perhaps most of all the United States recognized Thatcher as a Churchillian figure that stood alongside America in times of conflict and largely supported NATO and US foreign policy. Teamwork between London and Washington helped guide the course of the Cold War to a peaceful end, which was Thatcher’s most obvious achievement on the world stage. Clearly, she sought to change East/West relations based on both the western ideological reasons and clear economic agenda for growth through opening up new markets for trade among Britain, the USA, Europe and Russia.
Unsurprisingly, the Iron Lady remained a political force and government advisor in retirement. She continued to influence internal Conservative Party policies, and Thatcherism shaped even the priorities of the opposition Labor Party, which she had kept out of office for more than a decade. “Time” magazine named Thatcher one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century as well as the fourth-greatest British Prime Minister of the 20th century. In 2002, though some 20 years past her official resignation, she was still ranked 16th in the BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.