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Thatcher

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Margaret Thatcher was the first female British Prime Minister. The leader of the Conservative Party, she won three consecutive terms of office (the only British prime minister in the twentieth century to do so), transformed the nation governing from 1979 - 90. She was also the most divisive prime minister of the century, earning both great reverence but also deep hatred from the divided public, particularly for her treatment of trade unions.
Britain’s economy in 1979 was in a poor state, and Thatcher’s first term in office saw her and her chancellor adopt an economic theory known as Monetarism, while stripping away government regulations on business and subsidies. Many inefficient businesses failed as a result, leading to a rise in unemployment and inflation doubled. This she countered with a rise in taxes and a change in the money supply, bringing both a sharp fall in inflation and opposition from economists and the public. At this point the Thatcher government was deeply unpopular.
Then, Argentina invaded the Falklands in 1982, a British island in the southern hemisphere. The ensuing Falklands War, which Thatcher ran victoriously with great patriotic fervour, boosted the popularity of her government hugely, leading, along with deep division among the Labour Party (the main political opposition), to the Conservatives winning a large majority at the General Election in 1983.
The North-South Gap that exacerbated in Britain during the Thatcher years is a consequence of the decline of regional policy and change in industrial structure. Margaret Thatcher did not believe in creating incentives for firms to locate in left-out regions, which were more likely to be in the North than in the South. Her policy of cutting subsidies and promoting free trade also negatively hit manufacturing, which was more important to the North than to the South. The same policies also

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