Editing Margaret Thatcher (section)

===Leader of the Opposition (1975–1979)===
{{See also|Shadow Cabinet of Margaret Thatcher}}
{{External media
| topic=1975 speech to the [[National Press Club (United States)|National Press Club]]
| headerimage=[[File:Thatcher-loc.jpg|frameless|upright=0.77 |border |Thatcher sitting in a black-and-white photograph]]
| caption=Thatcher in late 1975
| audio1={{Cite speech |title=National Press Club Luncheon Speakers: Margaret Thatcher |url=http://www.loc.gov/rr/record/pressclub/thatcher.html}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Press Club Luncheon Speakers: Margaret Thatcher (Recorded Sound Research Center, Library of Congress) |url=http://www.loc.gov/rr/record/pressclub/thatcher.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180927213633/http://www.loc.gov/rr/record/pressclub/thatcher.html |archive-date=27 September 2018 |publisher=[[Library of Congress]]}}</ref> (Starts at 7:39, finishes at 28:33.)<ref>{{Cite web |date=19 September 1975 |title=Speech to the National Press Club |url=http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102770 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161029044318/http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102770 |archive-date=29 October 2016 |access-date=28 October 2016 |publisher=Margaret Thatcher Foundation}}</ref>
}}
The [[Heath government]] continued to experience difficulties with [[1973 oil crisis|oil embargoes]] and union demands for wage increases in 1973, subsequently losing the [[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|February 1974 general election]].{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=15}} Labour formed [[Labour government, 1974–1979|a minority government]] and went on to win a narrow majority in the [[October 1974 United Kingdom general election|October 1974 general election]]. Heath's leadership of the Conservative Party looked increasingly in doubt.<ref>{{Cite news |date=8 November 1974 |title=Heath agrees to change rules on leadership |url={{GBurl|NOw-AAAAIBAJ|p=1&article_id=4563,1637862}} |work=The Glasgow Herald |page=1 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Thatcher was not initially seen as the obvious replacement, but she eventually became the main challenger, promising a fresh start.{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=16}} Her main support came from the parliamentary [[1922 Committee]]{{sfnp|Reitan|2003|p=16}} and ''The Spectator'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cosgrave |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Cosgrave |date=25 January 1975 |title=Clear choice for the Tories |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/2013/04/clear-choice-for-the-tories/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171025145009/https://www.spectator.co.uk/2013/04/clear-choice-for-the-tories/ |archive-date=25 October 2017 |access-date=13 July 2017 |publication-date=13 April 2013 |magazine=The Spectator}}</ref> but Thatcher's time in office gave her the reputation of a pragmatist rather than that of an ideologue.{{r|runciman20130606}} She [[1975 Conservative Party leadership election|defeated Heath]] on the first ballot, and he resigned from the leadership.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Naughton |first=Philippe |date=18 July 2005 |title=Thatcher leads tributes to Sir Edward Heath |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/thatcher-leads-tributes-to-sir-edward-heath-353gzwv3fdh |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210913173244/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/thatcher-leads-tributes-to-sir-edward-heath-353gzwv3fdh |archive-date=13 September 2021 |access-date=23 October 2020 |work=[[The Times]]}}</ref> In the second ballot she defeated Whitelaw, Heath's preferred successor. Thatcher's election had a polarising effect on the party; her support was stronger among MPs on the right, and also among those from southern England, and those who had not attended public schools or [[Oxbridge]].{{sfnp|Cowley|Bailey|2000}}

Thatcher became Conservative Party leader and [[Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom)|Leader of the Opposition]] on 11&nbsp;February 1975;<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 February 1975 |title=Press Conference after winning Conservative leadership (Grand Committee Room) |url=http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=102452 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218065547/http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=102452 |archive-date=18 February 2012 |access-date=29 September 2007 |publisher=Margaret Thatcher Foundation}}</ref> she appointed Whitelaw as her [[Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party (UK)|deputy]]. Heath was never reconciled to Thatcher's leadership of the party.{{sfnp|Moore|2013|pages=394–395, 430}}

Television critic [[Clive James]], writing in ''[[The Observer]]'' prior to her election as Conservative Party leader, compared her voice of 1973 to "a cat sliding down a blackboard".{{refn|{{harvtxt|James|1977|pp=119–120}}: <q>The hang-up has always been the voice. Not the timbre so much as, well, the {{em|tone}} – the condescending explanatory whine which treats the squirming interlocutor as an eight-year-old child with personality deficiencies. It has been fascinating, recently, to watch her striving to eliminate this. BBC2 ''News Extra'' on Tuesday night rolled a clip from May 1973 demonstrating the Thatcher sneer at full pitch. (She was saying that she wouldn't {{em|dream}} of seeking the leadership.) She sounded like a cat sliding down a blackboard.</q><ref>{{Cite news |last=James |first=Clive |date=9 February 1975 |title=Getting Mrs T into focus |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52299047/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111173045/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52299047/2-c-mt-on-tv/ |archive-date=11 January 2021 |access-date=23 October 2020 |work=The Observer |page=26 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref>|group=nb}} Thatcher had already begun to work on her presentation on the advice of [[Gordon Reece]], a former television producer. By chance, Reece met the actor [[Laurence Olivier]], who arranged lessons with the [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]]'s voice coach.{{sfnp|Thatcher|1995|p=267}}<ref name="Moore Vanity">{{Cite news |last=Moore |first=Charles |date=December 2011 |title=The Invincible Mrs. Thatcher |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/12/margaret-thatcher-201112 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218073039/http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/12/margaret-thatcher-201112 |archive-date=18 February 2012 |access-date=25 February 2012 |work=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]}}</ref>{{refn|Thatcher succeeded in completely suppressing her Lincolnshire dialect except when under stress, notably after provocation from [[Denis Healey]] in the Commons in 1983, when she accused the [[Shadow Cabinet of Michael Foot|Labour frontbench]] of being [[wikt:frit#Etymology 2|''frit'']].<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=A miracle recovery for Finchley mother of two |date=22 April 1983 |page=28 |issue=61513 |department=News |last=Johnson |first=Frank |author-link=Frank Johnson (journalist)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=20 April 1983 |title=PM taunts Labour over early election |work=The Guardian |page=5 |quote=Amid uproar from both sides of the house, Mrs Thatcher shouted: 'So you are afraid of an election are you? Afraid, Afraid, Afraid. Frightened, frit – couldn't take it. Couldn't stand it.'}}</ref>|group=nb}}

Thatcher began attending lunches regularly at the [[Institute of Economic Affairs]] (IEA), a think tank founded by {{wikt-lang|en|Hayekian|i=-}} poultry magnate [[Antony Fisher]]; she had been visiting the IEA and reading its publications since the early 1960s. There she was influenced by the ideas of [[Ralph Harris, Baron Harris of High Cross|Ralph Harris]] and [[Arthur Seldon]] and became the face of the ideological movement opposing the [[British welfare state]]. [[Keynesian economics]], they believed, was weakening Britain. The institute's pamphlets proposed less government, lower taxes, and more freedom for business and consumers.{{sfnp|Beckett|2010|loc=chpt. 11}}

{{multiple image
|direction=vertical
|image1=President Gerald Ford Meeting with Great Britain's Conservative Party Leader Margaret Thatcher in the Oval Office.jpg
|alt1=Thatcher sitting with Gerald Ford
|caption1=With President Ford in the [[Oval&nbsp;Office]], 1975
|image2=Shah and Margaret Thatcher.jpg
|alt2=Thatcher sitting with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
|caption2=With the Shah in the [[Niavaran&nbsp;Complex]], 1978
}}
Thatcher intended to promote [[neoliberal]] economic ideas at home and abroad. Despite setting the direction of her foreign policy for a Conservative government, Thatcher was distressed by her repeated failure to shine in the House of Commons. Consequently, Thatcher decided that as "her voice was carrying little weight at home", she would "be heard in the wider world".{{sfnp|Campbell |2000|p=344}} Thatcher undertook visits across the Atlantic, establishing an international profile and promoting her economic and foreign policies. She toured the United States in 1975 and met President [[Gerald Ford]],<ref>{{Cite wikisource |title=President Ford–Margaret Thatcher memcon |date=18 September 1975 |wslink=President Ford–Margaret Thatcher memcon (18 September 1975)}}</ref> visiting again in 1977, when she met President [[Jimmy Carter]].{{sfnp|Cooper|2010|pp=25–26}} Among other foreign trips, she met Shah [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]] during a visit to [[Pahlavi Iran|Iran]] in 1978.<ref>{{Cite press release |title=Press Conference concluding visit to Iran |date=1 May 1978 |publisher=Margaret Thatcher Foundation |url=https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103489 |access-date=13 April 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180414010627/https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103489 |archive-date=14 April 2018}}</ref> Thatcher chose to travel without being accompanied by her [[shadow foreign secretary]], [[Reginald Maudling]], in an attempt to make a bolder personal impact.{{sfnp|Cooper|2010|pp=25–26}}

In domestic affairs, Thatcher opposed [[Scottish devolution]] ([[Home rule#Scotland|home rule]]) and the creation of a [[Scottish Assembly]]. She instructed Conservative MPs to vote against the Scotland and Wales Bill in December 1976, which was successfully defeated, and then when new Bills were proposed, she supported amending the legislation to allow the English to vote in the [[1979 Scottish devolution referendum|1979 referendum]] on Scottish devolution.<ref>{{Cite news |date=27 April 2008 |title=How Thatcher tried to thwart devolution |url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/how-thatcher-tried-to-thwart-devolution-1-1165673 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016012202/http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/how-thatcher-tried-to-thwart-devolution-1-1165673 |archive-date=16 October 2015 |access-date=20 April 2013 |work=The Scotsman}}</ref>

Britain's economy during the 1970s was so weak that then Foreign Secretary [[James Callaghan]] warned his fellow Labour Cabinet members in 1974 of the possibility of "a breakdown of democracy", telling them: "If I were a young man, I would emigrate."{{sfnp|Beckett|2010|loc=chpt. 7}} In mid-1978, the economy began to recover, and opinion polls showed Labour in the lead, with a general election being expected later that year and a Labour win a serious possibility. Now prime minister, Callaghan surprised many by announcing on 7&nbsp;September that there would be no general election that year and that he would wait until 1979 before going to the polls. Thatcher reacted to this by branding the Labour government "chickens", and Liberal Party leader David Steel joined in, criticising Labour for "running scared".<ref>{{Cite news |title=7 September 1978: Callaghan accused of running scared |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/7/newsid_2502000/2502781.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120410202005/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/7/newsid_2502000/2502781.stm |archive-date=10 April 2012 |access-date=13 January 2012 |work=On This Day 1950–2005 |via=[[BBC News Online]]}}</ref>

The Labour government then faced fresh public unease about the direction of the country and a damaging series of strikes during the winter of 1978–79, dubbed the "[[Winter of Discontent]]". The Conservatives attacked the Labour government's unemployment record, using advertising with the slogan "[[Labour Isn't Working]]". A [[1979 United Kingdom general election|general election]] was called after the Callaghan ministry [[1979 vote of no confidence in the Callaghan ministry|lost a motion of no confidence]] in early 1979. The Conservatives won a 44-seat majority in the House of Commons, and Thatcher became the first female British prime minister.{{sfnp|Butler|Kavanagh|1980|page=199}}

===="Iron Lady"====
{{Main|Britain Awake}}
{{External media |topic=1976 speech to Finchley Conservatives |video1={{Cite speech |title=Speech to Finchley Conservatives'' (admits to being an "Iron Lady")'' |url=https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111324 |via=the Margaret Thatcher Foundation}}<ref name="Iron Lady" />}}
{{blockquote|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.{{r|Iron Lady}}|Thatcher embracing her Soviet nickname in 1976}}

In 1976, Thatcher gave her "Britain Awake" foreign policy speech which lambasted the Soviet Union, saying it was "bent on world dominance".<ref name="britain-awake">{{Cite web |date=19 January 1976 |title=Speech at Kensington Town Hall ('Britain Awake') (The Iron Lady) |url=http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102939 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101017152319/http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102939 |archive-date=17 October 2010 |access-date=2 November 2008 |publisher=Margaret Thatcher Foundation |quote=[[Helsinki Accords|At Helsinki]] we endorsed the status quo in Eastern Europe. In return we had hoped for the freer movement of people and ideas across the Iron Curtain. So far we have got nothing of substance.}}</ref> The Soviet Army journal ''[[Krasnaya Zvezda|Red Star]]'' reported her stance in a piece headlined "Iron Lady Raises Fears",<ref name="Gavrilov">{{Cite news |last=Gavrilov |first=Yuri |date=24 January 1976 |title=The 'Iron Lady' Sounds the Alarm |work=Red Star |pages=3, 17 |volume=28 |issue=1–13 |translator={{text|''The Current Digest of the Soviet Press''}}}}</ref> alluding to her remarks on the [[Iron Curtain]].<ref name="britain-awake" /> ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' covered the ''Red Star'' article the next day,<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 January 1976 |title=Maggie, the 'Iron Lady' |url=http://gale.cengage.co.uk/images/upload/NewsVault/Thatcher/15-Maggie-the-Iron-Lady.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161029044402/http://gale.cengage.co.uk/images/upload/NewsVault/Thatcher/15-Maggie-the-Iron-Lady.pdf |archive-date=29 October 2016 |access-date=28 October 2016 |newspaper=The Sunday Times}}</ref> and Thatcher embraced the [[wikt:epithet|epithet]] a week later; in a speech to Finchley Conservatives she likened it to the [[Duke of Wellington]]'s nickname "{{title case|iron duke}}".<ref name="Iron Lady">{{Cite web |date=31 January 1976 |title=Speech to Finchley Conservatives (admits to being an 'Iron Lady') |url=http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102947 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160924182918/http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102947 |archive-date=24 September 2016 |access-date=17 October 2016 |publisher=Margaret Thatcher Foundation}}</ref> The [[Iron (metaphor)|"Iron" metaphor]] followed her throughout ever since,{{sfnmp|1a1=Atkinson|1y=1984|1p=115|2a1=Kaplan|2y=2000|2p=60}} and would become a generic [[sobriquet]] for other strong-willed female politicians.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Macpherson |first=Fiona |author-link=Fiona Macpherson |date=10 April 2013 |title=The Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher's linguistic legacy |url=https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/04/10/margaretthatcher |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616153939/https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/04/10/margaretthatcher/ |archive-date=16 June 2018 |access-date=20 May 2018 |website=[[OxfordDictionaries.com]] |quote=While it has been applied to other women since (from politicians to tennis players), the resonance with Margaret Thatcher remains the strongest.}}</ref>