Flowers and mementos left by public and admirers outside the home of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in central London yesterday.
LONDON: Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady” who transformed Britain and inspired conservatives around the world by radically rolling back the state during her 11 years in power, died yesterday following a stroke. She was 87.
Britain’s only woman prime minister, the unyielding, outspoken Thatcher led the Conservatives to three election victories, governing from 1979 to 1990, the longest continuous period in office by a British premier since the early 19th century.
A grocer’s daughter with a steely resolve, she was loved and loathed in equal measure as she crushed the unions, privatised vast swathes of British industry, clashed with the European Union and fought a war to recover the Falkland Islands from Argentine invaders.
She struck up a close relationship with US president Ronald Reagan in the Cold War, backed the first president George Bush during the 1991 Gulf War, and declared that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was a man she could do business with.
“Very few leaders get to change not only the political landscape of their country but of the world. Margaret was such a leader. Her global impact was vast,” said Tony Blair, Labour prime minister from 1997-2007. “Some of the changes she made in Britain were, in certain respects at least, retained by the 1997 Labour Government, and came to be implemented by governments around the world,” said Blair.
Prime Minister David Cameron cut short a visit to Europe to return to Britain and British flags on government buildings and royal palaces across London were lowered to half mast.
Mourners began to lay roses, tulips and lilies on the doorstep of her house in Belgravia, one of London’s most exclusive areas. One note said: “The greatest British leader” while another said to “the iron lady”.
Thatcher died peacefully yesterday morning at the Ritz hotel after a stroke. She had been in poor health for months and had declined into dementia in her final years.
Lord Bell, a spokesman for the family, compared her to her hero Winston Churchill, while Cameron said she would go down as Britain’s greatest peacetime prime minister. “We’ve lost a great leader, a great prime minister and a great Briton,” Cameron said.
The British government said Thatcher would have a ceremonial funeral with military honours at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral, which falls short of a full state funeral, in accordance with the wishes of her family.
The abiding domestic images of her premiership will remain those of conflict: huge police confrontations with the miners’ union, her riding a tank in a white headscarf, and flames rising above Trafalgar Square in the riots over an unpopular local tax which ultimately led to her downfall.
“It’s very sad to hear of her death but her legacy and death are two different things. Politically, she did not leave a good legacy for the working class,” Kevin Robertson, a 39-year-old garage manager, said in Edinburgh.
Some opponents said on social media that they would hold a party to celebrate her death while a website set up to ask if Thatcher was dead had received 170,000 likes by midday. To those who opposed her she was blunt to a degree.
While often deeply unpopular at home — especially in northern England, Wales, Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland — Thatcher’s strength won her praise and high regard in both Washington, Berlin and Moscow.
The Soviet defence ministry newspaper Red Star dubbed Thatcher the “Iron Lady” and she revelled in the nickname though she worked closely with Gorbachev as he opened up the Soviet Union. She formed a strong alliance against communism with Reagan and was rewarded by seeing the Berlin Wall torn down in 1989, though she warned Gorbachev that a unified Germany would come to dominate Europe.
Her personal credo, founded on competition, private enterprise, thrift and self-reliance, gave birth to a political philosophy known as “Thatcherism”.
Thatcher’s combative opposition to greater European integration antagonised allies in Europe and ultimately helped to sow the seeds of her own downfall.
In a few tense weeks at the end of 1990, Thatcher fell from power as some of her most senior ministers turned on her in what she said later was treachery. “Her memory will live long after the world has forgotten the grey suits of today’s politics,” said London Mayor Boris Johnson. Reuters
MOSCOW: Former friends and foes alike from across the world paid tribute yesterday to the late British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, remembering an “extraordinary leader” who stamped her authority everywhere.
The “Iron Lady” was a polarising figure in Britain and beyond during her time in office, but foreign leaders were unanimous in acknowledging her place in 20th-century history, with US President Barack Obama mourning a “true friend of America”.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he had never met Thatcher in an official capacity, but was still “inspired by her leadership”. German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed Thatcher as “an extraordinary leader in the global politics of her time”. And French President Francois Hollande called Thatcher a “great figure who left a profound mark on the history of her country.”
European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso paid tribute to Thatcher’s “contributions” to the growth of the European Union, despite her reservations about continental integration.
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said the British premier will go down in history for her commitment and resolve. “Margaret Thatcher was a great politician and a bright individual. She will go down in our memory and in history,” the Nobel Peace Prize winner said. “Thatcher was a politician whose words carried great weight,” he added, calling her death “sad news”.
Former US president George H W Bush called her “a leader of rare character ... whose principles in the end helped shape a better, freer world”. Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger told CNN that Thatcher was a “gutsy personality ... who learned the fact that a leader needed to have strong convictions”.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was one of the very first leaders to speak publicly of Thatcher’s passing, saying that “she was truly a great leader”.Israeli President Shimon Peres said: “There are people, there are ideas. Occasionally those two come together to create vision. ... (Thatcher) showed how far a person can go with strength of character, determination and a clear vision.”
