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Loved, loathed, never ignored.

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For a generation Margaret Thatcher defined leadership,

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around the world she WAS Britain, at home, she divided a nation.

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If all Margaret Thatcher had done was reach number 10, she was guaranteed a place in history

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as the first and so far the last woman Prime Minister.

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"Where there discord may we bring harmony, where there is error, may we bring truth,

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"Where there is doubt, may we bring faith."

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Inspired by her beloved father, Margaret had to fight to get on in a man's world,

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to get elected to Parliament, to unseat her party leader Edward Heath,

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to reach a job even she once thought unobtainable.

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"I don't think that there will be a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime..."

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If it hadn't been for the "winter of dicontent", a series of strikes that left rubbish on the streets and the dead unburied,

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she might well have been right

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The Thatcherite cure: anti-union laws, high interest rates, soaring unemployment,

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split even her first cabinet.

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It drove thousands onto the streets in protest and it led to inner city rioting unseen before in mainland Britain.

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Calls mounted for the Prime Minister to change course.

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"You turn if you want to, (cheers and laughter) the Lady's not for turning."

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That resolve was put to the test in 1982, when the Argentine flag was raised on British territory- the Falkland Islands.

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Against all advice Margaret Thatcher sent a task force 8000 miles to the South Atlantic

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and launched a risky and contraversial war.

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Hundreds of lives were lost, but victory was secured.

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The nation celebrated the success of its armed forces, and the woman who'd ordered them into battle

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who went on to secure a landslide victory at the election which followed.

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Mrs. Thatcher's second term in office took her onto battle at home

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it was with those she dubbed "the enemy within"

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-the powerful miner's union, and it's leader Arthur Scargill.

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"We will roll back the years of Thatcherism!"

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The confrontation between police and strikers left communities scarred,

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the union defeated, and everyone clear who was running the country.

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And this was her answer to the threat from without-

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American cruise missiles based on British soil

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to threaten the Soviet Union with mutually assured destruction.

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Together, American president Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher confronted what he dubbed the evil empire

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while she wooed the Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev

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who went on to dismantle communism, to end the cold war with the Iron Lady able to claim victory.

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Margaret Thatcher went on to win a 3rd historic election victory,

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it would be her last.

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The poll tax enraged middle England,

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people thought that a dustman and a duke should not have to pay the same for local services.

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She had angered her chancellor Nigel Lawson and his predecessor Geoffrey Howe,

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they disagreed with her on economic policy and her policy of confrontation with Europe.

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"The president of the commission Mr. Delor said at press conference the other day

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that he wanted the European parliament to be the democratic body of the community

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he wanted the commision to be the executive

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and he wanted the council of ministers to be the senate.

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NO, no, no!

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Michael Heseltine was manouvering to replace her

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all he needed was an excuse.

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Geoffrey Howe's resignation provided it and his attack on his betrayal by his own team captain.

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"It's rather like sending your opening batsman to the crease only for them to find

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the moment the first balls are bowled that their bats have been broken before the game

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by the team captain."

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A red eyed Margaret Thatcher left Downing Street for last time on the 28 November 1990

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Having been told by her cabinet that she had to go.

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They concluded that country had simply had enough

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of the longest serving Prime Minister of the 20th Century.

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For years, though people queued up to read and hear her views she was shunned by her own party leadership

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and of course by labour, who'd loathed her so much.

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Until that is Gordon Brown tried to get some of the old Thatcher magic to rub off on his premiership

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the surest sign that even those who'd been her bitter enemies

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now saw at least some of the benefits of the Thatcher reveolution.

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In failing health, and now alone after the Death of her loyal husband Dennis,

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Margaret Thatcher unveiled her own statue in the House of Commons.

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She would never speak in public again, but she must have known that for many

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she still pointed the way that Britain ought to follow.