The Downing Street Years chronicles the life and decisions of Margaret Thatcher during her lengthy tenure as Prime Minister (‘PM’) of Britain. In particular, the book covers the period from her first victory in the general election in 1979 to her resignation as PM in 1990. The uplifting nature of her vision for Britain, her ability to not waiver her beliefs when faced with adversity, and the proficiency that encouraged others to share her beliefs are dominant themes that allowed for the transformational change that occurred during her service. This paper will explore key defining moments in Ms. Thatcher’s career, the skills that allowed Ms. Thatcher to drive transformational change, and ultimately, how the personality that fueled such great success allowed her to underperform in a manner that resulted in her resignation, brought down by her own party.
Leaders Take Advantage of Defining Moments to Advance Their Cause:
The career of Margaret Thatcher is filled with Defining Moments. I will explore three critical episodes at various junctions of her career.
• The first Queen’s Speech where Ms. Thatcher outlined her policy
• The Budget Battle of 1981
• The Battle for the Falkland Islands (her best known moment)
Taking the role of Prime Minister in 1979, Margaret Thatcher inherited a Britain that was experiencing a ‘winter of discontent’. Suffering from a lack of free markets and a lack of public confidence, attempts to revive the economy through social programs were clearly failing. Equally daunting to the economic realities of the time was the ideology of the Tory Party rooted in compliant politics. Attempts for privatization and reductions in subsidies were not seriously embraced by most politicians, with the inclination of the Tory party aimed at slowing the ratcheting effect of Labour policy. Setting the tone for her new government, Ms. Thatcher was determined to use her first address, the Queen’s Speech, to send a strong signal of change. The importance of this speech is that faced with an economy in recession, Ms. Thatcher did not retreat from a policy of cutting taxes and removing price controls despite the clear volatility such actions would create. In addition, Ms. Thatcher started her campaign for trade union reform. Sensing that she had public support for her policies, she proposed limiting the right to picket and mandated funds for postal ballots for union elections. Attacked by union leaders, it turned out that she was in touch with the popular mood. The Queen’s speech was a defining moment for Ms. Thatcher as she established a sense of urgency for her agenda and explicitly communicated her vision of free market reform. Conviction over consensus was to be the new prescription for Britain.
By 1981, the lack of popularity for Ms. Thatcher’s economic program was combining with a lack of public confidence in its success. Credibility was at stake as the financial health of Britain continued to deteriorate. In an attempt to get interest rates down as a way to re-ignite the economy, the 1981 budget took the unpopular stance of resisting increased government borrowing. In March of 1981, 364 economists published a letter in The Times (of London) condemning her fiscal policy as the path to recession and social disturbance. Dissenters in the Cabinet used the budget as political opportunity to condemn the radical departure from traditional policy. Described as ‘the most unpopular prime minister since polls began’ (p. 153) Ms. Thatcher used conviction and a will of iron to stay the course. Choosing a speech to the Central Council of the Conservative Party in Bournemouth as the arena for rallying the party to her policy, Ms Thatcher declared:
‘In the past our people have made sacrifices, only to find at the eleventh hour their government had lost its nerve and the sacrifice had been in vain. It shall not be in vain this time. This Conservative Government, not yet two years in office, will hold fast until the future of our country is assured. I do not greatly care what people say about me: I do greatly care what people think about our country … This is the road I am resolved to follow. This is the path I must go. I ask all who have the spirit – the bold, the steadfast and the young in heart – to stand and join with me as we go forward. For there is no other company in which I would keep.’ (p. 139)
Her speech was received as a call to action for the Party faithful to rally in support of her policy. Successful in forming a powerful guiding coalition, Ms. Thatcher was able to set the stage for her spectacular resurgence the following year.
In the spring of 1982, Margaret Thatcher signaled to the world and her country that Britain was not a diminished power. In achieving a military victory in the Falkland Islands against Argentina, she demonstrated her ability to react with speed and conviction against a Junta-led government. She also showed an adept skill in empowering the military commanders to act as needed during the conflict. A much-noted scene was the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, a decisive act that stalled peace talks and sent the Argentine Navy back to port. More than just raising spirits domestically, the Falkland victory showed the world a united national will, a showing that was of particular importance in dealing with the Soviet Union. As she stated in a speech on July 3, 1982:
‘We have ceased to be a nation in retreat. We have instead a newfound confidence – born in the economic battles at home and tested and found true 8000 miles away …We rejoice that Britain has rekindled that spirit which has fired her for generations past and which today has begun to burn as brightly as before. Britain found herself again in the South Atlantic and will not look back from the victory she has won.’ (p. 235)
Following the success of the Falkland’s victory, Ms. Thatcher won the 1983 election in a landslide victory. This served as her platform to institutionalize the set of government policies based on privatization and empowerment of the individual that would ultimately be called Thatcherism. Ms. Thatcher used the Falkland victory, and subsequent electoral triumph, as a defining moment to lock in a value system that fundamentally changed British politics. While many more significant moments occurred later in Ms. Thatcher’s career, such as her battles with union leaders (steel strike, miners strike), multiple bombings (Harrods, Brighton, Enniskillen, Lockerbie) and Foreign Policy (Gorbachev, Europe, Reagan), it is Ms. Thatcher’s handling of these early situations that gave her the leadership currency to achieve her grand reforms.
Transformational Leaders have a Portfolio of Skills to Drive Significant Change:
It is fitting for this section to begin with a tribute to the working stamina and inner fire of Margaret Thatcher. Her modest background as the daughter of a grocer well prepared her for a life based on a daily struggle of achieving a small surplus, and consolidating those gains into a more tangible result. It also helped her adopt a philosophy of always being on call, as she saw her father take care of his customers’ needs regardless of the hour. A quote from her father she often refers to is telling:
It’s easy to be a starter, but are you a sticker too?
It’s easy enough to begin a job, it’s harder to see it through (p. 37)
This is the philosophy of ‘Life Over the Shop’, a reference to the values she learned as a child living above the grocery store in her early years. Ms. Thatcher carried those same values into the flat she occupied above 10 Downing Street during her tenure as Prime Minister. The value system of ‘Life Over the Shop’ is clearly reflected in her leadership style of hard work to generate achievements and consolidating results to produce larger gains. A prime example of this system is her legendary preparation for the Questions to the Prime Minister every Tuesday and Thursday. A brutal session where the PM is subject to questions on any topic, Ms. Thatcher would spend long hours the night before preparing for the Order Paper (a listed agenda) and the range of supplemental questions she may have tossed at her. Her demonstrable competence as shown by her grip on policy and facts was essential to her standing in the party, and was a primary driver of her success. In debate, she had no rival in preparation, frequently scoring victory by command of fact while her opponents showed only rhetoric. Surviving on four hours of sleep a night, her work habits have actually saved her life. Preparing for her speech at the end of the 1984 Party Conference in Brighton, Ms. Thatcher was reviewing official papers at three o’clock in the morning on October 12, 1984 when an IRA bomb exploded through the hotel. Designed to attack Ms. Thatcher’s sleeping quarters, she was unhurt as she was still working at the time of the explosion. However, there is much more to Ms. Thatcher’s success than hard work and physical stamina. She has a zeal about her beliefs that is tangible. Let’s call this skill ‘Not For Turning’, in a tribute to her conviction of will and straightforward way of framing ideas. Ms. Thatcher did not water down her belief in what needed to be done to revitalize Britain. This is critical for a transformational leader to have any impact. A principled and uncompromising leader capable of building a coalition, she did not waiver to an easier or more popular path as is the trend of so many purer politicians. She challenged the prevailing consensus and entrenched interests to take a new direction. As is the case with most leaders, Ms. Thatcher combined her intellectual capacity and integrity with a good dose of timing and circumstances, riding the popular pulse of British discontent to reform the country. Finally, it should be noted that Ms. Thatcher has a kind and thoughtful way. Her
The Downing Street Years chronicles the life and decisions of Margaret Thatcher during her lengthy tenure as Prime Minister (‘PM’) of Britain. In particular, the book covers the period from her first victory in the general election in 1979 to her resignation as PM in 1990. The uplifting nature of her vision for Britain, her ability to not waiver her beliefs when faced with adversity, and the proficiency that encouraged others to share her beliefs are dominant themes that allowed for the transformational change that occurred during her service. This paper will explore key defining moments in Ms. Thatcher’s career, the skills that allowed Ms. Thatcher to drive transformational change, and ultimately, how the personality that fueled such great success allowed her to underperform in a manner that resulted in her resignation, brought down by her own party.Leaders Take Advantage of Defining Moments to Advance Their Cause:The career of Margaret Thatcher is filled with Defining Moments. I will explore three critical episodes at various junctions of her career. • The first Queen’s Speech where Ms. Thatcher outlined her policy• The Budget Battle of 1981• The Battle for the Falkland Islands (her best known moment)การบทบาทของนายกรัฐมนตรีในปีค.ศ. 1979 มาร์กาเร็ต Thatcher สืบทอดราชอาณาจักรที่ประสบการ 'หนาวพอใจ' ทุกข์ทรมานจากการขาดการตลาดฟรีและขาดความเชื่อมั่นสาธารณะ ความพยายามที่จะฟื้นฟูเศรษฐกิจผ่านโปรแกรมสังคมได้ชัดเจนล้มเหลว ยุ่งยากเท่า ๆ กับความเป็นจริงทางเศรษฐกิจที่เป็นอุดมการณ์ของพรรค Tory ในเมืองตาม อย่างจริงจังไม่มีกอดพยายาม privatization และลดในเงินอุดหนุน โดยนักการเมืองมากที่สุด กับความเอียงของพรรค Tory ชะลอตัวผล ratcheting นโยบายแรงงาน ตั้งค่าเสียงสำหรับรัฐบาลใหม่ของเธอ นางสาว Thatcher ได้จะใช้ที่อยู่ของเธอแรก การพูด การส่งสัญญาณที่แรงของการเปลี่ยนแปลง ความสำคัญของคำพูดนี้เป็นที่ต้องเผชิญกับเศรษฐกิจในภาวะถดถอย นางสาว Thatcher ได้ไม่หนีจากนโยบายภาษีตัด และเอาควบคุมราคาผันผวนชัดเจนแม้มีการดำเนินการดังกล่าวจะสร้าง นอกจากนี้ นางสาว Thatcher เริ่มต้นปฏิรูปสหภาพแคมของเธอ การตรวจว่า เธอมีการสนับสนุนสาธารณะสำหรับนโยบายของเธอ เธอเสนอจำกัดสิทธิ picket และบังคับเงินสำหรับไปรษณีย์คะแนนสำหรับการเลือกตั้งสหภาพ โจมตีผู้นำสหภาพ จะเปิดออกว่า เธอติดต่อกับอารมณ์นิยม คำพูดของพระราชินีมีจังหวะสำหรับนางสาว Thatcher เธอสร้างความรู้สึกเร่งด่วนวาระของเธอ และอธิบายของวิสัยทัศน์ของการปฏิรูปตลาดเสรีอย่างชัดเจน ผ่านมติความเชื่อมั่นที่จะ เป็นยาใหม่สำหรับราชอาณาจักรBy 1981, the lack of popularity for Ms. Thatcher’s economic program was combining with a lack of public confidence in its success. Credibility was at stake as the financial health of Britain continued to deteriorate. In an attempt to get interest rates down as a way to re-ignite the economy, the 1981 budget took the unpopular stance of resisting increased government borrowing. In March of 1981, 364 economists published a letter in The Times (of London) condemning her fiscal policy as the path to recession and social disturbance. Dissenters in the Cabinet used the budget as political opportunity to condemn the radical departure from traditional policy. Described as ‘the most unpopular prime minister since polls began’ (p. 153) Ms. Thatcher used conviction and a will of iron to stay the course. Choosing a speech to the Central Council of the Conservative Party in Bournemouth as the arena for rallying the party to her policy, Ms Thatcher declared:‘In the past our people have made sacrifices, only to find at the eleventh hour their government had lost its nerve and the sacrifice had been in vain. It shall not be in vain this time. This Conservative Government, not yet two years in office, will hold fast until the future of our country is assured. I do not greatly care what people say about me: I do greatly care what people think about our country … This is the road I am resolved to follow. This is the path I must go. I ask all who have the spirit – the bold, the steadfast and the young in heart – to stand and join with me as we go forward. For there is no other company in which I would keep.’ (p. 139)Her speech was received as a call to action for the Party faithful to rally in support of her policy. Successful in forming a powerful guiding coalition, Ms. Thatcher was able to set the stage for her spectacular resurgence the following year.In the spring of 1982, Margaret Thatcher signaled to the world and her country that Britain was not a diminished power. In achieving a military victory in the Falkland Islands against Argentina, she demonstrated her ability to react with speed and conviction against a Junta-led government. She also showed an adept skill in empowering the military commanders to act as needed during the conflict. A much-noted scene was the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, a decisive act that stalled peace talks and sent the Argentine Navy back to port. More than just raising spirits domestically, the Falkland victory showed the world a united national will, a showing that was of particular importance in dealing with the Soviet Union. As she stated in a speech on July 3, 1982:‘We have ceased to be a nation in retreat. We have instead a newfound confidence – born in the economic battles at home and tested and found true 8000 miles away …We rejoice that Britain has rekindled that spirit which has fired her for generations past and which today has begun to burn as brightly as before. Britain found herself again in the South Atlantic and will not look back from the victory she has won.’ (p. 235)Following the success of the Falkland’s victory, Ms. Thatcher won the 1983 election in a landslide victory. This served as her platform to institutionalize the set of government policies based on privatization and empowerment of the individual that would ultimately be called Thatcherism. Ms. Thatcher used the Falkland victory, and subsequent electoral triumph, as a defining moment to lock in a value system that fundamentally changed British politics. While many more significant moments occurred later in Ms. Thatcher’s career, such as her battles with union leaders (steel strike, miners strike), multiple bombings (Harrods, Brighton, Enniskillen, Lockerbie) and Foreign Policy (Gorbachev, Europe, Reagan), it is Ms. Thatcher’s handling of these early situations that gave her the leadership currency to achieve her grand reforms.
Transformational Leaders have a Portfolio of Skills to Drive Significant Change:
It is fitting for this section to begin with a tribute to the working stamina and inner fire of Margaret Thatcher. Her modest background as the daughter of a grocer well prepared her for a life based on a daily struggle of achieving a small surplus, and consolidating those gains into a more tangible result. It also helped her adopt a philosophy of always being on call, as she saw her father take care of his customers’ needs regardless of the hour. A quote from her father she often refers to is telling:
It’s easy to be a starter, but are you a sticker too?
It’s easy enough to begin a job, it’s harder to see it through (p. 37)
This is the philosophy of ‘Life Over the Shop’, a reference to the values she learned as a child living above the grocery store in her early years. Ms. Thatcher carried those same values into the flat she occupied above 10 Downing Street during her tenure as Prime Minister. The value system of ‘Life Over the Shop’ is clearly reflected in her leadership style of hard work to generate achievements and consolidating results to produce larger gains. A prime example of this system is her legendary preparation for the Questions to the Prime Minister every Tuesday and Thursday. A brutal session where the PM is subject to questions on any topic, Ms. Thatcher would spend long hours the night before preparing for the Order Paper (a listed agenda) and the range of supplemental questions she may have tossed at her. Her demonstrable competence as shown by her grip on policy and facts was essential to her standing in the party, and was a primary driver of her success. In debate, she had no rival in preparation, frequently scoring victory by command of fact while her opponents showed only rhetoric. Surviving on four hours of sleep a night, her work habits have actually saved her life. Preparing for her speech at the end of the 1984 Party Conference in Brighton, Ms. Thatcher was reviewing official papers at three o’clock in the morning on October 12, 1984 when an IRA bomb exploded through the hotel. Designed to attack Ms. Thatcher’s sleeping quarters, she was unhurt as she was still working at the time of the explosion. However, there is much more to Ms. Thatcher’s success than hard work and physical stamina. She has a zeal about her beliefs that is tangible. Let’s call this skill ‘Not For Turning’, in a tribute to her conviction of will and straightforward way of framing ideas. Ms. Thatcher did not water down her belief in what needed to be done to revitalize Britain. This is critical for a transformational leader to have any impact. A principled and uncompromising leader capable of building a coalition, she did not waiver to an easier or more popular path as is the trend of so many purer politicians. She challenged the prevailing consensus and entrenched interests to take a new direction. As is the case with most leaders, Ms. Thatcher combined her intellectual capacity and integrity with a good dose of timing and circumstances, riding the popular pulse of British discontent to reform the country. Finally, it should be noted that Ms. Thatcher has a kind and thoughtful way. Her
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