Word: britain
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Downing Street was packed with well-wishers and photographers when Thatcher arrived. Expressing delight and excitement over her victory, Britain's "Iron Lady" made a conciliatory statement clearly addressed to a nation poised uneasily for change: "I would like to remember some words of St. Francis of Assisi, which I think are particularly apt at the moment: 'Where there is discord, may we bring harmony; where there is doubt, may we bring faith; where there is despair, may we bring hope.' Now that the election is over, may we get together and strive to serve and strengthen the country...
Throughout the four-week campaign, which was brought about when Callaghan's government narrowly lost a vote of confidence in March, both major parties emphasized that Britain faced a clear choice. Callaghan offered a continuation of the moderate social democratic policies that have dominated British political and economic life since the end of World War II. Thatcher presented a clear break with the socialist past, advocating a return to the market economy and a retrenching of Britain's welfare state. As some commentators saw it, Labor, in a reversal of traditional roles, had become the party of established orthodoxy, while...
...Tories entered the campaign with a lead of up to 21% in early polling. That was largely a result of public anger and frustration over a bitter winter of strikes and industrial strife that severely undermined Labor's claim to be the only party that could deal successfully with Britain's powerful trade unions. As the campaign continued, the Tory lead steadily dwindled; two days before the election one poll even showed a slight Labor edge. There seemed little doubt about the reason for the decline: the personality of Margaret Thatcher. To avoid a major gaffe by their outspoken leader...
When Thatcher first took her place on the back benches, there was no reason for anyone to mark her as a future Tory leader, much less Britain's first woman Prime Minister. She was not a member of any inner circle, not a protégée of any powerful party figure. Attractive in almost too meticulous a way, with a complexion as English as Devonshire cream and the instant smile of a doctor's receptionist, she looked rather like the chairman of a garden club in an affluent suburb. But in her first year as an M.P. she managed...
...Britain's new Conservative government will not be an easy partner for the Carter Administration. Carter enjoyed a close, almost familial relationship with Callaghan, who was something of a "political uncle" to the President. For their first official meeting, Callaghan brought Carter a bolt of cloth for a suit in which pinstripes were made of tiny J.C.s, their common initials. It is not likely that Carter and Thatcher will develop an equally close relationship. "Margaret will start off despising Jimmy Carter," conceded one top Tory, "but responsibility will mellow her." There will be no lessening of Britain's commitment...