M25 motorway
M25 is highlighted in dark blue.
Route information
Part of E15 E30
Length:	117 mi (188 km)
Existed:	1975 – present
History:	Completed 1975-1986
Major junctions
Orbital around London
	J2 → M2 motorway J3 → M20 motorway J5 → M26 motorway J7 → M23 motorway Junction 8 J12 → M3 motorway Junction 2 J15 → M4 motorway Junction 4b J16 → M40 motorway Junction 1a J21 → M1 motorway Junction 6a J23 → A1(M) motorway Junction 1 J27 → M11 motorway Junction 6
Location
Primary destinations:	London, Dartford, Sevenoaks, Reigate, Staines, Heathrow Airport , Enfield, Watford
Road network
Roads in the United Kingdom Motorways • A and B road zones

The M25 motorway, London Ring Motorway, or London Orbital motorway is a 117-mile (188 km) motorway that almost encircles Greater London, England, in the United Kingdom. The motorway was first mooted early in the 20th century. A few sections, based on the now abandoned London Ringways plan, were constructed in the early 1970s and it was completed in 1986. The M25 is one of the world's longest orbital roads^[1] and one of the busiest and most congested parts of the British motorway network. 196,000 vehicles were recorded in a single day near London Heathrow Airport. Plans to widen additional sections to eight lanes (four each way) were scaled back in 2009 in response to rising costs.^[2]

Description[link]

Map of the M25 showing width and schemes

Originally built mainly as a dual three-lane motorway, much of the motorway has subsequently been widened to dual four-lanes in places and to a dual five-lane section between junctions 12 and 14 and a dual six-lane between junctions 14 and 15. Further widening is in progress with plans for managed motorways on other sections.

The M25 is not a continuous loop. To the east of London, the charged crossing of the Thames between Thurrock and Dartford is the lesser grade A282. The Dartford Crossing, which consists of two tunnels and the QE2 (Queen Elizabeth II) bridge, is named Canterbury Way. Passage across the bridge or through the tunnels is subject to a toll, depending on the kind of vehicle. Making this stretch a motorway would stop any traffic not permitted to use motorways from crossing the Thames east of the Woolwich Ferry. This is the one of the two motorways have an orbital, the other being the M60 motorway in Manchester.

At junction 5 near Sevenoaks, drivers continuing around the M25 in either direction must follow the slip roads. The anticlockwise carriageway continues eastward as the M26 (towards the M20); the clockwise carriageway continues towards the south coast as the A21.

The distance of the motorway from central London (taken as Charing Cross) varies from about 12 miles (19 km) near Potters Bar to 20 miles (32 km) near Byfleet. In some places (Enfield, Hillingdon and Havering) the Greater London boundary has been realigned to the M25 for minor stretches; while in others, most notably in Essex and Surrey, it is many miles distant. Major towns such as Epsom, Watford, and Loughton are within the M25. North Ockendon is the only settlement of Greater London situated outside the M25. In 2004, following an opinion poll, a move was mooted by the London Assembly to align the Greater London boundary with the M25.^[3] "Inside the M25" and "outside the M25" or "beyond the M25" are used colloquially to refer to London and the provinces; the Communications Act 2003 explicitly uses the M25 as the boundary in requiring a proportion of television programmes to be made outside the London area.^[4]

The three service areas are located in the central north (Junction 23 South Mimms), south east (Clacket Lane) and central east (Thurrock). A fourth is due to open near Cobham in 2012.^[5]

Much of the M25 is lit to help reduce accidents. The current illuminated sections are from Dartford to junction 3, junction 5, junctions 6 to 21a and junctions 23 to 31. The type of lighting varies. Some sections use the older yellow low-pressure sodium (SOX) lighting while others use modern high-pressure sodium (SON) lighting. Some stretches have recently been upgraded to SON lighting. These include Junction 5, junctions around Heathrow and Junction 27.

The motorway passes through several police areas. Junctions 1–5 are in Kent, 6–14 in Surrey (passing in places through Greater London and Berkshire), 15–16 are in Buckinghamshire, 17–24 are in Hertfordshire, 25 in Greater London (the Hertfordshire border going around the junction's northern edge), 26–28 in Essex, 29 in Greater London and 30–31 in Essex. Policing the road is carried out by an integrated policing group made up of the Metropolitan, Thames Valley, Essex, Kent, Hertfordshire and Surrey forces.

The M25 is one of Europe's busiest motorways. In 2003, 196,000 vehicles a day were recorded on the motorway near London Heathrow Airport between junctions 13 and 14.^[6]

History[link]

Plans and construction[link]

The M25 motorway looking south between junctions 14 and 15, near Heathrow Airport. The red light from the overhead gantry, just visible in the distance, is the MIDAS system indicating a reduced speed limit due to congestion

The M4/M25 motorway junction, near Heathrow Airport

The M25 between junction 24 (A111, Potters Bar) and 25 (A10, Waltham Cross & Enfield).

The M25 between junctions 7 (M23) and 6 (A22) near Reigate, Surrey. The signs are indicating an advisory reduced speed of 40 mph (64 km/h) due to congestion

A precursor of the M25 was the North Orbital Road (see A414 road).

The idea of an orbital road around London was first proposed early in the 20th century and then re-examined in Sir Charles Bressey's and Sir Edwin Lutyens' The Highway Development Survey, 1937. Sir Patrick Abercrombie's County of London Plan, 1943 and Greater London Plan, 1944 proposed a series of five roads encircling the capital. The northern sections of the M25 follow a similar route to the World War II Outer London Defence Ring.

Little was done to progress these plans until the 1960s when the Greater London Council developed their London Ringways plan which consisted of four 'rings' around the capital. Sections of the two outer rings - Ringway 3 (the 'M16 motorway') and Ringway 4 were constructed in the early 1970s and these were later integrated into the single M25 orbital motorway. The Ringways plan was however hugely controversial due to the destruction required for the inner two ring roads (Ringway 1 and Ringway 2). Parts of Ringway 1 were constructed (including West Cross Route and Westway) against stiff opposition before the overall plan was abandoned in 1973 following pressure from residents in the threatened areas.

Construction of parts of the two outer ring roads, Ringways 3 and 4, were however started in 1973. The first section, between South Mimms and Potters Bar in Hertfordshire (junction 23 to junction 24) opened in September 1975 and was given the temporary general purpose road designation A1178; a section south of London (junction 6 to junction 8) opened in 1976. A section of Ringway 3 south of the river between Dartford and Swanley (junction 1 to junction 3) was constructed between 1974 and 1977.

In 1975 the plans for Ringway 3 were modified to combine it with Ringway 4, the outermost Ringway. The combined motorway was given the designation M25 which had originally been intended for the southern and western part of Ringway 4 and the M16 designation was dropped. The section of Ringway 3 west of South Mimms anti-clockwise around London to Swanley in Kent was cancelled. The stages were not constructed contiguously but in small sections. As the orbital road developed the sections were linked. Each section was presented to planning authorities in its own right and was individually justified, with almost 40 public inquiries relating to sections of the route. Maps at this time depicting these short sections named the route as the M16 but this changed before completion.

The section from Potters Bar to the Dartford Tunnel was constructed between 1979 and 1982. Construction of the M25 continued in stages until its completion in 1986. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher officially opened the M25 on 29 October 1986, with a ceremony in the section between J22 and J23 (London Colney and South Mimms). The initial tenders for the construction of the M25 totalled £631.9 million. This did not include compulsory purchase of land and subsequent upgrades and repairs.

Operational history[link]

Soon after the motorway opened in 1986 traffic levels exceeded maximum designed capacity and in 1990 the Secretary of State for Transport announced plans to widen the whole of the M25 to four lanes.^[7] By 1993 the motorway that was designed for a maximum of 88,000 vehicles per day was carrying 200,000,^[8] 15% of UK motorway traffic volume was on the M25 and there were plans to add 6 lanes to the section from Junction 12 to 15 as well widening the rest of the motorway to 4 lanes^[9]

In 1995 a contract was awarded to widen the section between junctions 8 and 10 from six to eight lanes for a cost of £93.4 million^[10] and a Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling (MIDAS) system was introduced to the M25 from junction 10 to junction 15 at a cost of £13.5m in 1995 and then extended to junction 16 at a cost of £11.7m in 2002. This consists of a distributed network of traffic and weather sensors, speed cameras and variable-speed signs that control traffic speeds with little human supervision, and has improved traffic flow slightly, and reduced the amount of start-stop driving.^[11]

In 1995 there was a proposal to widen the section close to Heathrow Airport to 14 lanes. This attracted fierce opposition from road protesters opposing the Newbury Bypass and other schemes^[12] and it was cancelled shortly afterwards.^[13] However, in 1997 the Department of Transport announced new proposals to widen the section from junction 12 (M3) and junction 15 (M4) to 12 lanes. At the Terminal Five public inquiry a Highways Agency official said that the widening was needed to accommodate traffic to the proposed new terminal, however the transport minister said that no such evidence had been given.^[14] Environmental groups objected to the decision to go ahead a scheme that would create the widest motorways in the UK without holding a public inquiry.^[15] The decision was again deferred. A decision to go-ahead was given for a 10-lane scheme in 1998^[16] and the £148 million 'M25 Jct 12 to 15 Widening' contract was awarded to Balfour Beatty in 2003.^[17] The scheme was completed in 2005 as dual-five lane between junctions 12 to 14 and dual six lanes from 14 to 15.^[18]

In 2007 capacity at junction 25 (A10/Waltham Cross) was increased and the Holmesdale Tunnel was widened to 3 lanes in an eastern direction at a cost of £75 million.^[19]

Work to widen the exit slip-roads in both directions at Junction 28 (A12 road/A1023) was completed in 2008. It was designed to reduce the amount of traffic queueing on the slip roads at busy periods, particularly traffic from the clockwise M25 joining the northbound A12 where the queue can extend onto the inside lane of the Motorway.^[20]

Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO) contract[link]

In 2006 the Highways Agency proposed to widen 63 miles (101 km) of M25 from six to eight lanes, between junctions 5-6 and 16-30 as part of a Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO) project.^[21] A shortlist of contractors was announced in October 2006 for the project which was expected to cost £4.5 billion.^[22] Contractors were asked to resubmit their bids in January 2008^[23] and in June 2009 the new transport minister indicated that the cost had risen to £5.5 billion and the benefit to cost ratio had dropped considerably.^[24] In January 2009 the government announced that plans to widen the sections from Junction 5-7 and from 23-27 had been 'scrapped' and that hard shoulder running would be introduced instead.^[25]

In 2009 a £6.2 billion M25 'Design, Build, Finance and Operate' (DBFO) private finance initiative contract^[26] was awarded to Connect Plus to widen the sections between junctions 16 and 23 and between junctions 27 and 30 and maintain the M25 and the Dartford Crossing for a 30 year period.^[27]

Current developments[link]

Cobham services[link]

Cobham services, a new motorway service area is being constructed between Jct 9-10 by linking two sides of the carriageway, and an underbridge running beneath the M25.^[28]

Junctions 7-10: Controlled Motorway[link]

A proposal to convert the section from Junctions 7 to 10 to Controlled Motorway' was put out to consultation between November 2009 and March 2010.^[29] Work on installing the gantries were complete by April 2011^[30] it which point the system was used to display advisory speeds. As of May 2012 it was stated that the necessary legal processes to make these enforceable speeds were likely to be complete by 'early 2012'.^[31]

M25 Jct 16 to 23 widening[link]

Works on widening the motorway between junctions 16 and 23 (M40-A1(M)) to dual 4 lanes^[32] started in July 2009 at an estimated cost of £580m.^[33] Work between junctions 16 and 21 (M40 to M1) is complete as of July 2011. The section from junctions 21 to 23 (M1 to the A1(M)) is the final stretch of the widening, with an estimated completion date in the summer of 2012.^[34]

M25 Jct 27 to 30 widening[link]

Works on widening the motorway between junctions 27 and 30 (M11-A13) to dual 4 lanes started in July 2009. The section between junction 27 and junction 28 (M11-A12) was completed in July 2010.^[35] The section from junctions 28 to 29 (A12-A127) was completed in June 2011. The section from junctions 29 to 30 (A127-A13) is scheduled for completion in summer 2012.^[36]

Proposed developments[link]

M25 Jct 5 to 7 managed motorway[link]

The Highways Agency plans to introduce managed motorway with hard shoulder running on the M25 from Junctions 5 to 7 (M26 – M23/Redhill) with work starting after the London Olympics in 2012/3.^[37]

M25 Jct 23 to 27 managed motorway[link]

Inside the Bell Common Tunnel near Epping.

The Highways Agency plans to introduce managed motorway with hard shoulder running on the M25 from Junctions 23 to 27 (A1(M)-M11)^[38] with work starting after the London Olympics in 2013, opening in 2016.^[39]

Junction 30 improvement[link]

Preparation work to increase capacity at Junction 30 (Thurrock) as part of the Thames Gateway Delivery Plan is underway although there is no guarantee of delivery. Plans were announced in 2007. An early estimate on the start of major works was given as 2013/2014.^[40] Philip Hammond has confirmed that there will be no funding for the J30 improvements in this spending period, but has announced that preparation work would continue so that the scheme could be funded at a later date.^[41]

Lower Thames Crossing[link]

In 2009 the Department for Transport published options for a new Lower Thames Crossing to add capacity to the Dartford Crossing or create a new road and crossing linking to the M2 and M20 motorways.^[42]

Comparisons[link]

Other cities encircled by motorways include Manchester using the M60 motorway, Birmingham using parts of the M5, M6 and M42 and from 2011 Glasgow has an orbital motorway made of the M8, M73 and M74 although one section of the route passes through the centre of the city.^[43] The M25 is the second-longest ring road in Europe, after the Berlin Ring (A 10) which is 5 miles (8.0 km) longer. The M25 is one of the busiest motorways in Europe:

• M25 around London: 196,000 vehicles a day recorded in 2003 between junctions 13 and 14 near London Heathrow Airport.^[6]
• A23 (near Vienna): More than 200,000 vehicles on an average day.
• A 100 (near Berlin): 216,000 vehicles in a day was recorded in 1998
• A4 motorway (near Paris): 257,000 vehicles a day recorded in 2002.^[44]

Popular culture[link]

The multi-level stack interchange junction with the M23, viewed from a nearby footbridge to the west.

Iain Sinclair's book and film, London Orbital which was published in 2003 is based on a year long journey around the M25 on foot.^[45]

The M25 (including the A282 Dartford Crossing) is known for its frequent traffic jams. These have been the subject of so much comment from such an early stage that even at the official opening ceremony Margaret Thatcher complained about "those who carp and criticise". The jams have inspired jokes ("the world's biggest car park", "the London Orbital Car Park") and songs (Chris Rea's "The Road to Hell").^[46]

The M25 plays an important role in the comedy-fantasy novel Good Omens, being "evidence for the hidden hand of Satan in the affairs of Man".^[47]

The road enjoyed a more positive reputation among ravers in the late 1980s as the then new Orbital Motorway was a popular route to the parties that took place around the outskirts of London. The use of the M25 for these raves inspired the name of electronic duo Orbital.^[48]

Racing[link]

M25 between junctions 7 and 6 near Reigate, Surrey. The Variable Message sign says A14 closed after A10.

The orbital nature of the motorway, in common with racetracks, lent itself to unofficial, and illegal, motor racing. At the end of the 1980s, before the advent of speed enforcement devices, owners of supercars, many employed in the financial service industry in the City and in Docklands, would meet at night at service stations such as South Mimms and conduct time trials. Times below 1 hour were achieved; an average speed of over 117 mph (188 km/h), which included coming to a halt at the Dartford Tunnel road user charge payment booths.^[49][50]

Junctions[link]

Data^[51] from driver location signs provide carriageway identifier information. The numbers on the signs are kilometres from a point near the River Thames, east of London, when travelling clockwise on the motorway. The table below gives details of each junction, including the roads interchanged and the destinations that are signed from the motorway. Figures in kilometres are from the driver location signs; figures in miles are derived from them.

Anti-clockwise information above gathered from Advanced Direction Signs August 2011 (J9 - J22, J20 - J15)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Sinclair, Iain (2002), London Orbital: A Walk Around the M25, London: Granta Books, ISBN 1-86207-547-6 .
• Phippen, Roy (2005), Travelling M25 Clockwise, London: Pallas Athene, ISBN 1-873429-90-8 .
• Pratchett, Terry; Gaiman, Neil (2006), Good Omens, New York: William Morrow, pp. 13–14, ISBN 0-06-085396-4 .

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: M25 motorway

• Highways Agency – Roadworks
• Highways Agency – Current Traffic Information
• Highways Agency – Dartford – Thurrock River Crossing
• The Motorway Archive's M25 page
• CBRD M25 Motorway Database
• CBRD M25 Opening Booklet

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Coordinates: 51°32′53″N 0°31′4″W / 51.54806°N 0.51778°W / 51.54806; -0.51778

The Right Honourable The Baroness Thatcher LG OM PC FRS
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 4 May 1979 – 28 November 1990
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Deputy	William Whitelaw Geoffrey Howe
Preceded by	James Callaghan
Succeeded by	John Major
Leader of the Opposition
In office 11 February 1975 – 4 May 1979
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson James Callaghan
Preceded by	Edward Heath
Succeeded by	James Callaghan
Leader of the Conservative Party
In office 11 February 1975 – 28 November 1990
Preceded by	Edward Heath
Succeeded by	John Major
Secretary of State for Education and Science
In office 20 June 1970 – 4 March 1974
Prime Minister	Edward Heath
Preceded by	Edward Short
Succeeded by	Reginald Prentice
Member of Parliament for Finchley
In office 8 October 1959 – 9 April 1992
Preceded by	John Crowder
Succeeded by	Hartley Booth
Personal details
Born	Margaret Hilda Roberts (1925-10-13) 13 October 1925 (age 86) Grantham, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Denis Thatcher (married 1951–2003, his death)
Children	Carol Thatcher Mark Thatcher
Residence	Chester Square
Alma mater	Somerville College, Oxford Inns of Court
Profession	Chemist Lawyer
Religion	Church of England (Since 1951)[1] Methodism (Before 1951)
Signature

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS, née Roberts (born 13 October 1925) is a British politician and the longest-serving (1979–1990) British prime minister of the 20th century, and the only woman ever to have held the post. A Soviet journalist nicknamed her the "Iron Lady", which later became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As prime minister, she implemented conservative policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.

Originally a research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970 government. In 1975 Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election and became Leader of the Opposition, as well as the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became prime minister after winning the 1979 general election.

After entering 10 Downing Street, Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic initiatives to reverse what she perceived as Britain's precipitous national decline.^{[nb 1]} Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Thatcher's popularity during her first years in office waned amid recession and high unemployment, until economic recovery and the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her re-election in 1983. Thatcher was re-elected for a third term in 1987, but her Community Charge (popularly referred to as "poll tax") was widely unpopular and her views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership.

Thatcher holds a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher, of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire, which entitles her to sit in the House of Lords.

Early life and education[link]

Margaret Thatcher's birthplace, in Grantham

Commemorative plaque on the building in which Margaret Thatcher was born

Margaret Thatcher was born Margaret Roberts in Grantham, Lincolnshire, on 13 October 1925. Her father was Alfred Roberts, originally from Northamptonshire, and her mother was Beatrice Ethel (née Stephenson) from Lincolnshire.^[3] She spent her childhood in Grantham, where her father owned two grocery shops.^[4] She and her older sister Muriel were raised in the flat above the larger of the two, located near the railway line.^[4] Her father was active in local politics and the Christian church, serving as an alderman and a Methodist local preacher,^[5] and brought up his daughter as a strict Methodist.^[6] He came from a Liberal family but stood—as was then customary in local government—as an Independent. He was Mayor of Grantham in 1945–46 and lost his position as alderman in 1952 after the Labour Party won its first majority on Grantham Council in 1950.^[5]

Roberts attended Huntingtower Road Primary School and won a scholarship to Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School.^[7] Her school reports showed hard work and continual improvement; her extracurricular activities included the piano, field hockey, poetry recitals, swimming and walking.^[8][9] She was head girl in 1942–43.^[10] In her upper sixth year she applied for a scholarship to study chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford but was initially rejected, and was offered a place only after another candidate withdrew.^[11][12] She arrived at Oxford in 1943 and graduated in 1947 with Second Class Honours in the four-year Chemistry Bachelor of Science degree; in her final year she specialised in X-ray crystallography under the supervision of Dorothy Hodgkin.^[13][14]

Roberts became President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1946.^[15][16] She was influenced at university by political works such as Friedrich von Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (1944),^[17] which condemned economic intervention by government as a precursor to an authoritarian state.^[18]

After graduating, Roberts moved to Colchester in Essex to work as a research chemist for BX Plastics.^[19] She joined the local Conservative Association and attended the party conference at Llandudno in 1948, as a representative of the University Graduate Conservative Association.^[20] One of her Oxford friends was also a friend of the Chair of the Dartford Conservative Association in Kent, who were looking for candidates.^[20] Officials of the association were so impressed by her that they asked her to apply, even though she was not on the Conservative party's approved list: she was selected in January 1951 and added to the approved list post ante.^[21] At a dinner following her formal adoption as Conservative candidate for Dartford in February 1951 she met Denis Thatcher, a successful and wealthy divorced businessman, who drove her to her Essex train.^[20][21] In preparation for the election Roberts moved to Dartford, where she supported herself by working as a research chemist for J. Lyons and Co. in Hammersmith, part of a team developing emulsifiers for ice cream.^[20][22]

Early political career[link]

In the 1950 and 1951 general elections she was the Conservative candidate for the safe Labour seat of Dartford, where she attracted media attention as the youngest and the only female candidate.^[23][24] She lost both times to Norman Dodds, but reduced the Labour majority by 6,000, and then a further 1,000.^[23] (By an odd coincidence, Edward Heath was elected for the first time in the neighbouring constituency in 1950.) During the campaigns, she was supported by her parents and by Denis Thatcher, whom she married in December 1951.^[23][25] Denis funded his wife's studies for the bar;^[26] she qualified as a barrister in 1953 and specialised in taxation.^[27] That same year her twins, Carol and Mark, were born.^[28]

Member of Parliament (1959–1970)[link]

Thatcher was not a candidate in the 1955 general election as it came fairly soon after the birth of her children, although she was narrowly defeated as the candidate for the Orpington by-election, 1955.^[28] Afterwards, she began looking for a safe Conservative seat, and was selected as the candidate for Finchley in April 1958 (narrowly beating Ian Montagu Fraser). She was elected as MP for the seat after a hard campaign in the 1959 election.^[29] Her maiden speech was in support of her private member's bill (Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960), requiring local authorities to hold their council meetings in public. In 1961 she went against the Conservative Party's official position by voting for the restoration of birching.^[30] She regarded Finchley's Jewish residents as "her people" and became a founding member of the Anglo-Israel Friendship League of Finchley as well as a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel.^[31] But she nevertheless believed that Israel had to trade land for peace, and condemned Israel's bombing of Osirak as "a grave breach of international law".^[31]

In October 1961 Thatcher was promoted to the front bench as Parliamentary Undersecretary at the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance in Harold Macmillan's administration.^[32] After the Conservatives lost the 1964 election she became spokeswoman on Housing and Land, in which position she advocated her party's policy of allowing tenants to buy their council houses.^[33] She moved to the Shadow Treasury team in 1966, and as Treasury spokeswoman opposed Labour's mandatory price and income controls, arguing that they would produce effects contrary to those intended and distort the economy.^[33]

At the Conservative Party Conference of 1966 she criticised the high-tax policies of the Labour Government as being steps "not only towards Socialism, but towards Communism".^[33] She argued that lower taxes served as an incentive to hard work.^[33] Thatcher was one of the few Conservative MPs to support Leo Abse's Bill to decriminalise male homosexuality^[34] and voted in favour of David Steel's bill to legalise abortion,^[1][35] as well as a ban on hare coursing.^[36][37] She supported the retention of capital punishment^[38] and voted against the relaxation of divorce laws.^[39][40]

In 1967 she was selected by the United States Embassy in London to take part in the International Visitor Leadership Program (then called the Foreign Leader Program), a professional exchange programme that gave her the opportunity to spend about six weeks visiting various US cities and political figures as well as institutions such as the International Monetary Fund.^[41] Thatcher joined the Shadow Cabinet later that year as Fuel spokesman. Shortly before the 1970 general election, she was promoted to Shadow Transport spokesman and later to Education.^[42]

Education Secretary (1970–1974)[link]

The Conservative party under Edward Heath won the 1970 general election, and Thatcher was subsequently appointed Secretary of State for Education and Science. During her first months in office she attracted public attention as a result of the administration's attempts to cut spending. She gave priority to academic needs in schools,^[43] and imposed public expenditure cuts on the state education system, resulting in the abolition of free milk for schoolchildren aged seven to eleven.^[44] She held that few children would suffer if schools were charged for milk, but she agreed to provide younger children with a third of a pint daily, for nutritional purposes.^[44] Her decision provoked a storm of protest from the Labour party and the press,^[45] leading to the moniker "Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher".^[44] Thatcher wrote in her autobiography: "I learned a valuable lesson [from the experience]. I had incurred the maximum of political odium for the minimum of political benefit."^[45][46]

Thatcher's term of office was marked by proposals for more local education authorities to close grammar schools and to adopt comprehensive secondary education. Although she was committed to a tiered secondary modern-grammar school system of education, and determined to preserve grammar schools,^[43] during her tenure as Education Secretary she turned down only 326 of 3,612 proposals for schools to become comprehensives; the proportion of pupils attending comprehensive schools consequently rose from 32 per cent to 62 per cent.^[47]

Leader of the Opposition (1975–1979)[link]

Margaret Thatcher, Leader of the Opposition, 18 September 1975

The Heath government continued to experience difficulties with oil embargoes and union demands for wage increases in 1973, and lost the February 1974 general election.^[45] Labour formed a minority government, and went on to win a narrow majority in the October 1974 general election. Heath's leadership of the Conservative Party looked increasingly in doubt. Thatcher was not initially the obvious replacement, but she eventually became the main challenger, promising a fresh start.^[48] Her main support came from the Conservative 1922 Committee.^[48] She defeated Heath on the first ballot and he resigned the leadership.^[49] In the second ballot she defeated Heath's preferred successor, William Whitelaw, and became party leader on 11 February 1975;^[50] she appointed Whitelaw as her deputy. Heath remained disenchanted with Thatcher to the end of his life, for what he and many of his supporters perceived as her disloyalty in standing against him.^[51]

Thatcher began to attend lunches regularly at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a think tank founded by the poultry magnate Antony Fisher, a disciple of Friedrich von Hayek; she had been visiting the IEA and reading its publications since the early 1960s. There she was influenced by the ideas of Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon, and she became the face of the ideological movement opposing the 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.^{[52][page needed]}

The television critic Clive James, writing in The Observer during the voting for the leadership, compared her voice of 1973 to a cat sliding down a blackboard.^{[nb 2]} 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 National Theatre's voice coach.^[53][54][55] Thatcher succeeded in completely suppressing her Lincolnshire dialect except when under stress, notably after provocation from Denis Healey in the House of Commons in April 1983, when she accused the Labour front bench of being frit.^{[56][nb 3]}

On 19 January 1976 Thatcher made a speech in Kensington Town Hall in which she made a scathing attack on the Soviet Union; in response, the Soviet Defence Ministry newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) called her the "Iron Lady":^[57]

The Russians are bent on world dominance, and they are rapidly acquiring the means to become the most powerful imperial nation the world has seen. The men in the Soviet Politburo do not have to worry about the ebb and flow of public opinion. They put guns before butter, while we put just about everything before guns.^[57]

In mid-1978, the economy began to improve and opinion polls showed Labour in the lead, with a general election being expected later that year and a Labour win a serious possibility. Prime Minister James Callaghan surprised many by announcing on 7 September that there would be no general election that year and he would wait until 1979 before going to the polls. Thatcher reacted to this by branding the Labour government as "chickens", and Liberal Party leader David Steel joined in, criticising Labour for "running scared".^[58]

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 general election was called after James Callaghan's government lost a motion of no confidence in early 1979. The Conservatives won a 44-seat majority in the House of Commons, and Margaret Thatcher became the UK's first female Prime Minister.

Prime Minister (1979–1990)[link]

Thatcher's Ministry meets with Reagan's Cabinet at the White House, 1981

Thatcher became Prime Minister on 4 May 1979. Arriving at 10 Downing Street, she said, in a paraphrase of the "Prayer of Saint Francis":

Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.

Domestic affairs[link]

Thatcher was Leader of the Opposition and Prime Minister at a time of increased racial tension in Britain. Commenting on the local elections of May 1977, The Economist noted "The Tory tide swamped the smaller parties. That specifically includes the National Front, which suffered a clear decline from last year".^[59][60] Her standing in the polls rose by 11 percent after a January 1978 interview for World in Action in which she said "the British character has done so much for democracy, for law and done so much throughout the world that if there is any fear that it might be swamped people are going to react and be rather hostile to those coming in."; and "in many ways [minorities] add to the richness and variety of this country. The moment the minority threatens to become a big one, people get frightened."^[61][62] In the 1979 General Election, the Conservatives attracted voters from the National Front, whose support almost collapsed.^[63][64] In a meeting in July 1979 with Lord Carrington (the Foreign Secretary) and William Whitelaw (Home Secretary) she objected to the number of Asian immigrants,^[65] in the context of limiting the number of Vietnamese boat people allowed to settle in the UK to fewer than 10,000.

As Prime Minister, Thatcher met weekly with Queen Elizabeth II to discuss government business, and their relationship came under close scrutiny.^[66][67] In July 1986 the Sunday Times reported claims attributed to the Queen's advisers of a "rift" between Buckingham Palace and Downing Street "over a wide range of domestic and international issues".^[68][69] The Palace issued an official denial, heading off speculation about a possible constitutional crisis.^[69] After Thatcher's retirement a senior Palace source again dismissed as "nonsense" the "stereotyped idea" that she had not got along with the Queen, or that they had fallen out over Thatcherite policies.^[70] Thatcher later wrote: "I always found the Queen's attitude towards the work of the Government absolutely correct ... stories of clashes between 'two powerful women' were just too good not to make up."^[71]

During her time in office Thatcher practised great frugality in her official residence, including insisting on paying for her own ironing-board.^[72]

Economy and taxation[link]

Thatcher's economic policy was influenced by monetarist thinking and economists such as Milton Friedman.^[73] Together with Chancellor of the Exchequer Geoffrey Howe, she lowered direct taxes on income and increased indirect taxes.^[74] She increased interest rates to slow the growth of the money supply and thereby lower inflation,^[73] introduced cash limits on public spending, and reduced expenditure on social services such as education and housing.^[74] Her cuts in higher education spending resulted in her being the first Oxford-educated post-war Prime Minister not to be awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Oxford, after a 738 to 319 vote of the governing assembly and a student petition.^[75] Her new centrally-funded City Technology Colleges did not enjoy much success, and the Funding Agency for Schools was set up to control expenditure by opening and closing schools; the Social Market Foundation, a right-wing think tank, described it as having "an extraordinary range of dictatorial powers".^[76]

Some Heathite Conservatives in the Cabinet, the so-called "wets", expressed doubt over Thatcher's policies.^[79] The 1981 riots in England resulted in the British media discussing the need for a policy U-turn. At the 1980 Conservative Party conference, Thatcher addressed the issue directly, with a speech written by the playwright Ronald Millar^[80] that included the lines: "You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning!"^[79]

Thatcher's job approval rating fell to 23% by December 1980, lower than recorded for any previous Prime Minister.^[81] As the recession of the early 1980s deepened she increased taxes,^[82] despite concerns expressed in a statement signed by 364 leading economists issued towards the end of March 1981.^[83]

By 1982 the UK began to experience signs of economic recovery;^[84] inflation was down to 8.6% from a high of 18%, but unemployment was over 3 million for the first time since the 1930s.^[85] By 1983 overall economic growth was stronger and inflation and mortgage rates were at their lowest levels since 1970, although manufacturing output had dropped by 30% since 1978^[86] and unemployment remained high, peaking at 3.3 million in 1984.^[87]

By 1987, unemployment was falling, the economy was stable and strong, and inflation was low. Opinion polls showed a comfortable Conservative lead, and local council election results had also been successful, prompting Thatcher to call a general election for 11 June that year, despite the deadline for an election still being 12 months away. The election saw Thatcher re-elected for a third successive term.^[88]

Throughout the 1980s revenue from the 90% tax on North Sea oil extraction was used as a short-term funding source to balance the economy and pay the costs of reform.^[89]

Thatcher reformed local government taxes by replacing domestic rates—a tax based on the nominal rental value of a home—with the Community Charge (or poll tax) in which the same amount was charged to each adult resident.^[90] The new tax was introduced in Scotland in 1989 and in England and Wales the following year,^[91] and proved to be among the most unpopular policies of her premiership.^[90] Public disquiet culminated in a 70,000-strong demonstration in London on 31 March 1990; the demonstration around Trafalgar Square deteriorated into the Poll Tax Riots, leaving 113 people injured and 340 under arrest.^[92] The Community Charge was abolished by her successor, John Major.^[92]

Industrial relations[link]

Thatcher was committed to reducing the power of the trade unions, whose leadership she accused of undermining parliamentary democracy and economic performance through strike action.^[93] Several unions launched strikes in response to legislation introduced to curb their power, but resistance eventually collapsed.^[94] Only 39% of union members voted for Labour in the 1983 general election.^[95] According to the BBC, Thatcher "managed to destroy the power of the trade unions for almost a generation".^[96]

The miners' strike was the biggest confrontation between the unions and the Thatcher government. In March 1984 the National Coal Board (NCB) proposed to close 20 of the 174 state-owned mines and cut 20,000 jobs out of 187,000.^[97][98][99] Two-thirds of the country's miners, led by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) under Arthur Scargill, downed tools in protest.^{[97][100][101]} Thatcher refused to meet the union's demands and compared the miners' dispute to the Falklands conflict two years earlier, declaring in a speech in 1984: "We had to fight the enemy without in the Falklands. We always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty."^[102] After a year out on strike, in March 1985, the NUM leadership conceded without a deal. The cost to the economy was estimated to be at least £1.5 billion, and the strike was blamed for much of the pound's fall against the US dollar.^[103] The government closed 25 unprofitable coal mines in 1985, and by 1992 a total of 97 had been closed;^[99] those that remained were privatised in 1994.^[104] The eventual closure of 150 coal mines, not all of which were losing money, resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and devastated entire communities.^[99][105] Miners had helped bring down the Heath government, and Thatcher was determined to succeed where he had failed. Her strategy of preparing fuel stocks, appointing a union-busting NCB leader in Ian MacGregor, and ensuring police were adequately trained and equipped with riot gear, contributed to her victory.^[106]

The number of stoppages across the UK peaked at 4583 in 1979, when more than 29 million working days were lost. In 1984, the year of the miners' strike, there were 1221, resulting in the loss of more than 27 million working days. Stoppages then fell steadily throughout the rest of Thatcher's premiership; in 1990 there were 630 and fewer than 2 million working days lost, and they continued to fall thereafter.^[107] Trade union membership also fell, from 13.5 million in 1979 to fewer than 10 million by the time Thatcher left office in 1990.^[108]

Privatisation[link]

Thatcher on a visit to the University of Salford, 1982

The policy of privatisation has been called "a crucial ingredient of Thatcherism".^[109] After the 1983 election the sale of state utilities accelerated;^[110] more than £29 billion was raised from the sale of nationalised industries, and another £18 billion from the sale of council houses.^[111]

The process of privatisation, especially the preparation of nationalised industries for privatisation, was associated with marked improvements in performance, particularly in terms of labour productivity.^[112] Some of the privatised industries including gas, water, and electricity, were natural monopolies for which privatisation involved little increase in competition. The privatised industries that demonstrated improvement often did so while still under state ownership. British Steel, for instance, made great gains in profitability while still a nationalised industry under the government-appointed chairmanship of Ian MacGregor, who faced down trade-union opposition to close plants and reduce the workforce by half.^[113] Regulation was also significantly expanded to compensate for the loss of direct government control, with the foundation of regulatory bodies like Ofgas, Oftel and the National Rivers Authority.^[114] There was no clear pattern to the degree of competition, regulation, and performance among the privatised industries;^[112] in most cases privatisation benefitted consumers in terms of lower prices and improved efficiency, but the results overall were "mixed".^[115]

Thatcher always resisted rail privatisation, and was said to have told Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley "Railway privatisation will be the Waterloo of this government. Please never mention the railways to me again." Shortly before her resignation, she accepted the arguments for privatising British Rail, which her successor John Major implemented in 1994.^[116] The Economist later considered the move to have been "a disaster".^[115]

The privatisation of public assets was combined with financial deregulation in an attempt to fuel economic growth. Geoffrey Howe abolished Britain's exchange controls in 1979, allowing more capital to be invested in foreign markets, and the Big Bang of 1986 removed many restrictions on the London Stock Exchange. The Thatcher government encouraged growth in the finance and service sectors to compensate for Britain's ailing manufacturing industry.

Northern Ireland[link]

In 1980 and 1981, Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners in Northern Ireland's Maze Prison carried out hunger strikes in an effort to regain the status of political prisoners that had been removed in 1976 under the preceding Labour government.^[117] Bobby Sands began the 1981 strike, saying that he would fast until death unless prison inmates won concessions over their living conditions.^[117] Thatcher refused to countenance a return to political status for the prisoners, declaring "Crime is crime is crime; it is not political",^[117] but nevertheless the UK government privately contacted republican leaders in a bid to bring the hunger strikes to an end.^[118] After the deaths of Sands and nine others, some rights were restored to paramilitary prisoners, but not official recognition of their political status.^[119] Violence in Northern Ireland escalated significantly during the hunger strikes; in 1982 Sinn Féin politician Danny Morrison described Thatcher as "the biggest bastard we have ever known".^[120]

Thatcher narrowly escaped injury in a IRA assassination attempt at a Brighton hotel early in the morning on 12 October 1984.^[121] Five people were killed, including the wife of Cabinet Minister John Wakeham. Thatcher was staying at the hotel to attend the Conservative Party Conference, which she insisted should open as scheduled the following day.^[121] She delivered her speech as planned,^[122] a move that was widely supported across the political spectrum and enhanced her popularity with the public.^[123]

On 6 November 1981 Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald had established the Anglo-Irish Inter-Governmental Council, a forum for meetings between the two governments.^[119] On 15 November 1985, Thatcher and FitzGerald signed the Hillsborough Anglo-Irish Agreement, the first time a British government had given the Republic of Ireland an advisory role in the governance of Northern Ireland. In protest the Ulster Says No movement attracted 100,000 to a rally in Belfast,^[124] Ian Gow resigned as Minister of State in the HM Treasury,^[125][126] and all fifteen Unionist MPs resigned their parliamentary seats; only one was not returned in the subsequent by-elections on 23 January 1986.^[127]

Foreign affairs[link]

The Thatchers with the Reagans standing at the North Portico of the White House before a state dinner, 16 November 1988

Thatcher took office in the penultimate decade of the Cold War and became closely aligned with the policies of United States President Ronald Reagan, based on their shared distrust of Communism,^[94] although she strongly opposed Reagan's October 1983 invasion of Grenada.^[128] During her first year as Prime Minister she supported NATO's decision to deploy US nuclear cruise and Pershing missiles in Western Europe,^[94] and permitted the US to station more than 160 cruise missiles at RAF Greenham Common, starting on 14 November 1983 and triggering mass protests by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.^[94] She bought the Trident nuclear missile submarine system from the US to replace Polaris, tripling the UK's nuclear forces^[129] at an eventual cost of more than £12 billion (at 1996–97 prices).^[130] Thatcher's preference for defence ties with the US was demonstrated in the Westland affair of January 1986, when she acted with colleagues to allow the struggling helicopter manufacturer Westland to refuse a takeover offer from the Italian firm Agusta in favour of the management's preferred option, a link with Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation. The UK Defence Secretary, Michael Heseltine, who had supported the Agusta deal, resigned in protest.^[131]

On 2 April 1982 the ruling military junta in Argentina ordered the invasion of the British-controlled Falkland Islands and South Georgia, triggering the Falklands War.^[132] The subsequent crisis was "a defining moment of her [Thatcher's] premiership".^[133] At the suggestion of Harold Macmillan and Robert Armstrong,^[133] she set up and chaired a small War Cabinet (formally called ODSA, Overseas and Defence committee, South Atlantic) to take charge of the conduct of the war,^[134] which by 5–6 April had authorised and dispatched a naval task force to retake the islands.^[135] Argentina surrendered on 14 June and the operation was hailed a success, notwithstanding the deaths of 255 British servicemen and 3 Falkland Islanders. Argentinian deaths totalled 649, half of them after the nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror torpedoed and sank the cruiser ARA General Belgrano on 2 May.^[136] Thatcher was criticised for the neglect of the Falklands' defence that led to the war, and notably by Tam Dalyell in parliament for the decision to sink the General Belgrano, but overall she was considered a highly capable and committed war leader.^[137] The "Falklands factor", an economic recovery beginning early in 1982, and a bitterly divided Labour opposition contributed to Thatcher's second election victory in 1983.^[138] Thatcher often referred after the war to the "Falklands Spirit"; Hastings and Jenkins (1983) suggested that this reflected her preference for the streamlined decision-making of her War Cabinet over the painstaking deal-making of peace-time cabinet government.^[139]

Although saying that she was against apartheid, Thatcher stood against the sanctions imposed on South Africa by the Commonwealth and the EC.^[140] She attempted to preserve trade with South Africa while persuading the regime there to abandon apartheid. This included "[c]asting herself as President Botha's candid friend", and inviting him to visit the UK in June 1984, in spite of the "inevitable demonstrations" against his regime.^[141] Thatcher, on the other hand, was no friend of the African National Congress (ANC), which Geoffrey Howe recalls her dismissing as late as October 1987 as "a typical terrorist organisation".^[142]

The Thatcher government supported the Khmer Rouge keeping their seat in the UN after they were ousted from power in Cambodia by the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. Although denying it at the time they also sent the SAS to train the Khmer Rouge alliance to fight against the Vietnamese-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea government.^{[143][144][145]}

Thatcher's antipathy towards European integration became more pronounced during her premiership, particularly after her third election victory in 1987. During a 1988 speech in Bruges she outlined her opposition to proposals from the European Community (EC), forerunner of the European Union, for a federal structure and increased centralisation of decision making.^[146] Thatcher and her party had supported British membership of the EC in the 1975 national referendum,^[147] but she believed that the role of the organisation should be limited to ensuring free trade and effective competition, and feared that the EC's approach was at odds with her views on smaller government and deregulation;^[148] in 1988, she remarked, "We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level, with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels".^[148] Thatcher was firmly opposed to the UK's membership of the Exchange Rate Mechanism, a precursor to European monetary union, believing that it would constrain the British economy,^[149] despite the urging of her Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson and Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe,^[150] but she was persuaded by John Major to join in October 1990, at what proved to be too high a rate.^[151]

Thatcher shares a laugh with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, at the Soviet Embassy in London, 1 April 1989

In April 1986, Thatcher permitted US F-111s to use Royal Air Force bases for the bombing of Libya in retaliation for the alleged Libyan bombing of a Berlin discothèque,^[152] citing the right of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter.^{[153][nb 4]} Polls suggested that less than one in three British citizens approved of Thatcher's decision.^[155] She was in the US on a state visit when Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded neighbouring Kuwait in August 1990.^[156] During her talks with US President George H. W. Bush, who had succeeded Reagan in 1989, she recommended intervention,^[156] and put pressure on Bush to deploy troops in the Middle East to drive the Iraqi army out of Kuwait.^[157] Bush was somewhat apprehensive about the plan, prompting Thatcher to remark to him during a telephone conversation that "This was no time to go wobbly!"^[158] Thatcher's government provided military forces to the international coalition in the build-up to the Gulf War, but she had resigned by the time hostilities began on 17 January 1991.

Thatcher was one of the first Western leaders to respond warmly to reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Following Reagan–Gorbachev summit meetings and reforms enacted by Gorbachev in the USSR, she declared in November 1988 that "We're not in a Cold War now", but rather in a "new relationship much wider than the Cold War ever was".^[159] She went on a state visit to the Soviet Union in 1984, and met with Gorbachev and Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers.^[160] Thatcher was initially opposed to German reunification, telling Gorbachev that it "would lead to a change to postwar borders, and we cannot allow that because such a development would undermine the stability of the whole international situation and could endanger our security". She expressed concern that a united Germany would align itself more closely with the Soviet Union and move away from NATO.^[161] In contrast she was an advocate of Croatian and Slovenian independence.^[162] In a 1991 interview for Croatian Radiotelevision, Thatcher commented on the Yugoslav Wars; she was critical of Western governments for not recognising the breakaway republics of Croatia and Slovenia as independent states and supplying them with arms after the Serbian-led Yugoslav Army attacked.^[163]

Challenges to leadership and resignation[link]

Thatcher was challenged for the leadership of the Conservative Party by the little-known backbench MP Sir Anthony Meyer in the 1989 leadership election.^[164] Of the 374 Conservative MPs eligible to vote 314 voted for Thatcher and 33 for Meyer.^[164] Her supporters in the party viewed the result as a success, and rejected suggestions that there was discontent within the party.^[164]

During her premiership Thatcher had the second-lowest average approval rating, at 40 percent, of any post-war Prime Minister. Polls consistently showed that she was less popular than her party.^[165] A self-described conviction politician, Thatcher always insisted that she did not care about her poll ratings, pointing instead to her unbeaten election record.^[166]

Thatcher in 1990

Opinion polls in September 1990 reported that Labour had established a 14% lead over the Conservatives,^[167] and by November the Conservatives had been trailing Labour for 18 months.^[165] These ratings, together with Thatcher's combative personality and willingness to override colleagues' opinions, contributed to discontent within the Conservative party.^[168]