00:00prime minister of the united kingdom iron lady margaret thatcher his political career and
00:07achievements everything about the once de me and prime minister of the united kingdom
00:12margaret thatcher her life and everything about him part 1. margaret hilda thatcher baroness
00:19thatcher knee roberts the 13th of october 1925 to the 8th of april 2013 was a british stateswoman
00:26who served as prime minister of the united kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and leader of the
00:32conservative party from 1975 to 1990 she was the longest serving british prime minister of the 20th
00:38century and the first woman to hold the position as prime minister she implemented policies that
00:44came to be known as thatcherism a soviet journalist dubbed her the iron lady a nickname that became
00:51associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style thatcher studied chemistry at
00:56somerville college oxford and worked briefly as a research chemist before becoming a barrister
01:02she was elected member of parliament for finchley in 1959 edward heath appointed her secretary of
01:08state for education and science in his 1970 to 1974 government in 1975 she defeated heath in the
01:16conservative party leadership election to become leader of the opposition the first woman to lead
01:21a major political party in the uk on becoming prime minister after winning the 1979 general election
01:27thatcher introduced a series of economic policies intended to reverse high inflation in britain's
01:33struggles in the wake of the winter of discontent and an oncoming recession her political philosophy and
01:38economic policies emphasized greater individual liberty the privatization of state-owned companies and
01:44reducing the power and influence of trade unions her popularity in her first years in office waned
01:49amid the recession and rising unemployment victory in the 1982 falklands war and the recovering economy
01:56brought a resurgence of support resulting in her landslide reelection in 1983. she survived an
02:02assassination attempt by the provisional ira in the 1984 brighton hotel bombing and achieved a political
02:09victory against the national union of mine workers in the 1984-85 miners strike in 1986 thatcher oversaw the
02:17deregulation of uk financial markets leading to an economic boom in what came to be known as the big bang
02:24thatcher was re-elected for a third term with another landslide in 1987 but her subsequent support
02:29for the community charge also known as the poll tax was widely unpopular and her increasingly euroskeptic
02:35views on the european community were not shared by others in her cabinet she resigned as prime minister
02:41and party leader in 1990 after a challenge was launched to her leadership and was succeeded by
02:47john major her chancellor of the exchequer after retiring from the commons in 1992 she was given a
02:53life peerage as baroness thatcher of kesteven in the county of lincolnshire which entitled her to
02:58sit in the house of lords in 2013 she died of a stroke at the ritz hotel london at the age of 87.
03:05a polarizing figure in british politics thatcher is nonetheless viewed favorably in historical
03:10rankings and public opinion of british prime ministers her tenure constituted a realignment
03:15towards neoliberal policies in britain the complex legacy attributed to this shift continues to be
03:21debated into the 21st century margaret hilda roberts was born on the 13th of october 1925 in grantham
03:28lincolnshire her parents were alfred roberts 1892 to 1970 from northamptonshire and beatrice ethel
03:36stevenson 1888 to 1960 from lincolnshire her father's maternal grandmother catherine sullivan was born in
03:43county carrie ireland roberts spent her childhood in grantham where her father owned a tobacconist's and
03:49a grocery shop in 1938 before the second world war the roberts family briefly gave sanctuary to a
03:56teenage jewish girl who had escaped nazi germany with her pen friending elder sister muriel margaret
04:02saved pocket money to help pay for the teenager's journey alfred was an alderman and a methodist
04:08local preacher he brought up his daughter as a strict wesleyan methodist attending the fincan street
04:13methodist church but margaret was more skeptical the future scientist told a friend that she could not
04:19believe in angels having calculated that they needed a breastbone six feet 1.8 meters long to support
04:25wings alfred came from a liberal family but stood as was then customary in local government as an
04:30independent he served as mayor of grantham from 1945 to 1946 and lost his position as alderman in 1952
04:39after the labor party won its first majority on grantham council in 1950 roberts attended huntingtower
04:45road primary school and won a scholarship to kesteven and grantham girls school a grammar school
04:50her school reports showed hard work and continual improvement her extracurricular activities included
04:56the piano field hockey poetry recitals swimming and walking she was head girl in 1942-43 and outside
05:03school while the second world war was ongoing she voluntarily worked as a fire watcher in the local arp
05:09service other students thought of roberts as the star scientist although mistaken advice regarding
05:15cleaning ink from parquetry almost caused chlorine gas poisoning in her upper sixth year roberts was
05:21accepted for a scholarship to study chemistry at somerville college oxford a women's college starting
05:27in 1944 after another candidate withdrew roberts entered oxford in october 1943 following her arrival
05:35at oxford roberts began studies under x-ray crystallographer dorothy hodgkin the tutor in chemistry for
05:41somerville college since 1934 hodgkin considered roberts a good student and later recalled one could
05:47always rely on her producing a sensible well-read essay she opted to read for a classified honors
05:53degree entailing an additional year of supervised research as her thesis supervisor hodgkin assigned
05:59roberts to work with gerhard schmidt a researcher in hodgkin's lab to determine the structure of the
06:04antibiotic peptide gramocytin s although the research made some progress the peptide structure proved more
06:11complex than anticipated and schmidt would only determine its full structure much later roberts
06:16by then thatcher learned this in the 1960s while visiting the weizmann institute where her former
06:22research partner was then working roberts graduated in 1947 with a second class honors degree in chemistry
06:28and in 1950 also received the degree of master of arts as an oxford ba she was entitled to the degree
06:3521 terms after her matriculation although hodgkin would later be critical of her former students
06:40politics they continued to correspond into the 1980s and roberts in her memoirs would describe her mentor
06:47as ever helpful a brilliant scientist and a gifted teacher as prime minister she would keep a portrait of
06:54hodgkin at 10 downing street later in life she was reportedly prouder of becoming the first prime minister
07:00with a science degree then becoming the first female prime minister while prime minister she attempted
07:05to preserve somerville as a women's college twice a week outside study she worked in a local forces
07:11canteen during her time at oxford roberts was noted for her isolated and serious attitude her first
07:18boyfriend tony bray 1926 to 2014 recalled that she was very thoughtful and a very good conversationalist
07:26that's probably what interested me she was good at general subjects she was a member of wesley memorial
07:32church became a lay preacher and joined the john wesley society she also attended somerville college
07:39chapel in saint mary's roberts coursework involved subjects beyond chemistry as she was already
07:44contemplating an entry into law and politics her enthusiasm for politics as a girl made bray think of
07:51her as unusual and her parents as slightly austere and very proper roberts became president of the
07:57oxford university conservative association in 1946 she was influenced at university by political works
08:04such as friedrich hayek's the road to serfdom 1944 which condemned economic intervention by government
08:10as a precursor to an authoritarian state after graduating roberts secured a position as a research chemist
08:17for british xylanite bx plastics following a series of interviews arranged by oxford she subsequently
08:23moved to colchester in essex to work at the firm little is known about her brief time there by her
08:28own account she was initially enthusiastic about the position as she had been intended to function as a
08:34personal assistant to the company's head of research and development providing opportunities to learn about
08:39operations management but on my arrival it was decided that there was not enough to do in that capacity
08:46instead she seems to have researched methods of attaching polyvinyl chloride pvc to metals
08:53while with the firm she joined the association of scientific workers in 1948 she applied for a
08:59job at imperial chemical industries ici but was rejected after the personnel department assessed her as
09:05headstrong obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated john agar in notes and records argues that her
09:13understanding of modern scientific research later impacted her views as prime minister roberts joined
09:18the local conservative association and attended the party conference at landudno wales in 1948 as a
09:25representative of the university graduate conservative association meanwhile she became a high-ranking
09:31affiliate of the vermin club a group of grassroots conservatives formed in response to a derogatory
09:37comment made by anurin bevan one of her oxford friends was also a friend of the chair of the
09:42dartford conservative association in kent who were looking for candidates officials of the association
09:47were so impressed by her that they asked her to apply even though she was not on the party's approved
09:52list she was selected in january 1950 aged 24 and added to the approved list post-ante at a dinner following
10:00her formal adoption as conservative candidate for dartford in february 1949 she met divorcee dennis
10:07thatcher a successful and wealthy businessman who drove her to her essex train after their first
10:13meeting she described him to muriel as not a very attractive creature very reserved but quite nice in
10:20preparation for the election roberts moved to dartford while she supported herself by working as a
10:24research chemist for j lyons and company in hammersmith reportedly as part of a team developing
10:30emulsifiers for ice cream as the work was more theoretical in nature than during her prior role
10:35with bx plastics roberts found it more satisfying while at lyons she worked under the supervision of
10:42hans jelinek who headed the company's physical chemistry section jelinek assigned her to research
10:48the saponification of alpha monosterine glycerol monosterate which has properties as an emulsifier
10:55stabilizer and food preservative agar has noted the research may have been connected
11:00with the emulsification of ice cream but only as a possibility in september 1951 their research
11:06was published in the journal of the science of food and agriculture a recently launched publication
11:11of the society of chemical industry as the saponification of alpha monosterine in a monolayer
11:17this would be roberts's sole scientific publication in 1979 following his former assistance election as
11:23prime minister jelinek by then a professor of physical chemistry at clarkson university in the united
11:28states said she had done a very good job on the project showing great determination she sent jelinek
11:34a congratulatory letter upon his retirement in 1984 and another letter shortly before his death two years
11:40later i stop at this point today until next time stay curious stay informed and keep exploring the
11:46world's incredible stories soon we will publish part two if you have any comments please leave us your
11:54comments because they are important to us thank you for watching
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