Farewell, Iron Lady

Former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the controversial “Iron Lady” who dominated a generation of British politics and won international acclaim for helping to end the Cold War, died following a stroke in London on April 8. She was 87. A towering yet divisive figure, Thatcher rose from humble grocer’s daughter to become the woman who changed Britain with her free-market economics and was recognized around the world as a fearsome “Cold Warrior” in the 1980s. Her free-market reforms were controversial but they fundamentally changed the British economy and still provide a yardstick against which her successors are judged. Thatcher overhauled the British economy but also triggered a cultural revolution by igniting a creative burst of anger at her policies, including slashing arts funding. With flowers from admirers piling up outside Margaret Thatcher’s London home but left-wingers planning jubilant parties, the former premier is as divisive in death as she was in life.


Read an obituary on Thatcher

Read about Thatcher’s life and legacy

Read about Thatcher’s top quotes

Read about reactions of world leaders on the passing of Thatcher

Read Philippine President Benigno Aquino’s statement on the Thatcher’s death