1979–1997Often tested

Thatcher and Major: 18 years of Conservative government

After the strikes of the 1970s, voters turned in 1979 to a very different kind of leader. Margaret Thatcher was Britain's first woman Prime Minister. She led a Conservative government from 1979 to 1990, longer than any other Prime Minister of the 20th century. Her father ran a grocer's shop in Grantham, Lincolnshire, and she studied chemistry and trained as a lawyer. She became an MP in 1959, Secretary of State for Education and Science in 1970, and leader of the Conservative Party in 1975.

Her government changed the economy dramatically:

• Industries owned by the state were privatised (sold to private companies), and new laws limited the power of the trade unions.
• Deregulation (removing rules and controls) helped the City of London grow into a world centre for investment, insurance and other financial services.
• Shipbuilding, coal mining and other traditional industries declined.

Abroad, she worked closely with the US President, Ronald Reagan. She was also one of the first Western leaders to welcome the new kind of leadership in the Soviet Union, and these changes in the end helped bring the Cold War to a close.

Her famous nickname, the "Iron Lady", actually came from the other side. It first appeared in 1976 in Red Star, a Soviet army newspaper, as a criticism of her tough line against the Soviet Union. But she liked it, and later used it about herself in speeches.

In 1982 Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, which are a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic. Britain sent a naval task force, and the islands were won back by military action.

In 1990 Thatcher was replaced as Prime Minister by John Major. He helped to start the peace process in Northern Ireland.

Era contents: 1950 – 2000