Margaret Thatcher Trivia

1. What did Margaret Thatcher study at Oxford University?

From Quiz The Life and Times of Margaret Thatcher

Answer: Chemistry

After graduating with a degree in Chemistry, Mrs Thatcher became a research chemist. She later studied for the bar, becoming a barrister specialising in tax law.

From Quiz Margaret Thatcher

Answer: Grantham, Lincolnshire

Margaret Hilda Roberts was born and raised in the small market town of Grantham, which is also the birthplace of Sir Isaac Newton.

From Quiz The Iron Lady

Answer: 1979

The election took place in May 1979 following the disastrous 'Winter of Discontent,' which saw the demise of James Callaghan and the Labour Government.

From Quiz The Life and Times of Margaret Thatcher

Answer: Finchley

Thatcher stood twice for the safe Labour seat of Dartford, losing both times but reducing her opponent's majority. She stood for selection in Orpington in South East London as a Conservative candidate, but just missed out, before securing the safe Conservative seat of Finchley in the 1959 election. She was born in Grantham in Lincolnshire.

From Quiz Margaret Thatcher

Answer: Grocer

Alfred Roberts was Grantham's grocer and the young Margaret Thatcher grew up above the shop; 'the Grocer's daughter' became the first of many nicknames. Roberts was also Alderman of the town and he is credited with getting his daughter interested in politics.

From Quiz The Iron Lady

Answer: "... experienced the alternative"

Mrs T believed that more nonsense was written about the 'feminine factor' than anything else during her premiership.

From Quiz The Life and Times of Margaret Thatcher

Answer: Secretary of State for Education and Science

Thatcher's successor as Prime Minister, John Major, was noted as being very inexperienced but in fact he had held two major Cabinet positions, albeit briefly, before becoming Prime Minister. Thatcher had held a couple of Shadow Cabinet positions in the 1960s, including Transport and Education, but her only position in government was as Education Secretary. There is a huge contrast in this respect between her and her predecessor, James Callaghan, who before he became Prime Minister in 1976 had held all 'big three' Cabinet posts (Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer). She acquired the nickname 'Thatcher the Milk Snatcher' as she was held responsible for ending the giving out of free milk in school. Her main achievement, if such it can be called, was to oversee a huge rise in the number of comprehensive schools during her time in office.

From Quiz Margaret Thatcher

Answer: 1959

Margaret Thatcher fought for and lost the safe labour seat of Dartford in the 1950 and 1951 elections before winning Finchley in 1959 and taking her seat in the House of Commons.

From Quiz The Iron Lady

Answer: St Francis of Assisi

The words were, "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 depair, may we bring hope." I will pass no comment.

From Quiz The Life and Times of Margaret Thatcher

Answer: Airey Neave

Neave offered his considerable skills as campaign manager to Keith Jospeh and Willie Whitelaw if they would stand for the leadership, but neither did (Joseph's chances were effectively finished after he made a particularly ill-judged speech as Shadow Education Secretary which appeared to suggest that working-class women should be sterilised). Heath never forgave Thatcher for standing against him; John O'Farrell memorably describes this in his book 'An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain': "Ted Heath took his defeat very sportingly, apart from sulking and sniping for the next thirty years". Neave himself was killed a few weeks before the 1979 General Election by a car bomb, the Irish National Liberation Army claiming responsibility.

From Quiz Margaret Thatcher

Answer: Secretary of State for Education

In 1970 Margaret Thatcher became Secretary of State for Education. In the post she stopped free milk for schoolchildren earning her the nickname 'Thatcher, the milk snatcher.'

From Quiz The Iron Lady

Answer: Konstantin Chernenko

After the death of Konstantin Chernenko, the new Premier of the Soviet Union was Mikail Gorbachev.

From Quiz The Life and Times of Margaret Thatcher

Answer: The Scarman report

Lord Scarman was appointed to enquire into the events that led up to the rioting in Brixton in 1981; a judge and barrister, he also chaired the enquiry into the Grunwick dispute in the 1970s. The Macpherson report was an enquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence, which introduced a new phrase into the English language: 'Institutional racism'. The Chilcot enquiry was an enquiry into the Iraq war which began in 2009, whilst the Byford report, by Sir Lawrence Byford, was an enquiry into the handling of the 'Yorkshire Ripper' investigation by West Yorkshire police in the 1970s and early 1980s.

From Quiz The Life and Times of Margaret Thatcher

Answer: The General Belgrano

The General Belgrano was sunk by HMS Conqueror on 2nd May 1982, killing 323 people. The HMS Sheffield was itself sunk two days later. The Piedrabuena was another Argentinian destroyer involved in the conflict. The sinking of the Belgrano has remained a controversial incident.

From Quiz Margaret Thatcher

Answer: May, 1979

On 4th May 1979 Margaret Thatcher defeated James Callaghan in the general election to become the forty-ninth Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the first woman to hold the post.

From Quiz The Iron Lady

Answer: 11 weeks

When the war was over, the Prime Minister said that she never thought when she took office, she would have to order British troops into combat.

From Quiz The Life and Times of Margaret Thatcher

Answer: The Westland helicopters scandal

Heseltine was, at the time, Defence Secretary. Westland was the UK's last manufacturers of helicopters, and Heseltine favoured a takeover bid from a European consortium, whilst Thatcher and others favoured an alternative takeover bid from an American company, Sikorsky. This led to a huge row over Cabinet responsibility etc, and Heseltine resigned over the issue on 9th January 1986. Many have seen some irony in the fact that despite the huge social problems facing the country, one of its leading politicians resigned over an issue that hardly any member of the public cared about, and over a company that hardly anybody not directly involved had ever heard of.

From Quiz Margaret Thatcher

Answer: Soviet propaganda

The Soviets were calling Margaret Thatcher 'The Iron Lady' before she became Prime Minister, due to her strong opposition to communism. Although coined by one of her critics, Mrs Thatcher was said to like the nickname.

From Quiz The Life and Times of Margaret Thatcher

Answer: The Community Charge

The Community Charge was always referred to as the 'poll tax'; it was designed to replace the previous system known as 'the rates'. The main reason it was so unpopular was that it was widely perceived to be unfair, with those owning very large houses paying the same as those with small flats, whereas the rates (in fact the rates were always incredibly unpopular as well, as I recall from my youth) were at least perceived to be designed on an 'ability to pay' basis. The Community Charge was later abandoned and replaced by the council tax, which in fact was very similar to the 'poll tax' after all. 'Stealth tax' is a phrase applied to almost any tax which is regarded as 'hidden'.

From Quiz Margaret Thatcher

Answer: The invasion of Grenada

The relationship between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher is considered one of the closest and most important political friendships of the twentieth century. That relationship was tested to its limits on 25th October 1983 when, without talking to Mrs Thatcher, President Reagan invaded Grenada, whose head of state is Queen Elizabeth, in Operation Urgent Fury. This led to a very angry telephone exchange between Reagan and Thatcher that became legend in both the White House and Downing Street.

From Quiz The Iron Lady

Answer: Garrett Fitzgerald

The agreement confirmed that any change of status in Northern Ireland would only be done with the full consent of the majority in the six counties, yet in spite of this the unionists greeted the agreement with a general strike.

From Quiz The Life and Times of Margaret Thatcher

Answer: Geoffrey Howe

Howe's speech, which seems mild now, was seen as something of a sensation at the time; it was particularly damaging for Thatcher, coming as it did from one of her most loyal colleagues who had been at the heart of her governments as Chancellor and Foreign Secretary for 11 years. His closing remark, that it was "for others to consider their own response to the tragic conflict of loyalties with which I have myself wrestled for perhaps too long" was seen as an invitation for others to stand against her for leadership of the Party. Michael Hesletine did indeed stand against her, but after Thatcher lost the first ballot and stood down others entered the race and John Major emerged as the somewhat unlikely next leader and Prime Minister.

From Quiz Margaret Thatcher

Answer: Arthur Scargill

Arthur Scargill was leader of the National Union of Mineworkers during the coal miners' strikes in the 1980s. The strikes were started by the union when the Thatcher government began to close the coal pits. Unlike previous PMs, Margaret Thatcher stood up to the unions and after a year of strikes the miners finally gave in and Mrs Thatcher continued her reforms.

From Quiz Margaret Thatcher

Answer: Michael Heseltine

In 1986 Michael Heseltine famously walked out of Downing Street in the middle of a cabinet meeting and announced his resignation to the stunned journalists outside. Heseltine had resigned because of a disagreement he had had with Margaret Thatcher over the struggling Westland helicopter company. Heseltine wanted Westland to merge with BAe and Agusta but Mrs Thatcher favoured a merger with Sikorsky and Heseltine was overruled. Known as the Westland affair the resignation is seen as the beginning of the end for Margaret Thatcher's premiership.

From Quiz The Iron Lady

Answer: Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev instituted the government processes of 'Glasnost' and Perestroika,' or 'Openness' and 'Reconstruction', and Mrs Thatcher correctly saw this as suggesting the old ideology of the Cold War was beginning to thaw.

From Quiz The Iron Lady

Answer: miners strike

A large proportion of the public supported the miners, for they knew they had been boxed into a corner when the strike over the closure of the mines began. Just as miner's leader, Arthur Scargill, had predicted.

From Quiz The Iron Lady

Answer: In the hotel

At a church service the next day, Mrs Thatcher said she realised that it was a day she wasn't meant to see.

From Quiz The Iron Lady

Answer: a handbag

'Handbagging' was one of the favourite ways the Press described her negotiating skills, such as the time she demanded a cut in the amount Britain paid the E.U.

From Quiz The Iron Lady

Answer: Neil Kinnock

Neil Kinnock lost general elections to Mrs Thatcher in 1987 and John Major in 1992, resigning after the second of these. He later became Vice-President of the European Commission.

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Last Updated Apr 13 2024 5:50 AM

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