Read Margaret Thatcher: The Autobiography Online
Authors: Margaret Thatcher
Receiving a standing ovation at the Party Conference in October 1989.
With members of the Cabinet and Denis at the Carlton Club for a dinner to mark my tenth anniversary as Prime Minister, May 1989.
Answering questions in the House of Commons in October 1990.
Driving away from Buckingham Palace having handed over the seals of office, 28 November 1990.
Leaving No. 10 for the last time.
| |
1955 | |
5 April | Churchill resigned as Prime Minister; succeeded by Eden. |
26 May | General election: Conservative majority sixty. |
| |
1956 | |
26 July | Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. |
29 October | Israel invaded Sinai. |
30 October | Joint Anglo-French ultimatum to Egypt and Israel; Soviet troops invaded Hungary. |
5 November | British and French landings at Port Said; intervention aborted two days later under US pressure. |
| |
1957 | |
9 January | Eden resigned as Prime Minister; Macmillan succeeded him. |
25 March | Treaty of Rome signed, establishing EEC. |
25 July | Macmillan: ‘Most of our people have never had it so good.’ |
19 September | Thorneycroft increased Bank Rate from 5 to 7 per cent. |
| |
1958 | |
6 January | Treasury Ministers (Thorneycroft, Powell and Birch) resigned from the Government over public expenditure plans; Macmillan left the following day for a Commonwealth tour, describing the resignations as ‘little local difficulties’. |
3 July | Credit squeeze relaxed. |
31 August | Notting Hill and Nottingham riots. |
| |
1959 | |
7 April | Budget: 9d reduction in income tax. |
8 October | General election: Conservative majority 100; MT first elected MP for Finchley. |
28 November | Gaitskell called for reform of Clause IV of Labour’s constitution – forced to retreat the following year. |
| |
1960 | |
3 February | Macmillan in South Africa: ‘A wind of change is blowing through the continent.’ |
5 February | MT’s maiden speech. |
February–October | Parliamentary passage of MT’s Public Bodies (Admission of the Press to Meetings) Bill. |
| |
1961 | |
25 July | Deflationary emergency budget; ‘Pay Pause’ for government employees. |
31 July | Macmillan announced beginning of negotiations for Britain to join EEC. |
13 August | East Germany sealed the border with West Berlin; Berlin Wall begun. |
9 October | Reshuffle: MT appointed to her first government post – Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance. |
| |
1962 | |
14 March | Orpington by-election: Liberals took Conservative seat, overturning a majority of 14,760. |
13 July | ‘Night of the Long Knives’ – seven of twenty-one Cabinet ministers fired by Macmillan. |
October | Cuban missile crisis. |
November | Vassall affair. |
21 December | US agreement to sell Britain Polaris. |
| |
1963 | |
14 January | De Gaulle rejected first British application to join the EEC. |
14 February | Harold Wilson elected Labour Leader following death of Hugh Gaitskell. |
4 June | Profumo resigned. |
1 July | Philby named as ‘the third man’. |
10 October | Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister during Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool. |
19 October | Douglas-Home became Prime Minister; Iain Macleod and Enoch Powell refused office. |
| |
1964 | |
July | Legislation enacted to abolish Resale Price Maintenance. |
15 October | General election: Labour won a majority of four; Wilson became Prime Minister. |
28 October | MT became Opposition spokesman on Pensions. |
November | Sterling crisis. |
| |
1965 | |
24 January | Churchill died, aged ninety. |
12 July | Crosland’s circular 10/65 on comprehensive schools: LEAs to submit plans within a year to reorganize on comprehensive lines; Government’s aim declared to be ‘the complete elimination of selection and separatism in secondary education’. |
22 July | Douglas-Home resigned as Conservative Leader; Heath elected to succeed him, defeating Maudling and Powell. |
16 September | Labour’s National Plan published. |
5 October | Reshuffle of Opposition spokesmen: MT moved to Shadow Housing and Land. |
8 November | Abolition of capital punishment. |
11 November | Rhodesia: Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). |
| |
1966 | |
31 March | General election: Labour returned with an overall majority of ninety-seven. |
19 April | Reshuffle of Opposition spokesmen: MT appointed Iain Macleod’s deputy, shadowing the Treasury. |
3 May | Budget introduced Selective Employment Tax (SET). |
May–July | Seamen’s strike. |
15 June | Abortion Bill passed Second Reading. |
July | Sterling crisis; deflation; wage freeze to be followed by a prices and incomes policy. |
5 July | Sexual Offences Bill (legalizing homosexuality) passed Second Reading. |
12 October | MT spoke against SET at the Conservative Conference. |
10 November | Labour announced Britain to make a second application to join the EEC. |
| |
1967 | |
11 April | Massive Conservative gains in local government elections. |
10 October | Heath moved MT to Shadow Fuel and Power, with a place in the Shadow Cabinet. |
18 November | Devaluation of sterling by 14 per cent ($2.80 to $2.40). |
27 November | Britain’s second EEC application vetoed by France. |
29 November | Jenkins replaced Callaghan as Chancellor of the Exchequer; Callaghan succeeded Jenkins as Home Secretary. |
1968 | |
22 February | Callaghan announced emergency legislation to curb immigration of Asians expelled from Kenya; Shadow Cabinet divided. |
17 March | Grosvenor Square riot – violent demonstration against Vietnam War. |
19 March | Budget increased indirect taxes by almost £900 million – austerity under Jenkins. |
20 April | Enoch Powell’s ‘River Tiber’ speech in Birmingham; Heath dismissed him from the Shadow Cabinet the following day. |
10 October | MT gave her CPC lecture What’s Wrong With Politics? |
14 November | MT moved by Heath to Shadow Transport. |
| |
1969 | |
17 January | Barbara Castle introduced In Place of Strife – Labour’s proposals to reform industrial relations law; opposition from within the Labour Party, led by Callaghan, forced their withdrawal in June. |
14 August | British troops deployed on the streets of Londonderry. |
21 October | MT appointed Opposition spokesman on Education in succession to Edward Boyle. |
| |
1970 | |
30 January— 1 February | Selsdon Park Conference – Shadow Cabinet discussion of Conservative policy for next manifesto. |
18 June | General election: Conservatives won majority of thirty-one; Heath became Prime Minister; MT appointed Secretary of State for Education and Science. |
30 June | MT issued Circular 10/70, withdrawing Labour’s comprehensive education Circulars. |
20 July | Iain Macleod died suddenly. |
6–30 September | Leila Khalid affair. |
27 October | Budget – ending free school milk for children over seven; increasing school meal charges; Open University reprieved. |
| |
1971 | |
4 February | Nationalization of Rolls-Royce. |
5 August | Industrial Relations Bill became law. |
28 October | House of Commons on a free vote approved terms of entry to EEC. |
| |
1972 | |
9 January | Miners went on strike. |
20 January | Unemployment total passed one million. |
10 February | Mass picketing closed Saltley Coke Depot. |
19 February | Government conceded miners’ demands to end the strike. |
20 February | Government announced U-turn on Upper Clyde Shipbuilders. |
March | Government began search for voluntary pay policy in talks with TUC and CBI. |
21 March | Budget – reflation began in earnest. |
22 March | Industry White Paper published. |
24 March | Suspension of Northern Ireland Parliament at Stormont; direct rule began. |
June–July | Industrial Relations Act badly damaged following court decisions leading to arrest of pickets in docks dispute. |
23 June | Sterling floated after only six weeks’ membership of the European currency ‘snake’. |
Summer–autumn | ‘Tripartite talks’ between Government, TUC and CBI – Government attempted to negotiate a voluntary pay policy. |
2 November | Collapse of ‘Tripartite talks’. |
6 November | Heath announced Stage 1 of statutory pay policy. |
6 December | MT’s White Paper Education: A Framework for Expansion. |
| |
1973 | |
1 January | Britain joined EEC. |
17 January | Heath announced Stage 2 of statutory pay policy. |
16 March | End of Bretton Woods system – all major currencies floated. |
May | Heath/Barber boom at its height; budget reduced spending plans. |
6–24 October | Yom Kippur War; oil prices dramatically increased. |
8 October | Heath announced Stage 3. |
12 November | Miners began overtime ban, sharply cutting coal production. |
2 December | Reshuffle – Whitelaw became Employment Secretary. |
13 December | Heath announced three-day week. |
17 December | Emergency budget cut £1,200 million from expenditure plans. |
| |
1974 | |
9 January | NEDC meeting at which TUC suggested miners could be treated as a special case within government pay policy. |
5 February | Miners voted to strike from 10 February. |
7 February | General election called for 28 February. |
21 February | Relativities Board leak suggesting that miners’ claim could have been accommodated within Stage 3. |
23 February | Enoch Powell announced that he would vote Labour. |
28 February | General election: no single party won a majority; Labour won the largest number of seats. |
1–3 March | Heath attempted to form a coalition with the Liberals. |
4 March | Heath resigned following Liberal rejection of his proposals; Wilson became Prime Minister, leading a minority Labour Government. |