Talk:Margaret Thatcher

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This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on May 18, 2005.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
June 9, 2004	Featured article candidate	Promoted
July 24, 2006	Featured article review	Kept
July 11, 2007	Featured article review	Demoted
November 29, 2008	Good article nominee	Not listed
December 23, 2008	Good article nominee	Listed
January 12, 2009	Peer review	Reviewed
January 9, 2011	Good article reassessment	Delisted
January 21, 2011	Good article nominee	Listed
February 22, 2012	Good article reassessment	Delisted
March 18, 2012	Good article reassessment	Listed
June 12, 2013	Good article reassessment	Kept
June 24, 2018	WikiProject A-class review	Approved
A news item involving this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "In the news" column on April 8, 2013.
Facts from this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on May 4, 2004, October 12, 2004, May 4, 2007, May 4, 2008, May 4, 2009, May 4, 2011, May 4, 2012, May 4, 2016, May 4, 2019, May 4, 2023, May 4, 2024, and May 4, 2025.
Current status: Former featured article, current good article

Biography: Peerage and Baronetage / Politics and Government / Science and Academia

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This article has been mentioned by multiple media organizations:

Naomi Alderman (7 April 2009). "Encarta's failure is no tragedy". The Guardian.
Stephen Foley (3 February 2009). "Is Wikipedia cracking up?". The Independent.
Alex Hern (9 April 2013). "How Wikipedia covered Thatcher's death". New Statesman.
Fatima Ahmed-Farouta (2 May 2013). "Redressing Wikipedia's Historical Gender Gap". George Mason University.

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Section sizes

Section size for Margaret Thatcher (47 sections)
Section name	Byte count		Prose size (words)
Section name	Header	Total	Header	Total
(Top)	11,770	11,770	484	484
Early life and education	1,052	20,299	0	1,356
Family and childhood (1925–1943)	4,836	4,836	332	332
Oxford (1943–1947)	7,268	7,268	438	438
Post-Oxford career (1947–1951)	7,143	7,143	586	586
Early political career	2,362	34,162	177	2,340
Member of Parliament (1959–1970)	1,914	10,054	175	797
On the frontbenches	3,977	3,977	276	276
In the Shadow Cabinet	4,163	4,163	346	346
Education Secretary (1970–1974)	5,328	5,328	503	503
Leader of the Opposition (1975–1979)	12,729	16,418	759	863
"Iron Lady"	3,689	3,689	104	104
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1979–1990)	1,886	81,420	37	4,629
Domestic affairs	23	35,683	0	2,245
Minorities	3,172	3,172	199	199
The Queen	1,564	1,564	83	83
Economy and taxation	12,244	12,244	670	670
Industrial relations	8,227	8,227	579	579
Privatisation	4,616	4,616	362	362
Northern Ireland	5,837	5,837	352	352
Environment	3,270	3,270	116	116
Foreign affairs	1,805	30,453	153	1,722
Cold War	4,996	4,996	307	307
Ties with the US	9,892	9,892	408	408
Crisis in the South Atlantic	3,194	3,194	192	192
Negotiating Hong Kong	911	911	123	123
Apartheid in South Africa	3,044	3,044	194	194
Europe	6,611	6,611	345	345
Challenges to leadership and resignation	10,128	10,128	509	509
Later life	16	36,547	0	1,536
Return to backbenches (1990–1992)	1,497	1,497	64	64
Post-Commons (1992–2003)	16,171	16,171	669	669
Final years (2003–2013)	11,734	11,734	588	588
Death and funeral (2013)	7,129	7,129	215	215
Legacy	12	37,041	0	1,594
Political impact	4,350	28,884	152	1,251
Overview	14,171	14,171	697	697
Reputation	10,363	10,363	402	402
Cultural depictions	8,145	8,145	343	343
Titles, awards and honours	10,578	10,578	270	270
Published works	691	691	0	0
See also	276	276	0	0
References	16	32,804	0	0
Explanatory notes	484	484	0	0
Citations	1,001	1,001	0	0
General and cited bibliography	31,303	31,303	0	0
External links	8,292	8,292	0	0
Total	273,880	273,880	12,209	12,209

The following reference(s) may be useful when improving this article in the future:

Moore, Charles (2019). Margaret Thatcher: Herself Alone. Vol. 3. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-241-32474-5.

Reliance on Charles Moore

Latest comment: 1 month ago1 comment1 person in discussion

I think it should be reconsidered whether we should uncritically rely on a conservative think tank chairman, one of the Brexit life peerage awardees, convincted libeler, and Thatcher's hand-picked biographer for so many qualitative judgements on her. For direct quotes from her, that's fair enough. But Moore does a lot of heavy lifting in article inclusions like "Thatcher generally supported the welfare state while proposing to rid it of abuses." (cited from Moore, Margaret Thatcher, Vol 1). An extended portion of this quote is also on Thatcherism.

Would be better if any biographer's judgements (Moore in particular, based on his personal life history in British neoliberalism) were prefaced with some flavor of "According to X,....". This particular quote is, on its face, quite ridiculous from a position of public record. She launched the divergence of welfare allotments relative to median earnings, and the figure often cited that "overall dole payments increased" is true, and a result of the massive increase in unemployment towards the midpoint of her tenure. She also erased the earnings supplement for sick pay in 1980. Paul Pierson famously described Thatcher's actions towards British social security as death by a thousand cuts. 20% of Scotland was newly unemployed just three years into her reign. And of course far more pointed and destructive plans have been made public since then, including a plot to dismantle the NHS entirely, a compulsory charge for childhood schooling, the end of British labor organization altogether, etc.^[1]^[2]^[3]

References

↑ Travis, Alan; editor, home affairs (2012-12-28). "Margaret Thatcher's role in plan to dismantle welfare state revealed". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-08-22. {{cite news}}: |last2= has generic name (help)
↑ By (2020-05-12). "How Thatcher Unleashed the NHS Outsourcing Wave". tribunemag.co.uk. Retrieved 2026-08-22.
↑ Collinson, Patrick (2017-12-08). "Four in 10 right-to-buy homes are now owned by private landlords". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-08-22.

Mausfield (talk) 09:28, 22 August 2026 (UTC)Reply

Description in lead

Latest comment: 1 month ago1 comment1 person in discussion

This is bound to be a little controversial, and any reasoning used on this article may carry onto numerous articles on British prime ministers, but I find it redundant to state that Thatcher "was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom". That she was a British stateswoman should be understood from her being the British prime minister. However, I wanted to receive comments from other editors before making these changes. Векочел (talk) 20:34, 5 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

Mother in infobox?

Latest comment: 21 days ago1 comment1 person in discussion

My edit to add her mother in the infobox (Beatrice Roberts) was reverted on the grounds that she is not notable. Is that correct? (I see lots of non-notable parents in other people's infoboxes) - Gilgamesh4 (talk) 11:14, 15 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

[1] Travis, Alan; editor, home affairs (2012-12-28). "Margaret Thatcher's role in plan to dismantle welfare state revealed". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-08-22. {{cite news}}: |last2= has generic name (help)

[2] By (2020-05-12). "How Thatcher Unleashed the NHS Outsourcing Wave". tribunemag.co.uk. Retrieved 2026-08-22.

[3] Collinson, Patrick (2017-12-08). "Four in 10 right-to-buy homes are now owned by private landlords". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-08-22.

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Talk:Margaret Thatcher

Reliance on Charles Moore

Description in lead

Mother in infobox?