The Path to Power (Margaret Thatcher)

The Path to Power is a memoir by former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher covering her life from her birth in 1925 until she became Prime Minister in 1979.

History

Most of the book covers her life up until her election victory in 1979 but she added on about 150 pages at the end giving her opinions on current affairs on the years since she resigned as Prime Minister in 1990. Although Thatcher avoided personal attacks on her successor John Major, she clearly believed that he had squandered her legacy and was pursuing un-Thatcherite policies.^[1] The book was serialised in the Sunday Times where the apparent attacks on the Major government were sensationalised.

Reception

In interviews to promote the book, Thatcher claimed that the Conservatives had lost their way because they were "not being Conservative enough".^[2] In the book Thatcher wrote that: "I offer some thoughts about putting these things right. It is now, however, for others to take the action required". These words—similar to those used by Geoffrey Howe in 1990 which had precipitated her downfall—led to Major on 22 June resigning as Conservative leader and calling a leadership election. John Redwood stood against Major. Thatcher was in America at the time of the first ballot and she remained neutral, claiming that both Major and Redwood were "good Conservatives".^[3]

Talking to her close friend Woodrow Wyatt on 22 May 1995, Thatcher said to him that the Sunday Times "distorted what I wrote" and that her line about policies being carried out by others meant not replacing Major but the whole Western world, the Council of Europe, etc.^[4] Later that day, Major said to Wyatt: "I'm bloody angry and I'm going to giver her a hell of an attack and go for her".^[5] In his memoirs, Major wrote: "Her descriptions of a Grantham childhood were harmless enough, but the book contained an epilogue, unrelated to the title or scope of the book itself, which could only be interpreted as an attack on my own policies. Such blows from my predecessor were impossible to disregard, since every interviewer raised them with me at every opportunity, as she must have known they would".^[6]]

See also

• The Downing Street Years

Notes

References

• John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher, Volume II: The Iron Lady (Jonathan Cape, 2003).
• John Major, The Autobiography (HarperCollins, 2000).
• Woodrow Wyatt, The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt. Volume Three (Pan, 2001).

External links

• Peter Clarke, Maggiefication, London Review of Books Vol. 17 No. 13 6 July 1995, pp. 7–8.

Margaret Thatcher
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1979–1990) Leader of the Conservative Party (1975–1990) MP for Finchley (1959–1992)
Member of Parliament	Finchley (UK Parliament constituency) Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 Circular 10/70 Shadow Cabinet
Ideology	Thatcherism Conservatism Free market
Premiership	First ministry (1979–1983) Second ministry (1983–1987) Third ministry (1987–1990) Cold War 1st term 2nd & 3rd term 1981 United Kingdom budget 1981 Irish hunger strike "The lady's not for turning" Falklands War Brighton hotel bombing Opposition to trade unions 1984–85 miners' strike Local Government Act Westland affair Sermon on the Mound 1988 broadcasting restrictions Community Charge Poll Tax riots Gulf War Resignation Honours
Party elections	1975 1989 1990
General elections	1979 1983 1987
Books	The Downing Street Years The Path to Power Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World
Family	Sir Denis Thatcher (husband) Mark Thatcher (son) Carol Thatcher (daughter) Alfred Roberts (father)
Cultural depictions	Film and television Thatcher: The Final Days The Falklands Play Pinochet in Suburbia The Long Walk to Finchley Margaret The Iron Lady The Hunt for Tony Blair In Search of La Che Statues Statue in the Palace of Westminster Statue in London Guildhall Associated performers Steve Nallon Janet Brown Meryl Streep
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