No woman in my time will be prime minister or chancellor or foreign secretary - not the top jobs. Anyway, I wouldn't want to be prime minister; you have to give yourself 100 percent.

Her stance on immigration was perceived by some as part of a rising racist public discourse which Left-Wing Professor Martin Barker has called "new racism". Is that for us to welcome? Surely we welcome the thoroughness of the report and its recommendations? MT. Foreign affairs

Thatcher took office in the penultimate decade of the Cold War and became closely aligned with the policies of United States President Ronald Reagan based on their shared distrust of Communism although Margaret Thatcher strongly opposed Reagan's October 1983 invasion of Grenada.

Thatcher's popularity during her first years in office waned amid recession and high unemployment until economic recovery and the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support resulting in her re-election in 1983. Thatcher was re-elected for a third term in 1987 but her Community Charge (popularly referred to as "poll tax") was widely unpopular and her views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet.