Thatcher Clips

'Why do you see yourself as a general coming up to the final battle? You've put yourself before the electorate to be elected. That's not a general..' "Oh but yes it is. It is a campaign. Everyone talks about a campaign... it is the battles of democracy." Channel 4 News, June 87

"I happen to believe that when some criminals go out and do such hideous cruel crimes, and in particular when they do such terrible things to children, I think they have forfeited their own right to life." Channel 4 News election special, 8 June 1987

"We had to take away many of the regulations; controls on prices, controls on incomes, controls on dividends, controls on foreign exchange. All of this and the top rate of tax went within the first six weeks... I knew it was right to do it in one fell swoop" AEI World Forum 1998

"Have you seen a situation slip away from you? I'm a politician. I know. I can feel it, I can sense it... No General can fight without a really good army behind." ITN interview, 28 June 1991

On this day in 1979...

"All levels of income are better off than they were in 1979. What the honourable member is saying is he would rather the poor were poorer provided the rich were less rich." House of Commons, 22 November 1990

"[Thatcherism] stands for... fundamental common sense and having faith in the enterprise and abilities of the people. It was my task to try to release those... They have always been there in the British people. But they could not flourish under socialism." BBC, 8 June 1987.

"There is a fear that the European train will thunder forward, laden with its customary cargo of gravy, towards a destination neither wished for, nor understood by electorates." CNN World Economic Development Conference, 1992

“Look what happens in socialism, which is a push down egalitarian society. Look what it did to Britain. Look what it did in its extreme form under communism the world over.” Breakfast with Frost, 17 October 1993

“If a government does everything for you, you will soon find it can only do it by taking everything away from you.” Channel 4 interview, 15 October 1984

"Consensus doesn't really give you any direction in life... We went boldly for what we believed in, and it worked." BBC Good Morning Summer Interview, 1995

"It just occurred to me that this was the day I was meant not to see, and then all of a sudden, I thought: 'There are some of my dearest friends who are not seeing this day.'" TV Interview for Channel 4 in the aftermath of the Brighton bombing, 15 October 1984

"It is easier to tell other people what to do about it than it is to sort it out yourself." TV Interview for Channel 4, 15 October 1984

Maastricht "takes us over the top to a new political entity, a European union, which we have never had before. Before that, we had never gone that way but had kept quite a bit of sovereignty. It is that last lot that we are in danger of losing." Maastricht Debate, 7 June 1993

"I wish that I had not gone into the ERM. Had I known what was going to happen I wish that I had not eventually given in and gone into the ERM because I never really believed in it." Breakfast with Frost, 17 October 1993

“People tend to think of me as the first woman Prime Minister at No. 10. In fact, I am the first scientific Prime Minister.” TV Interview for Channel 4, 15 October 1984

"New jobs are not created by Government." "For that you must keep down the regulation and the tax." "This is why our policy was and is right, against Europe's present policy which is wrong." Breakfast with Frost, 17 October 1993

"We are one people, all equally important." "It does not mean that everyone can exactly have their niche in life handed to them on a plate. If you do that, you become a totally dictated society, and you do not have any will or choice left." Channel 4 interview, 15 October 1984

"Eleven and a half years... they were years of dynamism, purpose, action, and achievement." Breakfast with Frost, 17 October 1993

"That is what capitalism is, a system that brings wealth to the many and not just to the few." Speech to Joint Houses of Congress, 20 February 1985