Admire her or loathe her, no one can deny that Margaret Thatcher, who died April 8, was a political phenomenon. She was the United Kingdom's first woman prime minister and kept the post for over 10 years. Under her leadership Britain was radically — and likely permanently — changed. Thatcher took on the trade unions, which had been causing frequent stoppages, and she ensured that nationalized industries were privatized to improve efficiency. She also took measures to increase competition and to remove bureaucratic restrictions.
The economy improved as a result, but there were losers as well as winners. Miners in particular suffered as the industry declined, but the decline was inevitable. The manufacturing industry also had a hard time while service industries, especially finance, boomed. The "light touch" regulation that she favored was one reason why British banking faced such a crisis in 2008.
Some of the changes she engineered had a significant impact on other countries. She made the mistake of opposing German unification after the fall of the Berlin Wall and her confrontational tactics with European Union countries exacerbated Britain's relation with Europe.