Margaret Thatcher | Conservative | 1925 - 2013

Thatcher transformed the British economy and took on its welfare state and powerful unions. Her government closed or sold state-owned industries, notably struggling steel plants and coal mines, to the private sector and radically cut taxes and public spending — strong medicine, she conceded, but precisely what was needed to restart a stagnant nation.

“The problem with socialism,” she once said, “is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” Source…

"Christianity is about spiritual redemption, not social reform" and she quoted St Paul by saying "If a man will not work he shall not eat". Source…

Thatcher ideals:

Free markets, financial discipline, firm control over public expenditure, tax cuts, nationalism, 'Victorian values' (of the Samuel Smiles self-help variety), privatisation and a dash of populism. Source…