To appreciate the greatness of Margaret Thatcher — as this excellent biography makes possible — you must go back to Grantham where she lived over her parents’ grocery shop. There was no hereditary money, so she had to work hard, occasionally serving at the counter. She experienced frugality and, after late meetings in No 10, would go around switching off the lights. She also knew about perseverance and in trying to become an MP she lost in two general elections, but did not give up until she secured a safe seat in Finchley.
She became the Conservative Party leader in 1975, just after the Tories had lost two elections. In the 1970s she had seen two prime ministers, Ted Heath and James Callaghan, brought down by trade union strikes — she was not going to be the third. She stopped the unions trooping into No 10 to tell the prime minister what to do over beer and sandwiches. She would not share No 10 with those whose strikes had made Britain the “Sick Man of Europe”.
