Monday, April 08, 2013

Margaret Thatcher: Grocer’s girl who grew up to become the Iron Lady...

On October 13 1925, in a small front room above a grocer’s shop in Grantham, Lincolnshire, a daughter was born to Alfred and Beatrice Roberts.

Alfred, the son of a Northamptonshire shoemaker, had moved counties to make his way in the world; Beatrice was a seamstress and the daughter of a railway cloakroom attendant. Their baby girl grew up to become Britain’s first woman prime minister, and changed the political map forever.

The values behind Margaret Thatcher’s political beliefs can be traced directly to that grocer’s shop on the outskirts of Grantham. A modest home, it had no indoor lavatory, bathroom or running hot water.

But what it lacked in material comforts it made up for in moral certainties. Alfred Roberts, a lay preacher, had little formal education, was self-taught — Baroness Thatcher later called him “ the best-read man I ever knew” — and believed in the Victorian values of hard work, self-help, prudence and thrift. As a girl, she would refer to him in tones of deference and respect; later she said: “I owe almost everything to my father.” Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Roger Waters says Falklands should be Argentine, attacks Cameron's 'bullshit'
  2. Disgusted British voters give ALL three 'out of touch' party leaders the worst...
  3. Sarkozy tells Cameron: 'We’re sick of you telling us what to do'
  4. "The Iron Lady of Manipur" Irom Sharmila's 12-year fast in India gets into...

No comments:

Post a Comment