Margaret Thatcher faces the first major social conflict since her appointment: the steel workers' strike. However this social movement could serve the Prime Minister. Indeed, the sector in crisis will carry out massive layoffs and a prolonged strike risks weakening the powerful steelworkers' union. In addition, this could make it possible to privatize this public sector to end the state monopoly, as the Conservative government wants.
Commenting on the journalist’s remark that she is the only woman head of government at European summits, she says she has no problem with this. On the contrary, she says that, with a great deal of experience in politics and solid training, she is in a better position than her male colleagues to make decisions,
The journalist paints a portrait of the leader of the British Conservative Party, Margaret THATCHER, who is followed in her political and family activities. After convincing the members of her own party, she took care of her bourgeois image and clumsily tried to win the favour of the working class. She is filmed at a Conservative meeting, on a construction site, at her home, reading the press as a family and doing the dishes. With extensive political experience, she has a reputation for being demanding and ruthless. The report ends with a short interview with Margaret THATCHER on her conception of "attack".
While Maragaret Thatcher had announced the policy of privatization of state-owned enterprises in its programme, its scope is surprising. The journalist lists all the companies that will be sold to the private sector. Even the Post Office will lose the monopoly of mail distribution that it had had for several centuries.
As Prime Minister, Margaret THATCHER spoke about Britain’s place in the European Economic Community, at a time when disagreements might arise with her European partners. It defends the values of the "free world" against the communist bloc.
At the European Summit in Madrid, the twelve Heads of State and Government will deal with two issues that are binding on the future of Europe: harmonizing social policy and developing the use of the European currency, the ECU. The summit was marked by Margaret Thatcher’s opposition to the proposed monetary union. The special envoy, Philippe SASSIER, concludes his situation report on the leaders' ability to compromise in the face of the "iron lady’s" intransigence.
To Christine OCKRENT’s question about her nickname "Iron Lady", Margaret THATCHER replied (in English, dubbed) that she fully assumed it, and that it reflected her way of being and the strength of her convictions.
British miners begin their fifth day of strike to protest the closure of 20 wells and the loss of 20,000 jobs. The president of the miners' union, Arthur Scargill, announces the continuation of the movement, despite a division of the unions. Special Envoy Philippe HARROUARD explains the trade union issues. The police violently represses the flying picket lines, banned since 1981 by the social laws of Margaret Thatcher to restrict the power of the unions. Release of a short statement by Prime Minister Margaret THATCHER. Yan Carson, a journalist with The Economist, believes that miners are in a weak position vis-à-vis the government.
Margaret THATCHER is a Conservative Party candidate. Former minister of education, she is described by the journalist as a fiftieth anniversary of a pretty and very bourgeois elegance. Londoners' micro-sidewalk rather favorable to his election. His pugnacity during parliamentary debates and his modest origins seduce many Conservatives.
A Londres, une parade de la victoire a été organisée en présence du Premier ministre Margaret Thatcher et d'une foule immense, pour célébrer les héros des Falklands, vainqueurs de la guerre contre l'Argentine, après la reconquête victorieuse de cet archipel du bout du monde, dans l'Atlantique Sud. Images de la parade militaire et extrait du discours du Premier ministre : "L'esprit de l'Atlantique Sud a été l'esprit de la Grande-Bretagne dans ce qu'elle a de meilleur... On a dit que le patriotisme britannique a été retrouvé mais en fait, il n'avait jamais vraiment disparu..."