Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. She was the first female PM in British history. She was in power all through my childhood and my student days. Her politics were very right-wing and she did an enormous amount of damage to the UK, both economically and culturally. The gap between the rich and the poor got wider and wider under her rule. She hated socialism, and once famously said: "There is no such thing as society."
Listen to the first minute and a half of the video. Can you hear this vocabulary?
Vocabulary:
- "I give way to this honourable gentleman." = I let this man speak. In the British parliament, speakers are not allowed to address each other directly, or call each other by their name. They have to say "Honourable Gentleman" or "Honourable Member" to each other. This is a very old tradition.
- be better off = have more money
- he would rather = he would prefer
- provided that = as long as, if
Margaret Thatcher dedicated to create free market and abandon welfare statism.
回覆刪除I think that’s the reason why poverty gap became wider.
But she did end up the stagflation of England in 1981.