662. Britain in the 70s: The Rise of Thatcher (Part 1)

The episode opens with a reading of Thatcher's first speech as Conservative Party leader at the 1975 party conference, delivered on October 10, 1975. The hosts note that at this stage she had not yet undergone the elocution training that would later give her the deep, measured voice she became famous for — her earlier voice was shriller and faster.

The hosts set the political and economic context of mid-1970s Britain: the loss of empire, entry into the European Community under Ted Heath in 1973, declining industrial competitiveness relative to West Germany and Japan, rampant inflation (peaking at 26% in summer 1975), chronic trade union conflicts, and the ongoing violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. American commentators were comparing Britain to Allende's Chile, describing it as sleepwalking toward a social revolution, and The Times lamented that British prestige had not been so low since Charles II was a pensioner of Louis XIV.

The hosts then turn to Thatcher's background. Born Margaret Roberts in Grantham, Lincolnshire in October 1925, she was shaped above all by her father Alfred Roberts — a grocer, alderman, lay preacher, and self-made liberal-turned-Tory. She was raised in strict Wesleyan Methodism, attending chapel multiple times every Sunday. Her mother is notably absent from her own accounts of her childhood. At Oxford, she studied chemistry under Nobel laureate Dorothy Hodgkin, was described as a diligent if not brilliant student, and became president of the Conservative Association. She was hardworking, humourless about leisure, but had a genuine love of fashion, dancing, and classical music, and read serious literature including Dostoevsky and Koestler.

After Oxford she worked briefly as a research chemist, stood twice unsuccessfully for Parliament in Dartford (1950–51), married businessman Denis Thatcher, retrained as a barrister, and became MP for Finchley in 1959. Through the 1950s she transformed her public identity from Methodist grammar school girl to Home Counties Tory wife and mother. Her being a woman was both an asset — making her stand out — and a liability, as her Tory colleagues consistently dismissed and condescended to her. Ted Heath appointed her as his statutory woman in cabinet, where she served as Education Secretary. Despite her later reputation as an ideologue, as Education Secretary she closed more grammar schools and converted them to comprehensives than any other minister in British history. She also supported a mortgage interest rate cap — hardly free-market policies.

The episode recounts how the political crisis of 1974 — two lost elections, economic chaos, the oil shock — fatally undermined Heath. The natural challenger, Sir Keith Joseph, destroyed himself with a speech appearing to advocate birth control for the working-class poor. Joseph's campaign manager, Thatcher, stepped in to stand herself. Heath's response when told was a dismissive shrug: 'You'll lose.'

Thatcher's campaign was masterminded by Airey Neave, a war hero who had escaped from Colditz Castle and bore a deep personal grudge against Heath. Neave organized small tea meetings with Tory MPs and strategically underplayed Thatcher's chances to attract protest votes. On February 4, 1975, Thatcher beat Heath 130 votes to 119 on the first ballot. In the second ballot a week later, she beat Willie Whitelaw 146 to 79, becoming the first woman to lead a major British political party.

The Labour Party, including Harold Wilson and Marcia Williams, greeted her victory with laughter, believing she could never win a general election. But Labour politician Barbara Castle, despite opposing Thatcher politically, wrote in her diary that she felt a thrill, noting Thatcher was 'clearly the best man among them.'

The hosts conclude by analyzing the deeper forces behind her victory: a class realignment within the Tory party (grammar school, self-made MPs from southern England displacing public school grandees), the rise of free-market monetarist ideology championed by the Institute for Economic Affairs and Milton Friedman, and Thatcher's distinctive low-church Methodist moralism — her conviction that socialism was not merely wrong but morally evil. The episode ends by noting that despite her historic victory, her first six months as opposition leader were rocky, with her approval rating falling from 44% to 35%, setting up the next episodes in the series.