Episode Transcript
Welcome back to sort of sophisticated the podcast, rooted in becoming better versions of ourselves. But really it's just an excuse to day drink. I'm your host Pete, and sitting across from me already two drinks deep is my wonderful co-host, Amanda, let's all be real. If I was two drinks deep, you I would be asleep by now. You are two drinks deep, so not. Mm-hmm. Cheers to my first. It may seem like it cheer, but here we are. What are we drinking anyway? What is this? Topo Chico Ranch Water Hard seltzers available now at Ralph's Topo Chico. I like that. What does it mean? I think it's just like bubbly water with tequila. Chico means dude, like guy, right? So it's a drink for dude. What's Topo? I don't know what Topo is. Well, I don't know either. All right. We should look that up. We should Google it. Get sort of sophisticated. Well, speaking of sort of sophisticated, what are we talking about today? So, um, what are we talking about today? Let's see. I mean, really what are we talking about and how'd you come up with it? Because there's always something I. There really is. Um, I didn't love the topic I had planned for this week so this one's kind of random. I'm not gonna lie. So I'm in my car, and I was kind of pissed off driving home from the office. And, uh, have you ever, we need you not to be so pissed off after driving. No, no. I wasn't mad at anything. It's the office. I was just like pissed sitting in traffic. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. No, no, no, no. It's like we like our job, Peter. Do you know the clash? It allows us to do this? Yes. No, it does. It does. Have you heard of the Clash? The band, the Clash, the punk rock band. The Clash. Super famous England. Okay. Okay. Back in the seventies. Should look at it anyway. Oh, seventies. See? Yeah. Preme, you are a preemie? No. What Preme. Oh, pre prema birth. Okay, I get it pre. Okay, I got it. Anyway, London calling comes on London calling morning. It's a great song. It's excellent. naturally I have to start like blaring it as loud as I can and voila. Margaret Thatcher pops in my brain 'cause she's famous 'cause it's England and stuff. And that was the time. Uh, so I got home, I did some research. I know. Stop it. Stop looking at me like that. Stop. I know. Is this guy I know. My brain is weird. Okay. But here's the funny part, right? God was totally on my side because when I started doing the research, I found out that it is her hundredth anniversary. Oh, there the G in there. And God was on your side totally. Oh yeah, he was, yeah. Hundredth anniversary of her birth. Birth. Birth, yes. Okay. October 13th, 1925. Wow. And I was like, wait a second. Did that just really happen? Did that just land? In my lap. Huh? That's exactly what happened. This little nugget. So I was like, I, I gotta, well, okay, like, first of all, she's dead. She's not still alive. Okay. She's, she's Unli. So this isn't gonna be like a Jimmy Carter? No, no. Round two when we did the episode and then he died a week later. You mean like that we killed him. I'm, because it literally was a week later. I'm not going to say that we killed him. Maybe jinx him, but we j But every, but everyone was celebrating him. It wasn't just us. So. I don't know. We were out in front of that. I mean, I mean, we, we jinxed the hell outta that Anyway. She already dead, so we got nothing to worry about. She died in like 2013 or something. So dead people only like, yeah, she's, I think that should be our new mantra. We only do dead people. Well, no, because they're, well, okay. No. There's lots of cool people out there we talk about, right? I mean, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We could do both, but we just gotta be careful. Let's not do it like close to a death anniversary like Jimmy Carter, when we know they're getting up there. Fair. Okay. Fair. You know what I mean? Okay, moving on. Okay. Uh, Where are we? Well I already feel more sophisticated, thank you very much, but do we have an official title so everyone kind of knows besides just Margaret Thatcher that we're talking about? 'cause she's a hundred. How about London calling? Can't we just use London calling? No. Okay, fine. Of course. I have a title, the Iron Lady at a hundred Margaret Thatcher's, life and Legacy. And today, Amanda, we're gonna talk about how a little grocery store owner's daughter from this small little ass town north of London ended up becoming Britain's first female prime minister and total badass by the way. And also what the UK is doing to commemorate her hundredth birthday. Well, you know what I mean? Can you still say it's her hundredth birthday? We're gonna say hundredth birthday. Okay. Even if like, she's not alive. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So, uh, would've been, let's, this is happening. We're talking about thatch today. Alright. That's what's happening. Here we go. I'm excited. Okay. Am I allowed to say that? I dunno anything about her? Sure. I didn't know much about her. Oh, okay. Great. What do I, what do I, I'm, I'm like, I told you I had to look all this shit up. Just checking. Yeah, just checking. I knew a little bit more just because I didn't know if I was supposed to be sort of sophisticated already. No, she was like a lot, like I obviously I'm older than you, so like I do remember a few things Okay. About her growing up because I was in my teen years when she was happening. Okay. And her and Ronald Reagan were like besties. And so that was my first sort of. President in the United States that I remember and first prime minister of Oh, of Britain that I remember, because that's crazy. When you're younger than that, you're not really paying attention. This's the first time I paid attention, so I do know a few things. Okay, so this is like some significance to you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. First like core memory of politics. Yes, yes. I like that. Okay, so besides it being a core memory, what was your first core memory of politics? I did not have sexual relations with that woman, probably, actually. Oh, that's such a shame. I feel so bad for you. Probably. Yeah. Wow, okay. That was in the nineties. Yeah. Yeah, let's go. Yeah. I would've been just old enough. Heard it a million times That's a bad way, That's a bad way to learn about politics. Our presidents sleep around, right. And get little quickies under the table. I mean, wow. My God. Well, anyway, whatcha gonna do well on that note, so besides just being a core memory mm-hmm. How else are we gonna become a little bit cultured, from learning about this first female prime Minister, which in, in and of itself is already a big deal. It is a big deal. But did you ever watch the Crown? A little bit. She's in the crown. She was amazing. In the Crown. Oh yeah. Like season four, five of the Crown? No, like her, her character was in the, not her herself, no. Yeah, her character. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah. No, she was, she was dead and gone. Oh, right, right, right. So she died. What did she die? 2013. I know, but how, sorry, 80. Say that. How much was Oh, 87. No, 13 years. Yeah. 87. Yeah. Yeah. I was close. God, I do math fast. You do so good. I got lucky. Alright. What are we asking? Culture. Let's go to culture quick. Okay. I'm gonna start with fun fact. Alrighty. Are we ready? Here we go. Okay. Right out the gate, since we just did an episode on the Beijing Declaration not too long ago, feminism, the whole thing. I wanted to see if she was part of that movement or was involved at all. Oh, because it was only like five years after call. Nice tie in, right? Yeah. Yeah, because she like, right? Yeah. She like left office in 1990 and the Beijing declaration in nine five. But when I kept digging, I found she wasn't like, she didn't wanna have anything to do with this Really? No. She was like kind, interesting. I don't wanna say anti-feminism, but, but, as close to anti as you can get because her whole stance was that she believed women could succeed individually within the already existing systems. Rather than through a feminist push. I quoted that obviously. So not a supporter, like at all. You know, I will give her a little bit of cred for that thought process because it doesn't take on the victim mentality, right? She was never a victim. She was wonderful. Always sort of just the trooper that pushed forward. So proud of her. Um, I never really answered the culture thing. You were so sappy. Okay. Right. Lemme finish with the culture thing. Okay. So. Whether you know it or not, like a lot of her systems and work still exist in Britain. Like they're still, they still use her political platform ish, like on taxes and reform in the economy and stuff like that. I mean, I know there's different parties that we go through. I figured you're gonna tell us more about this later on. I am, but my, my point is, is she was a badass and they still use it today. Okay. Got it. Okay. You got it. Okay, so what's our word of the day? Is it gonna be something English? It's bangers, it's a, it's bangers and mash. It should be drunkard is what it should be with you and your topo. Chicos. Okay. I'm actually not, but, oh, okay. Wait, let's try. Today's word projection is, wow. Way to slip that in there. Today's word is Jun Jun. Ja. Is this like when you jaju something? When you what? I don't think we're allowed to say that. No, no. You are off the rails. You made Jews. I said No, it was close. It's not. It comes. We're gonna keep going. You're gonna have to take, okay, we're gonna keep going. It actually comes from the Latin word, Jun. Okay. Meaning fasting or barren. So Jun actually means dull or uninteresting, basically. Boring. Amanda. Ooh. Your history sections. Oh. I don't like you. It's a great word. It's a great word. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I was gonna say like reading an owner's manual of something Sure. Is to June history and you're My history sections fine. Okay, I think we're done here. Then, then prove me wrong. No more podcasts. This might be the last one. You threaten this every week. Okay. Do I really do, you should try to prove me wrong. I am going to and like, make this history a little interesting. I, I will. And then the end. Don't be so to June. Why don't you, okay. I'm having a hard time. It's a great word. I want that one by the way. Okay. Yeah. Like five times. You already did. Okay, here we go. Uhhuh, let's go. Winter winner. Gimme a great chicken dinner. Are we ready? Yes. Can I start with my wonderfully boring history? You're supposed to make it fun, but go ahead. Okay. We're gonna go back in time, little baby Margaret. We are a hundred years ago well, duh. Sorry. When she was born, Margaret Hilda Roberts came flying out of her mama on October 13th, flying 1925. I don't know what happens. I guess at least she didn't pop out of her like dead leg. It's fine. Good point. In a little town in England called Grantham. Grant them. Like Lord grant them from Downton Abbey. Wow. Really? I don't know. I've never watched it. Pretty sure Grantham England. Yeah, it was like 120 miles north of London. Okay, okay. I mean, not like a teeny town, but like a small town. Okay. Okay. So her mom, Ethel was a homemaker and helped run their little grocery store. They had this little grocery store. It was kind of cute. Uh, and her dad, Alfred, you gotta love Alfred Roberts Right. Was the front man of the grocery store. 'cause everybody needs a front man at the grocery store. I mean, who are we kidding? I mean, you know, you gotta hang out with the local towns, folk, you know, selling them meat and salami and cheese and stuff. I feel like you're talking about like Beauty and the Beast and Bell, but anyway, it's continue, continue. But he was also like a Sunday preacher, so he was the grocery store guy. He was a Sunday preacher and one of the towns brand nourishment in all the ways. Dude, sorry. Yes, continue. And a town counselor. Oh. Like one of the guys like sitting on the seat of the town. Did he have creds for any of this? He totally did. Really? Yeah, there's a lot of credits. You dig all that shit up? Yeah, you can find it. Okay. Come on. I'll check it. I went down the rabbit hole. Right. Okay. So he Was a connected dude in Grantham. I mean, how big was the town? 20,000. Dude. It was like a decent, it wasn't super small. I mean, that's a bigger town. Yeah. For that time. I feel like I would call it S medium. Okay. You know what, it wasn't Ja June, I'll tell you that. It was a lot of activity. Okay. Fair. Okay. All right, so she grew up in this grocery store. No, not in the grocery store. She grew up above the grocery store. Okay. Not like in the grocery store. Well, duh. She like had a job, dude. She had to work as like a grocery store. What do they call those? Stalkers? Yeah. That's why I said she grew up in the grocery store. Whatever. Okay. That's where she learned her whole put her head down and worked really hard mentality. Because mom and dad, they didn't mess around. Um, kinda like your house, I think a little bit, right? Don't complain. Eat your veggies. Get good grades. Yeah. No. B pros. No bpro, no B pros. Only a's, okay. She got at least I'm not a dragon Mom. You are. Um, she always got straight A's. She was smart. She did good. She did. Fun fact. Another fun fact. Are we ready to go? Yep. She was so good in school. Amanda, you're not gonna believe this. Scholarship to Oxford University. So good. Oxford. they accept women back then? Perfect. I love that you just launched me there. First of all, a hundred years ago in England, 2% of girls even just went to college. Wow. Forget scholarships. 2% went to college. Okay. University. So she was like destined for greatness. If you got a scholarship to university and you were a girl, it was like 0.0001%. Dang. I don't even know what that is. It's tiny. That's like, that's, yeah. Wow, So genius. Who smelled like salami in the grocery store. Okay. I wonder what her statement piece was that, I don't know. Captivated them? I have no idea. Intrigued. Who knows? Okay. Lost a history or, I don't know. We have to go look it up. No, we'll try. It's, it's probably there somewhere. What'd she study? Uh, she studied some like serious shit. Marketing. No, not what? I mean, seriously. Sorry, marketers. Just kidding. Just kidding. Marketing is Soja June. Okay. Um, chemistry. Maybe if we were better at it, we'd have a better podcast following anyways, but have a good point. She studied what chemistry. Yes. Oh, interesting. Not like chemistry PoliSci or something. Yeah, no chemistry. And she joined something called the Conservative Student Association during that time as well. 'cause chemistry wasn't enough. So she was kind of doing Charlie Kirk shit a hundred years ago. She was debating people. Well, I mean, on college campuses. She was joined the conservative movement on there. What do you want me to say? Well, just because you joined something doesn't mean that you're like debating people. She was probably debating Okay. She was a master debate. I can't say that, can I? Anyway, you get the idea. Okay. She didn't run around the country talking to university students about her movement or anything like that. She just ran for parliament instead. That's what she did when she was like 24. She ran for parliament. Can you run when you're 24? You can I get, oh, I think you run when you're younger than 24. Okay. She lost. She ran twice. Fair. I mean, what? 24-year-old, you know, but didn't give up, you know why? 'cause she's a badass. Okay. Totally. So when she finally turned 30, she won her first seat. And started launching the whole political career from there as the chemist turned, you know, political politician. I mean, I have lots of thoughts. I don't think anybody should actually have a political career. Okay. I do not think it should be a career. It shouldn't. Nope. Okay. But anyways, it should be like the military. Like you have to serve and then you're out in four years. Something. Yeah. Everybody. Yeah. Like it just, I have lots of thoughts on that anyways, but before we drop into more for her career. Yeah. And I get myself in trouble. What about her personal life? What about it Oh, I know why you're doing this. You don't want me to be Ja, June. Is that what's happening right now? Making it a little spicy. Okay. There's not a lot here. Okay. I wish there was, did Yout get married? She didn't have kids. No. She didn't move to Amsterdam going anything like, yeah. Yeah, she did. She did get married. She had some kids. All right, here we go. So like, same time early twenties, right? She's running for parliament. She loses a few times. She meets some dude named Dennis Thatcher. Go figure. She's gonna marry him 'cause his last name's Thatcher. Get it? Yeah. So this is the guy? Yeah. Yeah. He was already rich by the way. Oh. 'cause he was running his dad's business, like the family business. Okay. So they had money. Okay. So they fall in love. They get married in 1951. Was he 20 years older? I don't think he was 20 years older. He was older. Okay. But I was just trying to spice it up. Don't quote me on it. Let's say 10 for the record, split the difference. Uh, yeah. I don't know. Okay. That's the sort of part, I'm not sure. Two years later, they have fraternal twins. Okay. Carol and Mark. And basically because Dennis's family was so rich, uh, she had the flexibility to raise the family and pursue politics. You know, if there were podcasting back then, she probably would've started a podcast on her own. So she got kind of, she had lots to say. She kind of got to do a little bit of what she wanted to do. Fair. Right. She was, uh, granted the privilege of, yeah. A little bit of freedom. Fair enough. Yeah. So, but it takes six more years before she actually gets into parliament. Yes. Gets elected. Yes. Correct. Yes. So that happened in, uh, 1959 where she won the seat for Finchley, a little suburban district in North London. And sort of from there, she just kind of kept moving up slow and steadily, like through politics. So a few years later, in 1961, she became what's called a junior minister. So that's right below Cabinet Minister. And then in 1970, she became Education Secretary under Prime Minister Edward Heath. I don't know if you remember Edward Heath, he was in the crown too. Watch the Crown. Okay. So like every 10 years she keeps moving up. So then in like 1980 ish, she should have become the Prime minister. Yeah, you're basically right. 1979. Yeah. So Heath lost the election to the Labor Party in 1974. I'm gonna go back a little bit. Um, and even though he stayed on as sort of the conservative party leader, everyone was already losing faith in him. And so in 75. That's when Margaret Thatcher totally took a run at his leadership position and the whole conservative party, in general. So, so she was in like 50 ish? Oh, that's a good question. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 50. You, you got it right. Okay. And she totally won even though people didn't think she could as a woman, she didn't, she didn't win Prime Minister. She won conservative party leadership. Right. Oh, okay. Okay. Got it. Got it. And sort of became the first woman to ever lead a major political party in Britain up to that point. All right. So breaking boundaries already, right? Yeah, So then four years later, 1979, she beats out James Callahan, the incumbent Labor Party Prime Minister, and officially became Britain's first female Prime Minister. Wow. 1979. All right. Yeah. Okay, hold on. Let's see if I can sum it up. Sum it up. Ready? Make you know what? Make it interesting, because that was a little boring. She lived above the grocery store. She did. Grew up pretty modestly. Okay. Was probably a. Stalker at the grocery store. Yep. A stalker that was super, super, super smart, um, goes to Oxford on a scholarship, becomes a chemist, marries a rich guy, has twins, and then starts her journey in politics. And about 30 years later from that journey start, she becomes a prime minister. Yeah. Nailed it. And that was absolutely not Ja, June. It was not. Maybe you should done 'cause it was bullet pointed. I don't think it's fair at all that I have to come up with all this stuff and talk all about it and then you just like in two seconds get to listen to me talk and then sum it up and go like Cliff, cliff notes. So this is what happened. Just CliffNotes, you can't say cliff notes. You're dating yourself. Whatever. Nobody use, nobody even knows what Cliff. If you know what CliffNotes are, then, then what? GTFO. Wow. Just kidding. SparkNotes. Okay. They have a lot, they have a lot of other things nowadays. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Come on. Geez. Um, well now that we know how she got to be Prime Minister, yes. Clearly she left a legacy as Prime Minister. She did. So what does that, like lover, hater, she did it. She kinda mentioned a few of things like previously as we were starting, but right here we go. We're going Legacy as Prime Minister. Okay. Let's get into it. So it's May, 1979. Take yourself back. Wait, you weren't even born anyway. I was not. Thatcher walks into number 10 Downing Street. There it was. And immediately starts kicking the tires, Amanda. And lighten the fires. She is ready to go. What'd she do? Guns a blazing. Oh, she did a bunch of shit. Okay. So full disclosure, when she walked in, shit was kind of messy in the United Kingdom, right the Labor Party, it's like here, Democrats, Republicans, like the whole thing right? So Labor Party screwed some shit up, right there were strikes, inflation, unemployment, everything was outta control. So good old thatch launched a new economic policy that later became known as Thatcherism. Concentrating on free market reforms, cutting taxes, selling off state owned industries like British Telecom, British Airways. They sold British Airways and pushed to reduce the power of all the trade unions 'cause they were getting way too big for themselves. So she spent a ton of time working on controlling inflation, which had been spiraling outta control for years and years before her. So you remember Ronald Reagan in, in Reaganomics? I don't know if you, did you read about Reaganomics or know anything about Reagan? Yes. Mm-hmm. Okay. So, reaganomics in America, like early eighties, was basically the same thing as Thatcherism in the UK around the same time. So both helped their respective countries from the economic mess they were in and turned them back into stable competitive economies again. So like. Reagan and her best friends, they were totally best friends. Oh good. Oh my God. Yeah. Like on the big stuff. Yes. They basically like believed in the economy the same way. Okay. Ran the country the same way. That's what got me into starting to listen to politics in the first place. 'cause Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were, I don't wanna say 99% of the time on the same page, but a lot. Yes. They were absolutely like besties for sure. So good. So good. And I also wonder so good what that would look like today. I don't know, but we don't get into politics. Okay. We don't. So moving on. So like. If you're looking at their countries and what they were doing for their countries internally, it sounds like they were kind of on the same page, right? Or they were about cities, however. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. But like externally, 'cause I can't even again envision it for today, they were separate countries looking out for their own wellbeing. So how were they on external affairs or Yeah, yeah, yeah. Foreign affairs. Yeah. Foreign affairs, right. That's a good question. For the most part, I think they agreed on foreign affairs, but. Yes, because they're across the Atlantic from each other. They did have different interests. Nuclear weapons was a good example of where they sort of did not agree. Reagan was, it was a big push for Reagan where he was trying to get rid of nuclear weapons. That was his, the only, he was successful, right? That was his whole thing. There we are. And Thatcher didn't agree 'cause she thought she needed them to show strength because she was like, again, different parts of the world. Yeah, right. They were a lot closer to Russia than we were. So that was a whole thing. And then the Falcon Islands War, I don't even remember. 1982 wasn't born. Fine. Um, so tell me, so they didn't like super agree on it, but Reagan ended up backing her. So Falcon Islands were a group of islands about 300 miles off the coast of Argentina, that England discovered back in the 15 hundreds and used as a settlement. They formally named it a territory in the early 18 hundreds and controlled it for like 150 years. Oh, like all the way up to like 1982. But 1982, Argentina got this bug up their butt and they were like, hold on a second. Why does England think they control all this? Why is that fair? They're like 8,000 miles away. Okay. And we're only like 300 miles away. It's ours. But they said that all in Spanish. 'cause they don't speak English. But you get the idea. Yeah. Yeah. So in April of 1982, Argentina invaded the Falcon Islands thinking that Britain wasn't gonna do anything. Like to try to bother and defend it. 'cause the island was so far away, like what the fuck for? Right. But Thatcher was absolutely not having any of it. Have you seen Tombstone? No. Do you remember Tombstone? Kurt Russell plays W Earp? No, of course not. Okay. Uh, so there's a, so there's a, how are we friends? Sorry. Right. What are you gonna do? I love my movies. So there's a scene in it. Uh, I'm digressing. I get, I get it. Okay. Where the Cowboys just killed one of Wyatt Herps brothers, and Wyatt meets him at the train station and gives them this message. And it's like one of the best scenes in all of cinema. He goes, you called down the thunder. Well now you've got it. You tell him I'm coming and hell's coming with me. Gives me chills every time you need to watch. Okay. Tombstone, please. Okay. Anyway, I went to Tombstone, Arizona just so I could see Wow. Where he said that commitment. Okay. My point is that was Thatcher. Okay, but not that dramatic. So she goes and she sends the British Navy 8,000 miles away. Took 'em about two months, but they ended up obviously kicking the shit outta the Argentines Hooey. Kidding. I love because that's where my wife is from.. But Britain won. They sent Argentina back home. I know it doesn't seem like a big deal to anybody outside of England or Argentina, but it was super important 'cause it got a lot of British people looking at this as sort of like the turning point of our whole leadership. She was only two years into her leadership by this time. So if they didn't think she could handle the job, in the first place, this sort of made them decide okay, she can handle foreign affairs. She just, she just sort of fucking killed it. And that boosted her whole Iron Lady image, right? So Reagan didn't wanna get involved. He thought it was like, man, this is so stupid. Why don't you let this go? But he had to make a choice, so we ended up backing her and helping her in case he needed, like, he didn't have, we didn't have to do anything or get involved, but we did support. Told her we support. We supported. Yeah. Is this when she got her title, the Iron Lady? Officially, no, no, no, no. She already had it by that time. Oh, no. I was saving it for a fun fact, but I'm gonna tell you because it's cool. So actually it came from a Soviet newspaper in 1976 before she was even Prime Minister. And it was actually meant as an insult. I mean, if it was from the Soviet Union. Yeah. I feel like she should be. Totally, yeah. Yeah. She had just given, I guess, a pretty tough anti-communist speech, like a warning against the evils of the Soviet Union and a Soviet newspaper called the Red Star, coined the term and mocked her as the Iron Lady. Totally meant as an insult because she was being so cold and so rigid, huh? but she owned that shit and flipped it and decided to own it and make it her credo again. Yeah. She just had that like mental Fort Fortitude. That's a good word. That was it. Fortitude. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Then her and Rein basically dismantled communism. There's a lot more to it than that, but they were super instrumental in, in that, um, they were the ones that pressured Gorbachev, both from an economic standpoint and a militarily. Militarily, I don't know, is that a word? A military standpoint. You get the idea. And then because of that, Gorbachev goes and makes all those reforms. If you remember Glasso and Paris Troika, that ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. And that's when Reagan said his famous quote, Mr. Gorbachev tear down that wall. And fun fact, Thatcher also had a famous quote too. Hers was, now this is a man I can do business with. Speaking of Gorbachev. Oh yeah. So they sort of had like this little sort of torrid love affair between Reg Gorby and, thatch. Little bit of Wow. Little bit of, huh, huh? So, if you thought this was Jun, there's your spice. Oh, there might've been a little freeway. What do you think that, that I don't, I don't think so. Okay. Whatever. I'm trying to spice it up. Okay. Fair. Well, I know that she did some pretty cool stuff domestically with the economy and then clearly internationally. Yes. Um, with the Falcon Islands, uh, and communism. And she stood up to communism. Yes. But I'm sure there was like bad shit, like things that people talked about her, about. There's always bad shit. I mean, everyone's always got an opinion, so, and no one's perfect. No. No, no, no, no, no. You are correct. There was some, she was polarized and I know you like you're in three something, but I don't think that was it, that that was not it. I have to throw in sex in every episode because you get mad. I know me and do that weird eye roll thing. I know. Okay, so a lot of people flat out hated her. Not gonna lie, she was majorly anti-union, like I said at the beginning, especially the coal miners like ugly, ugly fights all the time. Whole towns. Amanda lost her jobs overnight because mines are steel plants. Shut down. Wow. She shut them down. Absolutely. Unemployment shot up to like 3 million, which was insane for the time. Yeah. Her whole point was like, Cole's not gonna work. Cole's not the future. So tough shit. But I mean, she did do the whole we'll retrain you and put in the right programs to try to help people, but nobody was having it. And they were all pissed off. Huh. Yeah. Yeah. And then she had the whole hard line stance thing on Northern Ireland too, with the whole, IRA and the political prisoner thing, you probably don't remember that. I do a little bit because again, it was sort of all new to me and it was all in the news when I was like 16 years old. The IRA was basically in Northern Ireland fighting for the Republic of Ireland, right? Because Ireland is split. Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland. So Britain had a lot of political prisoners. From the IRA that they had put in jail. Okay. Right. But the IRA was claiming that they should be political prisoners, not ordinary criminals. 'cause there's different rules. Okay. Right. cause they were like, Hey, we're soldiers. We're fighting a war. We're fighting for something. Yeah. Versus like, I stole something. Yeah. We're not right. We're not criminals. And so it was sort of a big deal. They decided to go on a hunger strike, these political prisoners slash criminals and literally starved themselves to death. And Thatcher let them. And they died. And her point was super clear. Crimes are crimes, can't disguise it as war. I don't give a shit. You did illegal shit. You're gonna jail. That was it. Okay. And a lot of people were like, what the hell are you doing? So kind of like weird stance there. Right. But again, she just looked at things a different way. She did. No, no, no. This, this last one's gonna be even harder. Oh. Uh, yeah. So poll tax. She, this is like what got her sort of, what is the poll tax kicked out? Yeah. Did you had to pay for tax to vote? Yeah. Poll tax was no poll. Tax was like an extra tax to pay for like services, like fire, police or trash. Oh, but don't we have that here? It's like property tax. So yes, it's the same thing. They have property tax in Britain too. But here's the thing, with property tax, the bigger the house, the better the zip code, the more you pay. Thatcher hated that. I mean, so do I, but well here, well her logic was, a lot of times in England, I guess multiple adults lived in the same house. But only one owner had to pay the property tax. So she was like, screw that and started something called the flat pull tax. Where every adult over the age of 18. Oh no, I don't agree. Had to pay the same exact amount regardless of how much money they made. No, don't agree. On top of take it back on top of, right. On top of their other taxes. So it didn't matter if you were Rich Report people hated it. Massive protests, rights all over the streets. Burning shit. Looting shit. Good old fashioned American style protest. I was gonna say, did they learn it from no abs? Right? They totally did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So is that how it all ended? Like is this what took her down? Yeah, this is Yes, absolutely. What took her down. Okay. Fair. After 11 years, I mean, 19 90, 79, and 90. Wow. Becoming the longest serving Prime Minister of the 20th century. Yes, totally. Basically her own conservative party pushed her out because of that. I mean. I, I'm not for taxes, so yeah, I kind of kind of get on board with, she was push, she was pushy and you liked her a hater. It's the same as anything else. It's all politicians though, I feel like. Okay. So to sum it up, she was mostly awesome. Here's where you get to do the cool part. Well, I mean, I hate you. Go ahead. It's so easy. I know. You do such a good job's. So easy. You easy. Did I get a good grade for the history part? There you go. Yeah. Whoa. So generally awesome. Yep. Basically overstayed her welcome. Yep. Made people mad so they pushed her out. Lost touch. That's what happened. Right? Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For every person who thought she was awesome, there was somebody who thought they, she fucked up the community again. What always happened, I feel like that's just like our polarized world that we live in. Look, here's the deal, she reshaped Britain. She reshaped the economy. She reshaped the way they thought, she did great work. By the time she left office, the country was totally and completely changed politically, economically, socially, there's absolutely no denying it. She left it better than before it was period, you have to admit it. Okay, so I think we did a very good job. Thank you. Going over, covering, I guess I should say. Her role as Prime Minister, her lead up to that. Good, the bad, the ugly. And I mean, the whole reason for this. Do you know where the good, the bad, the Ugly comes from? No, I think it's a novel. No Spaghetti Western. Really? Clint Eastwood, we gotta watch it. Of course. Course We, you know, can we watch two movies? Sorry. We need to watch, uh, the good, the bad it, I feel, think we need to watch every movie for the past 74 episodes. Right? We need to watch Tombstone and now we're gonna watch all six seasons of the Crown. Okay. There's a lot we need to do in this app. Yeah. I'm sorry. Ooh, sorry. Homework's gonna be a doozy. Continue. But the whole reason why you did this episode to begin with was the fact that it's her hundredth birthday. That is true. So are they throwing a party? They are totally okay. Oh, it's big dude. They're going big. Britain is rolling out the red carpet. Really? For this? Yeah sister, let's go. Okay, so for starters, uh, the Margaret Thatcher Center is hosting this fancy af dinner like gala at the Guild Hall on October 13th. Her actual birthday. It's a whole thing. Black tie, fancy dresses, speeches, the whole nine yards. Have you seen the whole nine yards? That's another good movie. Football? No. Oh, it's not football. No, it's a funny movie. It's about, it's about like a hitman. It's like Bruce Willis and, uh, Nope. Clearly not. Oh my God. Matthew Perry. That's hysterical. Okay. Anyway, we're not invited. Only really important people are invited to this thing, like her family and politicians from all over the world and celebrities and dignitaries, and will the king be there? Not us. Damn right. Oh, okay. Very bougie shit. Is it in Grantham? No, it's not in Grantham. Grantham's doing their own stuff that's in London. Oh, okay. Yeah. 'cause they're fancy. So in Grantham they are doing everything. They branded the town, dude. Really? They're calling it Thatcher Fest. Oh yes. A month long festival that includes, it's already started. Oh. I quote, I got this from chat, GPT, theater and Performances plays like Margaret Thatcher, queen of Soho, a satirical re-imagining of her supporting gay rights. She was not a supporter of gay rights. So that would be the satirical part. That's the Right, right. Queen, queen of Soho. Right. Plus another one called Living Over the Shop. About her early life at her dad's grocery store, hysterical poetry and music nights, local performers using art to explore her legacy. Some celebratory, some a little more critical walking tours. So they're doing guided tours of Thatcher's old haunts in Grantham, including places tied to her childhood and where she got her political start. Movies and expositions that display her life and legacy, amanda, there's even an opera that's in the works, no jokes called Mrs. T historian, Dominic Sandbrook and composer Joseph Fibs are behind the whole thing and it's set to debut during this month. Wow. So the whole town is basically turning into like Thatcher land. It is for a month, yes. I think it's excellent. I think they're doing a great thing to sort of preserve this woman's legacy. Do you think that they're gonna have fun facts at Thatcher Land? I think no one will have as good a fun facts. Let's go. As we have lay it. These fun facts are gonna be anything but Ja, June. Let's go. Or I can't even believe I'm excited. It's my favorite part. I had to call in some serious favorites to get these, 'cause two of them, I had to like unearth files. Okay. It was so mysterious. Oh no. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Here we go. Number one. So we already know, that thatcI was the first woman to become Prime Minister. But bigger than that, she was actually the first woman to lead a major western democracy. Oh, wow. Yeah. So when she became Prime Minister in 1979, no other big western country, not like the us, France, Germany, nobody had ever had a female head of government. I mean, there were others before her, like Golden Maier in Israel, and Isabelle Perone in Argentina. But as far as major western democracy goes, she was the first by far go baggie. Okay. That's awesome. Uh, number two, she loved her whiskey. Oh my kind of girl. Yeah. Right. Specifically whiskey and soda. Let's go. That was her nightly ritual. Her staff always said she'd sip it while going through her papers late at night and it kind of became her trademark. Dude, forget Tea and Crumpets. No wonder they called her the Iron Lady. She had like an iron stomach dude putting down whiskey every night. I would call that an alcoholic. I do have a question. Wouldn't that be alcoholic? Isn't it Whiskey from America? Whiskey. So there's a lot No, there's Irish whiskey, right? Uhhuh there is Kentucky Bourbon with Right. So it has bourbon to be brew. That's why whiskey, if you've ever noticed, some are spelled eey. Yeah. Some are spelled with just a y Oh, correct. There's Japanese whiskey's different. Yeah. So there's different from different places. Right. So my guess is she would drink an Irish whiskey. Yeah. Look at you schooling meat. Love it. Show. We gotta do one on whiskey. We gotta do app on whiskey. All right. Number three. Get this. She only slept about four hours a night. Well, I mean, she's banging Gorbachev and Reagan. That's crazy. She only got four hours to sleep. Okay. Sorry. Is a rumor mill over there. That was terrible. She'd stay up all night working until the early morning, basically take a nap and then be up again before sunrise. Her aide hated trying to keep up with her schedule. She once even joked that she envied people who needed eight hours of sleep because it gave them more time to dream. Huh? Yeah. Yeah, whatever. Sad. I think that was, I think she was flexing a little bit, like, oh, look at me, whatever. Okay. Four. So remember when I said she went to Oxford to get her chemistry degree? Yeah. Yeah. So I guess that wasn't enough for her. Uh, so before she became Prime Minister, she actually went back to school to study tax law and became a lawyer. Oh, interesting. Yeah. And then Taxation's what took her down. Right. Oh, interesting. Wow. Look at that. She went from chemistry to law to politics to get her ass kicked. Uh, which is pretty random when you think about it, right? Imagine. Okay, so she was probably a tax accountant for people. No. What? And then she became a prime. That would be so cool. Oh my God. Uh, the Prime Minister was my tax accountant lady. That'd be kind of cool to say. I don't know. She'd be one of the regular folk. All right. Here are the ones I had to unearth. We are opening the vault. Okay, here we go. Was that a good vault open? It was actually very good. Okay. Uh, round of applause. Before, before she was Iron Lady, she had another nickname. You ready for this? Okay. Maggie, the milk snatcher because she snatched people's milk. She did, she was a, about Snapchat from baby, from maybe, well, baby's over seven, so, I guess to save budget money. She cut free milk in schools for kids over seven years old. Oh. Parents freaked out. Some tabloid came up with the name and I guess it stuck. It sort of sounds silly, but that one decision basically made her a household name. Okay, Maggie, the milk snatcher. She's like, yeah, if you're over seven, you don't need anymore. Screw that shit. That's wild, right? She didn't screw around. Okay. Here's another weird one. Some people swear Margaret Thatcher invented. Soft serve ice cream. How so? So I guess while she was at Oxford, she worked as a chemist for a food company in the early fifties called Jay Lyons and Company. And in that lab that she was working in, they were experimenting with ways to pump more air into ice cream to make it cheaper and easier to serve. Huh. So she was just a junior chemist on the team. But over time, the story morphed into Thatcher invented soft serve, total myth. But it's kind of a legend that sticks because, come on, it's hilarious to picture the soft serve. I mean, it would be amazing if it was true. I know, but like it was true. They did invent it for your extra taxes. She didn't it. And thank her for soft serve, soft serve of ice cream, right? Every time you had dq. Let's go. And finally, I saved the best for last. As always. Margaret Thatcher had a famous handbag, like a purse. Yeah, like a purse. It was legendary. She had a legendary purse. She used it to slam it on the cabinet table while they were in session and make her points more passionate. Check this to be handbagged, became an actual saying for getting chewed out by Margaret Thatcher. That's awesome. It wasn't just a purse. It was a way to show command and control in her male dominated world. Good for her. Those are solid. Yeah, absolutely. I love them. We got some whiskey. We got four hours of sleep. We got a signature handbag. I think we had a freeway. I'm walk around with a purse and I'm gonna like slam it every time you try to talk and overtalk me, you know it's, do you know how smart you're gonna be when we're talking about Margaret Thatcher from now on? It's true. You know, she helped with communism now, you know, she like. That will help out. There's a badass with the Falcon Island Wars. She was, she was awesome. You have all of our cocktail party trivia. I'm ready for this. Locked and loaded. This is excellent. Okay, so Before you start digging up. Any more stories to share over there, Mr. Turning over and unlocking vaults? Listen, I could get in trouble for this stuff. Okay. Okay. Let, I had to call him. Lot of favors. Let keep this low. Let's see. Let's see. Okay. Uh, do we have our call to action things that we should do besides also watching all of the Crown episodes? Watch everything. 'cause I said so. Uh, of course I do. I got a few things all the time. Anybody wants to go deeper into Thatcher's life? I highly suggest you do. I know Amanda won't because she has too much to do, but I suggest listeners you do, 'cause there is a ton of stuff we didn't cover. Read Charles Moore's three volume biography on her life and legacy. You know what? Maybe you should have a whiskey while you read it. Put you to sleep. I think that's a Wow. It's a monster read. It is a monster read, but it's close to the most holistic picture of her life as you're ever gonna get. I'm calling Lin Manuel to do a musical on her life. You should. It's the only way that like history sticks in my brain. So do it. Thatcher the musical. Let's go. I, I would totally go watch that shit. Yeah. Why couldn't he fig, why hasn't he done another one? Why did he just be Hamilton and Don? He could do that with so many more. I He did Mo No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't, I mean, with. Historical figures like that. Like, I don't know. But it took him years and years and years to write. I know. Like one song took him a year. He needs to birth another one. I know. Okay. I know it did. I know. All right. And another one would be, uh, since nobody reads anymore, who are we kidding with? Let's, uh, let's watch documentaries. 'cause those are easy and not long. And they're gonna be playing a ton of them for her hundredth birthday, coming up anyway. So just find one on the streaming service in the next few weeks. Okay? Watch a documentary. That's a good idea. Uh, if you don't wanna do any of that, then let's remember these important details to seem sort of sophisticated people. Uh. Number one, Margaret Thatcher, the grocer's daughter from Grantham, became Britain's first female prime minister and the first woman to lead a major western democracy. Number two, she pushed free market economics, privatization, and a tough stance against unions winning praise for revitalizing the economy and scorned for deepening inequality. Number three. Her nicknamed The Iron Lady came from a Soviet newspaper, but she lived up to it through the Falkland Islands war. Her battles with the miners and her uncompromising approach to the Cold War and communism. And finally, her time in power was marked by both triumph and turmoil. She reshaped Britain forever, and whether you see her as a savior or a destroyer, one thing is for certain, her and her handbag were impossible to ignore. And there you have it. Fellow listeners, a deep dive into the fierce, complicated, and unforgettable world of Margaret Thatcher from the grocer's daughter in Grantham to the Iron Lady in number 10. She wasn't just leading Britain through the 1980s, she was reshaping it for better or worse. So if we've done our job today, hopefully you're walking away a bit more sophisticated with a sharper Thatcher IQ and maybe a better sense of why she still matters a hundred years later. Whether you admired her grit or hated her stubbornness. Thatcher reminds us that leadership isn't about pleasing everyone. It's about standing firm in what you believe. Her legacy wasn't just politics. It was the way she embodied conviction in a world that didn't make space for women to lead. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to subscribe. Leave us a review and pass it along to someone who still thinks Thatcher was just the milk snatcher with a big handbag. We'd like to think we shared just enough information to make you either a Fleming nuisance or a little more sophisticated to your fellow humans, sort of. So until next time, stay curious and stay iron clad.
