Margaret Thatcher become a generic descriptor for strong-willed female politicians. Thatcher became Prime Minister on 4 May 1979. Arriving at Downing Street she said, paraphrasing the misattributed Prayer of Saint Francis: Thatcher was to remain in office throughout the 1980s. For most of her premiership, she was described as the most powerful woman in the world. Thatcher was Leader of the Opposition and Prime Minister at a time of increased racial tension in Britain. Commenting on the local elections of 1977, "The Economist" noted "The Tory tide swamped the smaller parties. That specifically includes the National Front (NF), which suffered a clear
Premiership of Margaret Thatcher Meyer. As Meyer was a virtually unknown backbench MP, he was viewed as a "stalking horse" candidate for more prominent members of the party. Thatcher easily defeated Meyer's challenge, but there were sixty ballot papers either cast for Meyer or abstaining, a surprisingly large number for a sitting Prime Minister. Her supporters in the Party, however, viewed the results as a success, claiming that after ten years as Prime Minister and with approximately 370 Conservative MPs voting, the opposition was surprisingly small. Thatcher was fiercely committed to a new tax—commonly called the "poll tax"—that would apply in equal amounts to