Margaret Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his Conservative government. In 1975, Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become Leader of the Opposition, the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became Prime Minister after winning the 1979 general election. Thatcher introduced a series of economic policies intended to reverse high unemployment and Britain's struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an ongoing recession. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation (particularly
Diana Gould – Margaret Thatcher exchange toward it. The exchange between Thatcher and Gould became iconic, remembered because of Gould's persistence in asking why Thatcher had given the order, which seemed to rattle the prime minister. It was described as "the day Margaret Thatcher met her match". Thatcher was reportedly angry that the BBC had allowed the question to be asked. Her husband, Denis Thatcher, told the producer that the BBC was run by "a nest of long-haired Trots and wooftahs". Gould wrote a book about her experience, "On the Spot: The Sinking of the Belgrano" (1984). Diana Sydney Gould ("née" Prigg, 18 April 1926 –