Margaret Thatcher tendency to override collegiate opinion, contributed to discontent within her party. Thatcher removed Geoffrey Howe as Foreign Secretary in July 1989 after he and Lawson had forced her to agree to a plan for Britain to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). Britain joined the ERM in October 1990. On 1 November 1990, Howe, by then the last remaining member of Thatcher's original 1979 cabinet, resigned from his position as Deputy Prime Minister, ostensibly over her open hostility to moves towards European Monetary Union. In his resignation speech on 13 November, Howe commented on Thatcher's openly dismissive attitude to
Denis Thatcher a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, asking "So, what do you think the fuzzy wuzzies are up to?" In December 1990, following the resignation of his wife as Prime Minister, it was announced that Denis Thatcher would be created a baronet (the first such creation since 1964). The award was gazetted in February 1991, giving his title as Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, of Scotney in the County of Kent. Thus Margaret was entitled to style herself Lady Thatcher while retaining her seat in the House of Commons; however she made it known that she preferred to be addressed as