First Thatcher ministry May 1979. The Winter of Discontent had seen the Labour government's popularity slump during the previous four months, and the opinion polls all pointed towards a Conservative victory. The Tories won the election with a majority of 44 seats and their leader Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first female prime minister. Thatcher inherited some of the worst economic statistics of postwar Britain. The nation was still feeling the effects of the numerous strikes during the recent Winter of Discontent. Inflation had recently topped 20%, and unemployment was in excess of 1.5 million for the first time since the 1930s. Thatcher's monetarist
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 –