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
Margaret Thatcher Thatcher did not devote herself entirely to studying chemistry as she only intended to be a chemist for a short period of time. Even while working on the subject, she was already thinking towards law and politics. She was reportedly prouder of becoming the first Prime Minister with a science degree than becoming the first woman, and as Prime Minister attempted to preserve Somerville as a women's college. During her time at Oxford, she was noted for her isolated and serious attitude. Her first boyfriend, (1926–2014), recalled that she was "very thoughtful and a very good conversationalist. That's probably what