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
Margaret Thatcher her premiership. Thatcher was parodied by Wells in several media. He collaborated with Richard Ingrams on the spoof "Dear Bill" letters, which ran as a column in "Private Eye" magazine; they were also published in book form and became a West End stage revue titled "Anyone for Denis?", with Wells in the role of Denis Thatcher. It was followed by a 1982 TV special directed by Dick Clement, in which Thatcher was played by Angela Thorne. Since her resignation as Prime Minister in 1990, Thatcher has been portrayed in a number of television programmes, documentaries, films and plays. She was