Parliamentary Debate

Abstract

This chapter considers the challenges that Thatcher faced in Parliament and the contribution of her performance in this forum to the establishment and embedding of her political persona. The chapter will open by identifying how and why effective parliamentary communication is so important to the morale of the Parliamentary Conservative Party. Numerous parliamentary exchanges will then be examined for the purposes of this evaluation. For example, the chapter will include key interventions such as her infamous opposition to Denis Healey and the Labour Finance Bill in 1975; her contribution to the confidence motion in the Callaghan government in the spring of 1979; her parliamentary statements (and questions) with regard to the Falklands War; her parliamentary justifications for key planks of the Thatcherite reforms, notably in terms of trade union reform and privatisation; her parliamentary responses when dealing with the Westland Affair in 1986; and her infamous ‘no, no, no’ speech in October 1990 and its impact.