Thatcher marks 80th birthday with big bash
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-14 09:44

Her hard-driving style earned her the "Iron Lady" nickname, a term reinforced to some in 1982 when she led Britain into war against Argentina after it invaded the Falkland Islands, forcing it to retreat.

She held office from 1979 until 1990, when the badly divided Conservatives rebelled and pushed her from power. Since then, the party has struggled to regain its footing. While Major eked out a victory in the 1992 vote, the Tories have lost three straight elections to Blair's Labour Party and gone through three leaders since then.

"The greatest tribute people pay these days is 'Come back Maggie,'" her former press secretary Sir Bernard Ingham said.

Both friends and political foes alike paid tribute to Thatcher on Thursday.

Cecil Parkinson, a one-time Conservative chairman, recalled being impressed by a speech the future prime minister gave on taxes at the party's 1965 conference.

Margaret Thatcher makes a rare public appearance in January 2005.[AFP/file]

"Ten years later, when she became the leader of the Conservative Party, the late James Callaghan (then Labour prime minister) was quoted as saying `We have just won the next election,'" Parkinson said. "He could not believe that a woman leader of the Conservative Party would beat him."

Thatcher's Tories routed Callaghan at the polls in 1979, and she became the country's first female prime minister.

Tony Benn, one of the most outspoken lawmakers from the Labour Party's left wing, also tipped his hat to Thatcher.

"Mrs. Thatcher said what she meant and meant what she said," he said. "And did it. Although I thought the policies were catastrophic in terms of democracy, she did not do anything by deception."