(b.October 13, 1925), became the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1979; after succeeding Robert Heath as the Conservative leader, 1975. She had worked as a research chemist before becoming a barrister and entering Parliament in 1959. She had served as minister of pensions and national insurance, 1961; opposition spokesman on education, 1969; and secretary of state for education and science, 1970. In her administration as Prime Minister, she instituted cuts in government spending, and regained control of the Falkland Islands, 1982. On February 5, 1996, Margaret Thatcher stated:
We have to remember that the Jewish people never, ever lost their faith in the face of all the persecution and as a result have come to have their own promised land and to have Jerusalem as a capital city again.3840
Biblical basis affects one’s whole view, attitude and outlook when you think that the notion of human rights comes from the sanctity on the individual. Each person matters in the faiths that start off with this sanctity of the individual. The Decalogue [Ten Commandments] are addressed to each and every person. This is the origin of our common humanity and of the sanctity of the individual. Each one has a duty to try to carry out those commandments. You don’t get that in any other political creed. It isn’t merely about democracy and liberty as such. It is personal liberty with personal responsibility. Responsibility to your parents, to your children, to your God. This really binds us together in a way that nothing else does. If you accept freedom, you’ve got to have principles about the responsibility. You can’t do this without a biblical foundation. Your Founding Fathers came over with that. They came over with the doctrines of the New Testament as well as the Old. They looked after one another, not only as a matter of necessity, but as a matter of duty to their God. There is no other country in the world which started that way.3841
Today, people are trying democracy. But they look at it as a philosophy or political pattern, without understanding its roots. I’m afraid democracy’s fundamental religious roots are weakening. There are some countries, fortunately, kept alive by faithful people. But even they are tending to weaken. In the British system, children are taught Christianity. They are taught a faith in school. It is a compulsory subject. In my day, the schools were places where children learned the great hymns which stayed them the rest of their lives. Hymns, Prayers, Bible readings. It is really all locked together. These things pass into our bloodstreams. Even if your parents are not practicing Christians, or Jews, or what have you.3842
It is important that people realize that history is an enormous, great and wonderful story of the fantastic efforts of man in the face of great diversity. By looking at history this way, you see that man never lost faith, no matter how terrible things were.3843
Today, I am particularly concerned about the number of marriages that break up. And about the numbers of children that are born to single mothers. This is the greatest threat of all. Those numbers have gone up from 1950, both in your country and in mine. For centuries before that it stayed about the same. These things did happen to single mothers, but it was only about 5% of births. In the post-war period, mothers were provided with houses, or flats and incomes. We hoped that would help the children. But what we have done by this is not to relieve the problem, but to multiply it. Today, 30% of children in your country and mine are born to single mothers. We also find that the criminality factor in much higher in children with single mothers, for the reason that they’ve never been brought up against a stable background with a supportive environment. If there is one thing I cannot stand, it is any suggestion of cruelty or abuse of children. It is the worst crime. It was in the New Testament that our Lord said, “Anyone who harms these little ones shall have a millstone around his neck and sunk in the deepest sea.”3844
Winston Churchill … was a great traditionalist. I remember the last time he left the House of Commons. We were rising to go to the election, and knew he would not come back to the House. He couldn’t walk unaided. He got up from his seat and two members supported him. He turned around and bowed for the last time to the speaker. The significance of that is that he was not only bowing to the speaker. When we bow, we are bowing because the first Parliament sat in the Palace of Westminster in a student’s chapel. The speaker’s chair and the table in front were where the altar was. And so when it became the House of Commons, you would bow also toward the altar. And of course, we have prayers every day. So he was bowing for the last time. He was a man of great faith.3845