Margaret Thatcher, Britain's Prime Euro-Skeptic

Prime Minister David Cameron called Margaret Thatcher, who died on April 8 at age 87, Britain’s greatest peacetime leader. She deserves the accolade. Taking office in 1979, Thatcher transformed an economy crippled by militant unions and a moribund public sector. She declared war on organized labor and state-owned enterprises—and won. It’s a testament to her success that subsequent Labour governments tried to unwind almost nothing of her economic legacy. In domestic policy, Thatcher settled the big arguments once and for all.

In her policy toward Europe, things were different. Again she declared war, this time on the visionaries who wanted to change the European Economic Community from a free-trade zone with benefits into a United States of Europe, and on their dupes (as she saw them) in her own Conservative Party. In this battle she gave her life, politically speaking. The argument over Britain’s place in Europe wasn’t settled, though. It rages as fiercely as ever today.