MARGARET THATCHER’S rise from humble MP, in 1959, to party leader in 1975, and Prime Minister in 1979, was characterised by her energy and determination – qualities others described as stubbornness bordering on megalomania.

Following the Falklands conflict, she led the Conservatives to a sweeping victory in the elections of June 1983 after one of the most resolute results in history. As the Labour Party dived to its lowest election result since 1918, the Tories won their largest victory since the war.

In 1980, Michael Foot had replaced James Callaghan as Labour leader. Under Foot, the Labour Party took a swing to the left. With policies including withdrawal from the common market, abolition of the House of Lords, and the cancellation of the Trident nuclear programme, the Labour Party was deemed to be in the political wilderness.

Mrs Thatcher narrowly escaped injury in Brighton’s Grand Hotel blast – but although the IRA bomb killed several of her colleagues, she was not swayed from the course she had set herself and her government.

It would take more than a terrorist bomb to deflect Margaret Thatcher. This was, after all, the woman who said: “I stand before you in my green chiffon evening gown, my face softly made up, my fair hair gently waved – the Iron Lady of the Western World.”

In addition to the devastating bomb, the country was swarming with flying pickets and the collieries were at a virtual standstill.

But this was the woman who said to the 1981 Conservative Party conference: “You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning.”

Maggie ploughed on.

After her 1983 victory she was secure enough to pave the way for her policy of privatisation, the reverse process of post-war Labour leader Clem Atlee’s programme of nationalisation.

However, the Tories’ 150- seat majority came almost entirely from the South- East, where the benefits of monetarism were felt most.

For Margaret Thatcher, privatisation was “one of the central means of reversing the corrosive effects of socialism”.

1984 was a dark year for Margaret Thatcher – probably her darkest – but by the closing weeks the future had begun to look brighter.

But that same year, the Prime Minister demanded a rebate from the EU at Fontainbleu.

It was consolidated four years later in her famous Bruges speech calling for “our money back”.

As 1985 loomed, the economy was beginning to turn around – in the South- East at least, although the North-East was facing pit closures on a huge scale.

Margaret Thatcher had more battles to win. There would be more industrial unrest in the coming years – with Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper riots at Fortress Wapping grabbing the headlines from the defeated miners.

But with the stranglehold of restrictive legislation – Employment Act 1980, Employment Act 1982, Trade Union Act 1984 and the Employment Act 1988 – the unions would be effectively neutered by the end of the decade.

The closed shop was a thing of the past; union officials were made more accountable and democratic; there were prescribed procedures to be followed to secure consent for a strike; and flying and secondary pickets were outlawed.

There would be more IRA bombs, more economic catastrophes, more controversial battles – the abolition of the GLC was an immediate priority – but for now, at the close of 1984 and midway through her 11-year occupancy of Number 10 Downing Street, Margaret Thatcher was on course and in her element.