Margaret Thatcher — a woman of character, leadership and a convicted spirit. A woman dedicated to individual freedom. The Heritage Foundation is proud of our special friendship with Lady Thatcher.

At a time when the Soviet Empire was still a powerful force, oppressing millions of people, Lady Thatcher tackled communism head on as prime minister of Great Britain.

She believed in the crucial need for America to exert international leadership in the cause of freedom and partnered with conservative American leaders like Ronald Reagan and The Heritage Foundation to ensure individual liberty.

Her commitment to the principles of free enterprise, limited government, and individual freedom lace the eternal friendship between The Heritage Foundation and Lady Thatcher.

Lady Thatcher visited Heritage several times throughout her life and received the Clare Boothe Luce Award, Heritage’s highest honor for contributions to the conservative movement.

She often referred to Heritage as the leader for conservative principles and said Heritage flew “the flag for conservatism over this last quarter-century with pride and distinction” during a1997 visit.

When Lady Thatcher chose Heritage to house the Thatcher Center for Freedom, an institution faithful to carrying forward her legacy in the United States, Heritage was honored.

In an open letter to Heritage members, Lady Thatcher said she selected Heritage because of its commitment “to defending and restoring sound conservative principles.”

In 2006, Lady Thatcher became the “patron” of Heritage. Her new title recognized Lady Thatcher’s “singular contributions as a leader of the free world and to the improvement of the life of her nation and people.”

Through blog posts, reports, videos, lectures and special events, Heritage remains a strong support system for the important lessons to be learned from Lady Thatcher and her legacy.

We’ve compiled some of our favorite moments of the Heritage–Lady Thatcher friendship. Read, watch and learn more below.

The Foundry:

Margaret Thatcher-related blog posts

Reports:

How Margaret Thatcher Helped to End the Cold War

Margaret Thatcher Center to be based at The Heritage Foundation

A Tribute to Margaret Thatcher – 30 years on

The West Must Prevail

Remarks by the Vice President Presenting Lady Margaret Thatcher with the Clare Boothe Luce Award

Lectures:

Achieving Change: What we can learn from Margaret Thatcher

What we can learn from Margaret Thatcher

The West Must Prevail by Lady Margaret Thatcher 12/9/02

Multimedia:

Remembering Margaret Thatcher, 1925-2013

(VIDEO) The real legacy of Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s Iron Lady

(AUDIO) Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A political marriage

(AUDIO) Achieving Change: What we can learn from Margaret Thatcher

(AUDIO) Ted Bromund on “The Iron Lady”: Heritage in Focus Podcast

Events:

There is no alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters

Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A political marriage

Achieving Change: What we can learn from Margaret Thatcher

United States of …America or Europe?

Great Britain and the world have lost a great leader. The Heritage Foundation, like all of America, has lost a faithful ally. And, speaking personally, my wife and I have lost a dear friend.

Lady Thatcher now takes her place in history alongside Sir Winston Churchill, the Duke of Wellington and all the other great British heroes who defeated enemies of their island nation. 

An intrepid warrior for freedom and human dignity, Prime Minister Thatcher stood with her “noble friend,” President Ronald Reagan, to confront the Soviet empire when it was at its peak.

Her courage and steadfastness earned the respect of her fiercest foes. It was, after all, the Russians who dubbed her the Iron Lady.

At home, Lady Thatcher’s free-market reforms were revolutionary – and salutary. Using deregulation and privatization, she restored Great Britain, once dismissed as the “sick man of Europe,” to its position as a world power. Indeed, her policies led the way and inspired other nations – including those in newly free Eastern Europe – to adopt similar reforms to boost their economies.

Characteristically clear-eyed, she called Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein “psychopaths” in a Washington speech to members of The Heritage Foundation’s President’s Club on Dec. 9, 2002 – 15 months after the September 11 attacks.

Lady Thatcher, who visited Heritage more than a few times, was in town that evening to receive the Clare Boothe Luce Award, our highest honor for contributions to the conservative movement. Despite her achievements, though, she never lost a gracious personal touch.

The day after her address, she spoke to our staff. But she insisted it not be in a formal setting. She wanted a room and a microphone – and she got it. She then delivered a speech with Heritage employees crowded around her, as if she were a soccer coach giving a pep talk to her team on the field.

That is how I will remember Lady Thatcher: in the middle of things, working to advance freedom, inspiring others to join her.

I not only had the privilege of visiting Lady Thatcher and being introduced to some of her closest allies in Britain, but of returning the courtesy by introducing her to some of Heritage’s best friends in America. To the end, as embodied in the Iron Lady, age only strengthened the storied “special relationship” between our nations.

The Heritage Foundation is honored that she chose us to be the only American public policy institute with a Thatcher Center, and the only one that could officially call her “patron.”

We will do our best to live up to Margaret Thatcher’s example of principled leadership and iron will.

Those who advocate for redefining marriage are increasingly infringing on the religious liberty of Jews, Muslims, Christians, and others who embrace the timeless concept of marriage as the union of one man and one woman to produce and raise children.

As this video by Janet Porter shows, the fundamental issue is not whether the government should recognize same-sex unions, but whether people have the right to express their beliefs, religious or otherwise, without being labeled as hateful and without becoming vulnerable to hate crime legislation. 

Janet’s video raises the question: Is religious freedom at risk in our nation as a result of the government permitting only one perspective on marriage—namely, changing that institution into something it has never been in human history?

Americans believe in defending our freedom.  We support and sympathize with courageous people in other countries who rise up, often in extreme danger, to claim their freedom.  

That's why the current events in Egypt are deeply troubling.  Egyptians are rising up to defend their freedom.  Hundreds of thousands of them are protesting Moammed Morsi’s dictatorial regime. 

They are in grave danger.  Reports tell of Egypt's ruling party "paying gangs of thugs to sexually assault women" who participate in the protests.  And the Muslim Brotherhood is "paying gangs to beat up men" who speak out. 

But that's just the beginning of this grisly nightmare.  An Egyptian newspaper reports that Mohammed Morsi's government is torturing those who dare to dissent.  

Why hasn't our President expressed outrage over the atrocities being committed?  He was deeply disturbed at waterboarding that was done to protect American lives, but he's turned a blind eye to these vile acts. 

And why is Barack Obama sending 1.3 BILLION dollars of tanks and weapons to this evil regime? 

Please pray, and do whatever you can, for our liberty-loving friends in Egypt.

Thank you, Mr. President.  I appreciate the kind words and your invitation here today.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned this election season, it’s that a few words from Bill Clinton can do any man a lot of good.  

After that introduction, I guess all I have to do is wait a day or two for the bounce.

Since serving as President here in America, President Clinton has devoted himself to lifting the downtrodden around the world.  One of the best things that can happen to any cause, to any people, is to have Bill Clinton as its advocate.  That is how needy and neglected causes have become global initiatives. It is that work that invites us here today.

As I have watched the astounding impact of this Initiative from afar, I have been impressed by the extraordinary power you have derived by harnessing together different people of different backgrounds, and different institutions of different persuasions. You have fashioned partnerships across traditional boundaries — public and private, for-profit and nonprofit, charitable and commercial.

On a smaller scale, I have seen partnerships like this work before. In Massachusetts, two social pioneers brought corporations and government and volunteers together to form City Year, the model for Americorps. I sat with then candidate for President Bill Clinton as he investigated the life-changing successes which occurred when young people came together for a year of service, linked in teams with corporate sponsors.  Then, as the head of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, I saw again the stunning success than comes when the disparate elements of a community join together in unity, to overcome challenges that had seemed insurmountable before.

The Clinton Global Initiative has also demonstrated the effectiveness of entrepreneurship and social enterprise.  You endeavor to not only comfort the afflicted, but to also change lives thorough freedom, free enterprise, and the incomparable dignity of work.

Free enterprise has done more to bless humanity than any other economic system not only because it is the only system that creates a prosperous middle class, but also because it is the only system where the individual enjoys the freedom to guide and build his or her own life. Free enterprise cannot only make us better off financially, it can make us better people.

Ours is a compassionate nation. We look around us and see withering suffering. Our hearts break.  While we make up just 4.5 percent of the world’s population, we donate nearly a quarter of all global foreign aid—more than twice as much as any other country.  And Americans give more than money.  Pastors like Rick Warren lead mission trips that send thousands of Americans around the world, bringing aid and comfort to the poorest places on the planet.  American troops are first on the scene of natural disasters.  An earthquake strikes Haiti and care packages from America are among the first to arrive – and not far behind are former Presidents Clinton and Bush.

But too often our passion for charity is tempered by our sense that our aid is not always effective. We see stories of cases where American aid has been diverted to corrupt governments. We wonder why years of aid and relief seem never to extinguish the hardship, why the suffering persists decade after decade.

Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream.  It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

How can we protect the great legacy of liberty and carefully share it with our children?  

One important way is to recognize that liberty is a gift from God.  We cannot hope to preserve it without his help.  

Here are some thoughts from our Founding Fathers who sacrificed everything to help establish America as a beacon of liberty and hope to the world. 

“Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?  That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?”  ~ Thomas Jefferson


“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  ~ Thomas Jefferson (Declaration of Independence)


"Liberty is a gift of the beneficent Creator to the whole human race... and cannot be wrested from any people, without the most manifest violation of justice."  ~ Alexander Hamilton


"Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature."  ~ Benjamin Franklin


"When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers 'just men who will rule in the fear of God.'  The preservation of a republican government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty.

If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made not for the public good so much as for the selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded. If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws."    ~Noah Webster


“Providence seems by every means intent on making us a great people. May our virtues public and private grow with us, and be durable, that liberty, civil and religious, may be secured to our posterity, and to all from every part of the Old World that take refuge among us.”  ~Benjamin Franklin


“I believe with all my heart that standing up for America means standing up for the God who has so blessed our land.  We need God’s help to guide our nation through stormy seas.  But we can’t expect Him to protect America in a crisis if we just leave Him over on the shelf in our day-to-day living.”  ~Ronald Reagan


"From the poignancy of General Washington's legendary prayer in the snow at Valley Forge to the dangerous times in which we live today, our leaders and the people of this Nation have called upon Divine Providence and trusted in God's wisdom to guide us through the challenges we have faced as a people and a Nation."  Ronald Reagan

How would you like to find a survival kit for freedom?  

What would you give for such a valuable kit?

 President Ronald Reagan has one for you.  It's called "Free to Choose" by Milton Friedman. 

In the video below President Reagan praises Nobel Prize winner, Milton Friedman, and the principles he teaches.  

President Reagan said that Milton Friedman's work is "of rare importance,"  and his lecture series, "Free to Choose," teaches concepts that “led to our prosperity and have given us our freedom.”   

In fact, Reagan calls "Free to Choose" a "survival kit for you, for our nation, and for freedom."       The videos were made decades ago, but they are more relevant today than ever!

Below are all 10 "Free to Choose" lectures. Each video title is linked to the transcript for that video.

The videos and transcripts are a goldmine of valuable principles.  I hope you enjoy them! 

Note:  Links to Milton Friedman's autobiography, and other great resources, are included after the "Free to Choose" videos.

(If you can't see all 10 videos, click the tiny red "Read More" link below.)

"Over the past few decades, America has locked up more and more people. Our prison population has tripled. Now we jail a higher percentage of people than even the most repressive countries: China locks up 121 out of every 100,000 people; Russia 511. In America? 730.

“'Never in the civilized world have so many been locked up for so little,' The Economist says.

"Yet we keep adding more laws and longer jail terms.

"Lavrentiy Beria, head of Joseph Stalin’s secret police in the old Soviet Union, supposedly said, 'Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.' Stalin executed anyone he considered a threat, and it didn’t take much to be considered a threat. Beria could always find some law the targeted person had broken. That’s easy to do when there are tons of vague laws on the books. Stalin 'legally' executed nearly a million people that way.

"I’m not saying that America is like Stalin’s Russia, but consider the federal laws we have. The rules that bind us now total more than 160,000 pages. The Congressional Research Service said it was unable to count the number of crimes on the books. Yet last week the feds added or proposed another thousand pages. States and cities have thousands more. Have you read them all? Have our “representatives” read them all? You know the answer."  


Read the rest of the article:  America, the Law-Crazed

"The greatest distinguishing factor between countries in which there is some freedom and those where authoritarian governments manage personal behavior is the rule of law. 

"The idea that the very laws that the government is charged with enforcing could restrain the government itself is uniquely Western and was accepted with near unanimity at the time of the creation of the American republic. 

Without that concept underlying the exercise of governmental power, there is little hope for freedom.

"The rule of law is a three-legged stool upon which freedom sits. The first leg requires that all laws be enacted in advance of the behavior they seek to regulate and be crafted and promulgated in public by a legitimate authority. The goal of all laws must be the preservation of individual freedom. A law is not legitimate if it is written by an evil genius in secret or if it punishes behavior that was lawful when the behavior took place or if its goal is to solidify the strength of those in power. It also is not legitimate if it is written by the president instead of Congress.

"The second leg is that no one is above the law and no one is beneath it. Thus, the law’s restraints on force and fraud need to restrain everyone equally, and the law’s protections against force and fraud must protect everyone equally. This leg removes from the discretion of those who enforce the law the ability to enforce it or to afford its protections selectively. This principle also requires that the law enforcers enforce the law against themselves. Of course, this was not always the case. In 1628, the British Parliament spent days debating the question “Is the king above the rule of law, or is the rule of law above the king?” Thankfully, the king lost – but only by 10 votes out of several hundred cast.

"The third leg of the rule of law requires that the structures that promulgate, enforce and interpret law be so fundamental – Congress writes the laws, the president enforces the laws, the courts interpret the laws – that they cannot be changed retroactively or overnight by the folks who administer them. Stated differently, this leg mandates that only a broad consensus can change the goals or values or structures used to implement the laws; they cannot be changed by atrophy or neglect or crisis.

"The values in America are set forth in the Declaration of Independence, and the governmental structures in America are set forth in the Constitution. The former – that our rights are inalienable and come from our Creator and not from the government – is not merely a recitation of Thomas Jefferson’s musings. The Declaration is the articulation of our values then and now, and it, too, is the law of the land.

"The Constitution was written – largely by James Madison – to define and to limit the federal government, and it was quickly amended by adding the Bill of Rights so as to be sure that natural rights would be respected by the government. This tension between the power of the majority – at the ballot box or in Congress – and the rights of the minority – whether a discrete class of persons or a minority of one – is known as the Madisonian dilemma. Stated differently, the Constitution provides for protection against the tyranny of the majority.

"In our system, the power to resolve the dilemma is reposed into the hands of the judiciary, and those who have that power are to resolve it without regard to popularity or politics. Their oath is to the Constitution. They have the final say on what the laws mean. If they follow the rule of law, they will invalidate that which the government has done and which is properly challenged before them and which is not authorized by the Constitution. Their very purpose is to be anti-democratic, lest the popular majority takes whatever lives, liberties or property it covets. In return for life tenure, we expect judicial modesty, and we demand constitutional fidelity – not political compromise.

"In our era, the violations of the rule of law have become most troublesome when the government breaks its own laws. Prosecute Roger Clemens for lying to Congress? What about all the lies Congress tells? Prosecute John Edwards for cheating? What about all the cheating in Congress when it enacts laws it hasn’t read? Bring the troops home from the Middle East? What about all the innocents killed secretly by the president using CIA drones? Can’t find a way to justify Obamacare under the Constitution? Why not call it what its proponents insisted it isn’t – a tax?

"We live in perilous times. The president acts above the rule of law and fights his own wars. Congress acts below the rule of law by letting the president do whatever he can get away with. 
And this summer, the Supreme Court rewrote the rule of law.

"What do we do about it?"

This 10 minute video helps dispel some myths about government that many of us were taught.  It explains:

• Why law is necessary for freedom.
  
• How people who seek power often use anarchy to gain control.
  
• Why James Madison called democracies “spectacles of turbulence and contention.”
  
• How republics preserve life and liberty.
  
• Why limited government allows people to produce and prosper.
  
• Why “the essence of freedom is the proper limitation of government.”