Margaret Thatcher Dies At 87

LONDON (AFP) – Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady” who shaped a generation of British politics, died following a stroke on Monday at the age of 87, her spokesman said.
“It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning,” 

Lord Tim Bell said. She was a key ally and close friend of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, sharing with him a view on free-market, monetarist solutions to the economic problems of the day, as well as an uncompromising stance on how to handle the former Soviet Union, earning her the nickname “the Iron Lady.” Together the two led a rightward shift in Western politics that extolled the virtues of a free-market economic system with little government intervention that has largely endured, though aspects, such as the deregulation of financial services, have been questioned during the credit crisis. In moves that were widely copied, Mrs. Thatcher took on Britain’s all-powerful trade unions and privatized state-run industries, governing with a take-no-prisoners style that earned her both admiration and dislike