Britain needs an iron lady : an exploration into the rhetoric and ideology of Margaret Thatcher in the months preceding her appointment to the premiership

Abstract

This study explores Thatcher’s use of metaphor in the communication of her ideology in the months before she was elected prime minister of Britain in May 1979. The study contends that circumstance was the making of Thatcher. Contextual analysis is performed to establish the social and political circumstances that prompted Thatcher to respond with rhetorical discourse. Three rhetorical events are discerned: the industrial situation, the passing of the motion of no confidence and the election campaign, and these are defined in terms of Bitzer’s (1968) rhetorical situation. The study then examines Thatcher’s use of metaphor in her three speeches following Charteris-Black’s (2014) critical metaphor analysis. The analysis reveals that the metaphor type most frequently used by Thatcher is conflict, which is systematically deployed across the three speeches, giving rise to the main conceptual metaphor POLITICS IS CONFLICT. This conceptual metaphor helps create two political myths – the myth of the crusading Iron Maiden and the myth of Britain as a sick patient – that are central to Thatcher’s efforts at defining social reality. By portraying herself as the intrepid leader who remains resolute in the face of adversity and Britain as a nation in decline in need of a revival, Thatcher is able to present herself as the manifest solution to Britain’s problems. The Winter of Discontent strikes prove to be the straw that broke the camel’s back; after more than three decades of consensus politics, the British people were ready for a change. In the months preceding her ultimate political destiny, Thatcher’s rhetoric of legitimation correctly captured the nation’s mood for change, enabling her to fulfill her ambitious dream of becoming Britain’s first woman prime minister.