+0.93 +1.23%. Margaret Thatcher was the Iron Lady who ran Britain from 1979 to 1990, a period in which she defined a generation. Which, as you might imagine, is where the Iron Lady comes in. Denis Thatcher muttered that the BBC was a nest of long-haired Trots and wooftahs. Her critics reveled in seeing an average citizen make Thatcher lose her cool. What, then, accounts for the popularity of the Thatcher soft-serve origin myth? The promotional campaign featured TV adverts in which characters urged each other to "tell Sid" about the chance to buy shares at "affordable" prices. The claim that Mrs. Thatcher helped invent soft-serve ice cream while at Lyons is widely distributed, even appearing in the address given at her funeral in 2013 by the then bishop of London, who described her as part of the team that invented Mr. Whippy, the major British soft-serve brand. Restrictions on hire purchase offers were relaxed, stores offered credit, credit cards boomed. And thework resulted, ultimately, in the swirly stuff we know today as soft serve. Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. The claim was that Thatcher, who had gotten her degree in chemistry from the University of Oxford, had worked at J. Lyons & Co., where she had been instrumental in creating the emulsifiers used in soft-serve ice cream, along with the process of injecting air into the mixture to make it even more light and wonderful. The preceding Labour government had ended a similar program for older children with little controversy, but the same could not be said for Thatcher. When soft-serve arrived in the UK, J Lyons was indeed at the forefront. It was enshrined in the Housing Act of 1980, making it one of her first major pieces of legislation after she came to office in 1979. VAT, or value added tax, jumped from 8% to 15%. British Telecom, British Airways, British Steel, as well as water and electricity firms were among those privatised later. Fascinating Facts About Margaret Thatcher | Mental Floss Margaret Thatcher facts: Mr Whippy ice cream, sleep, an - mirror The Iron Lady of Soft Serve. Her first job was at BX Plastics in Essex. She also gave Margaret, then 13, a firsthand account of Nazism that affected the future PM deeply. But Mrs. Thatcher is not the only female scientist nominated. ; she appeared 10 times between 1966 and 1970, and seemed to make a sport out of cutting off long-winded male guests. A visibly agitated Thatcher retorted, I think it could only be in Britain that a prime minister was accused of sinking an enemy ship that was a danger to our navy, when my main motive was to protect the boys in our navy, adding, One day, all the facts will be revealed and they will indicate as I have said.. Within a few years, the basic rate of tax had fallen to 25%, while the higher rate had been slashed to 40%. All rights reserved. Margaret Thatcher Quotes (Author of The Downing Street Years) - Goodreads Thatcher left chemistry after only a few years, returning to school to study law in 1952. Margaret Thatcher, then known as chemist Margaret Roberts helped turn ice cream into a cheaper dessert by adding air. Some people remember former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as the quick-witted "Iron Lady" who resolutely lead the UK through the end of the Cold War. They were encouraged further as credit was unleashed. On January 15 1990 those warrants were issued by Strathclyde Regional Council - then the countrys largest local authority - and anyone who ignored them suffered the humiliation of a warrant sale in their own home. All rights reserved. The miners' strike of 1984-85 came to symbolise the government's battle with the unions. And sheput it to use first in work at a glue factory, and then with a research job at food manufacturer J. Lyons and Company, a "foodstuff conglomerate" in Hammersmith. Margaret Thatcher gave her last speech as Prime Minister at the October 1990 Conservative Party Conference, Poll tax protestors march through Glasgow, Scottish campaigners took the fight to Westminster, Poll tax protestor Tommy Sheridan became a household name in Scotland, Resignation speech by Geoffrey Howe in 1990 which led to the end of Margaret Thatcher's reign as PM. Customer must pay applicable taxes. Very little connected to Margaret Thatcher's legacy comes without an argument. Mrs. Thatcher, then Margaret Hilda Roberts, studied chemistry at the University of Oxford, and after graduating went to work as a chemist at J. Lyons, a British restaurant chain that also sold its own lines of food and, for a while, some of the worlds first business computers. Before she became the "Milk Snatcher," Thatcher found another way to work with dairy. Thatcher helped to convince Reagan to develop a working relationship with new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Mr. McCullough made soft serve in 1938 in Moline, Ill. One August day, he offered it at a friends ice cream shop in Kankakee, Ill., and 1,600 people paid 10 cents for all they could eat of his newfangled treat. Mr. Carvel appears to have stumbled on soft serve about the same time. Reached by phone at the B. and B. he operates in Northamptonshire, Tillyer told me that Softee and Whippy evolved separately from one another, and that Whippy was in fact founded because its proprietor failed to secure rights to the Softee brand. In 1995, two economists calculated the total worth of the assets sold from 1979 through the early 90s, at 45 billion, which is about 87.16 billionor $115 billiontoday. Margaret Thatcher May Have Helped Invent Soft-Serve Ice Cream The Milk Snatcher, who was also an ice cream inventor. What is the Significance of Luck in Japan? It led to riots. When his truck carrying ice cream broke down in Hartsdale, N.Y., he sold it from the truck over two days as it softened. This morning, Margaret Thatcher, a chemist on the team that invented the 99-cent soft ice cream cone, died at 87 due to complications from a stroke. Contrary to some aggrandizing myths, Thatcher did not invent soft serve ice cream while working at J. Lyons. Membership fell from over 12 million in 1980 - today there are fewer than 6 million members of Trades Union Congress-affiliated unions. The Bank of England did not control the expansion of credit and there are those who see the roots of the current financial crisis in the credit boom of the Thatcher years. The sale price was based on market valuation, but included substantial discounts, depending on how long a tenant had been living there. Margaret Thatcher shortlisted to be on the 50 note for being an 'ice cream pioneer' (not prime minister) November 28, 2018, 4:53 PM. Margaret Thatcher - Wikipedia Please whitelist in order to read our content as well as support our work. The Washington Post, in the wake of her death last week, claimed she "helped invent ice-cream as we know it", adding that her efforts as part of the Lyons team to create a cheap, airy ice-cream were "one aspect of Margaret Thatcher's legacy we can all feel unequivocally good about". The problem comes when you consider that soft-serve had been popular in the US for around a decade before Thatcher started her work at J. Lyons & Co. Mr. Lee, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0 Margaret Roberts studied chemistry at Oxford University from 1943 to 1947. (A similar patriotic impulse may lie behind the widespread notion that Thomas Jefferson introduced vanilla ice cream to America.) A week later, she gave a speech to conservatives. 1925-1947: Grantham & Oxford Margaret Thatcher at a friend's house, summer 1935. Here, BBC reporters look at some of the changes that, for better or worse, have changed our finances forever. By 1959, Tillyer continues, J. Lyons was in the vanguard of the new soft ice cream revolution and well ahead of WallsT. Margaret, who was already a studious learner, read up on Nazi anti-Semitism. Okay. Yes. Big Bang moved them at a stroke from that to screen-based and telephone trading. After the interview, Thatcher and her husband abruptly left the studio. 10 Things You May Not Know About Margaret Thatcher - HISTORY The claim by the bishop of London in his funeral address that the former scientist was "part of the team that invented Mr Whippy ice-cream" is no exception. AN astonishing 250,000 Scots were served summary warrants in what was the defining momentin Scotlands war with Margaret Thatchers hated poll tax. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Unions insist that the collapse in traditional manufacturing industries during the 1980s did as much to diminish their power. Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister 1979-1990 - ThoughtCo So, partly thanks to Thatcher, your ice cream is now less dense and arguably less delicious. Learn More. The Chancellor, Geoffrey Howe, raised travel allowances to 1,000 per trip and permitted overseas property purchases of up to 100,000. Thatcher was a food research scientist at J Lyons but, as a Royal Society article noted in May 2011, the details of her work there are sketchy. The Legend of Margaret Thatcher - Economix Blog To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Thatcher's chemistry career was relatively short-lived, and in and in 1952 she went back to school to study law. Since the Housing Act came into force, it is estimated that some two million homes have been sold to former council tenants. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. When most people think of Margaret Thatcher, they dont usually think of hot summer afternoons, endless sun, and the excitement of ice cream. Clement Attlee (prime minister from 1945 to 1951), who built the welfare state Thatcher worked to dismantle, ranked highest in both. Charles Moore, her authorized biographer, is skeptical. Email us atscoop@thesun.co.ukor call 0141 420 5300, News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. Specialties: We handcraft our premium ice cream one delicious scoop at a time! Thatcher repeated, When it was sunk, it was a danger to our ships, but Gould would not back down, noting several times that it was not in an exclusion zone the British had deemed unsafe for ships. During her years as prime minister, Margaret Thatcher revolutionised the economic fortunes of every person in the UK. Margaret Thatcher, Conservative Icon, Raised Taxes To Balance The Thatcher, characteristically, would not budge. Video, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims, US-made cheese can be called 'gruyere' - court, Saving Private Ryan actor Tom Sizemore dies at 61, Alex Murdaugh's legal troubles are far from over, AOC under investigation for Met Gala dress, The children left behind in Cuba's exodus, Mother who killed her five children euthanised, Walkie Talkie architect Rafael Violy dies aged 78. Mrs Thatcher wanted self-reliance, not reliance on the state. The myth was likely started by the British left as a metaphor for her political policies. LONDON The Bank of England has decided to honor a scientist with its next bank note design. In an attempt to cut spending, the Treasury ended a 1940s-era program providing milk, free of charge, at schools to children ages 7 to 11. Price competition was not allowed, fixed commissions were the norm. With money from tax cuts in their pockets, shoppers began to rediscover the "feelgood factor". Subscribe to Iconic: http://bit.ly/zVEuIYMargaret Thatcher at the conservative party conference giving a speech on taxes. We pay for your stories and videos! I had incurred the maximum of political odium for the minimum of political benefit., After the Labour party retook power in 1974, Thatcher was elected leader of the Conservative Party. Wall & Sons, a subsidiary of Unileverwho had to purchase the Mr. Whippy organisation in order to catch up. Lyons-owned Softee and Walls-owned Whippy were rivals, the Coke and Pepsi of British soft-serve. Margaret Thatcher helped invent ice cream as we know it The poll tax was supposed to make local council finance more accountable but instead it brought about civil disobedience and riots not seen in this country for years. The idea of European unity is a grand concept, she told Les Grandes Conferences Catholiques. Margaret Thatcher Invented Soft-Serve Ice Cream | Bon Apptit The Milk Snatcher, who was also an ice cream inventor. And, of course, mortgages were easier to get. In 1998, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet traveled to the UK for medical treatment. In the U.S., companies like Carvel and Dairy Queen had been selling soft-serve ice cream since the '30s, but it wasn't the fluffy, creamy stuff you'd expect to get from a Mr. Softee today--the original soft-serve was likely denser, since both Dairy Queen and Carvel claim that their inspiration came when they found that customers preferred ice cream that hadn't yet frozen totally solid. Nominations for a replacement are open until Dec. 14, but on Monday the bank published the suggestions that had met its basic criteria so far. Her degree was awarded in 1947, the research job came not long after, and she was presently introduced to Denis Thatcher and persuaded to change careers. Strategic tax-raiser. On average, during her premiership, 40 percent of the public was satisfied with her job performance while 54 percent were dissatisfied. But under New Labour, the main planks of the reforms of the Thatcher years remained unchanged. John Major wrote a five-page personal letter to his predecessor, Margaret Thatcher, to tell her of his government's decision to abolish her flagship poll tax, which he described as unfair,. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. Thatcher reveled in the designation. McCullough (who came up with this new kind of ice cream on purpose) and Tom Carvel (who came up with it quite accidentally when his truck broke down and he kept selling the melting ice cream) in 1938.