Did Margaret Thatcher Have Dementia

The Thatcher Twins Were Born August 15 1953

Mark and Carol Thatcher were born via Caesarean section six weeks premature, according to The Scotsman. It was just a few months before their mother completed her law school exams, and she was an MP by the time the twins were six. The two went to boarding school at relatively young ages.

As the Radio Times noted and season 4 of The Crown portrays, it is widely believed that Mark was the child who received more affection from their mother. Carol herself wrote in A Swim-on Part in the Goldfish Bowl, “Mark was certainly the star,” per an excerpt that appeared in The Daily Mail.

The Scotsman said, “Carol was raised by nannies and teachers at St. Paul’s boarding school,” because her mother was busy in politics and her father had a lucrative and high-stress corporate job of his own. According to The Guardian, Mark went to Harrow School in London where he was a gifted young athlete.

Dementia Is Slowly Claiming One Of Britain’s Sharpest Political Minds

Francis Elliott, Deputy Political Editor

Baroness Thatcher has been suffering from dementia for at least seven years, her daughter has revealed in the first public account of the former Prime Ministers illness.

Carol Thatcher tells how her mothers memory is failing and says that she sometimes struggles to finish sentences but has flashes of her old self . .. particularly when events from the past are mentioned.

Ms Thatcher details her mothers fading mental powers in a memoir of life in and out of Downing Street. The death of Sir Denis Thatcher in 2003 was truly awful since she kept forgetting he was dead, according to the book, A Swim-on Part in the Goldfish Bowl: A Memoir. Every time it finally sank in that she had lost her husband of more than 50 years, shed look at me sadly and say Oh, as I struggled to compose myself. Were we all there? shed ask softly.

Lady Thatcher, 82, was advised to stop public speaking on health grounds shortly before her husbands death. Although it is known widely that she has suffered a number of strokes, her dementia has been far less publicised. The first signs were apparent when she was 75, according to her daughter, who tells of her becoming confused about the Bosnian and Falklands conflicts during a lunch in 2000.

Death And Funeral Of Margaret Thatcher

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On 8 April 2013, former British prime minister , died of a stroke at the Ritz Hotel, London, at the age of 87. On 17 April, she was honoured with a ceremonial funeral. Due to polarised opinion about her achievements and legacy, reaction to her death was mixed across the UK and included contrasting praise, criticism, and celebration of both her life and death.

The funeral, including a formal procession through Central London that was followed by a church service at St Paul’s Cathedral attended by the Queen, cost around £3.6;million, including £3.1;million for security. Thatcher’s body was subsequently cremated at Mortlake Crematorium.

Her ashes were buried at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, London, in a private ceremony on 28 September 2013, alongside those of her husband Denis.

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The Iron Lady And Margaret Thatcher’s Dementia: Why This Despicable Film Makes Voyeurs Of Us All

The Iron Lady reflects societys insensitive attitude towards dementia sufferers.

The film ended and I sat motionless while the credits rolled. Slowly I got up and walked out into the cold January air, sickened by what Id been party to, so acutely aware that the scenes presented as entertainment and edification scenes Id paid to see were, at that very moment, possibly taking place in a grand house somewhere in central London. I had partaken of cruel, thoughtless voyeurism, the subject of which was powerless to protest at her exploitation.

There was never any doubt that The Iron Lady would be a controversial film. The mere mention of , despite her leaving office over two decades ago, still divides the nation as it did when she was Prime Minister. Since its release last Friday, the movie has played to packed audiences, taking £2.2million in its opening weekend and reaching number 1 at the UK box office.

Yet it has also attracted protests and pickets, as well as accusations from those who remain hostile to her premiership that it portrays Lady Thatcher in a forgiving light.

My anger at the film has nothing to do with politics. I dont object to the artistic licence exercised over certain events or the way Lady Thatchers political life is portrayed. My issue is with the portrayal of how she is now. And I suspect that those who have seen the film will feel the same.

What We Learned From Reagans Alzheimers And Thatchers Dementia

What we learned from Reagans Alzheimers and Thatchers Dementia

U.S. President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sharing a conversation at the White House in 1988.

Though they were two of the most powerful global leaders of our time, neither U.S. President Ronald Reagan nor British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had the power to overcome dementia. Ronald Reagan died of dementia-related pneumonia in 2004, and Baroness Thatcher passed away in 2013 from the effects of a series of strokes.

What can other families learn from the experiences of the Reagan and Thatcher families, both of whom became advocates for dementia awareness?

Dementia and Alzheimers affect people of every demographic. Dementia patients and their families often suffer in silence. Family caregivers need care, too. Support and improved dementia-care training are lifelines. More research efforts are vital to slow and someday end progressive cognitive disorders.

To learn more, read the Home Health Solutions Groups Blog, where you will always find the latest information about senior living, dementia care and home care.

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Iron Lady: Dementia And Margaret Thatcher

If Carol and Sir Mark Thatcher want to exact revenge on their mother Margaret for being a cold or absentee mother, then condoning and endorsing the film “The Iron Lady” is a surefire way to do it.

I am no fan of Margaret Thatcher’s. My political views run counter to almost everything she stood for. But, after watching Meryl Streep’s star turn this week, I could not help feeling pity for the woman whose dementia-ridden dotage is currently on display on at least two continents.

Both Streep and Phyllida Lloyd, the film’s director, deny The Iron Lady is a biopic. They’re wasting their breath. Most audiences are either too ill informed or too apathetic to exert any energy on sorting out fact from fiction. It has been widely reported that Ms. Thatcher suffers from dementia. Whether the exact lines of dialogue came from Thatcher herself or from the screenwriter’s imagination is irrelevant.

One does not choose a life in the public eye without understanding that personal privacy will be compromised. But what happens when one can no longer choose for oneself? Ronald Reagan was blessed with a wife who fiercely guarded his privacy during an excruciatingly painful decade of mental decline. Unfortunately for Ms. Thatcher, she outlived her beloved husband, Denis, who might have done the same for her.

The poor woman probably doesn’t have many years left. Would it have cost anyone their livelihood to wait until her death to reveal her pitiful hallucinations to the world?

Member Of Parliament: 19591970

In 1954, Thatcher was defeated when she sought selection to be the Conservative party candidate for the Orpington by-election of January 1955. She chose not to stand as a candidate in the 1955 general election, in later years stating: “I really just felt the twins were only two, I really felt that it was too soon. I couldn’t do that.” Afterwards, Thatcher began looking for a Conservative safe seat and was selected as the candidate for Finchley in April 1958 ” rel=”nofollow”>Ian Montagu Fraser). She was elected as MP for the seat after a hard campaign in the 1959 election. Benefiting from her fortunate result in a lottery for backbenchers to propose new legislation, Thatcher’s maiden speech was, unusually, in support of her private member’s bill, the Public Bodies Act 1960, requiring local authorities to hold their council meetings in public; the bill was successful and became law. In 1961 she went against the Conservative Party’s official position by voting for the restoration of birching as a judicial corporal punishment.

On the frontbenches

In the Shadow Cabinet

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Ongoing Support And Improved Dementia

The Reagans open disclosure of the former presidents anticipated mental decline brought relief to Alzheimers families across the world. Today, organizations like the Alzheimers Association offer a caregiver center stocked with reliable information, programs and resources and a 24-hour hotline, 1-800-272-3900, to help with support at any stage of dementia. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at 800-352-9424 also lists an online resource page of dementia organizations .

Challenges To Leadership And Resignation

During her premiership Thatcher had the second-lowest average approval rating of any post-war prime minister. Since Nigel Lawson’s resignation as Chancellor in October 1989, polls consistently showed that she was less popular than her party. A self-described conviction politician, Thatcher always insisted that she did not care about her poll ratings and pointed instead to her unbeaten election record.

In December 1989, Thatcher was challenged for the leadership of the Conservative Party by the little-known backbench MP Sir Anthony Meyer. Of the 374 Conservative MPs eligible to vote, 314 voted for Thatcher and 33 for Meyer. Her supporters in the party viewed the result as a success and rejected suggestions that there was discontent within the party.

Opinion polls in September 1990 reported that Labour had established a 14% lead over the Conservatives, and by November, the Conservatives had been trailing Labour for 18;months. These ratings, together with Thatcher’s combative personality and tendency to override collegiate opinion, contributed to further discontent within her party.

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Famous People With Dementia

President Ronald Reagan designated November as National Alzheimers Awareness Month. Reagan himself would later succumb to the disease, but Alzheimers Awareness Month continues.

Other celebrities like Glen Campbell and Rita Hayworth have heightened understanding of the illness and reduce the stigma of Alzheimers patients by publicly announcing their own illnesses.

Alzheimers disease doesnt just target one group of people. Rich or poor, famous or unknowndementia can strike. Heres a list of just a few of the more well-known people with Alzheimers or another kind of dementia.

Leader Of The Opposition: 19751979

The Heath government continued to experience difficulties with oil embargoes and union demands for wage increases in 1973, subsequently losing the . Labour formed a minority government and went on to win a narrow majority in the . Heath’s leadership of the Conservative Party looked increasingly in doubt. Thatcher was not initially seen as the obvious replacement, but she eventually became the main challenger, promising a fresh start. Her main support came from the parliamentary 1922 Committee and The Spectator, but Thatcher’s time in office gave her the reputation of a pragmatist rather than that of an ideologue. She defeated Heath on the first ballot and he resigned the leadership. In the second ballot she defeated Whitelaw, Heath’s preferred successor. Thatcher’s election had a polarising effect on the party; her support was stronger among MPs on the right, and also among those from southern England, and those who had not attended public schools or Oxbridge.

Thatcher became Conservative Party leader and Leader of the Opposition on 11 February 1975; she appointed Whitelaw as her deputy. Heath was never reconciled to Thatcher’s leadership of the party.

“The ‘Iron Lady'”

I stand before you tonight in my Red Star chiffon evening gown, my face softly made up and my fair hair gently waved, the Iron Lady of the Western world.

Thatcher embracing her Soviet nickname in 1976

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Death And Funeral: 2013

Baroness Thatcher died on 8 April 2013, at the age of 87, after suffering a stroke. She had been staying at a suite in the Ritz Hotel in London since December 2012 after having difficulty with stairs at her Chester Square home in Belgravia. Her death certificate listed the primary causes of death as a “cerebrovascular accident” and “repeated transient ischaemic attack“; secondary causes were listed as a “carcinoma of the bladder” and dementia.

Reactions to the news of Thatcher’s death were mixed across the UK, ranging from tributes lauding her as Britain’s greatest-ever peacetime prime minister to public celebrations of her death and expressions of hatred and personalised vitriol.

Details of Thatcher’s funeral had been agreed with her in advance. She received a ceremonial funeral, including full military honours, with a church service at St Paul’s Cathedral on 17 April.

Queen Elizabeth;II and the Duke of Edinburgh attended her funeral, marking only the second time in the Queen’s reign that she attended the funeral of any of her former prime ministers, after that of Winston Churchill, who received a state funeral in 1965.

Medical Gazes When Is A Film Actually A Film About Dementia

In the biopic The Iron Lady , starring Meryl Streep as former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the frame narrative shows Thatcher as an old woman looking back on significant stages of her life and political career. Even before the movie came out, it had already sparked intense public and political controversy: Fellow members from Thatchers conservative party found it distasteful and degrading that their great icon seemed to be depicted as a senile and disturbed old woman . And critics from the political left objected conversely that Thatcher was shown in a softening, humanizing light, promoting sympathy and blinding out the more disagreeable aspects of her political persona . Either way, the consensual underlying conviction in both camps was that the film shows Thatcher as a person with dementia, that it is actually a film dealing with dementia.

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Day Of The Funeral And Aftermath

Flags along Whitehall were lowered to half-mast at 08:00, and as a rare mark of respect the chimes of the Palace of Westminster‘s Great Clock, including Big Ben, were silenced from 09:45 for the duration of the funeral. At the Tower of London, a 105;mm gun fired every 60 seconds during the procession.:10.43;am Muffled bells tolled at St Margaret’s Church at Westminster Abbey,:10.02;am and at St Paul’s.

The funeral cortège commenced at the Houses of Parliament, where Thatcher’s coffin had lain overnight in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft beneath St Stephen’s Hall at the Palace of Westminster. The funeral procession was as follows:

• From the Palace of Westminster, a motor hearse travelled down Whitehall, across Trafalgar Square and down the Strand and Aldwych;

The bidding was given by the Dean of St Paul’s, David Ison. Amanda Thatcher gave the first Bible reading; the second reading was given by the prime minister, David Cameron. The Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, also gave an address.

Carol Has Spoken Candidly About Her Complicated Relationship With Her Mother And Mark Being The Favored Twin

Once she reached adulthood and became more of an independent figure, Carol has been willing to voice her issues with her mom including specifics about how she was raised. After an older Margaret reportedly expressed dismay that her grown children were not around her much, Carol rebuffed her.

“A mother cannot reasonably expect her grown-up children to boomerang back, gushing coziness and make up for lost time,” Carol said according to The Scotsman. “Absentee mum, then Gran in overdrive is not an equation that balances.”

In 2006, Carol was asked by the Independent whether she would ever consider going into politics like her mother, and responded, “Noone is enough in the family. I don’t want to do it.“

It is also believed by many that Mark and Carol’s complex relationship stems from her assertion that Mark was the preferred child. According to the Independent, she once said, “I always felt I came second of the two. Unloved is not the right word but I never felt that I made the grade.

Per The Guardian, it seemed that Carol and Denis actually had a closer relationship. In another excerpt of her writing from The Daily Mail, Carol wrote that the death of Denis was quite challenging for Margaret to grapple with.

Losing Dad … was truly awful for Mum, not least because her dementia meant she kept forgetting he was dead, she wrote. I had to keep giving her the bad news over and over again.

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Prime Minister Of The United Kingdom: 19791990

Thatcher became prime minister on 4 May 1979. Arriving at Downing Street she said, paraphrasing the Prayer of Saint Francis:

Where there is discord, may we bring harmony;Where there is error, may we bring truth;Where there is doubt, may we bring faith;And where there is despair, may we bring hope.

In office throughout the 1980s, Thatcher was frequently described as the most powerful woman in the world.