New innovations and changing party make-up

• One American innovation that was swiftly adopted by the Conservatives was the use of computers to target and contact potential voters in marginal constituencies
• Party Chairman Cecil Parkinson organised a direct mail campaign that reached 500,000 voters before the 1983 general election
• The social makeup of the Conservative Party changed more rapidly under Thatcher than in the years before 1979
• Although most MPs still went to university, the party became less posh
• The proportion of MPs educated at public schools dropped from 75% to 66% between 1974 and 1987
• There were more self-made businessmen and fewer men of inherited wealth
• Thatcher is fairly accused of doing little to advance women in politics
• During her time as PM, the no. of female MPs only increased from 19 to 41
• She believed that merit alone should lead to a successful political career and was opposed to any form of positive discrimination in favour of women
• Thatcher's determination to drive forward with policies she believed to be right ultimately led to her downfall in November 1990
• By 1990, she had alienated a long list of Conservative, 'big beats', who were unhappy at being ignored or even rebuked in cabinet
• Tow of the most senior to be handbagged were Chancellor Nigel Lawson (resigned Oct 1989) and Deputy PM Geoffrey Howe