"Britain Awake" (also known as the Iron Lady speech) was a speech made by British Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher at Kensington Town Hall, London, on 19 January 1976. The speech was strongly anti-Soviet, with Thatcher stating that the Soviet Union was "bent on world domination" and taking advantage of détente to make gains in the Angolan Civil War. She questioned the British Labour government's defence cuts and the state of the NATO defences in parts of Europe. Thatcher stated that a Conservative government would align its foreign policy with the United States and increase defence spending. She also congratulated Malcolm Fraser and Robert Muldoon for their recent election as prime minister of Australia and New Zealand, respectively, but warned of the risks of a potential communist victory in the upcoming 1976 Italian general election. Thatcher urged the British public to wake from "a long sleep" and make a choice that "will determine the life or death of our kind of society".
The speech was reported on in the Soviet press, including by Yuri Gavrilov in the Krasnaya Zvezda who dubbed Thatcher the "Iron Lady", a term also used afterwards by the news agency TASS. The Soviet reporting, including the nickname, was discussed in a Reuters story that Western outlets picked up. The British press adopted the term as a mark of the strength of Thatcher's anti-communist stance, and she approved of its use.
Background
Thatcher had been a Conservative Party member of Parliament since 1959 and had served as Secretary of State for Education and Science in Edward Heath's government. After Heath lost the February and October 1974 general elections, Thatcher challenged him for the leadership of the party. Her policy positions, including her support for economic liberalism, won her the backing of the party's right wing. She was elected party leader in February 1975, becoming Leader of the Opposition.
Foreign relations in this period were dominated by the Cold War, a confrontation between the West and the Soviet Union (USSR) and its allies. By 1975 détente, a period of supposedly more friendly relations between the superpowers, was the principal position. At the time, some considered that détente could lead to the end of the Cold War. Thatcher had made few speeches on foreign policy by 1975. However, it was known that she was sceptical of Soviet intentions to keep the terms of the 1975 Helsinki Accords, a move towards more extensive détente.
In September 1975, Thatcher carried out a tour of the United States and Canada, meeting with senior figures such as UN secretary-general Kurt Waldheim and US president Gerald Ford. During this tour, she met US defence secretary James R. Schlesinger, a noted opponent of détente, and Treasury secretary William E. Simon, a prominent economic liberalist. During the tour, she made a speech at the Washington Press Club setting out her commitment to roll back socialism in Britain and rejuvenate the country through economic liberalism. She mentioned her views on détente and cautioned about the risks of such a strategy. Still, the main focus was on her proposed domestic reforms and Britain's continuing relationship with the US.
Thatcher's appearances in this period were managed by her public relations adviser Gordon Reece. On 19 January 1976 she was due to make a speech at Kensington Town Hall in London, one of her first major speeches as party leader.
Speech
Thatcher made the speech on the evening of 19 January 1976. The address had been written beforehand, and a copy given to the press with an embargo of 8 pm. A comparison between the press release and the speech as made reveals few differences, and those of a mainly stylistic nature.
Thatcher opened the speech by stating that the first duty of any government was to defend its people from external threats and asked rhetorically if the current Labour government was doing so. She accused prime minister Harold Wilson of cutting defence budgets at a time when the government faced its greatest external threat since the Second World War, that of the Soviet Union. Thatcher accused some members of the Labour Party of siding with the Soviets, who she stated was a dictatorship intent on becoming the leading military power in the world and "bent on world domination". Thatcher noted that as a dictatorship, "the men in the Soviet politburo don't have to worry about the ebb and flow of public opinion. They put guns before butter, while we put just about everything before guns".