Margaret Thatcher's political downfall - a plot or not?

She was politically assassinated, pushed out of Number 10 by senior figures in her own party. The grassroots weren't ready for it and her loyal acolytes were furious. It was - she said a conspiracy - something her supporters believe to this day.
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[philmathieu]

In the end she fell because this lady "was never for turning" and that's a sign of someone who's stopped believing that the job wasn't about HER.

[MarbleWhornets]

She would have been so much better at negotiating Brexit than May is at the moment.

[Miguel]

The problem with some politicians is they think they own the position.

[johnurquhart]

"They had brought it about, " she said. In other words, she never admitted to any fault, and that was why she had to go.

[hjyigo]

What is overlooked a bit is the wet versus dry nature of her cabinet in 1990. Her biggest supporters from the early to mid 1980s had departed the scene. Ken Baker mentions Tebbit, but in 1990 he had long since departed the cabinet. Willie Whitelaw had retired in 1988. Cecil Parkinson, whilst back in government, was not the figure he had been before 1983. Howe and Lawson had both fallen out with her and left, so the cabinet's power was now much more in the hands of the wets or at least Thatcherite agnostics like Clarke, Hurd, Rifkind, Patten, Gummer, Major etc. Her 1990 cabinet was more like the 1979-1983 cabinet where she faced lots of opposition from the likes of Carrington and Prior.

[splinterbyrd]

She was the best man in England, and the only man in the Tory Party

[MrCaerbannog]

Thatcher should really have started identifying a successor after the 1987 election, and then agreed a timeline to hand over power a year or two later. Instead, she seemed to do the exact opposite and try to shore up her position so that she could be essentially PM for life.

[brianclough]

The thing is called Collective Responsibility by the Cabinet. Why shouldn't they be allowe dto speak their mind. Loyalty should be to country, then party, then leader. Not the other way round. If she emotionally blackmailed them into supporting her, or bullied them as before, she would get humiliated by Heseltine in the 2nd round. An ignominious end

[monizdm]

"It was treachery with a smile on its face". Well, well. Self pity is not attractive. It's politics in a democracy. Get used to it.

[Derrako]

Everything has its day. Including people. What made her believe she was excluded from that?

[thepanel]

No plot, unless the 'plot' was Thatcher being complicit in her own downfall. LOL. 
She was a divisive character at the best of times and had stopped listening to her own party. Did you see her interview in Scotland near election time with the female TV journalist? Thatcher was so out-of-touch in terms of 'reading' the public that it bordered on the bizarre. Get better advisors next time.

[yesterday]

Terrible people backstabbing terrible people.

[Loverboy]

She just couldn't accept defeat !! This reminds me of a scene from Doctor Who ''Genesis of the Daleks'' (1975) when those who opposed Davros gathered in one room and said that they didn't like his policies.

[JayBenjamin]

Yes, she might have clung onto power for, say, another year maybe but this was always an inevitability. She was a necessary leader but a relic of older times and attitudes.

[donmorris]

Was there not Two small identical men in grey suits that had words with her on the 11th hour ?

[Pearcity]

Today everyone knows how treacherous her cabinet was in her downfall. Their names are long forgotten.

[samwharton]

Ken Clarke has had a second career jumping in front of any microphone he can find and telling everyone how clever he was in playing his part. So many men seething at being eclipsed by Mrs. Thatcher.

[CARLIN]

Thatcher was and will always be a legend.

[samjones]

God what I would have given to be in that room and see her crying

[robin]

Ken Baker's memory of this is faulty - Norman Tebbit was no longer in the cabinet.