On becoming prime minister after winning the 1979 general election, Thatcher introduced a series of economic policies intended to reverse high inflation and Britain's struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an oncoming recession. [nb 1] Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Her popularity in her first years in office waned amid recession and rising unemployment. Victory in the 1982 Falklands War and the recovering economy brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her landslide re-election in 1983. She survived an assassination attempt by the Provisional IRA in the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing and achieved a political victory against the National Union of Mineworkers in the 1984–85 miners' strike. Huggins, Martha K. (2012). "State Torture: Interviewing Perpetrators, Discovering Facilitators, Theorizing Cross-Nationally - Proposing "Torture 101" ". State Crime Journal. 1 (1): 45–69. ISSN 2046-6056. JSTOR 41917770. Kelly, Tobias (2019). "The Struggle Against Torture: Challenges, Assumptions and New Directions". Journal of Human Rights Practice. 11 (2): 324–333. doi: 10.1093/jhuman/huz019. Thatcher had been firmly opposed to British membership of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM, a precursor to European Economic and Monetary Union), believing that it would constrain the British economy, [142] despite the urging of both Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson and Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe; [143] in October 1990 she was persuaded by John Major, Lawson's successor as chancellor, to join the ERM at what proved to be too high a rate. [144] Two police officers say they knew of five cases of bodies either showing signs of torture, or bound with gunshot wounds in and around Trostyanets. The latest body found a few days ago in Bromolya – a few kilometres north of Trostyanets – had “knife wounds to his legs and arm”. Two other bodies were found in Bilka, another nearby village.

Pérez-Sales, Pau (2020). "Psychological torture". Research Handbook on Torture: Legal and Medical Perspectives on Prohibition and Prevention. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp.432–454. ISBN 978-1-78811-396-0. A cage is strapped against the victim’s body. The side proximal to the unfortunate victim is left open. The executioner would then put large rats and trap them inside. Then a heating element would be placed on the side or on top of the cage to provoke the rats to burrow through the victim’s body. #17. Chair of Torture or Judas’ Chair

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The Conservative Party, led by Edward Heath, won the 1970 general election, and Thatcher was appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Education and Science. Thatcher caused controversy when, after only a few days in office, she withdrew Labour's Circular 10/65, which attempted to force comprehensivisation, without going through a consultation process. She was highly criticised for the speed at which she carried this out. [72] Consequently, she drafted her own new policy ( Circular 10/70), which ensured that local authorities were not forced to go comprehensive. Her new policy was not meant to stop the development of new comprehensives; she said: "We shall [...] expect plans to be based on educational considerations rather than on the comprehensive principle." [73] Torture was widely used by colonial powers to subdue resistance and reached a peak during the anti-colonial wars in the twentieth century. [41] [42] An estimated 300,000 people were tortured during the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962), [43] and the United Kingdom and Portugal also used torture in attempts to retain their respective empires. [44] Independent states in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia often used torture in the twentieth century, but it is unknown whether their use of torture increased or decreased compared to nineteenth-century levels. [41] During the first half of the twentieth century, torture became more prevalent in Europe with the advent of secret police, [45] World War I and World War II, and the rise of communist and fascist states. [15]

In most cases, privatisation benefited consumers in terms of lower prices and improved efficiency but results overall have been mixed. [180] Not all privatised companies have had successful share price trajectories in the longer term. [181] A 2010 review by the IEA states: "[I]t does seem to be the case that once competition and/or effective regulation was introduced, performance improved markedly [...] But I hasten to emphasise again that the literature is not unanimous." [182] Thatcher was criticised for the neglect of the Falklands' defence that led to the war, and especially by Labour MP Tam Dalyell in Parliament for the decision to torpedo the General Belgrano, but overall, she was considered a competent and committed war leader. [241] The " Falklands factor", an economic recovery beginning early in 1982, and a bitterly divided opposition all contributed to Thatcher's second election victory in 1983. [242] Thatcher frequently referred after the war to the "Falklands spirit"; [243] Hastings & Jenkins (1983, p.329) suggests that this reflected her preference for the streamlined decision-making of her War Cabinet over the painstaking deal-making of peacetime cabinet government. As the name suggests, the claw-like device, which ended in spikes, was heated and then used to rip off or shred a woman’s breasts. The spider was a variant, attached to a wall instead of clamped onto a woman’s breast by a torturer.This mechanically simple torture device, first introduced in the Tower of London in 1420 by the Duke of Exeter, was popular due to its capability to inflict excruciating pain with the aim of extorting confessions – often false – from prisoners. The victim was tied to a wooden structure, either a wooden board or a ladder, as a system of cranks were turned, tightening the ropes that restrained the victim’s limbs, stretching them beyond endurance.