1 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:41,880 On 2nd April 1982, Margaret Thatcher ordered a large task force 2 00:00:41,880 --> 00:00:44,080 to set sail for the Falkland Islands. 3 00:00:47,480 --> 00:00:51,520 The islands had been captured by Argentina only hours before. 4 00:00:55,680 --> 00:00:58,720 The loss of the Falklands was a political and diplomatic disaster 5 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:00,720 which threatened Margaret Thatcher's future 6 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:02,880 and the survival of her Government. 7 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:05,600 She was well aware the stakes were high. 8 00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:09,080 I can only tell you 9 00:01:09,080 --> 00:01:11,680 that from the day that I heard 10 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:13,480 they might invade... 11 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:16,400 to the night when we heard 12 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:22,440 that the white flags were flying over Port Stanley, 13 00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:25,920 I lived at an intensity, 14 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:28,440 at a concentration, 15 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:33,440 that I have never experienced before...or since. 16 00:01:39,640 --> 00:01:44,200 She saw our failure here as a damning indictment, 17 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:47,560 potentially, of our whole philosophy. 18 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:51,680 This would be the critical, final, irrevocable evidence 19 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:54,160 of the decline of this country. 20 00:01:54,160 --> 00:01:58,040 And that was the thing that hit her, I think, 21 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:01,000 hardest between the eyes, right from the start. 22 00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:07,200 As the Argentine people celebrated the capture of the Falklands, 23 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:09,760 few there expected Britain to respond. 24 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:12,440 Mrs Thatcher's Government had given every signal 25 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:14,200 to the President, General Galtieri, 26 00:02:14,200 --> 00:02:17,640 that Britain had lost interest in this colonial relic 27 00:02:17,640 --> 00:02:19,320 thousands of miles from home. 28 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:23,920 Every war in my lifetime need not have happened. 29 00:02:23,920 --> 00:02:29,080 If the European powers had handled Hitler sensibly in the '30s 30 00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:31,520 that war wouldn't have happened. 31 00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:36,280 The Falklands war was an extraordinary thing 32 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:40,680 because we'd been through the situation when we were in power. 33 00:02:40,680 --> 00:02:42,840 We knew the Argentinians, 34 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:45,760 if they saw a chance of taking the Falklands, would do it. 35 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:48,480 She didn't make it absolutely clear - 36 00:02:48,480 --> 00:02:50,640 she should have done, to Galtieri - 37 00:02:50,640 --> 00:02:54,080 that if he went for the Falklands, she would resist. 38 00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:56,560 We were full of anger. 39 00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:59,880 They were our people, they were the Queen's islands, 40 00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:03,560 they're our territory, and we thought the days had gone 41 00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:07,400 when anyone belonging to the United Nations 42 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:10,520 attempted to take someone else's territory by conquest. 43 00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:13,040 Those dictators were stupid. 44 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:14,800 They misjudged us. 45 00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:19,440 In the days which followed the invasion, 46 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:22,320 Margaret Thatcher was dangerously vulnerable. 47 00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:24,680 Her Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington 48 00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:27,960 shouldered the blame for the disaster and resigned. 49 00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:30,880 Carrington's self-sacrifice 50 00:03:30,880 --> 00:03:34,520 gave Margaret Thatcher the political breathing space she needed. 51 00:03:35,920 --> 00:03:38,960 British territory had been invaded by the Argentines, 52 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:41,200 it was a humiliating disaster 53 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:43,360 and when you go to war, 54 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:47,440 I think you have to go as a united country 55 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:51,800 and I think for everyone to start arguing about who was to blame 56 00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:55,040 and why doesn't he resign and all the rest of it, I think that's all wrong. 57 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:56,680 I think you take responsibility. 58 00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:59,640 I was the Foreign Secretary and I took the responsibility 59 00:03:59,640 --> 00:04:01,880 and I think that was absolutely right. 60 00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:06,200 Margaret Thatcher's hostility to the Foreign Office 61 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:08,800 was not eased by Lord Carrington's departure. 62 00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:11,680 It came as no surprise to her 63 00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:15,120 that the Foreign Office counselled against sending the task force, 64 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:17,960 calling instead for a negotiated settlement. 65 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:24,320 The diplomats warned of the grave dangers of military action. 66 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:25,880 Margaret Thatcher believed 67 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:28,880 that the Foreign Office was trying to thwart her historic duty 68 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:30,000 to recover the islands. 69 00:04:32,040 --> 00:04:34,040 There are always two sorts of people in life. 70 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:37,760 One who look at the difficulties and who are swayed by those - 71 00:04:37,760 --> 00:04:40,480 and that was the Foreign Office. 72 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:44,800 Others who look at and weigh up all the difficulties 73 00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:47,840 and all the opportunities... 74 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:54,120 ..and the courageous course of action 75 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:56,120 for the larger freedom. 76 00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:57,600 I refused to accept 77 00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:02,320 that she was any more patriotic than I was, or the Foreign Office was, 78 00:05:02,320 --> 00:05:04,280 but we had to tell the Foreign Secretary 79 00:05:04,280 --> 00:05:05,880 and we had to tell the Prime Minister 80 00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:07,760 what we saw were the consequences 81 00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:11,120 of the particular line that she wanted to take. 82 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:14,080 She wanted to take it but, I think, actually, in her heart, 83 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:17,080 she probably wanted to hear what the downside was as well. 84 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:21,960 We had to tell her but it made us sound, perhaps, in her view, 85 00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:25,000 cautious, negative, conciliatory. 86 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:27,840 SHE SIGHS Well, I do think it's spineless 87 00:05:27,840 --> 00:05:30,080 when you put all the difficulties. 88 00:05:30,080 --> 00:05:34,520 They wanted us to negotiate and you can't negotiate away an invasion, 89 00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:36,200 you can't negotiate away 90 00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:38,880 that the freedom of your people has been taken. 91 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:43,680 That it's been taken by a cruel dictator. 92 00:05:43,680 --> 00:05:48,000 You've got to stand up and you've got to have the spine to do it. 93 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:52,640 Yes, I know I got very ratty sometimes and said, "Look... 94 00:05:52,640 --> 00:05:56,080 "when I'm out of politics I'm going to run a business, 95 00:05:56,080 --> 00:05:58,040 "it'll be called Rent A Spine." 96 00:06:06,840 --> 00:06:10,240 In Argentina, a deeply loathed dictatorship 97 00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:13,440 had gained popularity overnight by invading the Falklands. 98 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:19,280 Diplomats at the Foreign Office suspected 99 00:06:19,280 --> 00:06:22,520 Margaret Thatcher's determination to recapture the Falklands 100 00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:24,720 sprang from a similar desire on her part 101 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:28,040 to salvage her beleaguered political position. 102 00:06:30,200 --> 00:06:34,280 We saw, with the Argentines, I think, 103 00:06:34,280 --> 00:06:38,000 the fact that they were in a very difficult domestic situation 104 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:42,160 induced them to behave very foolishly internationally 105 00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:45,320 in the hope of obscuring their domestic difficulties. 106 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:51,360 That's by no means peculiar to military dictatorships, 107 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:54,400 it's a feature of all political life. 108 00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:58,000 And a Prime Minister who has problems at home 109 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:00,880 will sometimes try to recover them 110 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:04,080 by one kind of activity or another abroad. 111 00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:06,240 I've just taken over from Lord Carrington, 112 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:08,240 who was a very fine Foreign Secretary, 113 00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:10,440 a very fine Foreign Secretary indeed. 114 00:07:10,440 --> 00:07:13,280 And, of course, my first concern is the affair of the Falkland Islands 115 00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:15,120 and I'm going to start... 116 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:18,360 I've already started work on that this evening. 117 00:07:18,360 --> 00:07:21,280 'Margaret Thatcher's distrust of the Foreign Office 118 00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:24,440 'was intensified by the arrival of a new Foreign Secretary.' 119 00:07:25,840 --> 00:07:27,880 'At a time of political weakness, 120 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:29,920 'she was obliged to appoint a rival 121 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:32,640 'and a wet of the old school, Francis Pym, 122 00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:35,480 'who supported a negotiated settlement.' 123 00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:39,040 'There's no doubt that Francis Pym and I did have a different view' 124 00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:41,280 on many of the things. 125 00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:43,960 Which was strange, in a way. 126 00:07:43,960 --> 00:07:47,800 He had been a Secretary of State for Defence, 127 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:51,920 he had been a very gallant officer in World War II. 128 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:57,360 And he also was a very good and skilled parliamentarian. 129 00:07:57,360 --> 00:07:59,200 And I thought on this matter, 130 00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:01,840 although we might differ on home affairs, 131 00:08:01,840 --> 00:08:04,920 we might have been very much together. 132 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:09,440 We were, as it happened, a little bit further apart than I ever though. 133 00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:12,000 It would be quite true to say that we didn't hit it off 134 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:16,480 because our philosophy of life, our outlook on life, are different. 135 00:08:16,480 --> 00:08:19,800 We approached it from different points of view, 136 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:24,360 so that was obviously inherently difficult - a difficult situation. 137 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:30,760 The Prime Minister was equally irritated by America's failure 138 00:08:30,760 --> 00:08:32,920 to give Britain its full and unequivocal backing. 139 00:08:35,600 --> 00:08:37,960 It's a very difficult situation for the United States 140 00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:40,400 because we're friends with both of the countries 141 00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:41,720 engaged in this dispute. 142 00:08:41,720 --> 00:08:45,280 And we stand ready to do anything we can to help them 143 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:48,320 and what we hope for and would like to help in doing 144 00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:50,360 is have a peaceful resolution of this 145 00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:54,980 with no forceful action or no bloodshed. 146 00:08:58,060 --> 00:09:01,740 Unlike her Foreign Secretary, the Prime Minister had no time 147 00:09:01,740 --> 00:09:05,340 for the American Secretary of State Al Haig's Peace Shuttle. 148 00:09:07,100 --> 00:09:08,460 To Margaret Thatcher, 149 00:09:08,460 --> 00:09:11,460 Haig's proposals for a negotiated settlement with Argentina 150 00:09:11,460 --> 00:09:12,700 reeked of appeasement. 151 00:09:14,500 --> 00:09:17,260 I did say to him, look, Al, 152 00:09:17,260 --> 00:09:19,380 this is where Neville Chamberlain walked, 153 00:09:19,380 --> 00:09:26,900 this is where he talked about peace with honour over a faraway country. 154 00:09:26,900 --> 00:09:30,340 I'm not in the business of appeasement. 155 00:09:30,340 --> 00:09:32,660 Appeasement is wrong, 156 00:09:32,660 --> 00:09:36,020 it only encourages dictators. 157 00:09:36,020 --> 00:09:38,100 Dictators have to be beaten. 158 00:09:38,100 --> 00:09:42,940 Appeasement is no part of my psyche. 159 00:09:44,380 --> 00:09:48,020 I don't think Mrs Thatcher really liked negotiations at all 160 00:09:48,020 --> 00:09:49,940 or the negotiating process. 161 00:09:49,940 --> 00:09:53,900 Indeed, in her moments, I think she thought the whole concept 162 00:09:53,900 --> 00:09:55,940 was in some way dishonourable, 163 00:09:55,940 --> 00:09:57,500 which I found very curious 164 00:09:57,500 --> 00:09:59,940 because in a crisis of this kind 165 00:09:59,940 --> 00:10:02,180 if one can negotiate one's way out of it 166 00:10:02,180 --> 00:10:04,660 so that one doesn't have to use the force of arms, 167 00:10:04,660 --> 00:10:06,860 it must be to everybody's advantage. 168 00:10:06,860 --> 00:10:09,620 Indeed, I thought it was my duty as Foreign Secretary 169 00:10:09,620 --> 00:10:13,020 to go to the ultimate limits 170 00:10:13,020 --> 00:10:15,860 in trying to find a way of not having to go to war. 171 00:10:19,740 --> 00:10:23,780 The Haig Peace Shuttle gave the task force time to train for war. 172 00:10:25,220 --> 00:10:28,220 A conflict Mrs Thatcher considered inevitable. 173 00:10:30,500 --> 00:10:32,260 By contrast, on April 21st, 174 00:10:32,260 --> 00:10:34,940 the ever-hopeful British Foreign Secretary 175 00:10:34,940 --> 00:10:39,100 travelled to Washington to discuss Al Haig's latest peace proposals. 176 00:10:41,140 --> 00:10:45,140 I come because of the very serious situation 177 00:10:45,140 --> 00:10:48,420 that has developed in the South Atlantic, 178 00:10:48,420 --> 00:10:53,660 due to the aggression by the Argentine 179 00:10:53,660 --> 00:10:57,300 and her unlawful invasion of the Falkland Islands. 180 00:10:57,300 --> 00:10:59,420 Al Haig's latest plan, 181 00:10:59,420 --> 00:11:02,580 which allowed for an Argentine presence remaining in the Falklands, 182 00:11:02,580 --> 00:11:05,020 was not welcome to the Prime Minister 183 00:11:05,020 --> 00:11:06,620 when she learned of it in London. 184 00:11:07,900 --> 00:11:11,500 Francis came to see me in my study 185 00:11:11,500 --> 00:11:14,420 and showed me what he'd brought back, 186 00:11:14,420 --> 00:11:17,620 which was a deterioration 187 00:11:17,620 --> 00:11:23,380 on the third proposals that Al Haig had had. 188 00:11:23,380 --> 00:11:26,060 And they were worse from our viewpoint. 189 00:11:26,060 --> 00:11:29,060 And he told me that he was minded to recommend 190 00:11:29,060 --> 00:11:32,060 the acceptance of these by the War Cabinet. 191 00:11:32,060 --> 00:11:35,780 I was really just appalled and said, "We can't possibly. 192 00:11:35,780 --> 00:11:39,300 "We shall never hold up our heads again." 193 00:11:39,300 --> 00:11:41,180 If you're searching for a peace formula 194 00:11:41,180 --> 00:11:43,020 and a lot of colleagues in this country, 195 00:11:43,020 --> 00:11:46,060 people in this country are involved in it, 196 00:11:46,060 --> 00:11:46,980 I see nothing wrong 197 00:11:46,980 --> 00:11:49,700 in putting on the table what Al Haig had worked out. 198 00:11:49,700 --> 00:11:50,900 And that's what I did. 199 00:11:54,780 --> 00:11:57,540 As the War Cabinet assembled in Downing Street, 200 00:11:57,540 --> 00:12:00,660 Francis Pym lobbied his colleagues for their support 201 00:12:00,660 --> 00:12:04,180 for the proposals the Prime Minister regarded as a sell-out. 202 00:12:07,380 --> 00:12:11,060 I got into Number Ten about five to six 203 00:12:11,060 --> 00:12:17,500 and the first person I saw was Francis Pym 204 00:12:17,500 --> 00:12:19,580 and he said to me, 205 00:12:19,580 --> 00:12:26,060 "I've got the final Haig proposals. 206 00:12:26,060 --> 00:12:29,940 "I'm going to recommend that they be accepted 207 00:12:29,940 --> 00:12:33,740 "and I hope I'll have your support." 208 00:12:33,740 --> 00:12:35,420 The meeting was about to begin. 209 00:12:35,420 --> 00:12:38,060 We all assemble in the anteroom to the Cabinet Room 210 00:12:38,060 --> 00:12:43,740 and Francis said he was still going to prepare to recommend acceptance. 211 00:12:43,740 --> 00:12:48,220 And I got Willie Whitelaw and said, 212 00:12:48,220 --> 00:12:49,860 "Come, we must have a talk", 213 00:12:49,860 --> 00:12:52,500 and told him there's no way in which I could accept them. 214 00:12:52,500 --> 00:12:55,620 Francis Pym put forward the peace plan 215 00:12:55,620 --> 00:12:57,660 to his colleagues in the War Cabinet. 216 00:12:58,740 --> 00:13:00,780 They joined with Margaret Thatcher 217 00:13:00,780 --> 00:13:04,460 in utterly rejecting the proposals for a negotiated settlement. 218 00:13:06,140 --> 00:13:08,540 They were quite clear that that price was too high 219 00:13:08,540 --> 00:13:09,820 and this was going too far 220 00:13:09,820 --> 00:13:11,980 and we couldn't possibly go down that road. 221 00:13:11,980 --> 00:13:14,660 So, there was no question of any problem with the War Cabinet, 222 00:13:14,660 --> 00:13:16,420 they were all very much of a mind 223 00:13:16,420 --> 00:13:18,780 and I think afterwards I recognised 224 00:13:18,780 --> 00:13:21,660 that they were quite right in taking that view. 225 00:13:21,660 --> 00:13:28,220 I think that was the worst moment of confrontation, if you like, 226 00:13:28,220 --> 00:13:32,020 but I think from that time on 227 00:13:32,020 --> 00:13:36,540 she felt that the Foreign Office had got him 228 00:13:36,540 --> 00:13:39,300 and that the Foreign Office 229 00:13:39,300 --> 00:13:43,020 were basically in the business of selling out. 230 00:13:43,020 --> 00:13:46,220 A great crisis had passed. 231 00:13:47,740 --> 00:13:50,340 I'd had a day of such anxiety, 232 00:13:50,340 --> 00:13:53,140 looking at all of those proposals 233 00:13:53,140 --> 00:13:56,060 and had we accepted that last one, 234 00:13:56,060 --> 00:13:58,900 to me it would have dis-armoured Britain 235 00:13:58,900 --> 00:14:01,300 and that I could not have lived with. 236 00:14:03,180 --> 00:14:06,620 I'd tried to warn Denis earlier in the day 237 00:14:06,620 --> 00:14:10,740 of the great matters which we had to decide 238 00:14:10,740 --> 00:14:15,740 and said that, if it didn't go the way I wanted, I would have to resign. 239 00:14:18,780 --> 00:14:21,900 When Argentina rejected the final Haig proposals, 240 00:14:21,900 --> 00:14:24,060 armed conflict became inevitable. 241 00:14:25,340 --> 00:14:27,100 Margaret Thatcher had prevailed 242 00:14:27,100 --> 00:14:28,820 over the Foreign Office and Francis Pym. 243 00:14:30,580 --> 00:14:33,580 Although she did allow peace talks to continue at the UN, 244 00:14:33,580 --> 00:14:36,420 any further talk of a compromise settlement had been killed. 245 00:14:39,540 --> 00:14:42,740 British armed forces now recaptured the island of South Georgia 246 00:14:42,740 --> 00:14:45,860 as the first stage of the military campaign. 247 00:14:45,860 --> 00:14:48,220 For Margaret Thatcher the choice was simple - 248 00:14:48,220 --> 00:14:50,060 total victory or oblivion. 249 00:14:51,820 --> 00:14:55,140 Ladies and gentlemen, the Secretary of State for Defence 250 00:14:55,140 --> 00:14:57,900 has just come over to give me some very good news 251 00:14:57,900 --> 00:15:00,140 and I think you'd like to have it at once. 252 00:15:01,460 --> 00:15:04,100 The message we've got is that British troops 253 00:15:04,100 --> 00:15:06,940 landed on South Georgia this afternoon... 254 00:15:06,940 --> 00:15:10,780 'That need to ensure' 255 00:15:10,780 --> 00:15:14,460 that she didn't go down, 256 00:15:14,460 --> 00:15:18,020 having lost the fundamental battle, 257 00:15:18,020 --> 00:15:21,220 which was nearest of all to her political beliefs, 258 00:15:21,220 --> 00:15:25,820 her political faith and what she saw as her role as Prime Minister, 259 00:15:25,820 --> 00:15:29,460 would have, I think, finished her off, personally. 260 00:15:29,460 --> 00:15:33,540 She'd never have gone on in the same way that she did. 261 00:15:35,660 --> 00:15:38,020 Be pleased to inform Her Majesty 262 00:15:38,020 --> 00:15:41,460 that the White Ensign flies alongside the Union Jack 263 00:15:41,460 --> 00:15:42,780 in South Georgia. 264 00:15:42,780 --> 00:15:44,100 God save the Queen. 265 00:15:44,100 --> 00:15:46,300 What happens next? Thank you very much. 266 00:15:46,300 --> 00:15:48,500 Just rejoice at that news 267 00:15:48,500 --> 00:15:52,260 and congratulate our forces and the marines. 268 00:15:52,260 --> 00:15:55,380 Some accused her of glorying in the conflict... 269 00:15:55,380 --> 00:15:56,700 Rejoice. 270 00:15:56,700 --> 00:16:00,260 ..but for the military, her defects in peace were virtues in war. 271 00:16:01,820 --> 00:16:03,860 She's inclined to make up her mind 272 00:16:03,860 --> 00:16:06,940 and then not listen to the other side at all. 273 00:16:06,940 --> 00:16:10,580 As far as the Falklands campaign was concerned, this didn't arise, 274 00:16:10,580 --> 00:16:13,980 because there were really two sides to the question. 275 00:16:13,980 --> 00:16:16,660 One wanted a decision and she gave it. 276 00:16:16,660 --> 00:16:18,740 From the military man's point of view, 277 00:16:18,740 --> 00:16:22,500 she was an ideal Prime Minister for an operation. 278 00:16:26,140 --> 00:16:28,180 The Prime Minister's decisiveness 279 00:16:28,180 --> 00:16:31,220 over the sinking of the Argentine cruiser the General Belgrano 280 00:16:31,220 --> 00:16:33,860 only confirmed the military's opinion. 281 00:16:36,020 --> 00:16:39,780 The Navy asked Margaret Thatcher for permission to attack the ship 282 00:16:39,780 --> 00:16:42,380 on a Sunday when she was staying at Chequers. 283 00:16:42,380 --> 00:16:47,460 Her reply, after consulting the War Cabinet, came swiftly - 284 00:16:47,460 --> 00:16:49,060 sink the Belgrano. 285 00:16:50,420 --> 00:16:51,740 The ship's destruction was 286 00:16:51,740 --> 00:16:53,980 the single most controversial action of the war. 287 00:16:55,180 --> 00:16:56,860 At the time of the sinking, 288 00:16:56,860 --> 00:16:59,740 the ship was sailing away from the task force 289 00:16:59,740 --> 00:17:01,500 outside the exclusion zone. 290 00:17:01,500 --> 00:17:04,540 This came to haunt her in the coming months and years. 291 00:17:06,380 --> 00:17:08,180 I think when people look back on that, 292 00:17:08,180 --> 00:17:10,420 they'll see that the loss of life was unnecessary 293 00:17:10,420 --> 00:17:12,380 and a settlement could have been reached 294 00:17:12,380 --> 00:17:13,900 but she didn't want a settlement. 295 00:17:13,900 --> 00:17:16,420 And she didn't torpedo the Belgrano, 296 00:17:16,420 --> 00:17:18,020 she torpedoed the prospects 297 00:17:18,020 --> 00:17:20,580 of a peaceful settlement in the Falklands. 298 00:17:20,580 --> 00:17:22,140 Ships do change direction. 299 00:17:24,140 --> 00:17:26,100 That one had zigzagged quite a bit. 300 00:17:26,100 --> 00:17:28,940 But you cannot ignore the intelligence. 301 00:17:28,940 --> 00:17:34,540 You have their big cruises AND you expected an aircraft carrier 302 00:17:34,540 --> 00:17:38,260 soon to be within range of your fleet. 303 00:17:38,260 --> 00:17:40,900 No, I think this criticism comes from people 304 00:17:40,900 --> 00:17:43,140 who criticise, criticise, criticise 305 00:17:43,140 --> 00:17:45,740 but have never had to make these decisions. 306 00:17:45,740 --> 00:17:49,220 And had we not and we lost either Invincible or Hermes or both... 307 00:17:52,060 --> 00:17:54,180 ..we should have been culpable. 308 00:17:54,180 --> 00:17:55,940 Very heavily culpable. 309 00:18:00,700 --> 00:18:02,460 During the Falklands War, 310 00:18:02,460 --> 00:18:04,660 Margaret Thatcher was in her element. 311 00:18:04,660 --> 00:18:07,940 The certainties of war - friend or enemy, life or death, 312 00:18:07,940 --> 00:18:11,260 victory or defeat - were in tune with her own conviction 313 00:18:11,260 --> 00:18:14,860 of the rightness of her cause and the error of her opponents'. 314 00:18:18,500 --> 00:18:22,580 Every fibre of one's being was concerned with what was happening 315 00:18:22,580 --> 00:18:27,420 and, of course, we did have quite a lot of bad news 316 00:18:27,420 --> 00:18:34,060 and it leaves a permanent mark upon you. 317 00:18:36,260 --> 00:18:37,980 But... 318 00:18:39,820 --> 00:18:45,980 ..you have to take these risks if the larger issues, 319 00:18:45,980 --> 00:18:47,940 like freedom and law, 320 00:18:47,940 --> 00:18:51,980 are ones which steadily gain the world over. 321 00:18:54,900 --> 00:18:56,540 For Margaret Thatcher, 322 00:18:56,540 --> 00:18:59,100 with her fondness for Churchillian comparisons, 323 00:18:59,100 --> 00:19:01,020 the Falklands was her finest hour, 324 00:19:01,020 --> 00:19:04,500 a turning point when Britain could once again, in her words, 325 00:19:04,500 --> 00:19:05,780 hold its head up high. 326 00:19:13,980 --> 00:19:16,580 But there were those who felt the mood of triumphalism 327 00:19:16,580 --> 00:19:17,940 had been allowed to go too far 328 00:19:17,940 --> 00:19:19,820 and that the spirit of reconciliation, 329 00:19:19,820 --> 00:19:22,260 both at home and abroad, had been forgotten. 330 00:19:25,820 --> 00:19:29,460 In our prayers we shall quite rightly remember 331 00:19:29,460 --> 00:19:34,060 those who are bereaved in our own country 332 00:19:34,060 --> 00:19:41,540 and the relations of the young Argentinian soldiers who were killed. 333 00:19:41,540 --> 00:19:44,220 'I was dismayed that' 334 00:19:44,220 --> 00:19:48,580 a jingoistic spirit should take over to such an extent 335 00:19:48,580 --> 00:19:53,140 that for years the parents of the Argentine dead 336 00:19:53,140 --> 00:19:57,140 were not even allowed to visit the graves of their loved ones 337 00:19:57,140 --> 00:19:59,940 and that seemed to be a kind of symbol 338 00:19:59,940 --> 00:20:04,460 of the failure to build creatively upon the sorrows which 339 00:20:04,460 --> 00:20:06,540 we both shared. 340 00:20:06,540 --> 00:20:07,940 CHEERING 341 00:20:07,940 --> 00:20:11,620 BAND PLAY "RULE, BRITANNIA!" 342 00:20:11,620 --> 00:20:15,580 If the Falklands was, as some thought, a watershed for the nation, 343 00:20:15,580 --> 00:20:18,420 it certainly was one for Margaret Thatcher. 344 00:20:18,420 --> 00:20:19,620 From being dubbed 345 00:20:19,620 --> 00:20:22,540 "the most unpopular Prime Minister since polls began", 346 00:20:22,540 --> 00:20:25,780 she had become a unique phenomenon in British politics. 347 00:20:31,420 --> 00:20:34,380 She was totally confident, utterly dominant. 348 00:20:36,780 --> 00:20:40,220 In 1983, as the economy came out of recession, 349 00:20:40,220 --> 00:20:43,260 Margaret Thatcher went to the polls. 350 00:20:43,260 --> 00:20:46,540 To her opponents, she was too ready to exploit the Falklands 351 00:20:46,540 --> 00:20:48,820 conflict for political gain. 352 00:20:48,820 --> 00:20:53,300 'It was a risk she took. She should never have had to take it.' 353 00:20:53,300 --> 00:20:57,100 Put herself into a position where she had to take it. But it did come off. 354 00:20:57,100 --> 00:21:01,980 And, of course, she milked it for all it was worth in domestic politics. 355 00:21:01,980 --> 00:21:05,260 She kept talking about the Falklands Factor, which means, 356 00:21:05,260 --> 00:21:06,700 "I am always right." 357 00:21:06,700 --> 00:21:11,220 The Falklands Factor was widely credited with winning the election. 358 00:21:11,220 --> 00:21:14,700 WOMAN: Three cheers for Mrs Thatcher. Hip-hip... CROWD: Hurrah! 359 00:21:14,700 --> 00:21:19,180 Margaret Thatcher won a majority of 144 at the polls. 360 00:21:19,180 --> 00:21:20,980 The Labour Party was divided 361 00:21:20,980 --> 00:21:24,180 and the fledging Social Democrats had been annihilated. 362 00:21:27,940 --> 00:21:31,180 Even some of those who supported her politics detected the early 363 00:21:31,180 --> 00:21:33,100 signs of a presidential style. 364 00:21:35,100 --> 00:21:38,580 As she grew in stature 365 00:21:38,580 --> 00:21:43,420 and as the media, of course, personalised politics 366 00:21:43,420 --> 00:21:48,140 to a very considerable extent in her, 367 00:21:48,140 --> 00:21:53,380 and everything was "Margaret Thatcher doing this, 368 00:21:53,380 --> 00:21:56,220 "Margaret Thatcher doing that," it wasn't the Government. 369 00:21:56,220 --> 00:21:59,860 That was how it was presented. Of course, she was extremely successful. 370 00:21:59,860 --> 00:22:02,340 And she was the leader and she was a very strong leader. 371 00:22:02,340 --> 00:22:08,220 But the result was, I think she came almost to believe the media 372 00:22:08,220 --> 00:22:14,300 presentation and to act in a quasi-presidential way. 373 00:22:17,140 --> 00:22:19,700 The Prime Minister's personality became 374 00:22:19,700 --> 00:22:22,180 the subject of fascinated speculation. 375 00:22:22,180 --> 00:22:26,300 She was reputed to survive on a diet of black coffee and vitamins. 376 00:22:26,300 --> 00:22:30,140 It was even rumoured that she relaxed in an electric bath. 377 00:22:30,140 --> 00:22:32,780 The truth was more mundane. 378 00:22:32,780 --> 00:22:36,180 A lawyer's training, a scientist's eye for detail, 379 00:22:36,180 --> 00:22:37,740 and relentless energy. 380 00:22:37,740 --> 00:22:39,460 "Marxists," she once said, 381 00:22:39,460 --> 00:22:42,220 "get up early in the morning to further their cause. 382 00:22:42,220 --> 00:22:43,780 "We must get up even earlier." 383 00:22:47,620 --> 00:22:51,420 She had an ability to absorb detail until late in the night. 384 00:22:51,420 --> 00:22:53,220 And a most astonishing memory. 385 00:22:53,220 --> 00:22:56,740 That in many ways was the most striking characteristic of all. 386 00:22:56,740 --> 00:23:00,340 This phenomenal recall of detail of things she had read. 387 00:23:00,340 --> 00:23:02,300 It was interesting to see how she did it. 388 00:23:02,300 --> 00:23:07,340 She used to wade through these huge documents, underlining as she went. 389 00:23:07,340 --> 00:23:10,260 And one got to know the signs. 390 00:23:10,260 --> 00:23:13,420 A straight underlining just meant, "I'm committing that to memory." 391 00:23:13,420 --> 00:23:15,660 A squiggly line meant, "This is rubbish." 392 00:23:15,660 --> 00:23:17,660 A double underlining meant, "I agree." 393 00:23:17,660 --> 00:23:20,140 Triple underlining meant, "Bull's-eye." 394 00:23:20,140 --> 00:23:23,260 The Prime Minister had little patience with those who didn't 395 00:23:23,260 --> 00:23:25,460 share her working habits. 396 00:23:28,220 --> 00:23:30,180 'She could be merciless.' 397 00:23:30,180 --> 00:23:33,500 I have seen ministers reduced to not tears 398 00:23:33,500 --> 00:23:35,940 but to a state of considerable distress 399 00:23:35,940 --> 00:23:39,220 when they realised that she knew more about their paper than the 400 00:23:39,220 --> 00:23:44,300 minister himself and that he had not brought a case together properly. 401 00:23:44,300 --> 00:23:50,820 As she grew larger and bolder and more powerful, 402 00:23:50,820 --> 00:23:54,620 the way in which she treated some male colleagues was unacceptable. 403 00:23:55,980 --> 00:24:00,620 Particularly, for example, bullying constantly of Geoffrey Howe. 404 00:24:02,140 --> 00:24:06,020 And, of course, that sort of attitude which courteous men do not 405 00:24:06,020 --> 00:24:11,660 respond to in like kind led to the emergence of another 406 00:24:11,660 --> 00:24:16,180 harshness among less courteous colleagues. 407 00:24:16,180 --> 00:24:20,220 They, too, followed their leader in some of the less attractive 408 00:24:20,220 --> 00:24:22,460 facets of her personality. 409 00:24:22,460 --> 00:24:26,140 I think sometimes the Prime Minister should be intimidating. 410 00:24:26,140 --> 00:24:27,980 There's not much point in being a weak, 411 00:24:27,980 --> 00:24:31,220 floppy thing in the chair, is there? 412 00:24:31,220 --> 00:24:35,300 But I spent hours getting the facts. I spent hours deploying them. 413 00:24:35,300 --> 00:24:37,540 It was known it was my whole approach. 414 00:24:37,540 --> 00:24:40,780 I was fascinated by statistics and, having had the training 415 00:24:40,780 --> 00:24:43,900 in science, first find the facts and then deduce your conclusion. 416 00:24:43,900 --> 00:24:47,860 Yes, I would deploy them. Yes, I would argue, I hope, formidably. 417 00:24:47,860 --> 00:24:49,460 There's nothing wrong in that. 418 00:24:49,460 --> 00:24:51,700 What they may be complaining about was that 419 00:24:51,700 --> 00:24:53,340 I won the argument sometimes. 420 00:25:01,380 --> 00:25:03,340 Shortly after the election, 421 00:25:03,340 --> 00:25:06,380 Mrs Thatcher faced a challenge which called forth those very 422 00:25:06,380 --> 00:25:09,580 characteristics which had seen her through the Falklands. 423 00:25:13,260 --> 00:25:16,700 In 1974, the miners had brought down the Conservative 424 00:25:16,700 --> 00:25:20,580 Government of Edward Heath, of which Margaret Thatcher had been a member. 425 00:25:20,580 --> 00:25:22,620 ..obstructing my path, 426 00:25:22,620 --> 00:25:25,700 and you could've arrested me for no reason whatsoever. 427 00:25:25,700 --> 00:25:29,780 It was a humiliation the party had neither forgiven nor forgotten. 428 00:25:29,780 --> 00:25:31,940 CROWD CHEER AND WHISTLE 429 00:25:34,180 --> 00:25:39,060 Together, if we remain united, not only will we never be defeated 430 00:25:39,060 --> 00:25:43,020 but, in the process, we will roll back the years of Thatcherism... 431 00:25:43,020 --> 00:25:46,420 The arrival in 1982 of Arthur Scargill as leader 432 00:25:46,420 --> 00:25:49,820 of the National Union of Mineworkers made the prospect of a strike 433 00:25:49,820 --> 00:25:52,420 over pit closures a certainty. 434 00:25:52,420 --> 00:25:56,020 To Margaret Thatcher, he had another, more sinister purpose. 435 00:25:56,020 --> 00:25:58,940 We're going to win, keep on, we're going to win! 436 00:25:58,940 --> 00:26:02,820 MARGARET THATCHER: 'Mr Scargill was a real militant trade unionist.' 437 00:26:02,820 --> 00:26:07,340 The militants weren't content to use strikes merely to further 438 00:26:07,340 --> 00:26:11,380 their own people and the standard of living of their own people. 439 00:26:11,380 --> 00:26:15,620 They wanted to use them to bring down a Government. 440 00:26:17,260 --> 00:26:19,700 They were quite open about it. 441 00:26:19,700 --> 00:26:22,940 If they could not get what they wanted by democracy, 442 00:26:22,940 --> 00:26:25,020 they would take the fight to the streets. 443 00:26:25,020 --> 00:26:28,460 Arthur Scargill and the miners were trying to defend the one raw 444 00:26:28,460 --> 00:26:32,460 material we have which will last us for another thousand years. 445 00:26:32,460 --> 00:26:34,100 'And to present Arthur Scargill... 446 00:26:34,100 --> 00:26:36,940 'Who stood up against her, that was the objection. 447 00:26:36,940 --> 00:26:39,180 'He stood up against her in support of his members. 448 00:26:39,180 --> 00:26:40,820 'To present him as a revolutionary - 449 00:26:40,820 --> 00:26:44,060 'whatever his political opinions may be - was absurd.' 450 00:26:44,060 --> 00:26:45,900 And when that is looked back on, 451 00:26:45,900 --> 00:26:48,260 people will see it had nothing to do with economics. 452 00:26:48,260 --> 00:26:51,980 It was an attempt to destroy the strongest union in order to 453 00:26:51,980 --> 00:26:53,780 gain a command over all the other unions. 454 00:26:53,780 --> 00:26:56,220 CROWD JEERING 455 00:26:57,260 --> 00:27:01,820 When British Coal announced a pit closure on 1 March 1984, 456 00:27:01,820 --> 00:27:04,260 Arthur Scargill called the miners out on strike 457 00:27:04,260 --> 00:27:05,940 without a national ballot. 458 00:27:07,420 --> 00:27:11,980 We reaffirm the unanimous decision of March 8th to declare official, 459 00:27:11,980 --> 00:27:15,140 in accordance with Rule 41, the strike action... 460 00:27:15,140 --> 00:27:17,580 CHEERING DROWNS SPEECH 461 00:27:17,580 --> 00:27:20,620 By refusing a vote, he split both his own union 462 00:27:20,620 --> 00:27:22,020 and the labour movement. 463 00:27:23,980 --> 00:27:29,060 The greatest gift that Mrs Thatcher has had 464 00:27:29,060 --> 00:27:32,780 is in having the right enemies. 465 00:27:34,420 --> 00:27:37,260 Galtieri was a good enemy to have. 466 00:27:39,300 --> 00:27:43,380 A fascist dictator. I would like such enemies. 467 00:27:43,380 --> 00:27:50,540 Arthur Scargill was a good enemy to have because he didn't have a ballot. 468 00:27:50,540 --> 00:27:54,380 And because he tried to excuse illegal actions. 469 00:27:56,340 --> 00:27:59,820 The script was written for the Conservatives by that. 470 00:28:02,460 --> 00:28:04,100 Without a ballot, 471 00:28:04,100 --> 00:28:08,100 the NUM used flying pickets to press working miners to join the strike. 472 00:28:10,660 --> 00:28:12,220 In the early days of the strike, 473 00:28:12,220 --> 00:28:15,260 the police appeared unable to restrain the pickets. 474 00:28:15,260 --> 00:28:17,300 The chairman of the National Coal Board, 475 00:28:17,300 --> 00:28:21,380 a British-born American, urged the Prime Minister to take firm action. 476 00:28:24,820 --> 00:28:26,220 Mrs Thatcher said to me, 477 00:28:26,220 --> 00:28:29,700 "What would you do with a strike like this in the United States?" 478 00:28:29,700 --> 00:28:32,740 Well, I said, "The first thing is, the police would establish 479 00:28:32,740 --> 00:28:35,380 "law and order as that is what they are required to do. 480 00:28:35,380 --> 00:28:39,340 "But if they couldn't do that, the governor of the state would 481 00:28:39,340 --> 00:28:41,660 "probably call out the National Guard. 482 00:28:41,660 --> 00:28:45,420 "You would see tanks and armoured cars up and down the street." 483 00:28:45,420 --> 00:28:47,460 "Oh, my goodness, we can't do that. 484 00:28:47,460 --> 00:28:50,580 "That would be political suicide in this country." 485 00:28:51,980 --> 00:28:53,860 Margaret Thatcher became increasingly 486 00:28:53,860 --> 00:28:55,860 concerned about Ian MacGregor. 487 00:28:55,860 --> 00:28:58,340 Although he was brought in as a hardliner, 488 00:28:58,340 --> 00:29:01,780 she didn't share his desire for tanks on the streets. 489 00:29:01,780 --> 00:29:05,580 And his attempt at a joke with a plastic bag fell terribly flat. 490 00:29:07,460 --> 00:29:10,100 Indeed, she came to regard him as both stubborn 491 00:29:10,100 --> 00:29:11,940 and a public relations disaster. 492 00:29:13,540 --> 00:29:16,700 He was not prepared for this kind of battle. 493 00:29:18,220 --> 00:29:22,940 And therefore, perhaps, he hadn't the guile or the cunning necessary 494 00:29:22,940 --> 00:29:26,860 and didn't quite understand some of the tactics that were being 495 00:29:26,860 --> 00:29:28,140 used against him. 496 00:29:29,180 --> 00:29:32,220 Well, that is absolute balderdash. 497 00:29:32,220 --> 00:29:34,260 That is unfair criticism 498 00:29:34,260 --> 00:29:39,100 because I think we did things that enabled this campaign to be 499 00:29:39,100 --> 00:29:43,020 fought out and won, which we never got any credit for. 500 00:29:48,300 --> 00:29:51,620 It was crucial to Mrs Thatcher that miners in Nottinghamshire 501 00:29:51,620 --> 00:29:54,980 continued to be bussed to work across picket lines. 502 00:29:54,980 --> 00:29:57,980 CROWD SHOUTING OUTSIDE 503 00:29:57,980 --> 00:30:00,060 Judas! 504 00:30:00,060 --> 00:30:03,500 The NUM's traitors were Margaret Thatcher's saviours. 505 00:30:14,900 --> 00:30:16,540 'If she could smash the NUM, 506 00:30:16,540 --> 00:30:18,580 'she could take on any union in the country.' 507 00:30:18,580 --> 00:30:22,740 And she couldn't believe her luck that a group of miners would 508 00:30:22,740 --> 00:30:25,460 support her because that is what Notts miners did. 509 00:30:25,460 --> 00:30:28,820 They supported and propped Mrs Thatcher up. 510 00:30:28,820 --> 00:30:31,540 I'm not saying the rank-and-file miner realised at that time 511 00:30:31,540 --> 00:30:35,340 that that's what he was doing but, in essence, that's what they did. 512 00:30:37,100 --> 00:30:40,300 The strike became a battle between two implacable opponents, 513 00:30:40,300 --> 00:30:42,740 each resolved on the other's total defeat. 514 00:30:42,740 --> 00:30:47,300 Get moving. Move. Get moving. Come on, move. No way! Move! No way! 515 00:30:47,300 --> 00:30:49,060 Go away! You're blocking... 516 00:30:49,060 --> 00:30:51,860 Margaret Thatcher had introduced new civil laws to deal with 517 00:30:51,860 --> 00:30:54,500 secondary picketing but she didn't want to use them 518 00:30:54,500 --> 00:30:57,580 and thereby give other unions an excuse to unite with 519 00:30:57,580 --> 00:31:00,060 the miners against the Government's reforms. 520 00:31:02,580 --> 00:31:04,900 So, with her characteristic pragmatism, 521 00:31:04,900 --> 00:31:08,500 she ordered the police to deal with Scargill's flying pickets. 522 00:31:10,020 --> 00:31:14,180 On 29 May, thousands of police and pickets fought the Battle of Orgreave 523 00:31:14,180 --> 00:31:16,940 at a coking depot in Yorkshire. 524 00:31:16,940 --> 00:31:19,700 The violence on both sides shocked the nation. 525 00:31:28,980 --> 00:31:33,620 The police had to keep order but the police also had the duty, 526 00:31:33,620 --> 00:31:36,860 which we made clear through the Attorney General 527 00:31:36,860 --> 00:31:38,860 right at the beginning, 528 00:31:38,860 --> 00:31:44,740 it is the duty of the police to enable the law-abiding citizen 529 00:31:44,740 --> 00:31:47,220 to get to his place of work. 530 00:31:50,940 --> 00:31:55,020 'Amongst a lot of people, including many policemen, there was 531 00:31:55,020 --> 00:31:59,220 'a feeling that they were, in words used by a police officer, 532 00:31:59,220 --> 00:32:01,260 'the meat in the sandwich.' 533 00:32:01,260 --> 00:32:06,460 That there was an irreconcilable attitude 534 00:32:06,460 --> 00:32:08,860 amongst the miners' leadership, 535 00:32:08,860 --> 00:32:12,740 an irreconcilable attitude in the Government, 536 00:32:12,740 --> 00:32:17,980 that the issue was being fought out by ordinary people 537 00:32:17,980 --> 00:32:20,820 and the police were handed the duty 538 00:32:20,820 --> 00:32:26,100 because nobody else could do it, of trying to intercede in that battle. 539 00:32:28,780 --> 00:32:33,020 I must tell you that what we have got is an attempt to 540 00:32:33,020 --> 00:32:37,860 substitute the rule of the mob for the rule of law. 541 00:32:37,860 --> 00:32:40,140 And it must not succeed! 542 00:32:40,140 --> 00:32:41,980 CHEERING AND APPLAUSE 543 00:32:43,580 --> 00:32:45,580 'It must not succeed. 544 00:32:45,580 --> 00:32:48,860 'There are those who are using violence and intimidation 545 00:32:48,860 --> 00:32:52,460 'to impose their world on others who do not want it.' 546 00:32:54,140 --> 00:32:57,780 Many of Scargill's supporters saw the defeat of the Conservative 547 00:32:57,780 --> 00:33:01,660 Government as the only way of saving their communities and livelihoods. 548 00:33:04,820 --> 00:33:06,900 'The fact was, we had no choice.' 549 00:33:06,900 --> 00:33:09,500 If we didn't fight, then those 30 pits were going to go. 550 00:33:09,500 --> 00:33:12,420 At least we were trying to attempt to defend 551 00:33:12,420 --> 00:33:14,460 the communities in Great Britain. 552 00:33:14,460 --> 00:33:18,540 30 pits at that time meant 30,000 jobs, which was a lot. 553 00:33:18,540 --> 00:33:23,460 We had already been decimated somewhat by pit closure programmes, 554 00:33:23,460 --> 00:33:24,980 by communities going. 555 00:33:24,980 --> 00:33:27,660 We were determined that we were going to fight. 556 00:33:29,700 --> 00:33:33,580 Throughout, the Government maintained in public that the strike 557 00:33:33,580 --> 00:33:36,820 was a matter for the miners and the Coal Board to resolve. 558 00:33:36,820 --> 00:33:39,660 But, behind the scenes, the erratic behaviour of the Coal Board 559 00:33:39,660 --> 00:33:42,500 chairman forced the Prime Minister to intervene. 560 00:33:44,180 --> 00:33:45,940 To Margaret Thatcher, 561 00:33:45,940 --> 00:33:49,380 it seemed that Ian MacGregor was intent on losing the strike. 562 00:33:52,660 --> 00:33:55,940 The Prime Minister depended on the ability of working miners to 563 00:33:55,940 --> 00:33:57,700 continue to go down the pit. 564 00:33:57,700 --> 00:33:59,540 Without them, she was finished. 565 00:34:01,180 --> 00:34:03,220 But in October 1984, 566 00:34:03,220 --> 00:34:06,860 MacGregor nearly caused the union of pit deputies, NACODS, to strike. 567 00:34:06,860 --> 00:34:09,500 Right then, old flower, let's have you. 568 00:34:09,500 --> 00:34:12,580 He ordered the deputies, responsible for safety, 569 00:34:12,580 --> 00:34:15,980 to work in pits closed by the dispute. They refused. 570 00:34:17,420 --> 00:34:20,300 A NACODS strike would have meant the closure of all working mines 571 00:34:20,300 --> 00:34:22,700 and, thus, utter defeat for the Government. 572 00:34:25,980 --> 00:34:28,300 'We got so far.' 573 00:34:28,300 --> 00:34:30,900 We were in danger of losing everything 574 00:34:30,900 --> 00:34:36,020 because of a silly mistake and we had to make it quite clear that, 575 00:34:36,020 --> 00:34:40,940 if that was not cured immediately, 576 00:34:40,940 --> 00:34:43,820 then the actual management of the National Coal Board 577 00:34:43,820 --> 00:34:46,420 could indeed have brought down the Government. 578 00:34:46,420 --> 00:34:49,980 And the future of the Government then at that moment was in their hands 579 00:34:49,980 --> 00:34:52,580 and they had to remedy their terrible mistake. 580 00:34:52,580 --> 00:34:55,420 Ian MacGregor was summoned to Downing Street 581 00:34:55,420 --> 00:34:57,460 by the Prime Minister. 582 00:34:57,460 --> 00:35:00,500 She told him with typical bluntness that her future 583 00:35:00,500 --> 00:35:02,020 depended on his backing down. 584 00:35:06,700 --> 00:35:08,820 With Mrs Thatcher, 585 00:35:08,820 --> 00:35:13,700 when she has made her mind up about something you listen. 586 00:35:15,060 --> 00:35:17,580 Margaret Thatcher was well aware that, in taking on the miners, 587 00:35:17,580 --> 00:35:22,220 as with the Falklands, there was no survival without victory. 588 00:35:22,220 --> 00:35:24,380 She has no pity for her opponents, 589 00:35:24,380 --> 00:35:27,020 regarding them as traitors to the nation. 590 00:35:28,940 --> 00:35:32,220 When she called them the enemy within, the biggest insult, 591 00:35:32,220 --> 00:35:35,020 she didn't serve in the armed forces and many of the miners I talked to 592 00:35:35,020 --> 00:35:38,140 had been in the Armed Forces and they were bitter 593 00:35:38,140 --> 00:35:40,580 that they were treated in that way. 594 00:35:40,580 --> 00:35:44,340 She saw them as the enemy, treated them as the enemy. 595 00:35:44,340 --> 00:35:46,540 With the winter drawing in, 596 00:35:46,540 --> 00:35:49,460 internal support for the strike began to waver. 597 00:35:49,460 --> 00:35:51,980 Increasing numbers of miners left the picket lines 598 00:35:51,980 --> 00:35:54,820 and joined the ranks of men they had denounced as scabs 599 00:35:54,820 --> 00:35:57,340 and traitors only weeks before. 600 00:36:14,900 --> 00:36:18,700 By 27th February, more than half of the miners were back at work, 601 00:36:18,700 --> 00:36:21,740 the majority have voted with their feet. 602 00:36:21,740 --> 00:36:25,460 The strike officially ended on 3rd March, 1985. 603 00:36:32,700 --> 00:36:35,740 But now, nearly a decade after the strike, 604 00:36:35,740 --> 00:36:39,620 many of those working miners who saved Margaret Thatcher are bitter. 605 00:36:42,820 --> 00:36:46,980 During the strike, they received a letter of thanks from the Prime Minister 606 00:36:46,980 --> 00:36:51,180 but now they feel their only reward has been for their mines to be closed 607 00:36:51,180 --> 00:36:55,460 and, as Scargill predicted, their jobs to be taken from them. 608 00:36:55,460 --> 00:36:57,900 There is a deep sense of betrayal. 609 00:37:04,220 --> 00:37:07,940 The men in this county have been betrayed. 610 00:37:09,780 --> 00:37:14,340 And that betrayal knows no bounds because every one of these pits 611 00:37:14,340 --> 00:37:19,380 is making a profit and yet they are still going to be closed. 612 00:37:19,380 --> 00:37:23,220 For no reason. And they do feel a sense of betrayal 613 00:37:23,220 --> 00:37:27,860 when Margaret sent a letter thanking but what's happened? 614 00:37:27,860 --> 00:37:30,180 Margaret's letter has been condemned to the bin 615 00:37:30,180 --> 00:37:32,620 and the pits in Notts will be shut. 616 00:37:34,340 --> 00:37:39,620 I understand now that those marvellous working miners, 617 00:37:39,620 --> 00:37:42,820 the democratic union, feel a sense of betrayal. 618 00:37:44,020 --> 00:37:47,980 Things have happened since I left to the coal mines and those 619 00:37:47,980 --> 00:37:51,940 working miners that I would never have countenanced had I been there. 620 00:37:51,940 --> 00:37:54,180 Indeed, I turned down a similar proposition 621 00:37:54,180 --> 00:37:57,820 when it was made to me during my time as Prime Minister. 622 00:37:57,820 --> 00:38:01,540 The debt we have to those miners is a continuing one 623 00:38:01,540 --> 00:38:04,500 and should be honoured by the continuing Government. 624 00:38:08,780 --> 00:38:12,580 But, in 1984, many in her party praised Mrs Thatcher's 625 00:38:12,580 --> 00:38:14,340 handling of the strike. 626 00:38:14,340 --> 00:38:17,300 All Conservatives agreed that in seeking total victory over 627 00:38:17,300 --> 00:38:20,780 the miners she could wipe away the humiliation of Edward Heath's 628 00:38:20,780 --> 00:38:23,620 defeat in 1974. 629 00:38:23,620 --> 00:38:25,540 Victory, the Conservatives believed, 630 00:38:25,540 --> 00:38:30,300 sent a message not just to the NUM but to other unions too. 631 00:38:33,980 --> 00:38:38,060 Margaret Thatcher was looking for a solution to the problem. 632 00:38:38,060 --> 00:38:44,740 She knew full well that the nuclear weapon of the Trades Union Congress 633 00:38:44,740 --> 00:38:48,540 was the miners' union - the miners' strike. 634 00:38:48,540 --> 00:38:53,860 And if she could survive that nuclear weapon then she could beat any 635 00:38:53,860 --> 00:38:56,620 challenge which came and of course she was proved right. 636 00:38:56,620 --> 00:38:59,380 They exploded their nuclear weapon and it blew them 637 00:38:59,380 --> 00:39:01,380 off the face of the battlefield. 638 00:39:04,180 --> 00:39:06,860 EMERGENCY SERVICE SIRENS 639 00:39:09,860 --> 00:39:14,340 On 11th October 1984, at the height of the miners' strike, 640 00:39:14,340 --> 00:39:17,420 an IRA bomb exploded at the Grand Hotel in Brighton. 641 00:39:20,300 --> 00:39:24,020 The Conservative Party Conference was in full swing. 642 00:39:24,020 --> 00:39:26,980 Margaret Thatcher, working on her papers at 2am, 643 00:39:26,980 --> 00:39:29,300 narrowly escaped death. 644 00:39:29,300 --> 00:39:32,660 Although she survived, the impact of the bombing had a devastating 645 00:39:32,660 --> 00:39:36,340 effect on the Conservative party and her own administration. 646 00:39:41,020 --> 00:39:44,220 THATCHER: The air was full of cement, cement and dust. 647 00:39:45,260 --> 00:39:48,460 And by that time there was an eerie silence. 648 00:39:49,700 --> 00:39:53,380 I was still in evening dress because, even though 649 00:39:53,380 --> 00:39:55,820 I had to do my speech that night, 650 00:39:55,820 --> 00:39:59,660 you have to break to go to the Benevolent Ball of the Agents 651 00:39:59,660 --> 00:40:02,220 and then come back - so I stood in full evening dress. 652 00:40:02,220 --> 00:40:05,380 Denis had pulled a suit over his pyjamas 653 00:40:05,380 --> 00:40:10,620 and we managed to quickly seize some of our clothes to take with us. 654 00:40:12,020 --> 00:40:15,700 And have a quick look in the bathroom which was the room 655 00:40:15,700 --> 00:40:21,020 worst affected which had some plaster down and the glass had come in 656 00:40:21,020 --> 00:40:25,780 which would have been nasty had one been in the bathroom at that time. 657 00:40:25,780 --> 00:40:31,980 We left together and then we went down the main staircase 658 00:40:31,980 --> 00:40:36,260 and we saw the debris and we saw the whole front of the building 659 00:40:36,260 --> 00:40:40,500 full of rubble and the whole entrance full of rubble. 660 00:40:48,020 --> 00:40:50,460 For Christ's sake, go away! 661 00:40:58,980 --> 00:41:02,460 I knew as soon as it happened that it was a bomb. 662 00:41:02,460 --> 00:41:07,140 And my wife and I woke and I said, "That was a bomb." 663 00:41:08,460 --> 00:41:11,220 And, er, the roof, 664 00:41:11,220 --> 00:41:16,060 the ceiling, began to collapse we saw the chandelier swinging 665 00:41:16,060 --> 00:41:21,340 and there was a progressive collapse and we were tipped down, 666 00:41:21,340 --> 00:41:25,100 we didn't know how far, under shower of debris. 667 00:41:27,380 --> 00:41:29,940 Can we organise a good knife, a big butchers' knife? 668 00:41:32,700 --> 00:41:35,420 I doubted whether I was going to survive very long 669 00:41:35,420 --> 00:41:38,420 because I knew I was bleeding extensively. 670 00:41:38,420 --> 00:41:41,060 Um, but after a while 671 00:41:41,060 --> 00:41:46,100 we heard these noises and began to shout 672 00:41:46,100 --> 00:41:49,780 and made contact with Fred, the fireman. 673 00:41:50,820 --> 00:41:56,060 Um, I don't think I've ever held on more strongly to another man's hand 674 00:41:56,060 --> 00:41:58,340 than I held on to Fred's hand which, 675 00:41:58,340 --> 00:42:03,380 as he was wearing heavy asbestos gloves, made it slightly ridiculous 676 00:42:03,380 --> 00:42:08,060 but I was intent on not letting go once I got hold of another human. 677 00:42:09,300 --> 00:42:11,700 Norman Tebbit suffered severe injuries, 678 00:42:11,700 --> 00:42:14,740 his wife Margaret was left permanently paralysed. 679 00:42:21,460 --> 00:42:25,100 'We went straight to the police station where gradually 680 00:42:25,100 --> 00:42:26,620 'people gathered together.' 681 00:42:26,620 --> 00:42:27,780 Thank you very much. 682 00:42:27,780 --> 00:42:31,740 Our worry is whether there's anyone under that rubble 683 00:42:31,740 --> 00:42:35,460 because, I don't know whether you've seen it, but it's pretty awful. 684 00:42:36,900 --> 00:42:42,620 We then learnt that it had been a bomb inside the building 685 00:42:42,620 --> 00:42:47,700 and not in a car and they really rather wanted to get me 686 00:42:47,700 --> 00:42:53,540 back to Downing Street and I said no, I'm staying here. 687 00:42:53,540 --> 00:42:56,580 Life must go on as usual. And your conference will go on? 688 00:42:56,580 --> 00:42:59,460 The conference will go on. All right, John... 689 00:42:59,460 --> 00:43:02,540 The conference will go on as usual. 690 00:43:02,540 --> 00:43:05,140 Thank you, Prime Minister. 691 00:43:05,140 --> 00:43:09,220 I remember they took us from the police station in Brighton to 692 00:43:09,220 --> 00:43:12,060 a police college where we were to stay the night 693 00:43:12,060 --> 00:43:16,420 and the speed with which we went was horrendous. 694 00:43:16,420 --> 00:43:18,380 Screaming through these country lanes, 695 00:43:18,380 --> 00:43:20,780 not really knowing where we were going. 696 00:43:20,780 --> 00:43:24,220 Eventually, we arrived at this police college 697 00:43:24,220 --> 00:43:27,500 and we were allocated rooms - coffee was laid on, 698 00:43:27,500 --> 00:43:32,580 everybody was terribly worried about what we'd left behind in Brighton. 699 00:43:32,580 --> 00:43:36,820 We just went into the bedroom 700 00:43:36,820 --> 00:43:38,500 what could we do? 701 00:43:40,460 --> 00:43:44,140 We just quietly said a prayer 702 00:43:44,140 --> 00:43:46,660 and I said the Lord's prayer. 703 00:43:49,460 --> 00:43:53,500 It was somehow just a little comfort 704 00:43:53,500 --> 00:43:57,540 in that most distressing day. 705 00:43:59,460 --> 00:44:04,060 And then we tried to sleep 706 00:44:04,060 --> 00:44:08,100 because the new day was almost there. 707 00:44:10,300 --> 00:44:13,780 The Prime Minister was determined not to be defeated by the terrorists. 708 00:44:13,780 --> 00:44:15,820 The conference had to continue. 709 00:44:19,900 --> 00:44:23,540 We had all these people who had come out of the Grand Hotel 710 00:44:23,540 --> 00:44:26,780 and they were wearing bath towels and dressing gowns 711 00:44:26,780 --> 00:44:31,980 and clearly were not fit to spend a day in a conference. 712 00:44:31,980 --> 00:44:35,300 Margaret Thatcher said business as usual, get the thing organised 713 00:44:35,300 --> 00:44:37,180 so we had to get them clothes. 714 00:44:37,180 --> 00:44:41,660 Alistair McAlpine had the brilliant idea to get onto Marks & Spencer 715 00:44:41,660 --> 00:44:44,100 and say, "Please, open up your shop at 8am - 716 00:44:44,100 --> 00:44:48,540 "we want to come and get some clothes so we can start the conference." 717 00:44:48,540 --> 00:44:54,020 So they were decked out very smartly in Marks & Spencer clothes. 718 00:44:54,020 --> 00:44:57,980 APPLAUSE 719 00:44:57,980 --> 00:45:04,780 We walked onto the platform and we started at 9:30am precisely. 720 00:45:12,820 --> 00:45:16,620 For all the robust show of unity at the end of the Brighton conference 721 00:45:16,620 --> 00:45:21,620 the IRA's attack left a deep and abiding scar on the body politic. 722 00:45:25,380 --> 00:45:29,660 The injuries to Norman Tebbit and his wife were a particular blow. 723 00:45:29,660 --> 00:45:32,740 Tebbit had been a long-time ally of the Prime Minister. 724 00:45:32,740 --> 00:45:35,020 His removal left Margaret Thatcher without a key 725 00:45:35,020 --> 00:45:36,860 supporter at a crucial time. 726 00:45:39,780 --> 00:45:43,660 But, at the time, the blow was not just political, it was emotional. 727 00:45:47,620 --> 00:45:52,340 Of course a pall hung over us. 728 00:45:52,340 --> 00:45:57,180 I went off to see the hospital and to see the patients there. 729 00:45:58,380 --> 00:46:02,060 I saw John Wakeham who had not yet come round, 730 00:46:02,060 --> 00:46:05,940 his wife had been killed. 731 00:46:05,940 --> 00:46:09,980 We had lost Tony Berry, I saw Norman, I scarcely 732 00:46:09,980 --> 00:46:15,460 recognised him because as he had come out of the rubble he looked 733 00:46:15,460 --> 00:46:20,060 simply terrible and had just come out of the operating theatre. 734 00:46:20,060 --> 00:46:23,380 I saw Margaret Tebbit in the intensive care unit. 735 00:46:27,060 --> 00:46:29,740 And I'll never forget. 736 00:46:29,740 --> 00:46:32,140 She was conscious. 737 00:46:32,140 --> 00:46:37,620 And she said to me, "Margaret, I can't feel anything below my neck." 738 00:46:47,580 --> 00:46:51,820 You can best describe it that when you shoot someone with a heavy calibre pistol, 739 00:46:51,820 --> 00:46:55,900 fine, it's not the bullet that necessarily kills them, 740 00:46:55,900 --> 00:46:59,540 it's the shock of the bullet hitting them and the shock of this, 741 00:46:59,540 --> 00:47:03,980 though it killed only a small number of unfortunate people, 742 00:47:03,980 --> 00:47:08,340 it had a profound effect on the Tory party. 743 00:47:08,340 --> 00:47:09,900 In the wake of the bombing, 744 00:47:09,900 --> 00:47:13,660 Mrs Thatcher seemed to lose her political touch. 745 00:47:13,660 --> 00:47:15,180 In the months that followed, 746 00:47:15,180 --> 00:47:17,820 her Government faced crisis after crisis. 747 00:47:17,820 --> 00:47:21,860 She was forced to shelve policies, U-turns became common. 748 00:47:24,060 --> 00:47:28,620 It became a time when we stumbled over small things 749 00:47:28,620 --> 00:47:32,260 and were stopped from doing some of the things which I wanted to do 750 00:47:32,260 --> 00:47:36,060 because you couldn't go ahead. The timing just wasn't right. 751 00:47:36,060 --> 00:47:41,140 For example, this was the period when we came into Westland, 752 00:47:41,140 --> 00:47:46,740 we wanted to privatise British Leyland and we were stopped from doing that. 753 00:47:50,140 --> 00:47:54,460 In December 1985, from very small beginnings, a minor industrial 754 00:47:54,460 --> 00:47:57,860 problem over a helicopter company blew up into a major 755 00:47:57,860 --> 00:47:59,740 political storm. 756 00:48:03,340 --> 00:48:06,300 The origins of the battle were small enough. 757 00:48:06,300 --> 00:48:09,300 The Westland helicopter company faced bankruptcy. 758 00:48:09,300 --> 00:48:11,660 Mrs Thatcher's Government refused to bail it out 759 00:48:11,660 --> 00:48:15,180 but an American firm Sikorski offered to rescue the company. 760 00:48:20,580 --> 00:48:25,540 Mrs Thatcher's role in the ensuing crisis penetrated to the heart of her Government. 761 00:48:27,820 --> 00:48:31,220 It cast a revealing light on her personality and on the often 762 00:48:31,220 --> 00:48:34,980 tense and distrustful relations with her Cabinet colleagues. 763 00:48:39,660 --> 00:48:43,340 Mrs Thatcher and her trade secretary Leon Brittan were happy to 764 00:48:43,340 --> 00:48:45,740 let the American takeover go ahead. 765 00:48:47,580 --> 00:48:50,820 But Michael Heseltine, the Defence Secretary, thought that Westland 766 00:48:50,820 --> 00:48:53,260 should have a European buyer. 767 00:48:53,260 --> 00:48:56,980 The disagreement brought into focus their fraught relationship. 768 00:48:59,300 --> 00:49:03,260 Michael Heseltine was not only ambitious - 769 00:49:03,260 --> 00:49:07,100 there's nothing wrong with that - but overpoweringly ambitious 770 00:49:07,100 --> 00:49:10,980 and that seemed to be the foremost thing in his mind. 771 00:49:10,980 --> 00:49:15,140 It mattered more than anything else and therefore he had to get his way. 772 00:49:17,300 --> 00:49:21,540 Mrs Thatcher regarded Michael Heseltine as an ineffective minister. 773 00:49:21,540 --> 00:49:24,300 She believed he was unable to control his tendency to what 774 00:49:24,300 --> 00:49:26,620 she called "vulgar exaggeration". 775 00:49:31,860 --> 00:49:34,900 When he appeared wearing a flak jacket on television 776 00:49:34,900 --> 00:49:38,380 her friends saw this as a deliberate ploy to steal her thunder. 777 00:49:39,820 --> 00:49:43,660 This was the sort of publicity pose reserved for the Prime Minister. 778 00:49:47,740 --> 00:49:52,180 I think that the criticism will be made that she didn't have 779 00:49:52,180 --> 00:49:57,700 a sufficient instinctive understanding of some members of her Cabinet, 780 00:49:57,700 --> 00:50:04,420 including Michael Heseltine, and that that being so there was always 781 00:50:04,420 --> 00:50:09,820 the problem that sooner or later there'd be a personality mismatch. 782 00:50:09,820 --> 00:50:13,500 And certainly I think the Westland affair produced that. 783 00:50:15,180 --> 00:50:20,540 The Westland issue was soon dwarfed by a titanic clash of personalities. 784 00:50:20,540 --> 00:50:23,300 Michael Heseltine persisted in demanding a European 785 00:50:23,300 --> 00:50:25,860 buyer for Westland. 786 00:50:25,860 --> 00:50:28,900 But Margaret Thatcher, wanting the American option, 787 00:50:28,900 --> 00:50:32,220 refused to let him put his case to colleagues in full Cabinet. 788 00:50:35,660 --> 00:50:39,740 I did tell the Prime Minister, five weeks before I resigned, 789 00:50:39,740 --> 00:50:43,980 that if she refused to allow the Cabinet to discuss the plans 790 00:50:43,980 --> 00:50:47,780 which I had been invited by collective judgment of my colleagues 791 00:50:47,780 --> 00:50:51,540 at a meeting of the Economic Affairs of the Cabinet in December, 792 00:50:51,540 --> 00:50:56,980 if she refused to allow those matters to be discussed, 793 00:50:56,980 --> 00:51:01,100 ventilated, explored at full Cabinet, I would resign. 794 00:51:01,100 --> 00:51:04,940 If every minister wanted everything as small a point as Westland 795 00:51:04,940 --> 00:51:08,780 to come to Cabinet, we would be sitting half the week 796 00:51:08,780 --> 00:51:11,300 and you simply couldn't carry on Government that way. 797 00:51:11,300 --> 00:51:13,860 The truth is Michael had got a thing about this. 798 00:51:13,860 --> 00:51:15,300 He got it all out of proportion, 799 00:51:15,300 --> 00:51:19,180 he tried to magnify it into a question of an American 800 00:51:19,180 --> 00:51:21,340 solution or a European solution 801 00:51:21,340 --> 00:51:26,620 and there wasn't in fact a practical European solution in hand, on offer. 802 00:51:26,620 --> 00:51:29,580 So, it had to take its course and it did. 803 00:51:30,700 --> 00:51:35,940 Unable to argue his case in Cabinet, Michael Heseltine lobbied in public. 804 00:51:35,940 --> 00:51:37,860 In a desperate attempt to silence him, 805 00:51:37,860 --> 00:51:41,380 the Government leaked a letter from the Solicitor General. 806 00:51:41,380 --> 00:51:43,020 The letter to Heseltine accused him 807 00:51:43,020 --> 00:51:46,220 of peddling "material inaccuracies" in his campaign. 808 00:51:47,420 --> 00:51:51,580 When the Cabinet met on 9th January 1986, the Prime Minister made 809 00:51:51,580 --> 00:51:54,860 it plain that the disarray over Westland could not continue. 810 00:51:57,740 --> 00:52:00,780 Michael Heseltine must stop arguing his case in public. 811 00:52:03,220 --> 00:52:06,620 It's the only time I can ever remember the Prime Minister 812 00:52:06,620 --> 00:52:11,100 reading out the conclusions of the meeting of a discussion 813 00:52:11,100 --> 00:52:12,580 which didn't take place. 814 00:52:12,580 --> 00:52:16,020 They were already written before the meeting started. 815 00:52:16,020 --> 00:52:20,500 Mrs Thatcher was not prepared to allow my case to be put to Cabinet. 816 00:52:20,500 --> 00:52:23,660 The Cabinet meeting was in full swing, 817 00:52:23,660 --> 00:52:26,780 we'd all of us, save Michael, decided we must exercise 818 00:52:26,780 --> 00:52:29,180 the principal of collective responsibility, 819 00:52:29,180 --> 00:52:32,260 coordinate our statements and clear them through the Cabinet office. 820 00:52:32,260 --> 00:52:34,700 Not through me, through the Cabinet office, 821 00:52:34,700 --> 00:52:38,220 that was necessary for political and legal reasons. 822 00:52:38,220 --> 00:52:41,220 The difficulty was Michael. Would he accept that? 823 00:52:41,220 --> 00:52:45,260 I put it to him and Nick Ridley put it to him twice. 824 00:52:45,260 --> 00:52:50,300 Michael Heseltine seemed to be saying that should apply 825 00:52:50,300 --> 00:52:53,180 to 20 members of the Cabinet but not to him 826 00:52:53,180 --> 00:52:57,460 because he was responsible for conducting the deal. 827 00:52:57,460 --> 00:53:03,820 And I questioned that and Michael Jopling questioned that 828 00:53:03,820 --> 00:53:08,220 and I questioned it again and it was at that moment 829 00:53:08,220 --> 00:53:15,180 that he decided to shut his folder and leave the Cabinet. 830 00:53:15,180 --> 00:53:18,300 I folded my papers and I said, "In which case, 831 00:53:18,300 --> 00:53:22,980 "I cannot remain a member of this Cabinet," and I left very quietly. 832 00:53:22,980 --> 00:53:26,820 And in such a way that the comment of colleagues afterwards, 833 00:53:26,820 --> 00:53:30,660 if you remember, was they weren't quite sure what had happened. 834 00:53:30,660 --> 00:53:33,500 It would be wrong for me to say anything at this instant. 835 00:53:33,500 --> 00:53:37,700 I have resigned from the Cabinet and I will make a full statement later today. 836 00:53:42,700 --> 00:53:47,420 And we went back into Cabinet. Just before we did, Nick said to me... 837 00:53:48,860 --> 00:53:51,820 "I hope I didn't provoke him, 838 00:53:51,820 --> 00:53:55,540 "I hope I did the right thing" 839 00:53:55,540 --> 00:53:58,780 and I said to Nick, "Time alone will tell, Nick." 840 00:54:01,020 --> 00:54:04,060 Only four years later, Michael Heseltine was to mount 841 00:54:04,060 --> 00:54:06,740 a devastating challenge to Margaret Thatcher. 842 00:54:07,940 --> 00:54:10,620 Even at the time, many senior colleagues felt 843 00:54:10,620 --> 00:54:14,100 the Prime Minister should have let him put his case in Cabinet. 844 00:54:16,060 --> 00:54:18,580 It would have been better if there'd been more discussion, 845 00:54:18,580 --> 00:54:20,340 he'd been able... 846 00:54:20,340 --> 00:54:22,740 Well, put it this way, that he could have felt 847 00:54:22,740 --> 00:54:25,780 that he had been able to put his case strongly to the Cabinet. 848 00:54:25,780 --> 00:54:30,500 He always felt he had been denied that and I think it was perhaps, 849 00:54:30,500 --> 00:54:34,260 looking back on it, a pity that he appeared to feel that. 850 00:54:34,260 --> 00:54:37,180 I think to some extent had been denied it. 851 00:54:39,020 --> 00:54:41,340 After the departure of Michael Heseltine, 852 00:54:41,340 --> 00:54:45,100 parliamentary attention now focused on the role of the Prime Minister 853 00:54:45,100 --> 00:54:49,980 and the leak of the Law Office's letter attacking Heseltine's views. 854 00:54:49,980 --> 00:54:53,260 Who was responsible? Many suspected the Prime Minister 855 00:54:53,260 --> 00:54:55,380 and her officials inside Number Ten. 856 00:54:57,540 --> 00:55:00,500 The information contained in the Solicitor General's letter, 857 00:55:00,500 --> 00:55:02,860 as I explained to the House, it would have been useful 858 00:55:02,860 --> 00:55:05,900 to have in the public domain but one wouldn't have done it that way. 859 00:55:05,900 --> 00:55:08,260 Of course not. Had you wished to get it in, 860 00:55:08,260 --> 00:55:10,940 you would have consulted with the...um... 861 00:55:10,940 --> 00:55:14,180 Solicitor General, that would have been the correct way to go about it. 862 00:55:14,180 --> 00:55:17,420 But in the charged atmosphere there was much misunderstanding 863 00:55:17,420 --> 00:55:19,620 and much that went wrong. 864 00:55:19,620 --> 00:55:22,460 It was, really, a great storm in a teacup 865 00:55:22,460 --> 00:55:27,860 but it left some very serious things behind. 866 00:55:30,580 --> 00:55:33,860 The Trade Secretary, Leon Brittan, accepted responsibility 867 00:55:33,860 --> 00:55:37,500 for making the Solicitor General's letter public and resigned. 868 00:55:39,700 --> 00:55:43,460 The disclosure of a Law Officer's letter is considered a particularly 869 00:55:43,460 --> 00:55:48,060 grave offence and forced Brittan's departure from office. 870 00:55:48,060 --> 00:55:50,540 But Leon Brittan always made it plain the leak had been 871 00:55:50,540 --> 00:55:52,940 made on instructions from Number Ten. 872 00:55:57,020 --> 00:56:00,460 The release of the Solicitor General's letter was something 873 00:56:00,460 --> 00:56:04,860 which was approved by Mr Charles Powell, 874 00:56:04,860 --> 00:56:08,540 the relevant private secretary at Number Ten. 875 00:56:08,540 --> 00:56:11,580 And it was approved by Mr Bernard Ingham, 876 00:56:11,580 --> 00:56:15,700 the Prime Minister's press secretary. 877 00:56:15,700 --> 00:56:18,780 And, as I made clear at the time, there would have been 878 00:56:18,780 --> 00:56:24,220 no question of the release of that document without that express approval from Number Ten. 879 00:56:24,220 --> 00:56:28,620 The Minister authorised the disclosure. 880 00:56:28,620 --> 00:56:32,020 Now, Leon Brittan maintains that I authorised the disclosure. 881 00:56:32,020 --> 00:56:33,980 Well, it's a novel concept 882 00:56:33,980 --> 00:56:36,420 of the kind of Governments we have 883 00:56:36,420 --> 00:56:39,820 that an official can authorise that disclosure. 884 00:56:39,820 --> 00:56:44,300 Um, and I think the explanation of this is that, 885 00:56:44,300 --> 00:56:47,500 and I regret that I didn't do this, but the explanation 886 00:56:47,500 --> 00:56:50,820 for that is that I didn't actually positively say, "Don't." 887 00:56:52,140 --> 00:56:55,780 What I did say is that I'm not doing it. 888 00:56:55,780 --> 00:56:58,420 The loss of two ministers in quick succession made 889 00:56:58,420 --> 00:57:01,420 the Prime Minister appear careless and vulnerable. 890 00:57:01,420 --> 00:57:05,860 Many felt she owed her survival to Leon Brittan's self-sacrifice. 891 00:57:08,500 --> 00:57:11,540 Her own personal position was extremely weak 892 00:57:11,540 --> 00:57:16,700 and I remember talking to her at that time and she was in a terrible state. 893 00:57:16,700 --> 00:57:21,540 She almost found it impossible to focus on what was being said to her. 894 00:57:21,540 --> 00:57:24,940 And had Leon Brittan, I think, 895 00:57:24,940 --> 00:57:28,220 revealed everything that had 896 00:57:28,220 --> 00:57:33,740 come from Number Ten, directly and indirectly, 897 00:57:33,740 --> 00:57:41,700 which had led to the misguided publication of the Attorney General's letter in the Westland affair 898 00:57:41,700 --> 00:57:46,580 then I think that the pressure having been gone up one notch further 899 00:57:46,580 --> 00:57:50,220 might well have been too much for her to withstand. 900 00:57:50,220 --> 00:57:54,740 The opposition had called for a full debate on the Westland affair 901 00:57:54,740 --> 00:57:56,500 for Monday, 27th January. 902 00:57:56,500 --> 00:57:59,620 On the eve of the debate, Margaret Thatcher was heard to remark 903 00:57:59,620 --> 00:58:04,340 that by the end of the day, "I may no longer be Prime Minister." 904 00:58:04,340 --> 00:58:05,700 But she survived. 905 00:58:08,820 --> 00:58:13,900 NEIL KINNOCK: Today, the Prime Minister must answer the questions 906 00:58:13,900 --> 00:58:16,940 that she signally and significantly 907 00:58:16,940 --> 00:58:20,220 failed to answer six times last Thursday. 908 00:58:20,220 --> 00:58:25,300 'I certainly believe my speech in the second Westland debate' 909 00:58:25,300 --> 00:58:30,180 was the biggest single failure, other than losing the two elections, 910 00:58:30,180 --> 00:58:33,660 of my whole period as leader of the opposition. 911 00:58:33,660 --> 00:58:37,860 And the reason for that failure was overelaboration. 912 00:58:37,860 --> 00:58:41,780 'Thirdly, did the Prime Minister establish an inquiry 913 00:58:41,780 --> 00:58:47,620 'in response to the justifiable outrage of two law officers.' 914 00:58:47,620 --> 00:58:51,060 And it may have been overconfidence or overpreparation 915 00:58:51,060 --> 00:58:53,500 or a combination of both that made me 916 00:58:53,500 --> 00:58:57,460 add on some additional points at the beginning of my speech. 917 00:58:57,460 --> 00:58:59,660 Anyway, it's a matter of history. 918 00:58:59,660 --> 00:59:03,460 What did happen is I let Mrs Thatcher off the hook. 919 00:59:04,740 --> 00:59:07,220 But the affair damaged the Prime Minister. 920 00:59:07,220 --> 00:59:10,980 She was seen to have been not quite straight enough with the facts, 921 00:59:10,980 --> 00:59:14,220 even those closest to her felt she had blundered. 922 00:59:17,340 --> 00:59:22,380 There is no doubt that, at the end of the month, the Prime Minister 923 00:59:22,380 --> 00:59:26,740 herself felt that her position was very gravely undermined 924 00:59:26,740 --> 00:59:30,740 and I think it's true that the crisis shook her administration 925 00:59:30,740 --> 00:59:34,220 more profoundly than anything else until the end of it. 926 00:59:37,020 --> 00:59:39,420 The combined effect of the Brighton bombing 927 00:59:39,420 --> 00:59:42,660 and the Westland affair was to give Margaret Thatcher potent 928 00:59:42,660 --> 00:59:45,940 notice of her actual and political mortality. 929 00:59:50,420 --> 00:59:52,260 Victory in the Falklands 930 00:59:52,260 --> 00:59:56,700 and again over the miners had made her appear all-powerful 931 00:59:56,700 --> 01:00:01,220 but as the poet Dryden said, "Even victors are by victories undone." 932 01:00:13,340 --> 01:00:16,780 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd.