For the Sake of a Shower: The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
- Thread starter Lord Roem
- Start date
Sending out emergency bump bombs to try and return the good Lord to his thread. Bump! Bump! Bump!
OK, I subscribed to this thread now (I hadn't due to some oversight before), so you need to update Lord Roem! Your fellow lord demands it!
Okay. Finally had time to update, I'll try and be more regular from now on, how's that for a New Year's Resolution!
As it happens, I've had a somewhat more manic Michaelmas Term that I anticipated. Frightfully sorry chaps.
“FAILED BOMBING IN BRUGES: FLEMISH NATIONALISTS BLAMED
The signing of the Treaty of Bruges was overshadowed yesterday after Belgian police uncovered a plot by members of the Flemish Separatist group VMO to bomb several key locations in the historic mercantile city in a protest against the national government. The Neo-Gothic Provinciaal Hof is believed to have been the primary target of the group, although several car bombs were also uncovered throughout the Old Town. Authorities in the region have announced the arrest of several leading members of the terrorist group, including the nationalist leader in the Senate Frank Vanhecke.
The attack will come as a blow to the European Community, especially given the controversy surrounding the numerous delays to the signing of the Treaty, originally scheduled for mid-December. Leo Tindermans, President of the Commission, speaking at a lunchtime news conference, announced that the signing ceremony would not be delayed further, although he later stated in light of the security situation had led to a postponement of the event until Thursday morning.
Speaking in the House of Commons in response to the Foreign Secretary’s statement following the attack, Norman Lamont accused the government of “forcing through a wide-ranging and illegal attack on the British Parliamentary system” referring to “an act of constitutional vandalism”. Mr. Lamont was supported in his statement by several left-leaning Labour MP’s, including the influential Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Robert Cryer. Whilst the Bruges Treaty will become legally binding from the 1st January 1989, this will be dependent on universal ratification by EEC member states. Currently, strong opposition from the parliaments of both France and the United Kingdom places the success of the process in doubt. French Prime Minister Charles Pasqua, following increasing popularity of Sovereigntist faction within his Parliamentary Group, has announced that he will now attempt to call for a formal referendum on the Treaty, although this will be challenged by President Mitterrand.”
-From: The Daily Telegraph 24th February 1988
-From: Private Eye 16th February 1988
“As the anniversary of the coalition approached for June 5th, one could be forgiven for thinking that the novelty of the situation was beginning to sour for the Cabinet, rather like a New Years’ Eve party that had peaked at 9:30. Being as I was swamped with the political fallout from the budget, in which I had been forced to accept a rise in VAT rather than income tax by the right-wing of the Alliance, I was not overly enamoured with Neil during this period. Tensions had been strained for the past few months, especially with the press briefing against me which I was sure had originated from within Downing Street. Chris Morris had hated me ever since I had challenged his appointment as Press Secretary. Although I think that that was justified after he made a particularly tasteless joke about Peter Sutcliffe. Although this antagonism was largely private, the feud between the left of the Cabinet and the Alliance ministers was considerably more fraught. When Roy Jenkins floated the idea of an electoral pact for the local elections, Jack Cunningham almost threw a water jug out of the window. Personally, given the high approval ratings for the Owenite faction of the SDP, it was far from being an unjustified position, although I shared the view that Labour had to fight and win the next election on our own merits, not as part of a coalition which would only dilute our message and prove to be an anathema to our activists.
The opponents to the coalition finally rose up when Neil arrived back from Bruges, thankfully unshaken by the attempted bombing. Following the delayed Cabinet meeting on Thursday 25th February, a contingent of senior Labour figures, led by Peter Shore, the then-Minister for Agriculture, demanded that any idea of standing joint-candidates at the next election would be ruled out. When Neil refused to accede to the demands, quite rightly-so given the circumstances, Peter and his associates left Downing Street with a view to calling an immediate PLP Meeting for that evening. It was clear that a serious challenge to Neil’s position and the viability of the coalition had be unleashed from the quagmire of the Socialist Campaign Group.”
-From: “The Foothills of Vanity” John Smith: Penguin 2003
“SCENE: Downing Street Press Office. Day. Neil Kinnock [Billy Bragg] and Chris Morris [Peter Capaldi] sit at a coffee table. Numerous files are open, we see Polaroid pictures of the Cabinet arranged on a blackboard. The various plotters have red crosses through them. Morris gets out a rubber band and holds it in front of Kinnock’s face.
MORRIS: Right Neil, let’s see if we can nail this down in terms of this elastic band here. Would you like to see Cabinet discipline tightened up to this tightness, tightness number one;
(Twangs an elastic band) >Bwing<
MORRIS: Tightness number two;
>Bwing<
MORRIS: Or tightness number three?
>Bwing<
KINNOCK: I think tightness number three.
MORRIS: Tightness number three, like this?
>Bwing<
KINNOCK: That’s the one Chris, I think we've really got to hammer these guys if we have any chance of avoiding an election.
MORRIS: So that tightness being an average Post Office band extended over about eight inches. Right, I’m going to need every whip around here pronto, MI5’s file on Peter Shore, coffee and you in a smarter suit. You look like you’ve just been thrown head first through Oxfam.”
-From the recent Channel 4 docu-drama “Spinners and Losers: A History of Political PR”
“Thursday 25th February
Emergency PLP meeting, typically called when most of us are heading up to actually do our work. As it happens, most of us had heard that some sort of coup d’état was in the pipeline and had stayed around to lend our support to Neil. Whilst I would usually be the last man to sing the PM’s praises, removing him after less than a year in office would be the most pathetic and cowardly thing imaginable. As it happens, I actually stood up to defend him after a totally unfounded assault by Eric Heffer, who narrowly avoided having the whip removed after the most recent bust-up in Liverpool.
Neil, to his credit, remained calm and collected throughout the inquisition. There was a dicey moment when Shore stood up to call for a ballot on maintaining the coalition but he was easily rebuffed by Meacher. I’m growing to like Michael a great deal, he must be on the cards for promotion away from Prisons Minister at the inevitable reshuffle next week.
By the time the whole meeting concluded at around 7:30, by which time all of us mere mortals had missed our trains home, the hurried ballot on maintaining the current parliamentary arrangement passed by around thirty votes. Shore voted in favour of leaving the coalition and will have to resign, as will Dennis Canavan, who was leading our faction of the devolution referenda, and Mark Fisher, the Immigration Minister. Both of them will be a sad loss, although Canavan will probably be back as soon as David Steel decides to retire.
Had to stay over at the flat, Ngoc didn’t seem pleased, I think that she regrets being the wife of a politico. The damn television was on the blink, I toyed with the idea of buying a colour one. Perhaps not, it wouldn’t do any good in these times of growing financial uncertainly.
Friday 26th February
Managed to book a train home for lunchtime. Had breakfast with Frank Dobson, who’s been junior minister at the Foreign Office, he’s hardly the most diplomatic of people but seems to be doing at good job. According to him the entire diplomatic corps is aghast at the speed with which the old Soviet Bloc is falling and our lack of response to it. With the Americans getting into election fever and the whole bust up over Bruges, the Kremlin seems to be doing everything in its power to maintain hold over Eastern Europe. Ligachev seems to be a fool, the little we know about him, but there are some very dangerous figures on the verge of getting into office.
The Romanians kicked out Ceauşescu last night, apparently he fled to the Ukraine with half the treasury but without his wife. The old Bulgarian King is apparently on the verge of returning as well, it seems like Eastern Europe is going back to the inter-war period.
Dobson really does have a filthy sense of humour, I left when he lurched into yet another dirty story involving Michael Foot and Barbara Castle. I’ll never be able to look at the poor woman again.
Heard on the radio when I got home that Jack Straw has been promoted to take over at Agriculture. Stan Orme was sacked as well, although that may have been down to his health, he’s not been well lately. Heard he’s been replaced at Education by Donald Dewar.”
-From: “Left, Right and Centre: The Complete Diaries 1987-2004” Chris Mullin: HarperCollins 2006
As it happens, I've had a somewhat more manic Michaelmas Term that I anticipated. Frightfully sorry chaps.
“FAILED BOMBING IN BRUGES: FLEMISH NATIONALISTS BLAMED
The signing of the Treaty of Bruges was overshadowed yesterday after Belgian police uncovered a plot by members of the Flemish Separatist group VMO to bomb several key locations in the historic mercantile city in a protest against the national government. The Neo-Gothic Provinciaal Hof is believed to have been the primary target of the group, although several car bombs were also uncovered throughout the Old Town. Authorities in the region have announced the arrest of several leading members of the terrorist group, including the nationalist leader in the Senate Frank Vanhecke.
The attack will come as a blow to the European Community, especially given the controversy surrounding the numerous delays to the signing of the Treaty, originally scheduled for mid-December. Leo Tindermans, President of the Commission, speaking at a lunchtime news conference, announced that the signing ceremony would not be delayed further, although he later stated in light of the security situation had led to a postponement of the event until Thursday morning.
Speaking in the House of Commons in response to the Foreign Secretary’s statement following the attack, Norman Lamont accused the government of “forcing through a wide-ranging and illegal attack on the British Parliamentary system” referring to “an act of constitutional vandalism”. Mr. Lamont was supported in his statement by several left-leaning Labour MP’s, including the influential Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Robert Cryer. Whilst the Bruges Treaty will become legally binding from the 1st January 1989, this will be dependent on universal ratification by EEC member states. Currently, strong opposition from the parliaments of both France and the United Kingdom places the success of the process in doubt. French Prime Minister Charles Pasqua, following increasing popularity of Sovereigntist faction within his Parliamentary Group, has announced that he will now attempt to call for a formal referendum on the Treaty, although this will be challenged by President Mitterrand.”
-From: The Daily Telegraph 24th February 1988
-From: Private Eye 16th February 1988
“As the anniversary of the coalition approached for June 5th, one could be forgiven for thinking that the novelty of the situation was beginning to sour for the Cabinet, rather like a New Years’ Eve party that had peaked at 9:30. Being as I was swamped with the political fallout from the budget, in which I had been forced to accept a rise in VAT rather than income tax by the right-wing of the Alliance, I was not overly enamoured with Neil during this period. Tensions had been strained for the past few months, especially with the press briefing against me which I was sure had originated from within Downing Street. Chris Morris had hated me ever since I had challenged his appointment as Press Secretary. Although I think that that was justified after he made a particularly tasteless joke about Peter Sutcliffe. Although this antagonism was largely private, the feud between the left of the Cabinet and the Alliance ministers was considerably more fraught. When Roy Jenkins floated the idea of an electoral pact for the local elections, Jack Cunningham almost threw a water jug out of the window. Personally, given the high approval ratings for the Owenite faction of the SDP, it was far from being an unjustified position, although I shared the view that Labour had to fight and win the next election on our own merits, not as part of a coalition which would only dilute our message and prove to be an anathema to our activists.
The opponents to the coalition finally rose up when Neil arrived back from Bruges, thankfully unshaken by the attempted bombing. Following the delayed Cabinet meeting on Thursday 25th February, a contingent of senior Labour figures, led by Peter Shore, the then-Minister for Agriculture, demanded that any idea of standing joint-candidates at the next election would be ruled out. When Neil refused to accede to the demands, quite rightly-so given the circumstances, Peter and his associates left Downing Street with a view to calling an immediate PLP Meeting for that evening. It was clear that a serious challenge to Neil’s position and the viability of the coalition had be unleashed from the quagmire of the Socialist Campaign Group.”
-From: “The Foothills of Vanity” John Smith: Penguin 2003
“SCENE: Downing Street Press Office. Day. Neil Kinnock [Billy Bragg] and Chris Morris [Peter Capaldi] sit at a coffee table. Numerous files are open, we see Polaroid pictures of the Cabinet arranged on a blackboard. The various plotters have red crosses through them. Morris gets out a rubber band and holds it in front of Kinnock’s face.
MORRIS: Right Neil, let’s see if we can nail this down in terms of this elastic band here. Would you like to see Cabinet discipline tightened up to this tightness, tightness number one;
(Twangs an elastic band) >Bwing<
MORRIS: Tightness number two;
>Bwing<
MORRIS: Or tightness number three?
>Bwing<
KINNOCK: I think tightness number three.
MORRIS: Tightness number three, like this?
>Bwing<
KINNOCK: That’s the one Chris, I think we've really got to hammer these guys if we have any chance of avoiding an election.
MORRIS: So that tightness being an average Post Office band extended over about eight inches. Right, I’m going to need every whip around here pronto, MI5’s file on Peter Shore, coffee and you in a smarter suit. You look like you’ve just been thrown head first through Oxfam.”
-From the recent Channel 4 docu-drama “Spinners and Losers: A History of Political PR”
“Thursday 25th February
Emergency PLP meeting, typically called when most of us are heading up to actually do our work. As it happens, most of us had heard that some sort of coup d’état was in the pipeline and had stayed around to lend our support to Neil. Whilst I would usually be the last man to sing the PM’s praises, removing him after less than a year in office would be the most pathetic and cowardly thing imaginable. As it happens, I actually stood up to defend him after a totally unfounded assault by Eric Heffer, who narrowly avoided having the whip removed after the most recent bust-up in Liverpool.
Neil, to his credit, remained calm and collected throughout the inquisition. There was a dicey moment when Shore stood up to call for a ballot on maintaining the coalition but he was easily rebuffed by Meacher. I’m growing to like Michael a great deal, he must be on the cards for promotion away from Prisons Minister at the inevitable reshuffle next week.
By the time the whole meeting concluded at around 7:30, by which time all of us mere mortals had missed our trains home, the hurried ballot on maintaining the current parliamentary arrangement passed by around thirty votes. Shore voted in favour of leaving the coalition and will have to resign, as will Dennis Canavan, who was leading our faction of the devolution referenda, and Mark Fisher, the Immigration Minister. Both of them will be a sad loss, although Canavan will probably be back as soon as David Steel decides to retire.
Had to stay over at the flat, Ngoc didn’t seem pleased, I think that she regrets being the wife of a politico. The damn television was on the blink, I toyed with the idea of buying a colour one. Perhaps not, it wouldn’t do any good in these times of growing financial uncertainly.
Friday 26th February
Managed to book a train home for lunchtime. Had breakfast with Frank Dobson, who’s been junior minister at the Foreign Office, he’s hardly the most diplomatic of people but seems to be doing at good job. According to him the entire diplomatic corps is aghast at the speed with which the old Soviet Bloc is falling and our lack of response to it. With the Americans getting into election fever and the whole bust up over Bruges, the Kremlin seems to be doing everything in its power to maintain hold over Eastern Europe. Ligachev seems to be a fool, the little we know about him, but there are some very dangerous figures on the verge of getting into office.
The Romanians kicked out Ceauşescu last night, apparently he fled to the Ukraine with half the treasury but without his wife. The old Bulgarian King is apparently on the verge of returning as well, it seems like Eastern Europe is going back to the inter-war period.
Dobson really does have a filthy sense of humour, I left when he lurched into yet another dirty story involving Michael Foot and Barbara Castle. I’ll never be able to look at the poor woman again.
Heard on the radio when I got home that Jack Straw has been promoted to take over at Agriculture. Stan Orme was sacked as well, although that may have been down to his health, he’s not been well lately. Heard he’s been replaced at Education by Donald Dewar.”
-From: “Left, Right and Centre: The Complete Diaries 1987-2004” Chris Mullin: HarperCollins 2006
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Great stuff as always Roem.
Any chance of an opinion poll?
I'll see what I can do! As will be expected, there's now four key players in British politics at the moment, Labour, the Conservatives, the Alliance-SDP and Owen's SDP. That arrangement could change fairly soon though.
Great to see this back, Roem!
Hell, I'm just pleased to BE back.
As it happens, having re-read the first few pages, I think that this would benefit from a few re-writes at the start, some pictures and some ret-cons. I may start off with Mk. 2 later today just to smarten things up.
Did you like the faux-Tintin picture by the way?
Winston Smith
Banned
I'll echo greater freedom on that. One a personal request, the British Armed Forces won't be eviserated like in real life, will they? The Bulgarian King bit is interesting. Will we be seeing Hungarian irrendentism(?) in play ITTL?