It was very early morning and I had heard no news so much so that my thoughts were with the Coal Miners whose strike was entering its sixth month. Many of my mates were miners and had events turned out differently that was where my future destiny may have been. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, events took over which prohibited me going down the pit. I had applied to the National Coal Board (NCB) at nearby Selby which was due to start mining in the early eighties. I received literature from the NCB including ‘The Future is Coal’ but it was not to be due to a motorbike accident leaving me unfit to go down.
The neo-fascist Prime Minister in Britian, Margaret Thatcher, had plans to close the coal industry down, something she dishonestly denied, including Selby. I supported the Miners in their fight to save ‘Jobs, pits and Communities’ and followed my own trade union leaders, the Transport and General Workers Union, call to assist the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) wherever possible. I recall the 1984 TUC conference our union chief, Ron Todd, addressing Congress berating previous speakers; “I want a Labour Government, I want a socialist government but not at the expense of the National Union of Mineworkers”. I remember those words clearly. As I thought about the lads on the picket lines and the women’s support groups my thoughts drifted into the imaginary world of Thatcher being assassinated and how then maybe, just maybe, we would have a PM capable of talking to the NUM leadership. Yes, assassinate her and all would be grand I naively thought. Other people with a more realistic chance of success were thinking along similar lines!
I was changing into my overalls ready to start work when the door flew open and a junior member of management came in. “Fucking bastards, the fucking miners have tried to kill Thatcher” he wrongly informed his audience. Normally nobody took a blind bit of notice to what he had, regarded as insignificant, to say but this was different. Had the NUM upped the ante? No, they had not but another organisation with as much justification certainly had. The Irish Republican Army had engaged on one of its most daring missions to date -it tried to assassinate the “Plutonium Blonde” as Arthur Scargill once described Thatcher. Rory Carroll delves deep into perhaps the greatest plot since the Gunpowder plot of 1605!
In this book Killing Thatcher Rory Carroll describes the events leading up to the audacious attack dating back to the 1981 republican Hunger Strikes in Long Kesh (The Maze) Prison. These were the months when seven IRA and three INLA Prisoners of War starved themselves to death for political status. Thatcher purposely allowed these men to die and was guilty in the eyes of many of state murder. These multiple murders of Irish republicans detonated the anger not only of the republican and republican socialist movements but the Irish people as a whole. The murders also raised the anger and hatred of Thatcher within socialist organisations around the world including the Soviet Union.
In this book Rory Carroll brings to life the years between these state murders and the Brighton Bomb. He brilliantly and graphically describes the picturesque scene of Brighton on 15th September 1984 when IRA Volunteer and Engineer and operator, Patrick Magee was doing his early reconnaissance and preparation work. The Union Jack flew over the Grand Hotel the venue for the 1984 Conservative and Unionist Party conference. Magee looked like any other holiday maker or tourist, businessman or even Bank Manager as he fitted in without any significance with the scenery. The local football team, Brighton and Hove Albion were playing at what was then their home ground, the Goldstone Ground, hosts to rivals Crystal palace. Having been to Brighton many times with Man Utd I could picture the scene as fans began warming up. The police there were heavy handed in my day as I spent one Saturday as a guest of theirs missing the fucking game thanks to them miserable bastards!
Magee was clean shaven, neatly dressed and could have been anybody: he blended in perfectly. He was the perfect operator for the job in hand and what a job it would be if successful, the assassination of the British Prime Minister and hated woman, Margaret Thatcher. The genesis of the attack, as Carroll elaborates with great research, was on Monday 27th August 1979 the date the IRA blew up British Royal Lord Mountbatten. The success of this attack obviously emboldened the IRA and on the same day they blew up 38 British soldiers killing 18, injuring twenty and damaging a Wessex Helicopter at Warrenpoint. The IRAs South Armagh Brigade carried out this attack the IRAs biggest hit yet in the war against ‘crown forces’. The IRA saw their campaign as a war of liberation, a view shared by many groups and individuals outside Ireland apart from the British ruling classes and their supporters which, alas, numbered many. However, despite the Warrenpoint success, the Brighton operation was to surpass all others. Rory Carroll briefly traces the historical relationship between Ireland and England, later Britain, bringing us to the situation which existed in 1984 as he puts together the facts leading up to this momentous moment - this would be ‘spectacular’ as one newspaper described it after the event.
The logistics of the bombing are traced by the author using interviews with the combatants involved and others who were enrolled in making the Tory Party Conference as well as bomb disposal experts. News bulletins told us of the attack, they could hardly keep that a secret, and the health of those injured and those who walked away virtually unscathed. Unfortunately Thatcher was one of the latter who, like Adolf Hitler forty years previous, had luck on her side. Had Hitler been standing elsewhere in the ‘Wolfs lair’ in 1944 he would have been blown sky high. A similar twist of fate befell Margaret Thatcher at Brighton in 1984.
Magee was clean shaven, neatly dressed and could have been anybody: he blended in perfectly. He was the perfect operator for the job in hand and what a job it would be if successful, the assassination of the British Prime Minister and hated woman, Margaret Thatcher. The genesis of the attack, as Carroll elaborates with great research, was on Monday 27th August 1979 the date the IRA blew up British Royal Lord Mountbatten. The success of this attack obviously emboldened the IRA and on the same day they blew up 38 British soldiers killing 18, injuring twenty and damaging a Wessex Helicopter at Warrenpoint. The IRAs South Armagh Brigade carried out this attack the IRAs biggest hit yet in the war against ‘crown forces’. The IRA saw their campaign as a war of liberation, a view shared by many groups and individuals outside Ireland apart from the British ruling classes and their supporters which, alas, numbered many. However, despite the Warrenpoint success, the Brighton operation was to surpass all others. Rory Carroll briefly traces the historical relationship between Ireland and England, later Britain, bringing us to the situation which existed in 1984 as he puts together the facts leading up to this momentous moment - this would be ‘spectacular’ as one newspaper described it after the event.
The logistics of the bombing are traced by the author using interviews with the combatants involved and others who were enrolled in making the Tory Party Conference as well as bomb disposal experts. News bulletins told us of the attack, they could hardly keep that a secret, and the health of those injured and those who walked away virtually unscathed. Unfortunately Thatcher was one of the latter who, like Adolf Hitler forty years previous, had luck on her side. Had Hitler been standing elsewhere in the ‘Wolfs lair’ in 1944 he would have been blown sky high. A similar twist of fate befell Margaret Thatcher at Brighton in 1984.
The book traces the masterminding of the plot - perhaps matched only by the INLAs execution of Tory right-wing MP Airey Neave in 1979 - by the IRAs ‘England department’. The leadership of this specialist department of the IRA met in Dublin, according to the author, and finetuned the logistics and execution of the plan to kill Thatcher. Whether the reader agrees with the IRA or not it cannot be denied this was an audacious plan which very nearly bore fruit. The risks involved were huge as Rory Carroll explains and the price of capture would be high. But, if all went to plan, which in fairness short of the result it did, then everybody would be back home in Dublin for tea!
The IRA had become one of the world’s most efficient and effective guerilla forces but it was under pressure. The victory at Warrenpoint was a memory now and they needed a ‘spectacular’ which was what Pat Magee was there to do, break the “stalemate”. When he approached the reception that September day at the Grand Hotel Magee gave his nationality as “English” and used an assumed name, “Roy Walsh” giving a London SE 4 address. He booked three nights half board in room 629 and the bill amounted to £180. The IRA Engineer used a long-delay time bomb set to go off 24 days, 6 hours and 32 minutes after Magee had departed Brighton. On the 12th October 1984 at 2.45 am a loud bang and blinding flash would emit from the Grand Hotel Brighton and, it was hoped, in a few seconds that the entire British Cabinet including Thatcher would be yesterday’s news. Unfortunately, and despite the deaths of five and injuring of many, the intended target by a twist of fate escaped with only minor injuries. The rejoicing in many coal mining areas subsided with the news she had cheated death as it dawned the strike would go on and with it the starvation and poverty caused by Thatcher’s anti-strike legislation aimed particularly at the NUM.
The IRA had planned this spectacular for two years including the reconnoitring of the 1982 and 1983 Tory party conferences. The use of the long-delay time bomb meant the device could be planted and primed weeks, even months in advance. Rory Carroll examines this meticulous planning in great detail and reveals the sophistication of the Irish Republican Army at the time. Even though the bomb did not get its target the propaganda value to the IRA was still worthy. In a statement the organisation advised Thatcher they “only had to be lucky once, she would have to be lucky all of the time”. A chilling message befitting for such a callous woman. Anybody interested in Irish politics through the ages or just in this particular episode, this book makes more than interesting reading. It reveals the dedication of the IRA and portrays an organisation which, far from the British Governments and media's description of thugs and murderers, was in fact a dedicated formidable, sophisticated and developed guerilla army.
The book provides us with a short epilogue and Thatcher secured a third term of office in the 1987 British General Election. It was in this third term she appeared to lose some of her marbles, alienating her own cabinet who, in 1990, ousted her as Tory Party Leader and, therefore, her premiership. Thatcher threw a fit which would have put Alf Garnett to shame insisting she would remain the Prime Minister. When it was explained this would not be possible, she had to be restrained according to some biographers.
Patrick Magee the IRA Volunteer and explosives expert was released from Long kesh under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. What happened to other participants in the plot Rory Carroll explains. Magee forged an unlikely friendship with Joanna Berry, the daughter of Anthony Berry MP who was killed in the blast. The unlikely duo speak at conflict resolution meetings as guest speakers. Their friendship has stood the test of time and continues to the present day. During the course of his research the author interviewed some of the bomb disposal experts who had defused IRA bombs in the past. How times change, the GFA altered everything, everything that is apart from the constitutional status of “Northern Ireland”.
Perhaps worthy of note is a more recent event which took place in the United States when on 13th July 2024 Republican Presidential candidate, Donald Trump, had an assassination attempt on his life. Like Margaret Thatcher forty years previous he survived and like her cited some sort of divine intervention as his saviour. Ironically forty years before the attempt on Thatcher’s life a similar assassination attempt was made on the Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler in the Wolfs Lair, Poland. All three of these right-wing would-be dictators (in the case of Thatcher and Trump would-be, in the case of Hitler actual dictator and mass murderer), escaped their fate and survived. All three pointed to divine intervention of some kind for their survival!
Perhaps worthy of note is a more recent event which took place in the United States when on 13th July 2024 Republican Presidential candidate, Donald Trump, had an assassination attempt on his life. Like Margaret Thatcher forty years previous he survived and like her cited some sort of divine intervention as his saviour. Ironically forty years before the attempt on Thatcher’s life a similar assassination attempt was made on the Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler in the Wolfs Lair, Poland. All three of these right-wing would-be dictators (in the case of Thatcher and Trump would-be, in the case of Hitler actual dictator and mass murderer), escaped their fate and survived. All three pointed to divine intervention of some kind for their survival!
To clarify my description of Thatcher as a would-be dictator - when she was booted out of the Tory leader’s position in 1990, she insisted no matter what, she would continue as Prime Minister. What she was demanding, and fortunately did not get, was irrespective of who led her party, she would still lead the country. Such a position is what makes a dictator. She was willing to ignore the rules of the albeit shallow British liberal democracy to maintain her own power. Historically a pattern is building up; every forty years these attempts are made to kill far-right and fascist politicians, coincidence? Yes, probably!
Rory Carroll, 2023, Killing Thatcher. Harper Collins. HB ISBN 978-0-00-847665-6. PB ISBN 978-0-00-847666-3
Rory Carroll, 2023, Killing Thatcher. Harper Collins. HB ISBN 978-0-00-847665-6. PB ISBN 978-0-00-847666-3
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| Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist. |
If you don't like someone , call them a " fascist " . As cheap & lazy as labelling everyone to the political left as a " commie " .
ReplyDeletethere are enough of them about - Umberto Eco's Ur-fascism essay would cover them quite well
DeleteFascism is as fascism does. It's not really rocket science. On that basis, Thatcher was clearly some sort of fascist or neo-fascist. To suggest otherwise is simply sophistry.
ReplyDeleteI never regarded Thatcher as a fascist. Never regarded her as much better than one either. I think Brendan O'Neill nailed it a few years back when he observed that fascist has become another way of calling people bastards. The formula of fascism is what fascism does has led to people on the Left being labelled fascist. Thatcher to me was a right wing politician of a strong conservative hue but did not go far enough along the continuum where she could be described as a full blown fascist.
DeleteEven the use of the term fascist in Ireland to describe what is going on in the anti-immigration camp has serious limitations.
And I think for the purposes of creating strategic alliances that can counter fascism it is always crucial to distinguish between fascism as represented by say the Justin Barrett strain and conservatism as articulated by Niall Boylan.
Some of the easy/lazy labelling that happens makes me wonder what Trotsky or later Poulantzas would have read into it. Both had serious credentials when it came to grasping fascism.
Much of the evidence points to Thatcher being a fascist. I'm not talking about the North here as although she was bloodthirstily vindictive and discriminatory towards nationalists so were most of the Prime Ministers of the UK.
DeleteI'm talking about the secret shenanigans between herself and Pinochet. Much hasn't been disclosed but what we do know is she flooded Chile with arms after she lifted the previous Labour government's embargo. She reintroduced diplomatic relations with the murderous regime. Her UK government fought hard to destroy international opposition to Pinochet's human rights violations. They hushed up news and lied to the British public about the torture and disappearance of their fellow British citizens at the hands of the Chilean regime.
They put a stop to Labour's refugee programme for Latin America. Chilean Junta Ministers were feted in London. The MoD's links with Chile stink: £1.1 million spent between 1981 and 1984 on training the armed forces of this junta who tortured 40,000, killed and disappeared 3,200 and 200,000 had to flee for their own safety. The Conservative government cut off vital escape routes.
The military aid is mirrored today by the training and logistical support in Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen but Thatcher's fight to free Pinochet from custody in London was exceptionally perverse.
The withdrawal of support from a 1982 UN resolution condemning Pinochet's abuses and the lobbying other countries using UN channels to do the same was a disgrace.
Thatcher's support was more than mere succour for Pinochet. She actually said he shouldn't be extradited to Spain as any defence witnesses would also be liable to arrest. No shit, Sherlock. Her argument wasn't really to do with a fair trial. She said she would fight until Pinochet was safely back in Chile. She got a standing ovation when she said the British were loyal to their friends and visited the weasel when he was under house arrest.
They substantially, enthusiastically and directly aided, abetted and assisted Pinochet's fascist regime of terror. The link of causation is irrefutable. The extent of support only prolonged and intensified the terror under the junta. Thatcher was a fascist.
However, labeling all the far-right as fascists maybe goes too far. Tonight, the owner of a Turkish cafe in Belfast who had thugs raid his premises and smash windows, doors and furniture or the Turkish grocery store down the street which was also attacked might be less interested in terminology. The Venn diagram of fascists and far-right may not be a circle but there is danger in it becoming so. Best it's nipped in the bud like the way the brave people of the Lower Ormeau Road stood up to the far-right and prevented further damage in Belfast's Holylands.
Simon,
Deletethat is a passionate take on the matter.
There is nothing I could find to disagree with in your take, remembering her relationship with Pinochet so well. But it has not convinced me she was a fascist. Britain wasn't fascist under her leadership: all the core elements of a constitutional democracy were in place. She increased authoritarianism.
I think you use the term fascist in a moralistic (not moralising) sense. I can share that. There has been considerable debate even over whether or not the Pinochet and Videla regimes were fascist or military dictatorships who operated every bit as badly as fascism. I have few qualms describing either as fascist. Much as I can characterise as theocratic fascism some of what comes out of the Islamic world, Hindu nationalism and Christian nationalism.
I suspect Thatcher had fascist instincts but I reckon many conservatives have, just as many on the Left have Stalinist ones. I want to die in neither a Fascist or Stalinist camp!
I am more comfortable viewing her as a fascist enabler but I don't find foreign policy with all its vagaries a useful way to characterise the regime that has that foreign policy. Her foreign policy helped topple the military regime of Argentina but purely out of Britain's own self interest and she should get no brownie points for the regime's downfall.
Kissinger is a useful point of reference - he was worse than any fascist I can think of given his vile foreign policy but wasn't one himself.
My sole interest in the discussion isn't pedantic - what term to characterise someone, and is more about pondering the question of strategic alliances against the phenomenon. If the label fascist is used too loosely then it creates a strategic blindspot around the terrain where possible allies might lie. I have heard Fine Gael/Labour/Fianna Fail - even SF termed fascist. That is a lot of people ruled out of any strategic alliance against fascism from the get go. History is replete with lessons of how that worked out in the 30s.
As ever, thanks for your thoughtful and challenging contribution. Hope all is good.
Probably the only I time I can remember when the Tricolour and the Union Jack flew side by side carried by protestors in front of Belfast City Hall too.
DeleteAll things considered your logic beats my passion in the terminology debate. I guess that's why international law focuses on actions rather than name calling.
ReplyDeleteAll is well here, thanks for asking. I hope you, your family and friends are all well too.
I am far from convinced that it does beat your passion. I take on board what you say but grapple with these matters. I find fascism a difficult concept particularly when I read the work of Poulantzas and the Marxist contextualisation of it as distinct from say proto-fascism, or Ur-Fascism as articulated by Eco. I actually feel more comfortable with Eco than the more Marxian usages of the term.
DeleteIn Drogheda a Shinner came up from Dublin one evening to talk to us about organising against the far right - he was very good, with a solid grasp of nuances around alliances. Yet, if he comes to be defined as a fascist by some screamer, all that is lost to us.
We are all good Simon - glad you are too. Might ping you for coffee shortly if you are free.
Absolutely, no use watering down the term. People compare Israel to the Nazis. I wouldn't do it. The scale and severity of the Nazis was much worse and because the Jews were the primary victims there is much historical hurt there and the comparison is often used because the Jews were the victim rather than what the Nazis actually did. Saying that it is a clear case of ethnic cleansing, genocide, many war crimes and crimes against humanity. I think the case for war crimes trials is sound but that the inhumanity of Israel stands on its own. No comparisons necessary. Much like the Armenian Genocide or the Belgian Congo the case against Israel is unique. The inhumanity beyond comparison. Much like calling everybody who disagrees with you a fascist, comparing Russia or Israel or Trump to Hitler isn't helpful.
DeleteThe Shinners were booed at the Palestinian protests here in Belfast. A speaker made the point that solidarity is key and not everyone who speaks against the Occupation and criminality has the same way to approach it. John Taylor is a vocal opponent of the way Palestinians have been treated. I'd be devastated if he took the platform and was booed off for being a unionist. Chris McGimpsey and David Ervine both shared pro-Palestinian platforms and were warmly received.
We need to encourage Unionists and Loyalists to speak against things like genocide and the far right. Otherwise we will be stuck in a vicious cycle of polarised views on every issue, determined by nationalism or unionism and we know there are many left wing unionists and loyalists.
I don't think the far-right is better at attracting a cross community representation but they they are certainly better at showing it. Maybe showing it would hurt the ant-far right or pro-Palestinian cause in that numbers are key and we know there is good cross community solidarity but it might attract more visible variety. I don't know if it is needed or would work.
I've sent an email about the coffee.
I think there is a case for comparing the Israelis to the Nazis. It serves as a reminder to them that they are doing to others what was done to Jews - all genocide is Nazi like. When we see SS-like atrocity or we should flag it up. I never baulk from referring to their killer squads as Einsatzgruppen or their officers as SS. They have made such a play on being victims of the Holocaust that it is worthwhile reminding them that their atrocities are no better than those of the Nazis. I have taken to referring to them as Kapos, arguing that they represent the wrong end of the camps where Jewish people were held in.
DeleteI get your point that it can be used by some of an antisemitic hue simply to score points of the Jews. I use it to make points of legitimate comparison about the Nazis and refuse to allow apologist of the Israelis to smother my view with the muzzle of antisemitism.
I don't agree with the Shinners being booed off the platform. If people feel strongly they should simply turn their back on them when they speak. The response of Pat Sheehan was weak. The Shinners have tried to appease the establishment with some of their actions rather than back those in Gaza - so I understand the sentiment. I too would be annoyed if unionists were booed off the platform because they were unionists. The Shinners were booed because they were considered duplicitous on the matter.
If the Shinners organise a vigil for Gaza in town here, I turn up to it. One of their councillors ensured we got the Palestinian refugees into watch Drogheda United free.
I don't think the far right managed to convey the inflexion that goes with cross community, a suggestion that something worthwhile is being done that draws a community together. What the far right have is akin to drug dealers from both communities pooling resources for profit rather than people.
"....when IRA Volunteer, Engineer and agent, Patrick Magee was doing his early reconnaissance and preparation work..."
ReplyDeleteAgent? Surely he is confusing Patrick Magee with JJ Magee?
It was supposed to be changed because of the connotation the term conveys. It was in twice but went unnoticed. He wasn't implying that Pat was a Brit agent!!!
DeleteThanks for spotting that Dixie
Did raise an eyebrow, I thought " Now there's a VERY deeply committed double agent"!! LOL
DeleteAM "They" i.e. the State of Israel did not exist at the time of the Holocaust. It was European Jewry that was almost exterminated at the hands of the Nazis, not the State of Israel. When the State of Israel perpetrates multiple war crimes in Gaza and when it illegally holds onto the West Bank and colonises it with settlements, it does so on behalf of that state formation not the the entire Jewish collectivity. Most of the Jewish diaspora oppose the actions and policies of the Israeli state in relation to the Palestinian Arabs but most except radical antizionist groups eschew Nazi comparisons. The current far right Israeli government certainly compares to the proto populist autocracies that Anne Applebaum writes about and the growing hegemony of racist Jewish supremacism (I am happy with the term Judeo-Nazism in that context) in Israel is very stark. But deploying the Nazi label in relation to Israel can spur antisemitic attacks on Jews outside Israel (antisemitism being another hate ideology on the rise globally). As Simon states, Israeli war crimes stand alone; there is no need or merit in comparing them to the Nazis which differ so radically in intent, nature and execution.
ReplyDeleteI think most people familiar with the conflict know that Barry - the state of Israel came after the Holocaust. I haven't seen anybody suggest otherwise.
DeleteBut the state of Israel has drawn on the Holocaust in its ongoing endeavours to legitimize the Zionist project and to justify the atrocities that it carries out. My point is that the state if Israel does not resemble the Jews murdered during the Holocaust. The Palestinians more resemble them, each being the victim of genocide, the Nazis and the Israelis each being the perpetrators of genocide. If Israel came out of Auschwitz it came out from the Kapo quarters.
The state of Israel by claiming Israel is the state of the Jews rather than the state of Israeli citizens makes a statement about Jewish collectivity. That is what I would suggest spawns antisemitic attacks rather than comparisons between the Israeli oppression of Palestinians and the Nazi oppression of the Jews.
Israeli war crimes do stand alone as do Hutu, Kissinger, Videla and Assad war crimes but they also fit into a pattern that resembles Nazi war crimes. Identify one war crime that cannot be described as Nazi-like.
There is much less opposition towards comparing Israeli genocide with Nazi genocide than there was at one time. Anyone committing genocide can legitimately be compared to the Nazis.
An interesting observation, nonetheless.
Has Patrick Magee succeeded in his mission, nothing really would have changed, certainly not for the miners and probably for Northern Ireland. For history shows that assassinations are very ineffective tools for political change. The Tsarist order did not disappear after the killing of Alexandra I in 1881, nothing changed after the Invincible killings in Phoenix Park in 1882, killing of Kevin Higgins in 1927; the assassination of four US Presidents did not bring the US to its knees,
ReplyDeleteThe morally justified assassination of Heydrich in 1942 did not materially alter the course of Second World War and led to even more horrendous suffering for the Czechs such as the Lidice massacre. It meaningful collective action that leads to political and social change not the despairing actions of lone wolves or singular spectaculars such as the Brighton bomb.
ReplyDelete@ Barry
ReplyDeleteI think the killing of Heydrich was a psychologically devastating blow to Adolf Hitler, which would have altered the course of the war in some ways. How, it's difficult to say, but Hitler held Heydrich up as the perfect Nazi. Also, Heydrich personally led intense persecution of Czechs. How this changed in the medium and long term following his death would be interesting to understand. I wonder if any research has been carried out into this.
If Thatcher had died in Brighton, I think Britain and Ireland would be different places than they are today, and probably not in ways that were obvious then or now. Thatcher's personality left such an imprint in the collective understanding of the UK that it's hard to imagine it not having happened. Would individualism have become so widespread? Would business have become almost fetishised? Could a Prime Minister without Thatcher's formidable record have brought the Anglo-Irish Agreement into being? Who knows.
Heydrich was far worse than any other senior Nazi, Hitler didn't call him the man with an iron heart for nothing. The SS were vindictive in Czechoslovakia immediately after but none could hold a candle to his cold blooded barbarism.
DeleteIf Thatcher had been killed there would have been beneficial changes in direction IMO.
ReplyDelete