National Archives: From Thatcher’s disdain for footballers diving to a Major row with the US
5 min read
Among the hundreds of newly-released files from the National Archives are accounts of Margaret Thatcher’s distaste for diving in football to John Major’s fury with the US over Gerry Adams’ visa. PoliticsHome looks at some of the top stories.
NUMBER TEN FOR ENGLAND
The documents show Mrs Thatcher had little time for play-acting on the football pitch and had planned to make clear her feelings on the matter when the England team, who had just been knocked out of the 1990 World Cup, gathered at Downing Street.
According to the draft speech, she would say of the Fifa Fair Play Trophy winners: "We all noticed too that when an England player was brought down, unlike other teams, our players did not immediately seek the Oscar for best actor for impersonating the death scene from Richard III.
"You got on calmly with the game and always accepted the referee's decisions without demur."
The files say her private secretary, Dominic Morris, advised that her speech be filmed, in order to help promote the image that the PM was “not anti-football, but simply anti-hooliganism” – a problem that was rife in the game at that time.
THATCHER MEETS MANDELA
The former PM was said to have been “a bit disappointed” by the anti-Apartheid leader and then-ANC leader Nelson Mandela following his release from prison in 1990.
In a private note of the phone call between the two leaders, Charles Powell, Mrs Thatcher’s private secretary for foreign affairs, wrote: “The prime minister commented to me afterwards that she was a bit disappointed with Mandela, who seemed to have rather a closed mind.”
The files also suggest the PM raised the issue of ANC violence in South Africa and compared it to that of Irish republicanism.
“The prime minister said Mr Mandela must understand how concerned we were by the ANC’s failure to suspend violence,” said Mr Powell.
“We had experience of armed struggle in that we ourselves suffered at the hands of the IRA. We had very much hoped the ANC would agree to suspend it by now.”
Mr Powell added in a note to the Foreign Office: “We are not proposing to tell the press about this discussion.”
MAJOR ROW WITH WASHINGTON
The files reveal the tension between No 10 and the White House over Bill Clinton’s decision to give Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams a visa to visit the United States in 1994, despite it being at the height of the IRA’s armed campaign in Britain.
Then Prime Minister John Major made clear his anger to the President, after his private secretary, Roderic Lyne, had already sent a letter to US national security adviser Tony Lake listing some of the group’s atrocities.
The visit came months after the Joint Declaration was drawn up, which would provide the foundations for the peace agreement struck later that decade.
According to a draft letter, Mr Major wrote to President Clinton in January 1994, saying: "Tony Lake will, I am sure, have told you how strongly we disagree with the decision to admit Gerry Adams to the United States.
"He has been closely associated with terrorism for two decades. In the Joint Declaration, he was offered a route into the democratic process, and into negotiations with us and with the Irish Government. He and his movement have not taken it.
"As you will know, the evidence is that the IRA intend to continue their strategy of terrorism, and do not have courage to make peace and compete in the democratic arena."
The President’s team responded saying they could not "afford to ignore” the possibility that the IRA may change tack on the back of the Sinn Fein leader’s visit.
DODGING A ROYAL GAFFE
Mr Major’s plans to pay tribute to the Queen’s “priceless” contribution to the UK on her 40th year on the throne were revealed to have been axed over fears the terminology may rile some in relation to her tax-exempt status at the time.
On a draft of the speech he was due to give, Downing Street’s private secretary, William Chapman, circled the offending word, asking his boss, Andrew Turnbull: “Is this quite the mot juste [appropriate word]? In view of the Queen’s tax exemption, it could indeed be said that her contribution has been price less...”
“Cheap at the price, I would have said. How about ‘unique’, ‘unparalleled’, or a new phrase altogether, ‘incomparable part which HM has played in…’”
The principal private secretary responded, saying: “It was the PM’s choice, but I am open to suggestion based on your long and expensive education in the English language.”
IT'LL NEVER CATCH ON
In another decade when the Conservatives were riven by splits, John Major’s top team were divided over the merits of the internet.
With fresh-faced Tony Blair newly installed as Labour leader, many of the PM’s advisers encouraged him to modernise, like the slick operation across the Atlantic had done.
Damian Green, then in the government’s policy unit, told the prime minister’s private secretary, Alex Allan: “Specifically, connecting No 10 with the internet would keep us up with the White House, which has made a big thing of the modern way the Clinton/Gore administration deals with communications."
“Internet users will be a growing group of opinion-formers, and I can just imagine Tony Blair showing how he belongs to a new generation by signing up.”
Mr Allan, who was said to have been wary of rushing into inviting the public to send emails is said to have added, that unlike Mr Clinton: “I do not believe we would get a huge volume of email in the long run, but we could expect an initial flood as people around the world tried it out for fun.”
NEVER LOOK A GIFT HORSE...
The memo also charts the bizarre 2,000-mile rail journey of Maksat, the horse given to John Major by the then Turkmenistan president, Saparmurat Niyazov.
The steed made its journey from Turkmenistan to Russia, along with Niyazov, who was given to the then French president, François Mitterrand.
Sending the horse to Britain befell Laura Brady, from the Moscow embassy, whose story involves uncooperative customs officials and grooms who endured a run-in with bandits.
Major enjoyed the “splendid account” when it was regaled to him later. “Had I solicited this gift, I would have been embarrassed at the trouble it has caused,” he wrote.
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