# Brits -- Your impressions of Margaret Thatcher, please **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 24, 2006, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926 "2006-09-24T07:15:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2006, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/101 "2006-09-30T01:08:51Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] Yep, that’s an impartial observer if ever I’ve seen one. :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] But not necessarily incorrect, and a whole lot more reputable than an anonymous poster on a message board. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2006, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/102 "2006-09-30T06:42:40Z")
On our local news last night they were talking about erecting a statue to Maggie in her home town of Grantham. “Roll up, roll up, get your rotten fruit here.” ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2006, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/103 "2006-09-30T09:34:04Z")
[QUOTE=casdave] > **[Operation Journeyman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Journeyman)** > > Operation Journeyman was a Royal Navy operation in which a naval taskforce was secretly sent to the Falkland Islands in November 1977 to prevent an Argentine invasion. The operation was ordered by James Callaghan after a party from the Argentine Air Force landed on Thule Island, one of the South Sandwich Islands, and constructed a base with barracks and a concrete helicopter landing pad. They set up a weather station, a radio station, and a flagpole from which the Argentine flag flew. This prompt... I happened to be serving upon HMS Pheobe when we went down to the Falklands back in 1977/78 it was Christmas/ New year time. The reason we were sent was simple, we had recieved intelligence reports that Argentina was gearing up to invade the Falklands. You cannot get around 20 to 30 thousand men plus all their equipment prepared without someone noticing, and such a thing takes many weeks and more usually months to prepare, and this took around 6 months to do so, the idea was to invade the Falklands so that the winter would arrive shortly after and prevent any attempted retaking for at least a year, we were well aware of what was going on. **The result of that mission was that the Argentine backed down, there was no war in 1977/78** [/QUOTE] There’s a link in that other wiki link that suggests Operation Journeyman should have been more forceful in ousting Argentinians from the island of [Southern Thule](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Thule), something which egged them onto invading years later. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2006, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/104 "2006-09-30T11:15:29Z")
Let me get this straight **Quartz**. David Owen on national tv confirmed that three missions to deter Aregntine aggression took place prior to 1982. You have links that confirm the presence of Operation Journeyman. You then post a short passage from report that merely states that the modern administration of Argentina bears no responsibility for the past Argentine aggression, you have not put up anything from the Franks report that actually clears Thatcher. You then go on to cite Thatchers autobiography, and yet somehow, I’m the one that’s being biased ? I have provided you with cites, and also with the name of the person that sent me to the Falklands, and if you care to email David Owens office, you will certainly recieve a reply from there confirming his role. Do you deny the 1982 Tory adminsitration was at 20% and less in the polls, because that is very easy to verify. The Franks report came out when Thacther was at the height of her powers, there was no distance historically between the time of the inquiry and the war itself, and who made the apppointments to that board of inquiry ? There are others who take a differant view to this report, > [@](#): > > For 338 paragraphs he painted a splendid picture, delineated the light and the shade, and the glowing colours in it, and when Franks got to paragraph 339 he got fed up with the canvas he was painting, and chucked a bucket of whitewash over it. > > Former Prime Minister James Callaghan, to the Commons There was criticism levelled at James Callaghan’s government for sending out the wrong messages to the Argentine government, Falkland Islanders campaigned for years for HMS Endurance to be replaced before it was due forscrapping, but I still don’t see how our intelligence which had worked well previously would suddenly break down. If you look at the Franks report, it apparently clears Thatcher in the last few paragraphs, and yet…and yet throughout the rest of the report it states that intelligence systems were working properly, and there are lots of other referances that are quite at odds with the conclusion. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0020-5850(198322)59%3A3\<453%3AHFWF\>2.0.CO%3B2-7&size=LARGE](http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0020-5850%28198322%2959%3A3%3C453%3AHFWF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-7&size=LARGE) ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2006, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/105 "2006-09-30T13:19:52Z")
Casdave, you have provided your experience. Multiple times. You persist in repeating it to obfuscate the issue. Your visit to the Falkands in the 70s is a completely seperate event. You have provided nothing which shows that Mrs Thatcher knew that the Argentines were going to invade and you have provided nothing which shows that she let them. > [@Margaret Thatcher](#): > > Contrary to what was said at the time, we had no intelligence until almost the last moment that Argentina was about to launch a full-scale invasion. Nor did the Americans: in fact Al Haig later told me that they had known even less than we had. Provide evidence, not conspiracy. Let’s see a memo or something. Put up or shut up. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2006, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/106 "2006-09-30T15:16:14Z")
[QUOTE=casdave] You then go on to cite Thatchers autobiography, and yet somehow, I’m the one that’s being biased ? [/QUOTE] Nice try. I said that she was more reputable than an anonymous poster on a board. Now provide us with evidence of her complicity. You might note that Martin Middlebrook (_The Falklands War_), and Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins (_The Battle for the Falklands_) both disagree with you. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2006, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/107 "2006-09-30T15:57:42Z")
Max Hastings ??? Your evidence pretty much comes from Thatcherite apologists. James Callaghan takes a differant view over the Franks report, there are others. You really don’t expect a Thatcher b autobiography to report such do you ? Please explain how our intelligence failed on a foruth occasion when on three previous occasions it had been successful, to the point that the ministers in position took action ? Or put it another way, why didn’t Thatcher take action whenn informed by our intelligence services ? If you say its because King cock-up rules, that in itself is a huge indictment, you have to remember that when these summary reports are delivered, they also inclue a briefing about past history and actions. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2006, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/108 "2006-09-30T17:19:14Z")
[QUOTE=Quartz] Casdave, you have provided your experience. Multiple times. You persist in repeating it to obfuscate the issue. [/QUOTE] :dubious: Pot, meet kettle. _You_ have persisted in trying to link the Falklands conflict (regardless of any side discussion on the validity of it) with the fall of the Soviet Union with nothing more than a vague, completely noncausal appeal to the “psychological” boost of the victory in recapturing a collection of small South Atlantic islands, yet you fail to follow through on any logical chain that results in an impact upon the Politburo or any of the primary factors (internal economy, trade deficit, retirement/death of hardline ideologues, increased political agitation by client states for greater autonomy, reprecussions from the Afghanistan Conflict, et cetera.) You have persisted in obfuscating _this_ issue. As far as I can tell (and in the predominiant view among historians and political theoriests) the Soviet Union was in economic freefall and was suffering erosion of central control long before Thatcher took office, and certainly before the Falklands ever became an issue. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn certainly had far more to do with turning public opinion in the West against the Soviet Union, and much earlier, than anything that came from the mouths of Reagan or Thatcher. Hell, John le Carre could probably be credited with having more influence than Thatcher in that regard. So put up a causitive link, or stop mumbling about “psychological impact”. As for the domestic effect of the Falklands War, I’ll leave that to those posters who were there to expound, but the predominant, if anecdotal, opinion here seems to be that it was a needless cockup. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2006, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/109 "2006-09-30T17:52:21Z")
[QUOTE=Stranger On A Train_You_ have persisted in trying to link the Falklands conflict … with the fall of the Soviet Union with nothing more than a vague, completely noncausal appeal to the “psychological” boost of the victory in recapturing a collection of small South Atlantic islands[/QUOTE] I suppose quoting Mrs Thatcher herself is not good enough? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2006, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/110 "2006-09-30T17:59:53Z")
You may disagree with my cite, but at least I have one. And, of course, I lived through the period. Unlike some here I am able to see both the good she did and the bad (poll tax, anyone?), and make a reasoned judgement. My admiration of her is not blind. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2006, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/111 "2006-09-30T18:51:53Z")
[QUOTE=Quartz] I suppose quoting Mrs Thatcher herself is not good enough? [/QUOTE] How about if I started quoting from the Communist Manifesto? Mein Kampf? Taxi for Mr Godwin ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/112 "2006-09-30T19:46:54Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] How about if I started quoting from the Communist Manifesto? Mein Kampf? [/QUOTE] I’m not going to bite. But if they were relevant, then why shouldn’t you cite them? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2006, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/113 "2006-09-30T19:48:15Z")
[QUOTE=Quartz] I’m not going to bite. But if they were relevant, then why shouldn’t you cite them? [/QUOTE] Because you’re using the quotation in a circuitious argument, using Maggie’s rose-tinted memoirs as evidence for the impact of her actions. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2006, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/114 "2006-09-30T21:54:35Z")
Well, I could also have pointed out that the British were so disheartened that we re-elected her with a thumping majority, that she forged a very close relationship with Ronald Reagan, that the Soviet Union called her the Iron Lady, etc. And, of course, anyone who disagrees will have no trouble finding a contrary cite. But, of course, they can’t. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2006, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/115 "2006-09-30T22:33:57Z")
[QUOTE=Quartz] And, of course, anyone who disagrees will have no trouble finding a contrary cite. But, of course, they can’t. [/QUOTE] Or: it’s so easy to, we can’t be arsed. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/116 "2006-10-01T09:05:53Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] Or: it’s so easy to, we can’t be arsed. [/QUOTE] There speaks someone who’s admitting defeat. Heard the phrase, ‘the British disease’ recently? No - Mrs Thatcher’s doing. Heard the phrase, ‘the sick man of Europe’ recently? No - Mrs Thatcher’s doing. Do remind me about how Dennis Healey (the Labour Chancellor in the prior government) so mismanaged the economy that he had to go to the IMF. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/117 "2006-10-01T09:25:39Z")
American checking in with a trivia tidbit: I was a friend of (the late) Alan Roberts, Labour MP from Bootle back in those days, and went with him to a session of Parliament. We ran into Margaret in a hallway and despite being from the other party, she was quite gracious to him, as he was to her, and he introduced me. The woman had charisma that was almost visible. That’s all I got. But it was a fun day to watch the session and then sit outside, overlooking the Thames and have a beer in the afternoon while the rest of England couldn’t (back when the pubs had to close in the afternoons, but not in the Parliament building!) ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/118 "2006-10-01T11:47:03Z")
> [@](#): > > Do remind me about how Dennis Healey (the Labour Chancellor in the prior government) so mismanaged the economy that he had to go to the IMF. Far too easy, I would have expected you would have done a little research on that topic, and it also shows just how unaware you are of world events. During the '70’s in that decade the oil price rose by almost a factor of 10. Oil prices quadrupled in one year alone. > **[BBC ON THIS DAY | 15 | 1974: New speed limit to curb fuel use](http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/15/newsid_2559000/2559807.stm)** > > Drivers must adhere to reduced speed limits from midnight tonight as the government tries to save fuel. There were something like 4 serious price hikes in oil, the last was early 1980’s, which turned out not a be a huge problem, as the oil price rise meant our own North Sea produced oil went up in value too and this insulated us from the last shock to a large degree. It’s extremely easy to blame the administration, but I notice that the Thatcher apologists never ever remark on this phenomenon. I am sure I know why, because it would mean acknowledging that far from being some economic genius, Thatcher was extremely lucky, and any real economist could tell you that. > **[1973 oil crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_energy_crisis)** > > In October 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced that it was implementing a total oil embargo against countries that had supported Israel at any point during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which began after Egypt and Syria launched a large-scale surprise attack in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to recover the territories that they had lost to Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. In an effort that was led by Faisal of Saudi Arabia, the initial countries that... The UK at the time was particularly badly placed to deal with oil price hikes, and it does get us back to the North Sea oil revenue that Thatcher had the immense benefit to support her during the 1980’s, and it also goes back to Jim Callaghan predicting that those oil revenues would ensure a boom time in the UK economy for whoever was the Prime Minister on the day. Thacther used that oil money to make large tax cuts, this windfall option was one that had never been previously available and most certainly not to Dennis Healey. Oh how we conveniently forget. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/119 "2006-10-01T20:52:24Z")
[QUOTE=casdave] Far too easy, I would have expected you would have done a little research on that topic, and it also shows just how unaware you are of world events. During the '70’s in that decade the oil price rose by almost a factor of 10. Oil prices quadrupled in one year alone. [/QUOTE] But that was the early 1970s - 1974 - not the late 1970s. Labour weren’t even in power then; Mrs Thatcher came into power a whole 5 years later. Mind you, it’s funny how the recent vast increases in the price of oil haven’t caused a recession. So to simply blame it on the oil price rise is simply wrong and irrelevant to our discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2006, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brits-your-impressions-of-margaret-thatcher-please/373926/120 "2006-10-01T23:09:45Z")
> [@](#): > > **casdave** > > Let me get this straight Quartz. > > David Owen on national tv confirmed that three missions to deter Aregntine aggression took place prior to 1982. Sending warnings to the Argentines doesn’t necessarily translate to the fact we think they’d invade the Falklands, which is the possession of a developed country with a highly trained military forces, so that ‘theory’ is out of the window. Argentinas economy was suffering badly, and Leopoldo Galtieris government was facing economic disaster, so chose to invade the Falklands as a convienient distraction from these woes. > [@](#): > > I have provided you with cites, and also with the name of the person that sent me to the Falklands, and if you care to email David Owens office, you will certainly recieve a reply from there confirming his role. > > Do you deny the 1982 Tory adminsitration was at 20% and less in the polls, because that is very easy to verify. The Tories were 20% in the polls, but did you even read the dreadful manifesto that Labour came up with? Which is why it’s called the ‘Longest Suicide note in history?’ Come on Michael Foot for PM? Are you joking? > [@](#): > > The reason we were sent was simple, we had recieved intelligence reports that Argentina was gearing up to invade the Falklands. > > You cannot get around 20 to 30 thousand men plus all their equipment prepared without someone noticing, and such a thing takes many weeks and more usually months to prepare, and this took around 6 months to do so, the idea was to invade the Falklands so that the winter would arrive shortly after and prevent any attempted retaking for at least a year, we were well aware of what was going on. > > The result of that mission was that the Argentine backed down, there was no war in 1977/78. Intelligence can be sketchy and not always 100% accurate, besides, invasion strength can be variable according to conditions or willingness to risk action. So I doubt from what I hear from you the Galiteri Administration was going to attack, more likely testing our responses, which again doesn’t always translate back to Westminister. > [@](#): > > So what we have is intelligence reports on three occasions, that led us to take deterrrant action. > > The fourth occasion, in 1982, are you suggesting that maybe we didn’t know about the Argentine military build up ? Yes, because it was improvised quickly and then poorly implemented. In January 1982, these diplomatic talks over sovereignty ceased. It is not known when serious plans to invade the Falklands were first considered, but following this breakdown, the plans were updated. Although it is often thought that the Falklands invasion was a long-planned action, **it became clear after the war that it had been largely improvised**. The isles were not fortified, sea mines were not deployed at strategic landing spots, and a large part of the infantry forces sent to the Falklands consisted of young recruits. **Arguments that the War was a last minute decision are bolstered by the fact that the Argentine Navy would have received, at the end of the year, additional Exocet anti-ship missiles, Super Étendards and new ships being built in West Germany.** > [@](#): > > Sorry I do not see this at all, and do you imagine for one teeny tiny moment that Ms Thatcher as the leader of the UK, do you imagine she would not have been informed by our security services ? Ok, let’s look at the list of important military situations within that era of her Government Those are IRA Terrorism Soviet Threat Middle East And right at the bottom is the far off threat of an invasion of the Falklands by the Argentinian Government, which still in negotiation with the British over sovereignty, and only cut off diplomatic relations with the UK a few weeks before invading the islands. > [@](#): > > Even if you are credulous enough to believe that, you should also note that in 1982 the Falkland invasion was preceded by an occupation of the South Sandwich islands, there was significant increase of Argentine presence there starting sometime around early February, the Falklands invasion took place some weeks later, I distinclty remeber it was in total about 7 weeks between the South Sandwich Island and the Falklands attack, that is plenty of time to send a couple of hunter killer subs into the area. And from what I hear about the Royal Navy, ships were being decommissioned and mothballed, whilst the ability of the Royal Navy to be in certain areas of the World was restricted to areas the Soviets were operating in acting as a counter. Don’t you remember the certain cruiseliners being transformed into troop carriers? > [@](#): > > So why, given the intelligence, the warnings, precedents from previous UK adminsitrations and the precursor events on the South Sandwich Islands, did Thatcher do nothing ? Thatcher didn’t do ‘nothing’ she was hoping before the invasion that diplomacy was the way to go forward, you sound like you’re implying she wanted the whole conflict in the first place. > [@](#): > > During this time the Conservative administration was set to be wiped of the face of the UK elecetoral map, their poll rating was at most 20% and down to 17% depending upon which polling body you choose to accept. Absolute rubbish, considering the economy had been picking up after her monetarist polices had come into effect, not to mention a neutered opposition, she was well on her way to winning a second victory. Falklands had around 10% to do with the whole election. Not to mention the Labour split. > [@](#): > > **Wikipedia** > On the day the opposition vote was almost evenly split between the Alliance and Labour. The Labour vote fell by over 3 million from 1979, with a national swing of almost 4% towards the Conservatives. The Conservative vote actually fell slightly but the disarray of their opponents gave them a majority of 144 and Labour had its worst performance since 1918. Veteran political journalist Michael White, writing in The Guardian, commented, “There was something magnificently brave about Michael Foot’s campaign - but it was like the Battle of the Somme.” [1] > **[1983 United Kingdom general election](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election%2C_1983)** > > Margaret Thatcher > Conservative Margaret Thatcher > Conservative A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 9 June 1983. The governing Conservative Party, under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, won a landslide victory with a majority of 144 seats. It was the most decisive election result since the Labour Party won a 146-seat majority in 1945 and was the first of two consecutive landslides for the Conservatives. > [@](#): > > The campaign displayed the huge divisions between the two major parties. The Conservative’s key issues were employment, economic growth and defence. Labour’s Manifesto pledged to leave the European Economic Community, abolish the House of Lords, abandon the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent by cancelling Trident and removing Cruise - a heady mix of far-left thinking, dubbed by Gerald Kaufman “the longest suicide note in history”, “although, at barely thirty-seven pages, it only seemed interminable” noted Roy Hattersley. Over the campaign Labour were repeatedly forced to moderate their views, especially on defence. > [@](#): > > This is not any excuse to do nothing, and yet nothing is what they did, the war could have been prevented, as it had been on three previous occasions, by the presence of a small flotilla of Royal Navy vessels, and deterrance is generally cheaper than outright warfare. Yet in the midst of the Cold war, most of the RN was needed near the Home Islands incase of a Soviet attack, since Chernenko was alarmed at increased NATO military exercises around Western Europe. > [@](#): > > The so-called ‘Falklands Factor’ was an extremely significant phenomenon in the 1983 election. With the Labour left still strong – in 1981 Benn decided to challenge Healey for the deputy leadership of the party, a contest Healey won by the narrowest of margins – Foot struggled to make an impact and was widely criticised for it, though his performances in the Commons, most notably on the Falklands crisis of 1982, won him widespread respect from other parliamentarians.\*\* (He was however criticised by some on the left who felt that he should not have supported the Thatcher government’s immediate resort to military action in defence of 2,000 Falkland islanders’ wish to remain British subjects.) \*\* > **[Michael Foot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Foot)** > > Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 1913 – 3 March 2010) was a British politician who was Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist on Tribune and the Evening Standard. He co-wrote the 1940 polemic against appeasement of Adolf Hitler, Guilty Men, under a pseudonym. Foot was a Member of Parliament (MP) for some 42 years, from 1945 to 1955 and 1960 to 1992. A passionate orator, and associated with the left wing of the Labour Part... > [@](#): > > _In 1977 fifty Argentine nationals had occupied Southern Thule. Operation Journeyman, the despatching of a small military force to the South Atlantic by Callaghan’s Labour government, may have helped avert further action and subsequent reports from the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) in 1977, 1979 and 1981 suggested that “as long as [Argentina] calculated that the British Government were prepared to negotiate seriously on sovereignty, it was unlikely to resort to force.” However, if “…negotiations broke down, or if Argentina concluded from them that there was no prospect of real progress towards a negotiated transfer of sovereignty, there would be a high risk of its then resorting to more forceful measures, including direct military action.”[2_] However, if you take into the situation the fact that the Argentine military needed an excuse to distract the population from the economic woes it was facing, the invasion of the Falklands was it, showing that the main perpetrator was in fact the dictatorship (which btw fell after the Falklands) who wanted to maintain its’ grip on power. 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