National Archives 1980: Thatcher and ‘handbag’ Government

Remember 1980? West Ham won the cup. The Jam were at number one in the charts. Inflation was at 21 per cent, and Yes Minister was on TV for the first time.

But times then were not so very different from now. A newly elected Conservative Prime Minister, a recession, unemployment, and public sector spending cuts.

Thirty years on, newly declassified Government documents from the underground vaults of the National Archives, released today, show us both how different and how similar things were.

Handbagging

The documents show that rumours of Margaret Thatcher “handbagging” cabinet colleagues are largely true.

When the Education Secretary wrote her a letter, warning funding cuts would effect standards in schools, she scribbled a curt reply on the back.

We have GOT to get economies. Margaret Thatcher’s reply to the Education Secretary in documents from 1980, released thirty years on

“We have GOT to get economies,” it read.

When the Agriculture Minister suggested “constructive negotiation” over the European Common Fisheries Policy, she writes in the margins: “It is our water…and our fish. Don’t give them away!”

The documents also include terse comments such as: “No…Too Woolly…No…Never.”

Mark Dunton, the Contemporary Specialist at the National Archives, said: “These are the papers that crossed her desk. You can see her intense concentration. You can see the way she underlines particular phrases in memos…If she doesn’t agree with a line given by an official in a paper she will say so very clearly and she won’t worry about giving offence.

“It’s very direct and one can see the passion almost leaping out from the page really. She writes ‘We have GOT to get economies’, she underlines GOT three times. So her sharp belief in her policies is very very clear to see in these files.”

Other secret documents revealed Mrs Thatcher did not want British athletes to compete in the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.

She sent a series of letters to the British Olympic Association urging the boycotting of the games, and warning athletes that competing would be “against British interests and wrong.”

Watch below: archive footage from ITN of the 1980 Olympic Games opening ceremony in Moscow, including Margaret Thatcher’s comments

This was also the year of the Iranian Embassy Siege. There was no WikiLeaks then, of course, so the embassy cables have to wait 30 years before they’re released. In this case, they show the Government wrongly considered the hostage takers to be Iraqi.

The war against Russia in Afghanistan was underway too, and the newly released documents reveal Britain’s involvement behind the scenes.

The documents say “the existence of a guerrilla movement in Afghanistan would be a focus of Islamic resistance which we should be wanting to continue to stimulate”.

MPs’ expenses

They also warn, 30 years early, of a potential scandal over MPs’ expenses. The minutes of a cabinet meeting held on 14 February, 1980, read: “There was some reason to suspect abuse of the system by certain MPs. This gave rise to a grave risk of serious public scandal. It might be necessary to consider prosecuting the MP concerned.”