The Maggie speech that was buried by the Brighton bomb: Archives reveal she had planned to savage Labour over pit strike... but IRA horror rewrote her script By Claire Ellicott for Daily Mail 00:00 03 Oct 2014, updated 07:14 03 Oct 2014 +26 Facebook Twitter WhatsApp Click to open Pinterest Google Plus Reddit Stumble Upon Digg it LinkedIn Email Click to close 37 shares 41 comments Archives reveal Margaret Thatcher had planned to attack Labour with hard-hitting speech during height of strike Former Prime Minister had drafted a damning critique of the partys unwillingness to condemn picket-line violence But the 1984 Tory Party conference speech was re-written after the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton Instead she used speech to address the attack on the Government and declare Britains defiance in face of terror Her personal papers from 1984 - inlcuding speech - have now been revealed by the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust She never minced words...it was her trademark. And at the height of the miners’ strike the stage was set for Margaret Thatcher’s hardest-hitting speech yet. For the Tory Party conference in 1984, her writers had drafted a damning critique of Labour’s unwillingness to condemn picket-line violence during the bitter year-long conflict, thuggery she described as a ‘dark shadow’ over our free country. But before she could deliver the strident words, a more sinister shadow fell. Scroll down for video +26 Margaret Thatcher had planned to savage Labour with a hard-hitting speech at the 1984 Tory party conference +26 The former Prime Minister was forced to change the nature of her address after the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton +26 The never-seen-before papers from the former Prime Ministers personal file in 1984 show her first attempts at writing her Conservative party speech +26 As the nation reeled at such an attack on the heart of Government, the Prime Minister famously insisted on continuing with the party conference agenda, but with a radically revised speech to declare Britain’s defiance in the face of terror +26 Her original speech accuses the Labour leadership of sympathising with militant miners and trade unionists and sanctioning their breaking of the law +26 The papers show she was going to launch a vicious attack on Labou +26 Chris Collins of the Thatcher Foundation said it would have been a ‘great’ speech and more controversial than her ‘enemy within’ address to the 1922 Committee of Tories in July 1984 On the day she was due to address colleagues at the Brighton Centre, her hotel, the Grand, was hit by an IRA bomb. Five Tory colleagues were killed and others seriously injured. As the nation reeled at such an attack on the heart of Government, the Prime Minister famously insisted on continuing with the party conference agenda, but with a radically revised speech to declare Britain’s defiance in the face of terror. Now the original text, which historians believe would have eclipsed her address branding miners the ‘enemy within’ a few months earlier – has been revealed in her personal papers from 1984, released today by the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust. MORE... Go to bed with Farage, wake up with Miliband, Cameron jokes in warning that a vote for UKIP will hand power to Labour Cameron promises to scrap income tax on minimum wage and increase 40p tax band to £50,000... as he moves SamCam to tears with passionate defence of the NHS We will prevail: Home Secretary Theresa May echoes Margaret Thatcher in vow to face down and defeat Islamist extremists Just what every Tory wants: Iron Lady baby bibs, Ed Balls crisps, Mili-light lager and Conservative-branded mugs, cupcakes and golf balls all on sale to conference activists It accuses the Labour leadership of sympathising with militant miners and trade unionists and sanctioning their breaking the law. It reads: ‘From this dark cloud falls an acid rain that eats into liberty. It can be seen above all in the natural home that these views and voices now find in the Labour Party. ‘It explains why that party is so muted in its condemnation of picket violence; so muted in its praise for the hard-pressed police; so muted in its advocacy of an NUM [National Union of Mineworkers] ballot.’ Rare, behind-the-scenes-footage of Margaret Thatcher +26 A first draft of the speech the former Prime Minister was going to give at the Tory party conference reveals how she planned to attack Labour and the miners strike +26 Margaret Thatchers torn up notes of the speech she intended to give on the day of the Brighton bombing have been released by the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust +26 Margaret Thatchers torn up notes of the speech she intended to give on the day of the Brighton bombing have been released by the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust +26 The original handwritten notes reveal how she was planning to launch an attack on Labour but she changed her speech after the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel +26 The original text, which historians believe would have eclipsed her address branding miners the ‘enemy within’ a few months earlier – has been revealed in her personal papers from 1984 SHE EVEN CANCELLED HER HAIRDO: PRIME MINISTER CALLED STYLIST TO CHANGE APPOINTMENT IN WAKE OF BOMB The Prime Minister had just survived an assassination attempt and was grieving for colleagues who were not so lucky. But while battling to hold together a party and a nation in shock, Mrs Thatcher also remembered to cancel a hair appointment. After briefing her secretary to let local stylist William Thorne know she would not be coming, she wrote to him herself to thank him for his work on her hair earlier in the week. ‘The fact that it lasted so well through Friday [when the bomb hit] was the real test,’ she told Mr Thorne. Her private secretary John Coles later wrote to Mrs Thatcher, saying: ‘We shall remember not the bomb or the ruined building but your courage, calm and nobility in the aftermath.’ +26 In the aftermath of the IRA bombing in Brighton, Margaret Thatcher still managed to remember to call her stylist and cancel an upcoming hair appointment +26 In newly-released letters from Downing Street, the former Prime Minister wrote to her stylist, Mr Thorne, apologising that she had to cancel in the wake of the tragedy +26 After briefing her secretary to let local stylist William Thorne know she would not be coming, she wrote to him herself to thank him for his work on her hair earlier in the week From this dark cloud falls an acid rain that eats into liberty. It can be seen above all in the natural home that these views and voices now find in the Labour Party. The conference came just months after the Battle of Orgreave in South Yorkshire, on June 18, when thousands of police and striking miners clashed. Dozens on both sides were injured. Mrs Thatcher’s speech describes the Labour Party as being ‘infiltrated by extremists, riven with factions’, adding: ‘We meet today as free people in a free country. But every one of us here senses the shadow that has fallen across this freedom since last we met. ‘The shadow I speak of is the violence and intimidation which has scarred and wrecked the coal industry, and particularly the working miners and their families. ‘The shadow grows darker as influential men and women in our society question, even repudiate, the ideas of parliamentary democracy and the rule of law.’ The speech was torn into sections and later taped back together – possibly by the Iron Lady herself. +26 In her 1984 Conservative party conference speech (above), Margaret Thatcher instead chose to condemn the IRA and declare Britains defiance in the face of terror +26 The Grand Hotel in Brighton was hit by an IRA bomb in October 1984 in an attempt to kill Thatcher and her Cabinet. It killed five people and injured a further 30 +26 Margaret Thatchers suite at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, after the IRA Brighton bombing. Debris lies at the foot of Mrs Thatchers bed, the sheets pulled back in readiness for her to retire for the night. The dramatic pictures of the Prime Ministers suite show how close the IRA came to succeeding in its assassination attempt Margaret Thatchers suite at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, after the IRA Brighton bombing. Debris lies at the foot of Mrs Thatchers bed, the sheets pulled back in readiness for her to retire for the night. The dramatic pictures of the Prime Ministers suite show how close the IRA came to succeeding in its assassination attempt +26 Thatcher escaped the bombing without injury but five people were killed in the early morning attack in October 1984, including a cabinet ministers wife +26 In her original speech party conference, Thatcher was going to blast Labour and the miners strike. Pictured: The picket line at Tilmanstone Colliery, near Dover, Kent +26 Arthur Scargill, leader of the National Union of Mineworkers, being arrested on the picket line at Orgreave, South Yorkshire in 1984 during the miners strike She narrowly avoided death in the IRA attack, as the blast hit her bathroom. Following the bombing in the early hours, she toned down her script. The resulting words, spoken just hours later, were much more conciliatory and she paid tribute to those killed. Chris Collins of the Thatcher Foundation said it would have been a ‘great’ speech and more controversial than her ‘enemy within’ address to the 1922 Committee of Tories in July 1984. The original text shows she was prepared to go further and launch an all-out offensive on Labour. Mr Collins said: ‘She would have taken some convincing to deliver such an attack on Labour and only done so with extreme provocation as such partisan politics were against her nature … [It] would have defined her career.’ This ladys not for jumping. Lady Thatcher refuses interview request +26 Margaret Thatcher and her husband Denis (pictured together in the immediate aftermath of the bombing) were lucky to escape uninjured after bomb hit the hotel room +26 Norman Tebbit was staying with his wife Margaret in the Grand Hotel when it was bombed by the IRA in 1984. His wife was left disabled by the attack (together in 1987) +26 Margaret Thatcher pictured with her husband Denis on stage at Conservative party conference in Brighton following the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel in 1984 THATCHER ROSE, A THORNY ISSUE: DIPLOMATIC ROW OVER NAMING BLOOM Margaret Thatcher once faced a diplomatic row about roses. The incident, which saw the UK mediate between Germany and Japan over who could name a rose after her, stretches for more than 40 pages in her 1984 files. The Tory leader was asked by the German Central Horticultural Association if it could name a flower in her honour. She said she was ‘deeply touched’, adding in a nod to her party’s colours: ‘A blue rose would be too much to expect.’ But she had forgotten that in 1978 she gave permission for a Margaret Thatcher rose to be created by Japanese firm Takatori. After a series of memos, it was eventually decided the Japanese should be appeased. +26 Germany and Japan once bickered over who could name a rose after the former Prime Minister. The incident stretches for more than 40 pages in Thatchers 1984 files
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 06:53:12 +0000
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