On 12th October 1984, a massive explosion destroyed the Grand Hotel in Brighton. It was an attempt by the IRA to assassinate the British Prime Minister, her entire cabinet and many of their friends and family, who were staying there at the time. It killed 5 people, including Conservative MP, Sir Anthony Berry. Mrs Margaret Tebbit and many others were badly injured. The bomb exploded at 2.54 am. The Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher was still working on the speech she was to deliver to the Conservative Party Conference the next day. Her bathroom was extensively damaged. She changed her clothes and together with her husband Dennis, was taken to Brighton Police Station, and then on to Sussex Police HQ, where they stayed until morning.
As Mrs Thatcher was escorted from the wreckage of the hotel, she informed the BBC reporter outside that the Conservative Party Conference would carry on as programmed. British democracy was too precious to be undermined by a mere bomb. Marks and Spencer opened its Brighton store at 8.00 next morning so that all the delegates who had lost clothes in the explosion could buy replacements. Mrs Thatcher opened the Conference at 9.30. am, exactly as it promised in the Conference Programme. But she did deliver a different speech from that which she had intended.
Today, the National Assembly for Wales has reacted to the presence of a picket line outside the new home of Welsh democracy by suspending all of its business for the day.
8 comments:
We have lost our spirit. Political correctness, health & safety and a general degeneration of self-will have rendered the country a limp rag compared to the brave nation we once were. If the trials that confronted us in 1914 or 1939 were here now, we would simply cave in.
mickie mouse assembly thats why
This was Cardiff - that was Brighton.
It is the English who have the stiff upper lip, don't you know?
Organised trades unions and orderly industrial action are also important features of a coherent and functioning liberal democracy.
Roman - I do not think so. If it came to it, I believe the spirit is still there. But I can see why you doubt it.
Anon - I would not use such a term, but its true that genuine power to make laws would add greatly to its status.
Alan - I would claim to also have a stiff upper lip. Must admit that I've suffered temporary emotional breakdown into tears over recent years, which always leaves me feeling ashamed. I blame the four days I was on morphine after a major op in 2002.
Tortoiseshell - Indeed -which is why I left the post without opinion. I wander what would have happened if today had been the last possible day to pass a vote asking for a referendum on law making powers?
Glyn - The British spirit is there, somewhere, but crushed under the weight of leftist mantra. There are still millions of good, brave Britons out there; but unlike in 1914 and 1939 - our government is now pledged to break up this country to serve their own internationalist ends. No longer are our leaders our representatives on the World Stage, but they are now the World's reps in our country. They are part of an international elite who are becoming a tribe in their own right. Labour have sold our country to the EU for their own selfish ends. Now that a huge misguided (stupid) block of the public seem to be backing Brown again, there seems little option for the true freedom loving Brit but flight or fight.
Alan - Us Welsh have our moments too.
Roman Esq.
Fight of flight is the right answer.
Many will fly, as I did, if Gordon (British) Brown is re-elected.
Scotland will assuredly become independent. Wales will suffer (hopefully not in silence).
But it is a serious matter - the future of the British Isles depends on this coming election.
I agree with you, Alan, this is a crucial election. Scotland will be independent within 5 years by my reckoning - but not before they taken a huge slice of the UK's reserves but none of its debt. This will strip Labour of any majority under first past post - so they will cosy up to the LibDems in a hamstrung parliament, conceding on PR to boost their share of the vote in the Anglo-Wales rump.
Alan - I'm not going to go into another Plaid/WNP rant now - but I'm sure your party would do a lot better in May if they were neither so pro-EU (a basic hypocrisy) nor so cosy to Labour in Cardiff. IMHO.
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