Spilling secrets - full publication of Margaret Thatcher's files as Prime Minister, May-Dec 1979
For the first time in Britain - in fact as far as we can tell, in any jurisdiction - the declassified archive of a head of government is to be published online, in full, and free to all, documents being uploaded as they are released year on year. The first 130-odd files of Margaret Thatcher's Prime Ministerial archive have just been added to www.margaretthatcher.org, covering the first eight months of her premiership. They have been copied in collaboration with the British National Archives (TNA) at Kew in London and can be downloaded as documents in PDF format, to be read online precisely as they appear in the reading room.
We are doing something more to help people make sense of this mass of information. The files are subject-based, logically enough, but that system makes it a very difficult task to reconstruct the flow of paper across the Prime Minister’s desk at any point in time, depriving us of a sense of the interaction of issues, of context and cross-winds, some of them overwhelming.
To combat this effect we are uploading a large selection of the most important documents from these files – thousands in total - to our powerful site database. You will then be able to browse, search and sort by date, as well as other parameters including detailed subject terms (in any combination), importance, personal names and keywords. Using the database you can go a long way towards reconstructing the Prime Minister’s daily Red Boxes, the rich diet of foreign and domestic policy papers submitted to her by the No.10 Private Office.
Viewing the documents from many files chronologically one is struck again and again by the powerful role of the unexpected in politics, seeing from a perspective that only practitioners experience with full force. And in the database the secret documents can finally take their place alongside the public record of speeches and interviews, of news articles and official reports, interleaved with them so that you can drill your way down from the surface to the depths. Here from one click to another you can watch Margaret Thatcher deliver the prayer of St. Francis, read the transcript, see the tiny file card she held concealed in her hand in case she forgot the words, study the drafts submitted the night before, weigh the recollections of the speechwriter who persuaded her to use it. Studying the relationship between the layers one comes to realise that what is closest to the surface is sometimes the most important, and that there is no parallel or hidden world revealed in the secret documents, for all that is novel and interesting in them. Conspiracy theorists will not be pleased.
Documents from the British files are being joined in the database by many from key archives in the US (such as the Reagan Library and the IMF) and Europe (including the European Union), as well as huge numbers from the private files of Margaret Thatcher, her party and closest colleagues.
What are these files & how did the system work?
Official papers submitted to the Prime Minister were handled by her Private Office and sent off, when done with - if thought worth keeping - to “Confidential Filing” a few steps away. Here even the most sensitive and historic state papers had holes punched in their top left corner and were stored in buff-coloured A4 files, held together by “Treasury tags”, bits of coloured string with shiny metal retainers on each end. (These are something of a disaster in conservation terms – over time pages can tear at the weakened corner and fall out of the file, their original position not always possible to determine).
If a file had reached the maximum practical size, around 300 pages, a new folder with the same or similar name would be started, labelled “Part 2” (or 3, 4, or whatever - on the n+1 principle). The most important files would have many parts, as many as 5 or 6 within a calendar year. Files ran over year endings - there was no provision to open a new part on 31 December - but new files were opened when there was a change of government or Prime Minister, whichever came sooner. Many files opened during the first year of the Thatcher Government will not be listed below for this very reason: at year end they were not yet full enough to justify the expenditure of opening a new part - folders and Treasury tags cost money after all - and consequently they run into 1980 (or beyond) and are not yet declassified.
Files were organised in blocs according to topic - there were blocs of files on Economic Policy or European Policy, for example - and within those blocs there were a few big, subject files, used year in year out, from one goverment to the next. For example, within Economic Policy there was always a file, in many parts, on Public Spending. There was another on the annual Budget. There was a multi-part file of dismal length on the Northern Ireland situation, categorised - rather unhappily from a Unionist point of view - as part of the bloc on 'Ireland'. (Similarly, Confidential Filing opted for a unified Germany, but for some reason sustained the partition of Korea. )
In terms of size, the Rhodesia file easily took the prize in 1979, running to eleven parts. The Lancaster House Conference of late 1979 represented the crescendo, of course, the climactic moment that resolved the Rhodesian problem (from the British point of view at least, for the time) and future years must surely see a sharp fall in the output of paper on this topic.
In addition, files were created ad hoc where a topic did not fit into an existing main file. Often these are on trivial topics, some close to bizarre. In 1979 a file was opened on the proposal that the PM send the Civil Service a Christmas Message. This was a topic that must have taken all of two minutes of her time (the decision was in the negative.) Other ad hoc files were more substantial, but they are almost always secondary in importance to the big, standard files.
A weakness of the system was that the names of files with many parts could drift some way from their original over time and unfortunately the generally excellent TNA online catalogue faithfully reproduces the fault. Thus the main external monetary policy file - essentially concerned with policy towards sterling - goes through so many transitions of name that it can be difficult to find all the parts. To avoid this problem, the file names used on this site have been rationalised, so they differ from the TNA names on occasion.
Despite this flaw, the No.10 system was strikingly simple and is easy to use. Compare it with the bewildering complexities of the White House Office of Records Management (lovingly known as WHORM), which generated files on a scale several orders of magnitude greater than No.10 and required a computer to keep track of everything from the early 1970s on, generating a huge database which US archivists aren't even allowed to see. One can be sure in the British sysem that one has found everything available on any particular topic, a certainty absolutely lacking in systems like the US - indeed, the reverse holds.
What was kept & what not?
Here is some of a mystery. Certainly not every piece of paper circulating in No.10 was archived in the first place. Much was considered trivial and discarded. It is possible that some things were discarded for the opposite reason - a conclusion one might reach on the Blair Government from studying No.10 files submitted to the 2004 Butler Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction, to give a near contemporary instance.
Some files preserved at the time were later deemed of no lasting value and destroyed. These include many things historians would have liked to see, such as the notebooks kept by No.10 Private Secretaries, which among other things record who said what in ministerial meetings. Minutes of such meetings were written up and filed separately of course, but often in a form that anonymised the discussion. A document destroyed is a document that cannot, and will not need to be, declassified, so all things being equal destruction reduces the burden of work on officials.
Some documents were de-accessioned and given to the outgoing PM. Through the good offices of the Garden Room, key administrative files from No.10 during MT's tenure were given to her c.1994, greatly enhancing our knowledge of what you might call the back office functions of the place. Those files are stored at the Churchill Archive Centre in Cambridge. There has been a further generous gift of speech files from the Cabinet Office, which include drafts and covering notes.
A few years prior to declassification, an academic employed by the Cabinet Office weeded the Thatcher files, reducing their bulk by discarding documents reckoned of no long-term value. The basis for such judgments is obscure and the amount discarded uncertain. Finally, during declassification itself, papers were destroyed and their destruction logged in the file, mainly duplicates of cabinet papers and minutes which were discarded on the ground that they are available elsewhere in the official archive. Since the PM rarely if ever annotated such documents, there is no loss except to convenience. Unfortunately the PM's copies of briefing for summit meetings have often also been destroyed, on the same principle, so that annotated versions have been discarded in preference to the beautifully-bound but crisply clean, unannotated copies kept in the Cabinet Office's own archive. Thankfully some have been saved, notably the briefing she took with her to the Dublin European Council in November 1979 where she asked for our money back - listed last in the series of 1979 releases, out of sequence, and probably therefore an accidental (or last minute) survivor of the cull.
closed & missing files
Six files have been closed for longer periods than 30 years. These are identified in red below. Oddly, in some cases the file covers have made it to TNA, so that an empty file can be viewed with an explanatory slip inside, in others there has been a complete withholding.
Perhaps the most significant missing item is the file on the renewal of Britain's strategic nuclear deterrent, which is listed as "temporarily retained by department" - effectively an indefinite closure. (Several files on the same topic from the 1974-79 Labour government were retained on that basis, but have recently found their way to Kew.) Another such is the file on the case of Anthony Blunt, juicily titled "The Security of the Secret Service". Two files on the Royal Family have been held back, as they always are, neither likely to have been of any great importance. One part of the Northern Ireland situation file has been closed, covering the assassination of Lord Mountbatten and the bombing at Warrenpoint. Again, all are "temporarily retained" rather than subject to particular terms of extended closure. Finally, a single file has been closed under Section 3.4 of the Public Records Act, 1958, relating to Zambia. No term has been set for its release.
Unnoticed by the press a key 1979 Thatcher file, covering policy towards sterling, was simply missing from the release - i.e., not listed as closed, but not present either. Probably it ran over the year end and will be released with the 1980 batch. If not, something has gone badly wrong.
The list, with links
Here are links to the downloadable files in numerical order as catalogued by TNA, which means effectively by subject bloc. A different breakdown by this site, organised roughly into domestic and international topics, with some steer as to which files matter most, will be added as future years are released.
Some of these downloads are very big - as large as 50MB. Most are in the range 1-10MB. To keep sizes down, images have been compressed, though legibility should never be a problem.
Where documents within a file have been selected for the site database, they can easily be viewed by clicking the link after the file name ("Best documents from this file"), as well as via conventional searches from the main search screen. These selected items are the most important documents in the file. Over time most files will have had documents selected in this way, but it will take time and care is being taken not to allow the site database to become so large as to be unmanageable.
These selected documents include every minute, letter, conversation note ('memcon', to use the American term) by or involving the Prime Minister, as well as all minutes and letters sent her by the key ministers such as the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Foreign Secretary. If you read nothing else, read these. These selected items are stored in a higher quality format than the whole files. Very high quality copies can also be supplied, where a need is established, on application to the site editor.
PREM19/1 - Archives (Suez files)
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PREM19/2 - Australia (MT visit to Canberra, etc, July 1979)
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PREM19/3 - China (Premier Hua visit to the UK, October 1979)
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PREM19/4 - Civil Service (Dispersal) (Part 1)
PREM19/5 - Civil Service (Manpower Freeze) (Part 1)
PREM19/6 - Civil Service (Manpower Freeze) (Part 2)
PREM19/7 - Civil Service (Christmas Message)
PREM19/8 - Civil Service (Stock Criticisms)
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PREM19/9 - Commonwealth (Lusaka Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM))
PREM19/10 - Commonwealth (Lusaka - bilateral meetings)
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PREM19/11 - Cuba (Soviet ground forces)
PREM19/12 - Cuba (UK credits)
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PREM19/13 - Deaths (Lord Mountbatten)
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PREM19/14 - Defence (Strategic Nuclear Deterrent) (Part 1) [file "temporarily retained by department"]
PREM19/15 - Defence (Modernisation of Theatre Nuclear Forces) [Part 1] Best documents from this file
PREM19/16 - Defence (Anglo-German offset agreement)
PREM19/17 - Defence (Accidental US nuclear alert)
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PREM19/18 - Economic policy (Public Spending) (Part 1)
PREM19/19 - Economic policy (Public Spending) (Part 2)
PREM19/20 - Economic policy (Public Spending) (Part 3)
PREM19/21 - Economic policy (Public Spending) (Part 4)
PREM19/22 - Economic policy (Public Spending) (Part 5)
PREM19/23 - Economic policy (Public Spending) (Part 6)
PREM19/24 - Economic policy (Strategy) (Part 1)
PREM19/25 - Economic policy (Strategy) (Part 2)
PREM19/26 - Economic policy (Strategy) (Part 3)
PREM19/27 - Economic policy (Tokyo G7) (Part 1) Best documents from this file
PREM19/28 - Economic policy (Tokyo G7) (Part 2) Best documents from this file
PREM19/29 - Economic policy (Budget - June 1979) (Part 1) Best documents from this file
PREM19/30 - Economic policy (National Economic Development Council) (Part 1)
PREM19/31 - Economic policy (Privatization) (Part 1)
PREM19/32 - Economic policy (Privatization) (Part 1)
PREM19/33 - Economic policy (Monetary Policy - Domestic) (Part 1) Best documents from this file
PREM19/34 - Economic policy (Monetary Policy - Domestic) (Part 2) Best documents from this file
PREM19/35 - Economic policy (Price Commission & Competition Bill) (Part 1)
PREM19/36 - Economic policy (Invisibles in trade figures)
PREM19/37 - Economic policy (CPRS paper on UK economy)
PREM19/38 - Economic policy (Proposed Council of Economic Advisers)
PREM19/39 - Economic policy (Bank of England staff pay)
PREM19/40 - Economic policy (Executive perks)
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PREM19/41 - Elections (Briefing for incoming PM) Best documents from this file
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PREM19/42 - Energy (Energy Policy) (Part 1)
PREM19/43 - Energy (Energy Policy) (Part 2)
PREM19/44 - Energy (British National Oil Corporation & BP shares) (Part 1)
PREM19/45 - Energy (British National Oil Corporation & BP shares) (Part 2)
PREM19/46 - Energy (Offshore Supplies Interest Relief Grants Scheme)
PREM19/47 - Energy (Nuclear power safety - Schmidt letter)
PREM19/48 - Energy (Nuclear power plant industry)
PREM19/49 - Energy (UK/Australia nuclear safeguards agreement)
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PREM19/50 - European policy (Agriculture) (Part 1)
PREM19/51 - European policy (Strasbourg European Council, June 1979)
PREM19/52 - European policy (Dublin European Council, November 1979)
PREM19/53 - European policy (Future policy towards EC, including budget) (Part 1)
PREM19/54 - European policy (Future policy towards EC, including budget) (Part 2)
PREM19/55 - European policy (Future policy towards EC, including budget) (Part 3)
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PREM19/56 - Fishing industry (Mourne herring fishery)
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PREM19/57 - France (MT visits to) (Paris, June 1979) (Part 1)
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PREM19/58 - Germany (Chancellor Schmidt visit to UK, May 1979) (Part 1)
PREM19/59 - Germany (MT visits) (Bonn, October 1979) (Part 2)
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PREM19/60 - Government machinery (Rayner review) (Part 1)
PREM19/61 - Government machinery (Rayner review) (Part 2)
PREM19/62 - Government machinery (Rayner review) (Part 3)
PREM19/63 - Government machinery (Population questions)
PREM19/64 - Government machinery (Judges' expenses)
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PREM19/65 - Greece (PM Karamanlis visit to UK, October 1979)
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PREM19/66 - Home Affairs (Sale of Isle of Iona)
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PREM19/67 - India (Call on MT by Deputy PM Ram)
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PREM19/68 - Indonesia (President Suharto visit to UK, November 1979)
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PREM19/69 - Industrial policy (Meetings with the TUC) (Part 1)
PREM19/70 - Industrial policy (Industrial relations law) (Part 1)
PREM19/71 - Industrial policy (Future of British Leyland) (Part 1)
PREM19/72 - Industrial policy (Future of Rolls-Royce)
PREM19/73 - Industrial policy (Ford Motor Company)
PREM19/74 - Industrial policy (Employee stock ownership - correspondence with US Senator)
PREM19/75 - Industrial policy (National Enterprise Board - Hartlepool titanium project)
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PREM19/76 - Iran (Internal situation) (Part 1)
PREM19/77 - Iran (Internal situation) (Part 2)
PREM19/78 - Iran (Jewish community - correspondence with President Carter)
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PREM19/79 - Ireland (Taoiseach's visits to UK) (Part 1)
PREM19/80 - Ireland (Northern Ireland situation) (Part 1)
PREM19/81 - Ireland (Northern Ireland situation) (Part 2) [file "temporarily retained by department"]
PREM19/82 - Ireland (Northern Ireland situation) (Part 3)
PREM19/83 - Ireland (Northern Ireland situation) (Part 4)
PREM19/84 - Ireland (Intervention by Governor Carey of New York State)
PREM19/85 - Ireland (Information policy - correspondence with HRH Prince of Wales) [file "temporarily retained by department"]
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PREM19/86 - Israel (Farewell call by Israeli Ambassador, July 1979)
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PREM19/87 - Italy (PM Andreotti visit to UK, June 1979)
PREM19/88 - Italy (MT visits to) (Rome, October 1979) (Part 1)
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PREM19/89 - Legal procedure (Authority to order drafting of Bills)
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PREM19/90 - Local government (Relations with Central Government) (Part 1)
PREM19/91 - Local government (Remuneration of local councillors)
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PREM19/92 - Middle East (Situation in Middle East) (Part 1)
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PREM19/93 - Ministers (Ministers' assessments of position they inherited on taking office)
PREM19/94 - Ministers (Propriety of appointing a Minister likely to become a member of the European Assembly)
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PREM19/95 - National Health Service (Doctors' and Dentists' pay) (Part 1)
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PREM19/96 - Nationalized Industries (Shipbuilding) (Part 1)
PREM19/97 - Nationalized Industries (Steel) (Part 1)
PREM19/98 - Nationalized Industries (British Rail - cutback in fuel supplies)
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PREM19/99 - Pakistan (Sale of cargo ships to Pakistan by British Shipbuilders)
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PREM19/100 - Parliament (Legislative programme) (Part 1)
PREM19/101 - Parliament (Legislative programme) (Part 2)
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PREM19/102 - Prime Minister (Meeting with Cardinal Hume on Northern Ireland) (May 1979)
PREM19/103 - Prime Minister (Meeting with British Council of Churches) (October 1979)
PREM19/104 - Prime Minister (MT's visits to Departments & possible regional visits)
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PREM19/105 - Regional policy (Review of Regional policy, including creation of Enterprize Zones)
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PREM19/106 - Rhodesia (Situation in) (April 30 - May 31) (Part 1)
PREM19/107 - Rhodesia (Situation in) (June 1 - July 4) (Part 2)
PREM19/108 - Rhodesia (Situation in) (July 4 - 30) (Part 3)
PREM19/109 - Rhodesia (Situation in) (July 31 - August 9) (Part 4)
PREM19/110 - Rhodesia (Situation in) (August 9 - 30) (Part 5)
PREM19/111 - Rhodesia (Situation in) (August 31 - September 11) (Part 6)
PREM19/112 - Rhodesia (Situation in) (September 11 - October 10) (Part 7)
PREM19/113 - Rhodesia (Situation in) (October 11 - 31) (Part 8)
PREM19/114 - Rhodesia (Situation in) (November 1 - 18) (Part 9)
PREM19/115 - Rhodesia (Situation in) (November 19 - 30) (Part 10)
PREM19/116 - Rhodesia (Situation in) (December 2 - 21) (Part 11)
PREM19/117 - Rhodesia (Lord Boyd's Report on April 1979 election)
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PREM19/118 - Royal Family (Security of The Queen during visit to Lusaka Commonwealth Summit) [file "temporarily retained by department"]
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PREM19/119 - Security (Robin Cook's Bill on the Security Service)
PREM19/120 - Security (Security of the Secret Services - Anthony Blunt) [file "temporarily retained by department"]
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PREM19/121 - Social services (Taxation of short-term, supplementary & strikers' benefits) (Part 1)
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PREM19/122 - South Africa (Plessey Radar contract - possible breach of UN arms embargo)
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PREM19/123 - South Korea (Call on MT by special envoy of South Korean President)
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PREM19/124 - Soviet Union (MT's stopover in Moscow, en route to Tokyo G7)
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PREM19/125 - Transport (Nationalized surface transport industries - consumer representation)
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PREM19/126 - USA (President Carter's energy policy)
PREM19/127 - USA (MT visit to Washington - policy, December 1979)
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PREM19/128 - Vatican (Possible papal visit to Northern Ireland; papal visit to Republic of Ireland)
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PREM19/129 - Vietnam (Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong - resettlement in UK) (Part 1)
PREM19/130 - Vietnam (Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong - resettlement in UK) (Part 2)
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PREM19/131 - Zaire (Call on MT by Foreign Minister of)
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PREM19/132 - Zambia (Policy) [file retained under Section 3.4 of the Public Records Act, 1958]
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PREM19/133 - European policy (Dublin European Council, November 1979 - briefing material for MT)