Margaret Thatcher supported South African apartheid

Posted on January 22, 2018 by petrel41

This 2013 video from the USA says about itself:

The History Of The Right Wing Rejecting Mandela

Remember it was Ronald Reagan that placed Nelson Mandela and the ANC on the terrorist list. Former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher also described Mandela’s ANC as a “typical terrorist organization” in 1987, refusing to impose sanctions on South Africa’s apartheid regime. President Ronald Reagan did as well.

In 1986, former Vice President Dick Cheney, then a congressman, voted along with 179 other members of the House, (all conservatives), against a non-binding resolution to recognize the ANC and call on the South African government to release Mandela from prison. The measure finally passed, but not before a veto attempt by Reagan.

In 2000, Cheney maintained that he’d cast the correct vote. Democrats in the Senate initially tried to pass the Anti-Apartheid Act in September 1985, but could not overcome a Republican filibuster. President Ronald Reagan viewed the act as an intrusion on his authority to conduct foreign policy and issued his own set of sanctions, though Democrats considered these to be “watered down and ineffective”.

The bill was re-introduced in 1986 and brought up for a vote despite Republican efforts to block it in order to give President Reagan’s sanctions time to work. It initially passed unexpectedly in the House in June 1986 after Republicans agreed to a voice vote in the hopes that the bill would die later on in the process, thus ending any possibility of sanctions. President Reagan publicly opposed the bill and it was viewed as too extreme to pass in the Republican-controlled Senate.

In August 1986, the Senate passed a version of the Anti-Apartheid Act with weaker sanctions by a margin of 84-14. Democratic leaders in the House agreed to accept the weaker Senate version of the bill in order for it to have sufficient bipartisan support to avert a possible veto. Reagan vetoed the compromised bill on September 26, calling it “economic warfare” and alleging that it would mostly hurt the impoverished black majority and lead to more civil strife. He again offered to impose sanctions via executive order, while also working with Senate Republicans on concessions to avoid them overriding his veto.

Reagan’s veto was attacked harshly by anti-Apartheid leaders like Desmond Tutu who said Reagan would be “judged harshly by history”. In the week leading up to the subsequent vote, President Reagan enlisted South African foreign minister Pik Botha to call Republicans on the fence, though this was seen to backfire.

Contrast that with this.

Twenty years before that on May 5, 1960, JFK addressed in detail how American foreign policy should be conducted towards African nations, in support of modern African nationalism by saying that “For we, too, founded a new nation on revolt from colonial rule“.

From daily The Independent in Britain today:

Margaret Thatcher believed South Africa should be a ‘whites-only state’, says UK’s former chief diplomat

Former head of the Diplomatic Service, Sir Patrick Wright, makes the explosive claims in his diary

Shehab Khan

Margaret Thatcher believed South Africa should be a “whites-only state”, it has been reported.

The former head of the Diplomatic Service, Sir Patrick Wright, has made a number of explosive claims in his account of the former Prime Minister’s time in office.

Sir Patrick also said that Ms Thatcher “loathed” Germans and wanted to “push” Vietnamese boat people into the sea.

Extracts from his diaries have been published in the Mail on Sunday and include claims that Ms Thatcher expressed a desire for a “pre-1910” South Africa.

In the diary entry, Sir Patrick writes the conversation took place over a lunch he was invited to with Ms Thatcher. “She opened the conversation by thrusting a newspaper cutting about Oliver Tambo [ANC president] in front of us, saying that it proved that we should not be talking to him… She continued to express her views about a return to pre-1910 South Africa, with a white mini-state partitioned from their neighbouring black states.”

When Sir Patrick questioned the desire and said it would be an extension of apartheid, he said “she barked: ‘Do you have no concern for our strategic interests?’”

Sir Patrick also claimed that Ms Thatcher was “at her worst” during the Vietnamese boat people crisis in 1989.

… Ms Thatcher’s attitude on foreign matters reportedly led her foreign secretary Douglas Hurd to remark: “Cabinet now consists of three items: parliamentary affairs; home affairs; and xenophobia”, the diary says.

Margaret Thatcher inspiration for German extreme right

Posted on October 29, 2017 by petrel41

This video from Britain says about itself:

The far right in Germany: Nazi ideology and the AfD

BBC Newsnight 17 August 2017

From daily The Independent in Britain today:

Germany’s far-right AfD leader says Margaret Thatcher is her ‘role model’

Alice Weidel, leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), has named the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as her role model

Ms Weidel is one of two AfD party leaders. She is considered the most ‘moderate’ of these two, for being lesbian in a homophobic party; while the other party leader, Alexander Gauland, glorifies Adolf Hitler’s wars in his speeches. However, ‘moderate’ Ms Weidel has extremely racist ideas on Roma and other people.

Weidel told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag that her party, which stormed into parliament for the first time after capturing nearly 13 per cent of the vote, aimed to be ready to join a coalition government by 2021.

This may prove to be a steep hill to climb, since all the mainstream parties have rejected working with the AfD. …

She said only 18 per cent of the AfD’s voters were women which was “way too few” and the party needed to attract more women voters. …

Weidel also urged former AfD leader Frauke Petry to give up her seat in parliament after quitting the party the day after the election and vowing to sit as an independent.

Margaret Thatcher did not only inspire Alice Weidel, but also other politicians far to the right of what is considered ‘mainstream’ conservatism. Like in the Hungarian neonazi Jobbik party. Their anti-Semitic Member of the European parliament Krisztina Morvai received an award from Thatcher personally.

Margaret Thatcher knighted British child abuser, knew about suspicions

Posted on October 10, 2017 by petrel41

This video from Britain is about serial child abuser Jimmy Savile and Margaret Thatcher.

From daily The Independent in Britain, 9 October 2017:

Margaret Thatcher gave MP knighthood despite knowing child sex abuse claims against him, inquiry hears

Cyril Smith used title as a ‘veneer of respectability and power’ to gain access to alleged victims

Ben Kentish

Margaret Thatcher decided to award a knighthood to a suspected child abuser MP despite being aware of the allegations against him, an inquiry has heard.

The honour for then Rochdale MP Cyril Smith allowed him to continue to exploit his victims because he used the title to maintain ties with children’s organisations, investigators said.

The revelation came as the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse heard witness statements as part of its probe into how Smith was allegedly able to abuse young boys at Cambridge House hostel and Knowl View residential school in Rochdale.

Smith was knighted in 1988 having served as an MP since 1972. He died in 2010 at the age of 82. Despite persistent child abuse allegations against him during his career, he never faced trial.

The inquiry panel was told that the MP’s knighthood was awarded despite people “at the very highest level of politics” being aware of multiple allegations he had sexually abused at least eight boys.

Brian Altman QC, lead counsel for the inquiry, said the title had given the MP a “veneer of respectability and power” that helped him gain access to his alleged victims.

He said: “I mention this knighthood here for two reasons. First, because it demonstrates that the Lancashire investigation and the [Rochdale Alternative Press] article had been considered at the very highest level of politics and seemingly did not prompt more than consideration of the Director of Public Prosecution’s decision not to prosecute.

“Second, because it is important to bear in mind the extent to which Cyril Smith continued to involve himself in serious issues related to the welfare of children.

“A knighthood would only have reinforced Smith’s veneer of respectability and power”.

The inquiry, which is being led by Professor Alexis Jay, was also told that MI5 was aware of claims that prosecutors had lied when explaining their decision not to prosecute Smith. The allegations against the MP were investigated by Lancashire Police and three separate files passed to the Crown Prosecution Service. However, the case was dropped in 1970 when Sir Normal Skelhorn, the Director of Public Prosecutions at the time, decided it was unlikely to lead to a conviction.

Sir Norman is said to have made the decision despite being told by a senior detective that the “sordid” allegations against Smith “stood up”.

Mr Altman said documents given to the inquiry by MI5 showed that Sir Norman had misled media outlets over the decision not to prosecute the Liberal MP. His office reportedly told the the Rochdale Alternative Press newspaper that it had never received police reports of the alleged abuse.

Mr Altman said: “The documents show that the Security Service’s legal adviser was informed of the false representations to the press from the DPP’s office.

“Based upon their review of the information they hold, the Security Service considers they took active steps to ensure that those involved in investigating allegations of child sexual abuse against Smith were made aware of all information of relevance to their inquiries.

“However, given their function was to defend the realm, at that time, and investigation was outside their remit, they simply filed the information related to the false representations that had been made to the press.”

The initial 1970 Lancashire Police inquiry into Smith concluded he had used a “veneer of respectability” in order to abuse young boys in the 1960s.

The report said: “It seems impossible to excuse his conduct over a considerable period of time whilst sheltering behind a veneer of respectability.

“He has used his unique position to indulge in a sordid series of indecent episodes with young boys towards whom he had a special responsibility.”

Ted Heath to Cyril Smith: Five high-profile political figures we know

Did South African intelligence help Cyril Smith escape justice?

Police found ‘child sex videos in MP’s car but did nothing’

Cyril Smith was not prosecuted for child sex abuse because establishment was scared who he would name in court, detective claims

British miners’ strike, 1985 Dutch solidarity music

Posted on September 24, 2016 by petrel41

During the big 1984-1985 big miners’ strike in Britain, there were many committees for solidarity with the strikers. Eg, among British LGBTQ people, as pictured recently in the film Pride.

There was also solidarity in other countries. This 1985 music video, by Dutch band Bertus en de Posters (Bertus and the Flying Pickets) says about itself:

Miners on strike

Verse 1

MINER

Miner, oh miner, it had to be done
You fought till the end, you went on and on
You lost this one battle, but not the whole war
You can hold your head higher than ever before.

Selma Joyce Vrooland wrote the lyrics; Bertus van der Horst the music. The song is about the end of the strike. After the strike, some miners were in prison, and their families suffered from poverty. The sales of this song were spent on solidarity with these political prisoners’ families.

This song is the B-side of the Miner record. It is called Bertus en de Posters – He! Maggie Snatcher. It is about anti-miner British Conservative Prime Minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher.

Margaret Thatcher praised jihadists in Afghanistan

Posted on September 11, 2016 by petrel41

This video from the USA says about itself:

WATCH: British PM Heaps Praise On Jihadists In Afghanistan (1981)

10 September 2016

Newly published papers show that one of the country [Britain]’s top civil servants held a private summit with senior American, French and German politicians at which they decided to provide “discreet support for Afghan guerrilla resistance”.

More about this in the British (Conservative) Daily Telegraph.

So, Margaret Thatcher not only helped to sell British weapons to Saudi Arabia which are now used for killing Yemeni civilians. Ms Thatcher also helped finance violence by the self-styled mujaheddin in Afghanistan; including Osama bin Laden and what eventually became al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

When the Tory Students and British State Backed the Islamist Mujahidin – Secret Affairs. Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam. Mark Curtis: here.

Shocking Truth: USA & Islamic Terrorism – Partners For Proxy Wars: here.

Towns called malice – the legacy of Thatcher: here.

Saudi war on Yemen and Margaret Thatcher

Posted on August 24, 2016 by petrel41

This video from Britain says about itself:

Yemen: British arms sales to Saudi Arabia under scrutiny

23 August 2016

Oxfam has hit out at the British government’s position on weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, as accusations continue that civilians have been deliberately targeted as Yemen’s conflict continues.

The Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, will be in Riyadh for talks about – amongst other things – Yemen, where the war has intensified this month. But is he, as Oxfam says, in denial and disarray over weapons sales to Saudi Arabia?

By Ben Chacko in Britain:

Thatcher aided killer jets sale

Wednesday 24th August 2016

Newly released files expose secret role in securing arms deal with Saudi despot

MARGARET THATCHER personally schmoozed Saudi Arabian despot King Fahd to sell him the very Tornado jets now bombing Yemen into the Stone Age, newly declassified documents reveal.

Thatcher lunched with the tyrant to secure the now notorious al-Yamamah deal, which has been mired in scandal ever since.

Two high-profile investigations into the £43 billion contract, allegedly obtained through bribes from a secret BAE Systems “slush fund,” have been quashed by the British government for fear of offending the Saudis.

Anti-arms trade campaigners opposed the sale in the first place because of the desert kingdom’s dire human rights record, and it was not long before accusations surfaced that the aerospace and arms giant had offered sweeteners to Saudi royals to clinch the deal.

A 1992 National Audit Office report into the matter was suppressed and a Serious Fraud Office investigation was cancelled in 2006 after personal intervention by Tony Blair, who said Britain’s “strategic interest” lay in not offending the fundamentalist state, whose extremist Wahabi ideology is the inspiration for the al-Qaida and Isis terror franchises.

Thatcher met King Fahd in April 1985 after a Foreign Office briefing document advised: “Tackling the king in person is probably the only way of smoking the Saudis out.”

A day after the meeting, the former prime minister wrote to the Gulf monarch: “I was glad that we were able to discuss a further matter privately over lunch.”

The agreement in principle for Britain to supply Tornado, Hawk and PC9 aircraft to the Saudis was signed in the autumn.

Stop the War convener Lindsey German condemned the [content of the] revelations: “There are many reasons to dislike Margaret Thatcher and her legacy, but the use of British warplanes to destroy the lives of many Yemenis must come pretty close to top of the list. These planes are now being used against the Yemeni people, who have suffered 17 months of bombardment from the Saudis.”

The revelation comes as Oxfam accuses the government of “fuelling a brutal war in Yemen” through ongoing arms sales and logistical support for the bloody Saudi assault on its neighbour.

The Saudi air force has blitzed “schools, hospitals and homes” in Yemen in recent months with British help, the charity says.

British-made cluster bombs dropped by the Saudis were found in Yemen by an Amnesty team in June, despite Britain being a signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions which prevents both their use and their transfer to third parties.

Cluster bombs spread small bomblets over a wide area, meaning they tend to maximise civilian casualties from bombing raids.

Britain was now “one of the most significant violators” of the Arms Trade Treaty, having “misled its own Parliament about its oversight of arms sales,” Oxfam GB deputy chief executive Penny Lawrence said.

The government backtracked in July on previous assurances that it was “confident” that Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen did not violate international humanitarian law, admitting it had not taken any steps to verify that assessment.

Over 6,000 people have been killed in the Yemen conflict …

Grizzled Tory warmonger Colonel Bob Stewart told Radio 4 that the Saudis “had made some mistakes” but were “extremely conscious that they shouldn’t breach such treaties.”

But Oxfam director of policy and campaigns Sally Copley hit back: “If the Saudis really are extremely aware and concerned I think they need to stop.”

Labour shadow international development secretary Kate Osamor MP said: “The government needs to start taking responsibility for the consequence of selling arms to Saudi Arabia, it cannot allow the flagrant abuses of humanitarian law in Yemen to continue. [Prime Minister] Theresa May needs to stop shirking her responsibilities under international law and start putting human rights before profit.”

We need an honest assessment of Saudi Arabia’s use of UK arms in Yemen: here.

Saudi religious police cover UK flag on school uniforms because it’s ‘Christian’: here.

Margaret Thatcher’s anti-gay bigotry on AIDS revealed

Posted on December 31, 2015 by petrel41

This video from Britain says about itself:

Margaret Thatcher‘s Anti-Gay Speech (1:00 min)

“Children are being taught they have an inalienable right to be gay. All of those children are being cheated of a sound start in life.” — Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, October 9, 1987. Conservative Party Conference. Blackpool, United Kingdom.

By Joana Ramiro in Britain:

Bigot Thatcher‘s fight against aids education

Wednesday 30th December 2015

PM worried teens might learn about ‘risky sex’

MARGARET Thatcher fought tooth and nail to stop a national public education campaign on Aids because she didn’t like talking about “risky sex,” government files released today reveal.

Declassified papers from the National Archives showed the bitter battle between Thatcher and her health secretary Norman Fowler over proposals for a major HIV awareness campaign.

LGBT activists and HIV survivors reacted in disgust as they heard that the former PM had been opposed to placing information on the epidemic in visible locations.

In a handwritten note to Mr Fowler, she said: “Do we have to do the section on risky sex? I should have thought it could do immense harm if young teenagers were to read it.”

Thatcher also claimed that the campaign could breach the Obscene Publications Act and pushed for a more conservative and limited distribution of information.

She wrote: “It would be better in my view to follow the [sexually transmitted disease] precedent of putting notices in surgeries, public lavatories, etc.”

Long-standing LGBT rights campaigner and HIV survivor Joseph Healy told the Star of his shock at finding out about Thatcher’s decision.

“There was widespread fear in the gay community. We all knew people who had it, but nothing appeared until the famous ‘tombstone’ TV ads in the late ’80s.

“I saw so many young men die in great pain, many of them ostracised by their families and others because so little was known about the illness.

“This is yet another one of Thatcher’s crimes against the LGBT community, along with section 28.

“So many young lives could have been saved and so much suffering avoided if she and her government had supported a health education campaign.”

Section 28, introduced by the Thatcher government in 1988, prohibited local authorities from portraying homosexuality in a positive light.

The ban was only lifted by Labour in 2003, with current Prime Minister David Cameron voting for partial retention.

The first Aids case in Britain was recorded in 1981 and by 1986 public awareness of the virus was growing rapidly.

London members of direct action group Act Up, which campaigned from the late 1980s onwards on behalf of people living with Aids, accused Thatcher of “wilful neglect.”

Act Up’s Ashley Joiner said: “Margaret Thatcher’s calculated wilful neglect, government inaction and homophobia has directly resulted in the social stigma attached to HIV today.

“The lack of change in discourse since Thatcher’s government, paired with the recent cuts to financial aid, demonstrate how the Conservative government is determined to allow history to repeat itself.”

Thatcher was forced to allow the campaign to go ahead when told the Cabinet was against her objections.

She also attempted to thwart a subsequent campaign involving sending information to every British home.

But she was forced to give way again after her press secretary Bernard Ingham told her: “There is certainly a feeling abroad that the government is doing too little and is not treating the issue with sufficient urgency.”

‘PATIENT ZERO’ NOT TO BLAME FOR U.S. HIV OUTBREAK “Genes taken from archived blood samples show the U.S. AIDS epidemic started in New York in the early 1970s, definitively debunking the long-held belief that the virus was spread in the early 1980s by a flight attendant who became vilified as ‘Patient Zero’ for seeding the U.S. outbreak.” [Reuters]

British MI5, Margaret Thatcher, child abuse cover-up document

Posted on July 24, 2015 by petrel41

This 22 January 2015 video from Britain says about itself:

Leon Brittan: will new answers emerge on abuse claims? | Channel 4 News

Leon Brittan’s final years were dogged by controversy over those historic sexual abuse allegations – so will his death bring any new information into the public domain?

By Paddy McGuffin in Britain:

Ministers told to reveal all on abuse cover-up

Friday 24th July 2015

Shock files reveal MI5 and Thatcher collusion on top Tory paedophile

THE government was urged to hand over all relevant papers to the child abuse inquiry yesterday after a damning leaked document revealed MI5 and Margaret Thatcher’s administration colluded in a cover-up.

The files show that former MI5 director-general Sir Antony Duff wrote to the then cabinet secretary Sir Robert Armstrong in 1986 over allegations made by two sources regarding an MP “who had a penchant for little boys.”

But Mr Duff warned that “the risks of political embarrassment to the government is rather greater than the security danger,” discounting the child abuse risk.

Napac chief executive Gabrielle Shaw, whose organisation supports survivors of child abuse, told the Star that the fact the documents had only just come to light was “shocking.”

She said: “It is ineptitude at best, and far more suspicious at worst.

“It does not do any favours for survivors when there are whispers of a cover-up and this just adds more fuel to the fire.

“It is good that it has come out now, but you can understand why some people might well be asking: ‘What else has not been handed over?’”

She added that the documents gave “a very disturbing insight into the culture of the times.”

Peter Wanless, head of child protection charity NSPCC, and Richard Whittam QC, who together carried out an inquiry into the handling of historical Westminster abuse allegations, said the documents had reinforced their view that allegations of crimes against children, particularly the rights of the complainant, were given considerably less serious consideration than would be expected today.

The Home Office confirmed that a fresh search of the archives had been carried out after a file emerged earlier this year that should have been submitted to the Wanless and Whittam inquiry.

Former Cabinet minister Leon Brittan, one-time Thatcher aide Peter Morrison, ex-diplomat Sir Peter Hayman and former minister William van Straubenzee were named in other top secret files uncovered following the review.

One of the files relating to Sir Hayman was held by the Cabinet Office but had been “overlooked” during a previous search.

Documents that refer to Mr Straubenzee had been earmarked for destruction, but National Archives officials flagged them up to the government.

Leon Brittan rape investigation ‘fully justified’, say police. Inquiry decides Met was right to examine ‘far from fanciful’ allegations against late peer, but admits mistakes were made: here.

Margaret Thatcher: Saudi oil first, opposing anti-Semitism a poor second

Posted on July 3, 2015 by petrel41

This video is called Saudi beating his Bangladeshi worker for using the phone.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Thatcher files: Anti-semitism trumped by oil cash for Maggie

Friday 3rd July 2015

FOREIGN Office officials reacted with fury to Margaret Thatcher’s insistence on placating the Saudi regime after Riyadh lodged a complaint over a report by the BBC, National Archives files show.

The row broke out in September 1983 when the BBC World Service reported that Iranian citizens on the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca had been mistreated and imprisoned by the Saudi authorities.

The Saudi Ministry of Information linked the report to the appointment of Stuart Young, who was Jewish, as the new BBC board of governors’ chair.

Then foreign secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe cabled the British embassy in Riyadh, saying: “The nonsense about Stuart Young needs to be knocked on the head in some way.”

But Thatcher’s private secretary John Coles wrote: “We are disturbed at this misreporting of this incident and that we are sorry that it occurred.”

Thatcher government plans to deport Hong Kong people to Northern Ireland

Posted on July 3, 2015 by petrel41

This video from Mauritius says about itself:

Demonstration against UK occupation over Chagos

Event: Peaceful march
Date: Wednesday, 7 April, 2010
March co-ordinator: LALIT

To put on the agenda once again the original demands for full decolonization, the re-unification of Mauritius, for base closure and environmental clean-up, and for the right to return and reparations for all Chagossians. What this means is that the march is perhaps the beginning of a new long-term campaign that needs to be built up on these issues.

After the British Harold Wilson government deported all people forcibly from Diego Garcia island in the Chagos archipelago to give place to a United States military (and torture) base … after Wilson’s Conservative successors in the 1970s seriously discussed the possibility of ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Northern Ireland by driving all people opposed to the Great Britain-Northern Ireland union violently south across the six counties-twenty-six counties border (recalling the seventeenth century, when the English military said to the Irish people of Ulster: ‘To Connacht, or to hell!’), now this about the later Thatcher administration …

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Thatcher files: Ministers considered Hong Kong relocation

Friday 3rd July 2013

THE government seems to have seriously considered a proposal for the entire population of Hong Kong to be shipped lock, stock and barrel to Northern Ireland, newly released documents show.

This hare-brained scheme was suggested during the height of the Troubles by Reading University lecturer Christie Davies, who asserted that when Britain handed back Hong Kong to China in 1997 there would be no future for its 5.5 million inhabitants.

The alternative, he suggested, was to resettle them in a new “city state” to be established between Coleraine and Derry, revitalising the stagnant Northern Ireland economy.

Recently released National Archives files show that the idea sparked a flurry of correspondence in Whitehall.

When details appeared in October 1983, George Fergusson, an official in the Northern Ireland Office, sent a memorandum to a colleague in the Republic of Ireland department of the Foreign Office, declaring: “At this stage, we see real advantages in taking the proposal seriously.”

Among the benefits, he suggested, was that it would help convince the unionist population that the British government was committed to retaining Northern Ireland.