Thatcher: "No! No! No!"

A heavily edited version of Margaret Thatcher's statement of 30 October 1990 to the House of Commons on the European Council meeting at Rome held on 27/28 October.

The Council was meant to discuss the Uruguay Round on General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade which was due to end in a few months but for which the EC had not developed a policy (alone out of the trading blocs). However the Italian Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti, decided that the Council would refuse to discuss the GATT and instead push for the final stage in European Economic and Monetary Union in an attempt to get Thatcher to either agree or to force her to say "No" and thereby bring about her downfall by Europhile members of her party. Thatcher's hostility to a federal Europe led to Geoffrey Howe resigning from the Government on 1 November and to his fellow federalist Michael Heseltine's bid for the Tory leadership which brought down Thatcher on 22 November.

As Howe later said: "I wanted to change the policies, not the leader. But if that meant the leader had to go, then so it had to be". After the Rome Council a French official was asked whether it had failed. He answered: "On the contrary, the Council had been an outstanding success, since it had re-established an eleven-to-one situation in the Community and destabilised Thatcher at home".

Includes Eurosceptic interventions by Norman Tebbit (Con.), David Owen (Ind.), Ron Leighton (Lab.), Tony Favell (Con.), and Tony Benn (Lab.).

http://www.publications.parliament.uk...

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  News & Politics

[JakespearianEngland]

Well, for a start. She made sure we didn't join the euro, she helped to fix Britain's economy and won the Falklands war. The Tories, in more recent times, are trying to fix the black hole of an economy that Labour left us in!

[chaeferl]

Strange that everybody was moaning when she was ruling our country... But when Major, Blair and Cameron came along they so botched what used to be our lovely UK up! Pigs!!! Now I can say Maggie was the best!!!

[FloridaSevereWeather Channel]

Furtive fallacy.

[MrAeronuk1]

Only Margaret Thatcher had the balls to stand up to the New world Order as she was doing here. The European Union is an evil anti-democratic enterprise and she knew it.

[Gary O'Connor]

Danial Bryan brought me here X-)

[blueguitarblue]

Maggie: Those glasses were terrible.

[Toudmen]

If only Satan exists, then he was awaiting her arrival impatiently.

[TheGreatDeciever55]

I just kept hoping she would look behind her and say "do shut the fuck up"

[JakespearianEngland]

Ultimately it is down to the islanders, they want to be British, therefore, we will defend them if need be.

[ScharriMSV]

yes it was a british colony. A COLONY!!! The time of Colonialism is over. The Malvinas belong to Argentinia!

[JakespearianEngland]

It was a French colony, then a Spanish colony, then a British colony. We have owned the islands longer than modern day Argentina existed, they are ours. Argentina invaded the islands, we defended them and we won. War is war, they lost. I agree that there was a lot of bloodshed, however, if they hadn't tried to occupy the island, it would never have happened.

[Johan Bach]

These Islands belonged to Argentina before you took them, with force ofcourse, and they naturaly fought to get them back. In response you killed 600-700 of their soldiers and called it a victory. What an amazing feat.