Free Republic

Thatcher's great ally would have been able to implement her revolution here, says Peter Clarke What-ifs are tiresome. History is only what the victors did. Yet Scotland’s future altered when in 1979 the voters of Glasgow Cathcart rejected Sir Teddy Taylor at a time when Britain was beginning to warm to the dawn of Thatcherism. Taylor, who last week announced he would stand down from parliament, would have been a shoo-in as Margaret Thatcher’s secretary of state for Scotland. In his absence, the Conservative cause became muted and was all but obliterated as successively Younger, Rifkind, Lang and Forsyth were...

Nov. 21, 2003 British Minister compares terrorism to Nazim, tyranny By DOUGLAS DAVIS LONDON British Muslims are outraged at a challenge by Foreign Office Minister Denis MacShane to choose between the "British way" of political dialogue and Islamic terrorism. In the aftermath of the bombing of British interests in Istanbul Thursday, which claimed 27 lives, including British Consul-General Roger Short, MacShane likened the terrorists to the Nazis. In a speech on Friday, he called on imams and other Muslim leaders to use "clearer, stronger language" to denounce Islamic extremists. "It is time for the elected and community leaders of British...