Topic description and stories

Spitting Image: A Controversial History

29 Sep 2023

A free exhibition unravelling the history and legacy of the satirical puppet show has opened at Cambridge University Library

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The Thatcher papers: 1990

03 Mar 2020

The Churchill Archives Centre shines a light on Margaret Thatcher's final year in office.

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Margaret Thatcher

1989: The year Margaret Thatcher’s apparent mastery slipped away

09 Mar 2019

Forty thousand pages of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s personal and political papers from 1989 are being opened to the public at the...

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Spitting Image archive comes to Cambridge University Library

14 Nov 2018

A Margaret Thatcher puppet and the unbroadcast script and video tape for the pilot episode of Spitting Image have taken their place alongside the...

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Thatcher papers for 1988 reveal her 'deep enthusiasm' for the single market

21 Jul 2018

Margaret Thatcher’s infamous Bruges speech – which helped to coin the phrase ‘Euroscepticism’ – was never intended to be an anti-European diatribe...

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Thatcher speaking in the White House grounds during her 1987 visit to the USA

‘Don’t put yourself through it again’: Thatcher papers reveal ‘distress’ after bruising election win

10 Oct 2017

Margaret Thatcher’s third and final election victory dominates the 50,000 pages of her personal papers for the year 1987 – opening to the public from...

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Portrait of Margaret Thatcher

The lady is for turning (and reversing) – Thatcher archives for 1986 open to the public

23 Jan 2017

Margaret Thatcher’s isolation over Westland and the US bombing of Libya – as well as fears about the standards of her driving – are among the...

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Margaret Thatcher

‘Hectoring, strident and bossy’: Thatcher papers for 1985 reveal plans to soften the Iron Lady

09 Oct 2015

Massive unemployment, the end of the miners’ strike and a controversial decision to try and exclude the Prime Minister from a Falklands War memorial...

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Margaret Thatcher

Archive of Margaret Thatcher acquired for the nation

18 Jun 2015

Margaret Thatcher’s previously unpublished memoir of the Falklands War has been acquired for the nation - after Arts Council England today announced...

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A Sellotaped page from the speech that never was. Homepage image: Miner's strike, 1984 by Nick Sarebi (CC: Att)

The speech that never was – Thatcher papers for 1984 open to the public

03 Oct 2014

Papers opened to the public today reveal how the Brighton bombing stopped Margaret Thatcher from widening her infamous ‘enemy within’ rhetoric to...

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Bernard Ingham's note of warning to Margaret Thatcher two days before the 1983 General Election

Inside the landslide: Thatcher's personal papers for 1983 opened to the public

10 Oct 2013

Margaret Thatcher’s personal papers for 1983 – the year of her landslide election victory over Michael Foot’s Labour Party – have been opened to the...

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After landing at San Carlos, a heavily laden paratrooper of 2 Parachute Regiment heads south for Sussex Mountain on 21 May 1982. From there the Battalion attacked Goose Green.

Thatcher Archive reveals deep divisions on the road to Falklands War

22 Mar 2013

The Falklands War – the conflict that defined much of Margaret Thatcher’s political career and legacy – dominates the release of her personal papers...

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