If its Nazi sympathisers you want…try the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

good old Saxe-Coburgs eh ?

Just the facts CD….The Conservative foreign secretary in 1940 Lord Halifax , who was trying to succeed Chamberlain as PM. Along with others on that side of the house. Wanted to sue for peace with Hitler.

Not a huge fan of WSC but by defeating Halifax and getting control he saved the countries bacon….and probably that of the free world.

I think you did ask about Poland in an earlier thread ? and old Sunny Jim !

…one more thing…HMS Phoebe was the main Leander used in the BBC series Warship. Series one is now available on DVD with series 2 out shortly.

Its a great watch, especially for any fish heads out there !!!!

Operation Journeyman was a Royal Navy operation in which a naval taskforce was sent to the Falkland Islands in November 1977 to prevent an Argentine invasion.

The operation was ordered by James Callaghan after fifty Argentine “scientists” landed on Southern Thule, prompting fears of an Argentine invasion of the Falklands. The Argentinians set up a military base on Thule. It is likely that the prompt action prevented a more serious attack. The force planned under heavy security was led by the nuclear submarine Dreadnought and also consisted of two frigates, Alacrity and Phoebe, and the auxiliaries Resource and Olwen as support vessels. The Argentines rapidly became aware of the taskforce’s presence, but their forces remained on Thule and Callaghan decided against the use of force to evict them.

The foreign secretary at the time David Owen later claimed that if Margaret Thatcher’s government had taken similarly quick action five years later, the Argentinians would not have invaded in 1982 leading to the Falklands War.

errrrr FACT

CD
On 25 February 1982, after several months of negotiations, the Australian government announced that it had agreed to buy Invincible for £175 million as a replacement, under the name HMAS Australia, for the Royal Australian Navy’s HMAS Melbourne. The sale was confirmed by the Ministry of Defence.
FACT

The Ministry of Defence’s 1981 Defence White Paper proposed naval cuts including decommissioning Endurance, which was scheduled for 15 April 1982

Endurance* ’​s withdrawal from Antarctic patrol without replacement was perceived in Britain as having encouraged the Argentinian invasion. The subsequent Franks Report acknowledged it as a factor .

FACT

Hermes was due to be decommissioned in 1982 after a 1981 defence review (that would have made the Royal Navy considerably smaller) by the British government,

FACT

Come on CD…try reading a couple of half decent books on the subject !

CD
Clem Attlee my hero……..

Oh and word for John Major……He never got the credit he deserved over Ireland….would love to buy him a pint at the oval one day.

CD
Robert Armstrong (Baron), Ex PPS to the PM and Thatcher’s Secretary to the cabinet believed her deregulation of the city lead directly to the 2008 crash. I am not saying others did not contribute to it.

Interesting also to read comments attributed to him regarding Thatcher knighting Jimmy Saville.

Re industry, it’s quite simply, once you destroy industries you can never get them back. Hence we now need the Chinese to build our nuclear power plants. Have you any idea how many ships have been built for the cruise industry over the last 20 years ? We import coal for goodness sake to keep the lights on ! Britain now has a thriving car industry, that is owned by foreign business’s who have far better management skills than exist in this country. It was lack of quality management in the 1970’s and 1980’s that let this country down badly !

Thatcher came to my home town of Manchester to give a speech. She declared she had looked at the map and considered Manchester was in the Midlands and not in the North. An excellent example of how out of touch she was with people. She championed money and that the free market should control everything irrespective of the cost to people’s lives. By selling the countries assets she proved she was only interested in short term greed for the few as opposed to long term prospects for the country and people as a whole.

The simple fact is, had she not sold off our carriers to the Australians, paid off Endurance and Hermes the Argentines would never have attacked the Falklands. The Navy offered a task force to win them back as they only way it stood any chance of maintaining capital ships and reversing the carrier’s decision. It had nothing to lose.

The Falklands war was a huge gamble. We were very lucky indeed. Without its victory Thatcher would never have been re-elected. And this country lead by John Smith would have been a far far better place than it is now.

As for the poll tax. A standard tory policy to make poor people pay more tax than the rich. Which is why people started rioting about it……

Oh and by the way….Lord Halifax (Conservative foreign secretary 1938-1940) wanted to sue for peace with the Germans following the attacks on Poland and subsequently France. Along with other members of the Conservative party. Had he gained control of the Government which he nearly did the third Reich would have been alive and well even now.

And finally……I weep for the Labour part every day when I hear Jeremy Corbyn’s name. Clem Attlee must be turning in his grave. I find his pacifist approach in this most dangerous world to be freightning and very, very dangerous indeed.

For Flypast forum read Finchley Conservative club.

But since I’m here I would like to say that John Smith would have been one of this countries best post war PM’s. had fate not intervened.