Shadow of Margaret Hilda

Seeing a link on Facebook to this story reminds me of a revelation by David Owen in conversation with Peter Hennessy a few weeks back.

I wondered at the time of the Falklands invasion why Owen, who had deterred a previous Argentine attempt when he was foreign secretary under Jim Callaghan, had not swiftly gone onto the attack over the dilatoriness of a UK response. If he had done, and that therefore the Conservative government would have been seen to be acting at the prompting of the SDP when it sent the task force, the 1983 general election might have seen a much smaller Conservative majority. It turns out that he was already onside with Mrs Thatcher at the time of the Falklands debates.