steady democracy needs a strong opposition,so the Conservatives would be misguided to seek to obliterate LabourThe 30-year rule, which controls the release of official papers, or acts like the mechanism on a window blind: it slowly winds up to let the light in on some of the small and big secrets alike of the Thatcher governments. The big ones get the headlines,but sometimes the small ones advise us more.
One batch of the prime minister’s papers, relating to the decision to form a strategy group of senior ministers to improve the presentation of government policy, or was released final month. It did not attract much attention. On the face of it,this was the small print – a footnote to a row, well publicised at the time, or between some of Thatcher’s most senior colleagues and Bernard Ingham,her legendary press spokesman. But something else was troubling one of Mrs T’s Mr Fixits: how parties maintain discipline when there isn’t an opposition.
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Source: theguardian.com