Word: pym
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...London tabloids liked to call Francis Pym the "thorn in Margaret Thatcher's side"--a politely British way of saying he was detested by the then Prime Minister. In 1979 Thatcher appointed him Defense Secretary, and he became Foreign Secretary during the Falklands war. Pym worked closely with Britain's U.S. and European allies, and was for a time her likeliest potential challenger. But his private battles with Thatcher over his criticism of her economic policies exploded in 1983, when he publicly said he hoped the Tories would not win the election by an overwhelming majority. Thatcher fired...
Thatcher's choice of a successor for Carrington reflected her own weakened position within the Conservative Party as a result of the Falklands invasion. He was Francis Pym, 60, the man considered to be Thatcher's most serious rival for the party's leadership and a critic, however cautious, of her stringent economic policies. Wealthy, Eton- and Cambridge-educated and a descendant of the famed Puritan leader of the House of Commons during the 17th century English civil war, Pym had hoped for the Foreign Secretary post after the Conservative election victory of May 1979. Instead he became Defense Secretary...
...government officials were sure that the Argentines would never withdraw their invasion force from the Falklands unless they were convinced that Britain was deadly serious about military retaliation. Accordingly, the government deliberately harshened its rhetoric, while using every other means at its disposal to bring diplomatic pressure on Argentina. Pym set the tone. "Britain does not appease dictators,' he told a solemn House of Commons. Pale and grave, Thatcher answered further opposition cries for her resignation with the tart retort: "No. Now is the time for strength and resolution...
Labor switched strategies constantly, from highlighting disarmament to stressing unemployment to attacking Thatcher's bossy style. On the last point, the Prime Minister certainly gave Labor ample ammunition: twice she publicly reprimanded Foreign Secretary Pym, once when he suggested that too large...
...Foreign Secretary Pym came when he suggested that if the Argentines were formally to declare an end to hostilities between the two countries, there could be negotiations for resuming diplomatic relations. Foreign Office advisers fear, however, that Thatcher is boxing herself in by refusing to negotiate. Protecting the Falklands now is a garrison of some 4,000 soldiers, two squadrons of jets, a nuclear submarine and half a dozen destroyers and frigates. Estimated cost of that presence this year alone-$672 million, or $373,000 per Falklander A Gallup poll taken last February showed that 65% of the British felt...