Word: thatchers
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Indeed, some critics have argued that Thatcher's strong initial reaction and abrasive tone may have made it impossible from the beginning for the macho-minded Argentine leaders to make concessions. But Thatcher's supporters-and on the Falklands issue, that includes the vast majority of Britons-would counter that her government's belligerent stance was the only possible response to the original outrage of seizing the islands by force. Possibly Britain's greatest error was allowing the Falklands dispute to come to such a pass in the first place. Snaps one senior U.S. diplomat...
...terrible timing," groaned one of Margaret Thatcher's advisers. Just as the beleaguered Prime Minister was considering when to launch a counterinvasion of the Falklands, her partners in the European Community last week gave Britain first a diplomatic slap and then subjected it to a humiliation that shook the ten-nation Community to its institutional roots. The crux of the problem, as French President François Mitterrand put it, was not just "what role Great Britain intends to play" in the Community, but "the question of the presence or the nature of the presence of Great Britain...
...Greece abstaining) to override a British veto and push through a Community-wide farm price increase of 10.7%. In doing so, the member nations broke a 16-year tradition, known as the Luxembourg compromise, under which each nation has a veto over issues affecting its vital interests. Said a Thatcher aide in London: "They will rue the day they did this because they too will find the need sometime in the future to protect their national interests...
European wavering, though, was not just a matter of a cash tradeoff. Now that Thatcher was moving militarily against the Argentines, her partners were becoming skittish. The Irish had already announced they could not support Britain in what Dublin saw as a colonial war by its former colonial masters. An important consideration for Italians was that nearly half of Argentina's population is of Italian origin, and 1.3 million Argentines still carry Italian passports...
...British were not in a conciliatory mood when the ministers turned next to the budget. For three years Thatcher had been negotiating for cash rebates to reduce Britain's contributions to the Community budget. One of the poorer members, Britain could end up putting about $1.5 billion more into the common coffer this year than it will get back. The Community had offered to compromise by granting Britain a rebate of at least $800 million. But British Foreign Minister Francis Pym brusquely told his colleagues he found "great difficulty" with that proposal...