Custom-made headrest was built to protect Thatcher during naps in Daimler
● But Major was far from comfortable
Margaret Thatcher may have famously survived on just four hours’ sleep a night, but newly released government files suggest she may have made up for it by catnapping in the back of her official car.
Papers released by the National Archives in Kew show officials became so concerned she could suffer an injury if the Daimler was forced to brake while she was nodding off, they arranged for a custom-built headrest to be fitted to protect her.
In September 1987, Bob Kingston in No 10 wrote to inform her private office: “I am concerned that, when the PM dozes in the official car, the design of the headrests is such that, far from supporting her head and neck, they cause her head to drop forward.
“This is in itself hazardous, but when the car is braked or turned, or there is some other disturbance, she lifts her head very quickly, and this I am sure will one day cause at least minor injury.”
He added: “I told the PM of my concern at Chequers last weekend. She agreed to the matter of a better design of headrest being pursued.”
The files also reveal the consternation among executives at Jaguar Daimler when Mrs Thatcher’s successor John Major, who suffered from an old knee injury, suggested replacing the armoured Daimler, which he found too cramped.
In contrast, the official Rovers used by the Government Car Service were “definitely more roomy” and he jumped at the prospect of a “stretched”
version which “could add another four inches to its length”.
Hearing the news, Gavin Thompson at Jaguar Daimler wrote to a sympathetic MP, warning it would deal a “catastrophic blow” to the company.
“The popular press would have a field day. Everybody in the country and around the world has become used to seeing our Prime Minister in a Daimler,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, executives at
Rolls-royce sensed an opportunity.
Marketing director Malcolm Hart wrote to No 10 offering to supply up to three Bentley Mulsanne S at a “nominal” price of £10,000 each – compared with a list price of £80,000 – plus £70,000 for the cost of armouring.
“Our cars are exceptionally well suited to such use as they have plenty of interior space, can be entered and exited easily, are well suited to armouring, are capable of long-distance
high-speed cruising and are, above all, essentially British in character,” he boasted.
Officials noted that, at a total cost of £80,000 per car, the deal offered a “significant cash saving” compared with £110,000 for a fully armoured stretch Rover or for a £128,000 Daimler. However, there were concerns for Mr Major’s famously down-to-earth image if they went ahead.
Robin Catford in No 10 wrote: “The obvious snags are the implications of accepting a
cut-price deal and the possible repercussions, in terms of the Prime Minister’s image, of moving up the quality car range. The latter has been rejected in the past: the former is likely to be a very slippery slope.”
In the event, Mr Major decided to stick with what he had, writing in a handwritten note: “Pl[ease] express thanks but no change for now at least.”
“Everybody in the country and around the world has become used to seeing our Prime Minister in a Daimler” GAVIN THOMPSON Jaguar Daimler executive
James Callaghan secretly urged officials to find ways of ousting left-wing trade union leaders causing trouble for the government “by one means or another”, according to newly released official papers.
Files released by the National Archives show that as home secretary in Harold Wilson’s Labour government, Mr Callaghan was deeply concerned about the rise of a new generation of “politically motivated” union leaders.
In particular he singled out Jack Jones, the general secretary of the giant Transport and General Workers Union, and Hugh Scanlon, the leader of the engineering workers.
In response, senior officials suggested undermining those with suspected communist leanings through “inspired leakages” to the press.
The details are disclosed in a note of a meeting between the cabinet secretary Sir Burke Trend, the head of the Department of Employment Sir Denis Barnes, and James Waddell, a senior Home Office official, headed “Communism in Industry”.
Dated 5 March 1969, it is marked “Secret and Personal” with only one copy to be retained.
It notes: “Sir Burke Trend recalled that the Home Secretary apparently had in mind that it might be possible by one means or another for the more ‘politically motivated’ trade union leaders – in particular Mr Scanlon and Mr Jack Jones – to be supplanted by others more orthodox; and it had been envisaged that further consideration might perhaps be given to this possibility.”
The officials were reluctant to act, fearing it could revive the controversy which erupted three years earlier when Mr Wilson denounced the leaders of a strike by seamen as “a tightly knit group of politically motivated men” leading to accusations ministers were using MI5 to spy on unions.
They did, however, suggest one possible course of action, noting: “Sir Denis Barnes said, however, that detailed exposure of Jones’ behaviour from time to time, perhaps by way of inspired leakages to the press, might be useful and productive.”
The proposal appears to have come to nothing – something Mr Callaghan may have looked back on with regret when, ten years later, the strikes of the “winter of discontent” were widely blamed for the fall of his government.
The file also includes a note from foreign secretary George Brown to Mr Wilson explaining how the English Section of the Foreign Office’s secretive Information Research Department (IRD) – set-up to counter Soviet Cold War propaganda – carried out such selective briefings.
“By discreet dissemination of such papers to trusted contacts, eg to various Labour Party officials at Transport House over the years, and to selected journalists, the English Section has done much to expose the activities of Communist front organisations in Britain,” Mr Brown said.
The files also show how, in 1974, the BBC director general Charles Curran invited the IRD to brief the board of governors on “the influence of subversive movements” in the field of broadcasting – although, with a general election looming, officials were doubtful about the idea.
“A leak that HMG was briefing the BBC on subversion might rebound in some perverse way related to the ‘reds under beds’ aspects of the last election period, and at any time it could be distorted into allegations of attempts to bring political influence to bear on the impartiality of the BBC,” one warned.
The files show that Mr Wilson was not the only prime minister concerned about subversive influence.
In 1985 Margaret Thatcher authorised the revival of the Whitehall subversion in public life committee – including representatives of MI5 – amid fears the far left Militant Tendency (MT) was trying to infiltrate the Civil Service.
The prime minister was said to be “somewhat disquieted” to be told there were an estimated 1,400 MT members in the Civil Service – some in the ranks of management – who had shown themselves capable of causing disruption “out of all proportion to their numbers”.
“It might be possible for the more ‘politically motivated’ trade union leaders – in particular Mr Scanlon and Mr Jack Jones – to be supplanted”
SECRET MEETING MINUTES