Margaret Thatcher

Newly confirmed Labour Party leader Andy Burnham after speaking with local stakeholders and party supporters about his plan to deliver good growth in every postcode across the country, during a visit to Gravesend Town Pier in Kent. The former Greater Manchester mayor, who returned to Westminster last month as Makerfield MP, will take over as prime minister and enter No 10 on Monday. Picture date: Friday July 17, 2026.

Andy Burnham’s five pledges in his first speech

Sir Keir Starmer in Paris on Friday for a summit to facilitate shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Yet at home he seems battered by events. Pic: Tom Nicholson/PA

Ben Lowry: Like many PMs, Starmer seems to have been almost destroyed by office

Sir Keir Starmer responds to a News Letter question at the Atlas Women's centre in Lisburn, but he did not fully answer the query. Pic Ben Lowry on Thursday March 12 2026

Ben Lowry: Starmer had no answer to my query about Ireland suing UK

Nigel Farage says Reform wants to bring blast furnaces back to Wales. (Jacob King/PA)

Letter: Love affair with Reform UK should be challenged

Hilary Benn defends the government's legacy plans before MPs on Wednesday. Labour says that it does not accept moral equivalence between the security forces and terrorists. But so what, if it lets legacy to turn against those state forces? Image from Parliamentlive.tv

Ben Lowry: Despite what Labour says, their process for legacy will turn on state

Moira Todd, sister of Eugene Simons, one of the Disappeared, during a press conference with KRW Law at the Stormont Hotel, in Belfast, following the publication of the final Kenova report by the PSNI into Stakeknife, the British Army's top agent inside the IRA in Northern Ireland during the Troubles

Did Thatcher know about Stakeknife? asks sister of murdered man

Letters to editor

David McNarry: Union will be safer when unionist leaders get their act together

The massive protest against the Anglo Irish Agreement on November 23 1985, a week after the deal was signed. Ben Lowry was there, aged 13. Picture Pacemaker

Ben Lowry in 2015 on Anglo Irish deal: Giving Dublin say in NI was unforgivable

Margaret Thatcher in 1984, the year before she signed the Anglo Irish Agreement with Dublin that she quickly regretted. Neither the UK nor Irish government was aware that the IRA was importing large quantities of Libyan weapons into the Republic between 1985 and 87 (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Henry Patterson: Thatcher hesitated before Anglo Irish deal, then regretted it

Morning View

Editorial: Irish co-operation on legacy is not enough, it must face probes

Harold McCusker's speech in the House of Commons in response to the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985 was a tour de force, probably the most significant and passionate speech delivered by a unionist MP since 1921

MP Harold McCusker's 'spirit was broken' by the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985

The Grand Hotel in Brighton after an IRA bomb in October 1985 killed five people, and almost killed Mrs Thatcher. It strengthened her view that the UK needed security co-operation with Ireland

Brighton bomb did not spook Thatcher into Anglo Irish Agreement, says ex aide

Jim Molyneaux (speaking) and Ian Paisley two to his left with other unionist MPs at the huge rally at Belfast City Hall against the Anglo-Irish Agreement in November 1985. Picture Pacemaker

Paisley and Molyneaux 'behaved disgracefully' to Thatcher after Anglo Irish deal

Margaret Thatcher and Garret Fitzgerald signing Anglo-Irish Agreement at Hillsborough Castle 40 years ago on November 15 1985. Three years before she had sent troops 8,000 miles to restore British rule over the Falklands. Picture Pacemaker Press Intl

Letter: I will never forgive Mrs Thatcher's betrayal of NI's position in UK

Tanaiste Simon Harris

Anglo-Irish Agreement proved politics can deliver change – Harris

The Anglo-Irish Agreement signing at Hillsborough Castle on November 15 1985, by the then UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald, what unionists would soon call the diktak. Mrs Thatcher was hesitant about signing the agreement with Dublin right up until the moment that she did Pic: Pacemaker Press Intl

Ben Lowry: Thatcher regretted disastrous Anglo Irish Agreement - rightly so
Margaret Thatcher died with ‘Northern Ireland’ engraved on her heart, in regret over the Anglo Irish Agreement.
Ben Lowry

Morning View

Editorial: Thatcher regretted Anglo Irish deal without even seeing its worst

Margaret Thatcher and Garret Fitzgerald signing Anglo-Irish Agreement at Hillsborough Castle. But within weeks, the UK Tory prime minister Mrs Thatcher was already expressing dissatisfaction with how Ireland had dealt with security on the border. Pic Pacemaker Press Intl

Thatcher was unhappy with Ireland on security weeks after Anglo Irish deal

TUV MP Jim Allister.

Anglo Irish Agreement 40 years on - Unionists warn of parallels with today

The Anglo-Irish Agreement signing at Hillsborough Castle on November 15 1985, by the then UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald. Pic: Pacemaker Press Intl

Ben Lowry: The coming 40th anniversary of the disastrous Anglo Irish Agreement

Baroness Foster has called on the Tories to assert NI's strategic importance to the UK.

Foster urges Tories to drop 'no strategic interest' policy on NI

Belfast City Hall, the home of Belfast City Council, which has controversially voted through bilingual signs across its area

Trevor Ringland: A shared NI that embraces diversity is key to our success

US president Donald Trump has so far not pressurised UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer into a U-turn on the Chagos Islands

Letter: Question mark over ‘special UK-US relationship’

Clement Attlee had much in common with Tony Blair, a successor as Labour leader and prime minister

Clement Attlee’s Labour government transformed post-war Britain

Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch has paid tribute to Tory grandee Lord Tebbit

Norman Tebbit dead: Top Tories on 'hero of conservatism'

File photo dated 17/04/13 of Lord Norman Tebbit leaves the Ceremonial funeral of former British Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher at St Paul's Cathedral. Lord Norman Tebbit has died "peacefully at home" at the age of 94, his son William said. Issue date: Tuesday July 8, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Chris Jackson/PA Wire

Tory grandee Norman Tebbit, who survived IRA's Brighton bombing, dies aged 94

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer trips as he departs 10 Downing Street, London yesterday, Wednesday. He just can't multi-task and is a lawyer in every atom of his being. Pic: Lucy North/PA Wire

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Blair and Thatcher were leaders – Starmer not
For the sake of Sir Keir Starmer’s mental health, I hope he’s avoiding media assessments of his first year in office.
Ruth Dudley Edwards

Ballymena newsagent Eugene Diamond is to shut up shop after 45 years serving the town.

End of an era as Ballymena legend Eugene Diamond to shut up shop for final time

Sir Ken Bloomfield, pictured in 2008. Pic: Brian Little

Surviving IRA bombs, how Mrs Thatcher and Sir Ken Bloomfield shared sympathies

The Tory leader Kemi Badenoch in Parliament with her 'policy brain' and Northern Ireland spokesman Alex Burghart. Picture: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA Wire

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Thatcher was a scientist, Badenoch an engineer

Harriet Walter in Brian and Maggie

How to watch the real Brian and Maggie interview

Still from Brain and Maggie on Channel 4

Who is in the cast for Brian and Maggie on Channel 4

The former News Letter political editor Mervyn Pauley at Stormont. Anything that appeared under his by-line was impeccably sourced - and he had a sense of humour. Picture by Brian Little

Alex Kane: Mervyn Pauley had his finger on the pulse of unionist thinking

Keir Starmer in the House of Commons yesterday, December 11. Prime ministers usually acquire brilliant speech writers: Starmer appears to employ a primitive AI robot armed with a Dictionary of Platitudes

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Listening to Starmer is like listening to Donald Duck

Hillary Clinton at a women in leadership event at Queen's University Belfast. Photo: Kelvin Boyes/Press Eye/PA Wire

Clinton: Looks a barrier to women becoming US President

Letters to editor

Letter: MLAs should do some soul searching

The Brighton bomb killed five people and injured 34 others on October 12, 1984. The IRA, however, missed their target - then prime minister Margaret Thatcher

Letter: Purpose of bombs is to weaken the resolve

Andrew Bowie is the shadow veterans minister

Repeal of legacy act puts Troubles veterans at risk: Tory MP

Margaret Thatcher at the Conservative Party Conference in Brighton on October 12 1984, hours after the Provisional IRA bombed the Grand Hotel, where she and other politicians were staying. She was defiant and determined but a year later signed the Anglo Irish Agreement (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Ben Lowry: I fear that Brighton bomb weakened Mrs Thatcher’s resolve over NI

The Grand Hotel Brighton, soon after the IRA bombing during the Tory conference in October1984

Tuesday TV choice: Bombing Brighton: The Plot to Kill Thatcher (BBC Two, 9pm)

Morning View

Editorial: Plan to build student block near Sandy Row flags up housing issues

Morning View

Editorial: US democracy needs a good election after the attempt to kill Trump

Republican candidate Donald Trump is seen with blood on his face surrounded by secret service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event at Butler Farm Show Inc. in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2024

DUP leader calls Trump kill bid a 'sickening attack on democracy'

Morning View

Editorial: Public sector pension should be explained in any pay deals

Leaders of republicanism: Michelle O’Neill and Mary Lou McDonald. O’Neill is is looking and sounding much more confident while McDonald seems stressed, writes Ruth Dudley Edwards

Ruth Dudley Edwards: O’Neill and McDonald relationship will come under strain

File photo dated 18/2/1975 of Breakfasting at Claridges Hotel, Opposition leader Mrs Margaret Thatcher and the American Secretary of State, Dr Henry Kissinger. Kissinger, the US secretary of state who dominated foreign policy under former presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, has died aged 100, his consulting firm Kissinger Associates said.

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger dies aged 100

Alastair Campbell was speaking on Ireland deputy premier Micheal Martin’s In Conservation With podcast.

Alastair Campbell saddened NI wasn't 'considered' in Brexit debate

NI's ex first minister Arlene Foster speaks as Margaret Thatcher at a balloon debate at Policy Exchange room at the Conservative Party conference at Manchester on Tuesday October 3 2023. She won the debate against panellists including Lord Frost, left, as Ronald Reagan and Michael Gove, right, as Teddy Roosevelt

Foster wins good humoured balloon debate at Tory conference

BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell is retiring after 47 years.

Breaking ‘Awful’ BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell retires

Letters to editor

Letter: Incompetent lawyers and politicians caused many extradition refusals

Martin Parker

Friday: The Power of Parker (BBC One, 9.30pm)

Letters to editor

Letter: The British betray unionists - they can't be trusted, unlike the English

Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill in Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) directed by George Lucas. Today, May the 4th, is unoffically known as Star Wars Day since the phrase is so similar to the phrase 'May the force be with you' which is recurrent across the hugely popular sci-fi franchise

Why May 4 is unofficially known as Star Wars Day

Star Wars is a space opera film series created by George Lucas that quickly exploded into a pop culture phenomenon.

How May 4 was taken and held by Star Wars fans

DUP MP Jim Shannon has accused NI Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris of trying to 'disarm and bully' his party through recent comments

DUP man tells Heaton-Harris: 'You need to pick your words much more carefully'

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