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Visiting the secret state: Margaret Thatcher and Intelligence

An early task of any new Prime Minister is to familiarise themselves with the UK's intelligence agencies – the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6), Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the Security Service (MI5). Yet, for all the interest they may have …

What the Butler saw: Britain and the Abadan Crisis, 1950-51

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: FCDO Historians, Foreign affairs and diplomacy, What's the context? series

In March 1962 a secret report landed on the desks of senior officials in the Foreign Office. Written by Foreign Office Historian Rohan Butler it was a forensic and critical account of the loss in 1951 of Britain’s single biggest …

The Queen and her Prime Ministers

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: No 10 guest historian series, Past prime ministers, The Monarchy

By Dr Michelle Clement, Researcher in Residence at No.10 Downing Street Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in British history, celebrates her Platinum Jubilee this week. Festivities will be held across the country to mark the Queen’s incredible …

What’s the Context? The decision to build a British atomic bomb, 8 January 1947

A 1947 decision of the Attlee Government led to the develop of an independent atomic weapon for the UKemnt

We’ve got to have this thing over here, whatever it costs. We’ve got to have the bloody Union Jack on top of it. “This thing” as British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin put it, was the Atomic Bomb. Bevin was quoted …

What’s the Context? Occupying Powers sign Quadripartite Agreement on Berlin, 3 September 1971

The most that we can say is that we have made the best of a bad bargain, not that we have got a fair deal (Prime Minister Edward Heath, 1 September 1971) Fifty years ago, Ambassadors representing the 4 Occupying …

What's the Context? Signature of the Atlantic Charter, 14 August 1941

The principles set out in the Atlantic Charter eighty years ago remain key to the global vision shared by the UK and US. But its terms also contained the roots of  international tensions that persist today: for example in relation …

When the Wall went up: Britain and the Berlin Crisis, 1961

Sixty years ago simmering Cold-War tensions were dramatically brought to a head in Berlin. A new volume of documents from the FCDO Historians tells how Britain responded to the crisis brought about by the construction of the Berlin Wall. In the …

What’s the Context? Winston Churchill’s ‘Sinews of Peace’ speech, Fulton, 5 March 1946

Now, at this sad and breathless moment, we are plunged in the hunger and distress which are the aftermath of our stupendous struggle. Though no longer Prime Minister, Winston Churchill’s speech at Fulton on 5 March 1946 packed a formidable …