ABSTRACT
Lord (Peter) Carrington’s tenure of the Foreign Office from 1979 to 1982 saw significant achievements in British foreign policy but they were to be entirely eclipsed in the public mind by the manner of Carrington’s departure from the Foreign Office. Carrington has not enjoyed the reputation that he perhaps deserves. To many he remains ‘a trimmer’ (second only to ‘appeaser’ as a term of political abuse), prepared to sacrifice British interests for the sake of the quick fix. Yet the adjustment of Britain’s foreign policy to its material resources and standing has been an ongoing task for the British Foreign Secretary since the end of the First World War. Rather than trimming too far, he was ultimately undone by a wider failure of the Thatcher administration over the future of the Falkland Islands to reconcile British interests and foreign policy with the defence policy of the government. The publication of his memoirs in 1988 did little to redress the balance as the noble lord pulled many of his punches, and preferred to attack his critics by not mentioning them rather than by engaging in a public slanging match. Throughout his career Carrington was the consummate politician constantly seeking to advance the interests of the Conservative Party.
