ABSTRACT

The downgrading of the Director’s post at Wilton Park, proposed by the Inspectorate’s Review and endorsed by Lord Belstead, had had still more senior backing. On March 8, 1982, the Foreign Secretary himself, Lord Carrington, had declared: ‘I intend to downgrade from Under-Secretary to Assistant Secretary the job of the Chief Economic Adviser in the Diplomatic Wing and that of the Director of Wilton Park.’ After Carrington had resigned-over the Falklands invasion-on April 6, 1982, Lord Belstead told his successor Francis Pym of this decision, which had been taken in the context of ‘economies in Civil Service manpower’. After Belstead’s meeting on May 27 with Sir Peter Tennant, Lord Beloff, and David Watt, he had sought advice on how to ‘soften the blow’ to Tim Slack when his contract expired in May 1983. But as well as seeking to soften the blow, the FCO had been trying to make sure that it could not be legally parried. Already on May 17, legal advisers had seen no objection to extending Tim Slack’s appointment for a further period but at a lower rate of pay. His terms of appointment would be being varied. His consent would therefore be needed. If he gave it, there was no problem. If not, there seemed equally to be no legal problem, since he would not get his appointment extended, but that would give him no basis for complaining to an industrial tribunal since he had no legal right to an extension after the expiry of his existing appointment in 1983. There would then have to be a new competition for what would in effect be a new job, on new terms.