ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the 1980s, as the H-Block protest came to its end, there were indications that the cross-party consensus that existed between the Labour and Conservative parties was, under the strain of the publicity generated by the hunger strikers, breaking down. At its 1981 conference the Labour Party expressed its support for a united Ireland by consent and two years later the Liberal Party, at its annual conference, passed aresolution calling for the withdrawal of British troops. During 1981 the Labour Party questioned whether the Emergency Powers Act should be continued or whether it should at least be debated. The Labour Party supported a motion introduced in the British Parliament that called for a review of the actual operation of the Act. While this motion was defeated by a vote of 279 votes to 213,3 it demonstrated that some on the mainland wanted to rethink the approach to Ireland. For Mrs Thatcher this was unnecessary. She was determined to utilize the full range use of emergency legislation. She was not, at this point, convinced that there was room for a new political initiative, let alone one that might mean a relaxation of the struggle with the terrorists or political concessions to the Republicans. In particular, she was opposed to any measure that might allow the Dublin Government a decisive voice in the affairs of the Province.4 This placed her at odds with some within the Conservative Party who believed that the only way forward was to try to work with the southern Government of Dr Garret Fitzgerald. Even as Mrs Thatcher reiterated the hard line, James Prior, the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, began to search for a formula that would ease tensions in the Province. So me of his Conservative colleagues pressed him to implement a notion of integration, that is to treat Northern Ireland as if it was no different from any other part of the United Kingdom, but Prior wisely decided that this was not really a viable option and began instead to look at ideas such the devolution of powers as a new long-term solution to the problems of the North.5 In the short term, Prior believed, as William Whitelaw had, that
tensions could be eased through some concessions or gestures of conciliation to the Republican communities. Accordingly, on 6 October 1981, Prior initiated new mIes on prison clothes, remission and visits of relatives far those in the H-Block.
