ABSTRACT
In 1983, Mrs Thatcher, as Minister for the Civil Service, banned trade union membership at the Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham. She consulted neither the union itself nor its membership. In 1986, Norfolk County Council adopted a route for a by-pass. As a consequence, a house previously valued at some £400,000 was blighted and rendered valueless. The Council refused to purchase the house on the basis that its acquisition was not necessary for the construction of the by-pass. The Secretary of State for Transport approved the by-pass scheme. In 1988, the Home Secretary directed the IBA and the BBC not to broadcast words spoken by members of ‘proscribed’ organisations, membership of which was outlawed under the anti-terrorist legislation. In 1992, in a criminal prosecution of three directors of Matrix Churchill for allegedly illegal exports to Iraq, government ministers signed socalled ‘public interest immunity’ certificates to prevent the disclosure of vital information to the defence. In 1994, the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, set the minimum period to be served by the 10 year old killers of Jamie Bulger at 15 years. In so doing, he refused to follow the recommendations of the trial judge and the Lord Chief Justice of eight and 10 years respectively. In 1995, the same Home Secretary refused entry to the United Kingdom to the Reverend Moon, the founder and leader of the Unification Church, on the ground that such exclusion was ‘conducive to the public good’. The minister gave no reasons to support this decision. In 1994, members of the armed forces were discharged solely on the basis of their sexual orientation in accordance with the policy of the Ministry of Defence that homosexuality was incompatible with service in the armed forces.
