Latest editorial
Margaret Thatcher considered slashing Scotland's budget by £500 million in 1984, newly released Cabinet papers have revealed.
And the Tory government under her leadership actively manoeuvred to conceal the real level of cuts it imposed on the Scottish block grant, according to letters now made public under the 30-year rule.
Thatcher's chief policy adviser John Redwood argued in January 1984 that Scotland had an "over-provision" of £900m in its then annual block grant of £6 billion.
The Tory conference was a pseudo-sacred affair, with devotees paying homage in front of Thatcher’s old shrouds — and your reporter, initially barred, only need mention he’d once met her to gain access. But would she consider what was on offer a worthy legacy, asks ANDREW MURRAY
