Archive

MT's official files as Prime Minister, 1979-90

MT's official files as PM can be read on this site as they are released, in full and free to all - the confidential files originally stored at No.10, the core record of her premiership.

The files have been copied at the British National Archives (TNA) at Kew in London and can be downloaded precisely as they appear in the reading room.

We are doing something more to help people make sense of this mass of information. The files are subject-based, logically enough, but that system makes it difficult to reconstruct the flow of paper across the Prime Minister’s desk at any point in time, depriving us of a sense of context, of the political cross-winds, some of them overwhelming.

To combat this effect we are uploading a large selection of the most important documents from these files – thousands in total - to our powerful site database. You can search and sort by date, subject and other parameters, getting as close as anyone can now get to reconstructing the Prime Minister’s daily "Red Boxes", the rich diet of foreign and domestic policy papers submitted to her by the No.10 Private Office.

List and links to the PM’s files

Below are links to the downloadable files in numerical order. The subject terms are those used in the original filing system.

An average file has around 200 pages.

You can read here an account of how filing worked at No.10, and the system for archiving MT’s Prime Ministerial papers, both of which had their quirks.

Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Private Office files, 1979-1989

1979-89: Chancellor’s Private Office files [links to hundreds of digitised files from the Chancellorships of Sir Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson]

Engagement Diaries

An alternative way through the material is to read MT’s engagement diaries, jumping day to day.

The engagement diaries link directly to relevant documents in the site database, so this is a good way to recover the perspective from the Red Box.

Showing items 51 - 75 of 3726

Per page:
File name File title Begins Ends Release date Any docs withheld? Classification Pages
PREM19/336 Prime Minister (Meeting with delegation from British Chamber of Commerce on trade union immunities) Begins: 1980 Apr 24 Ends: 1980 Jun 5 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 34
PREM19/338 Prime Minister (Meeting with Sir Horace Cutler to discuss Greater London Council (GLC) matters, December 1979) Begins: 1979 Oct 31 Ends: 1980 Mar 18 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 63
PREM19/353 Rhodesia (Constitutional Conference, Lancaster House, London, Sept-Dec 1979: Report) Begins: 1979 Dec 21 Ends: 1979 Dec 21 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 168
PREM19/368 Social Services (Action on child abuse; death of Lucy Gates) (Part 3) Begins: 1980 Nov 5 Ends: 1980 Dec 31 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 16
PREM19/373 Spain (EEC fishing licences for Spanish fishermen) Begins: 1980 Jan 28 Ends: 1980 Feb 8 Date of release: 2010 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 18
PREM19/436 Economic policy (Correspondence from John Sparrow on financial and economic policy; meetings with Prime Minister) Begins: 1979 May 25 Ends: 1982 Apr 16 Date of release: 2011 Dec 30 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 170
PREM19/662 Broadcasting (Study of impact of television on schoolchildren) Begins: 1982 Jan 8 Ends: 1982 Dec 13 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 100
PREM19/663 Broadcasting (BBC TV programme about handling of information by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and media during the Falklands crisis; Prime Minister’s directive that no Ministers or officials should take part) Begins: 1982 Aug 6 Ends: 1982 Aug 9 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 4
PREM19/677 Civil service (Lecture by Sir Douglas Wass on 'The Public Service in Modern Society': draft sent to MT) Begins: 1982 Nov 26 Ends: 1982 Nov 29 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 10
PREM19/708 Economic policy (Strategy) (Part 12) Begins: 1981 Dec 17 Ends: 1982 Jan 4 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 140
PREM19/715 Economic policy (Strategy) (Part 19) Begins: 1982 Nov 1 Ends: 1982 Nov 29 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 318
PREM19/727 Economic policy (Taxation of widows and single women aged 60-64: exchanges with Jeff Rooker MP) Begins: 1981 Mar 26 Ends: 1981 Jun 22 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 35
PREM19/784 Home affairs (Penlee lifeboat disaster fund; guidance for organisers of disaster appeals) Begins: 1981 Dec 22 Ends: 1982 Mar 9 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 43
PREM19/811 Industrial policy (Financial difficulties of Fodens Ltd, Sandbach: local employment consequences) Begins: 1979 Jul 10 Ends: 1982 Feb 10 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 57
PREM19/839 Manpower (Prime Minister's meeting with delegation from Jobs for Youth campaign) Begins: 1981 Aug 24 Ends: 1982 Jan 19 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Any docs withheld? 1 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 53
PREM19/845 Ministers (Lord President's participation in BBC Radio 4 programme on the Privy Council) Begins: 1982 Jun 15 Ends: 1982 Jun 22 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 6
PREM19/881 Prime Minister (Meetings with James Craigen MP to discuss closure of Bryant and May and Metal Box factories in Glasgow) Begins: 1981 Feb 27 Ends: 1982 Dec 15 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 49
PREM19/883 Prime Minister (Meetings with Robert Kilroy-Silk MP to discuss closures of factories in his Ormskirk constituency) Begins: 1981 Mar 5 Ends: 1982 Apr 8 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 36
PREM19/884 Prime Minister (Meetings with Geoffrey Robinson MP to discuss redundancies in Jaguar factories in Coventry) Begins: 1981 Jun 1 Ends: 1982 Jan 21 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 28
PREM19/886 Prime Minister (Meeting with Sir Ernest Harrison, Chairman of Racal Electronics Ltd) Begins: 1981 Oct 30 Ends: 1982 Feb 10 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 19
PREM19/887 Prime Minister (Meeting with Albert Booth MP to discuss closure of Derwest Jennings factory in Barrow-in-Furness) Begins: 1982 Feb 2 Ends: 1982 Jul 20 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 30
PREM19/888 Prime Minister (Meeting with Daniel Jones MP to discuss Lucas Aerospace redundancies in Burnley) Begins: 1982 Feb 4 Ends: 1982 Mar 27 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 27
PREM19/889 Prime Minister (Meeting with John Opel, President of International Business Machines (IBM), concerning investment in the UK) Begins: 1982 May 21 Ends: 1982 Aug 9 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 28
PREM19/898 Royal family (Prime Minister's Audiences with the Queen) (Part 1) Begins: 1979 May 8 Ends: 1982 Feb 9 Date of release: 2013 Dec 6 Any docs withheld? 147 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 105
PREM19/904 Science and Technology (Presentation on information technology) Begins: 1982 Feb 18 Ends: 1982 May 20 Date of release: 2012 Dec 28 Classification: Unclassified Pages: 47
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