Of the Europeans who scrambled for control of Africa at the end of the 19th century, Belgium's King Leopold II left arguably the largest and most horrid legacy of all
It’s September 1975. Opposition leader Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative spokesman on the North, Airey Neave, meet with Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, and Northern Secretary, Merlyn Rees. Two weeks earlier, two loyalist ambushes at fake security force checkpoints had resulted in five murders.
CJ4 3963. Memo to David Wyatt (MI6's man in Belfast) from David Blatherwick, 19 October 1981
In this memo, Blatherwick claims that neither Ministers nor officials have had direct dealings with persons or organisations involved in paramilitary activity 'in recent years.' A closed file in Kew, however, gives the lie to that statement. The file's reference and title is: CJ4 3963, Meetings and contacts with UDA leadership 1976-79. In an earlier memo it was claimed that...