Yes, but can't you see that Thatcher sort of crystallised the situation? Her manner and rhetoric and cavalier way with the democratic process made the choices very stark. and this is really what gave SF the window of opportunity.

A nice man like John Hume was always just going to get kicked in the knackers and his wallet nicked by Thatcher. Democratic process, public service, even intelligence were largly forbidden areas in the world of Thatcher. Look what she did with Hesseltine, John MacGregor and Jim prior. Only lickspittles like Lawson and Baker were her sort of people. Or Tebbit - Buckingham to her Richard III.

In truth she was playing ducks and drakes with the democratic process even before she was elected - using the intelligence services of the country in much the same way Richard Nixon got impeached for. The Spycatcher revelations showed that. With SF she came up against a group that was quite as uninterested in democratic niceties as she was.

The economy of means with which SF worked would have delighted Thomas Cromwell and any practitioner of realpolitik. Credit where its due, for godsake.