Actually Mike there was quite a lot of stifling going on in the Thatcher years.

Everyone (me included) fell off their chairs in surprise in England when Bobby sands was elected. We had been reliably informed by the good old BBC, that the IRA/Sinn Fein was a tiny minority of opinion in NI.

Living in a mining area for the first time in the miners strike, I saw the censorship up close and personal.

The Falklands campaign is still represented as a glorious episode, that's how bloody good the stifling was.

As she got elected by the populace with the help of the dirty tricks dept of MI5 (remember Spycatcher and how much tax money was wasted trying to stifle that little gem); i can honestly say I felt disempowered at the time. More than I have at any time before or since.