Documents released today by the National Archives show that the government of the day had to change the planned date for the Budget to avoid a clash with the scheduled date for the enthronement of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie.
News articles:
Financial Times Cabinet and Church tussled over Budget date
BBC Thatcher wanted Church to relent on Budget Day clash
You can download your own (free) copy of a PDF file containing the relevant documents from here.
And it wouldn’t be the last time the late (and sadly missed) Dr Runcie would tussle with the Tories.
“And it wouldn’t be the last time the late (and sadly missed) Dr Runcie would tussle with the Tories.”
Posted by: rjb on Thursday, 30 December 2010 at 10:35pm GMT
Indeed not, and look at the revenge wreaked by Mrs Thatcher! Eleven years of George Carey who did as much (possibly more) than most to wreck and disable the mission of the Church of England. It will be a generation before the church recovers from the works of this homophobic priest.
Although the cabinet papers may be new, it is hardly news that this change happened. It is a matter of public record that this happened in 1980, and I remember it being discussed at the time. It was pretty clear then that the Government was reluctant to change the date of the Budget. But they did.
I wonder if that would happen now, 30 years on.