Author Description

When George Urban joined the inner sanctum of Margaret Thatcher's band of informal foreign policy advisors in 1981, he was charmed by the flattery and the self-evident strength of vision which Britain's leader was able to deploy in all her dealings with those whom she needed. Urban was asked - and did so willingly and with great gusto - to write foreign policy speeches and suggest diplomatic initiatives, all of which Margaret Thatcher appreciated with great enthusiasm and most of which she actually followed up. Urban's disillusion was therefore all the greater when it gradually dawned on him that Thatcher's self-proclaimed role as a world leader actually masked more than a hint of isolationism and xenophobia. To Urban, Thatcher revealed her true colours in the vehemence of her approach to Europe and her startling response to the prospect of German unification. Urban was one of a small group of participants invited to Chequers in 1990 to explore with the Prime Minister the solution to what had become embedded in her mind as "the German Question". Urban found the depth of her antagonism towards the Germans - an antagonism which she sought to translate into British foreign policy - so alarming that he was forced to turn away from his erstwhile heroine. Her undisguised dislike of Germans, her failed attempts to sabotage the reunification of Germany were for Urban worrying invitations to the ghosts of nationalistic hatred in Europe. During this period of exhilaration and disillusion, George Urban kept a confidential diary which he now reveals for the first time. Having had no official appointment from the Government or the Civil Service, Urban was not required to sign the Official SecretsAct. Urban provides a devastating insight into a leader who took such pride in her robust world view.