one of the great british christmas traditions is the release, under the 30 year law, of secret government papers. this year there were no really big surprises. but there were some nice stories. 1977 was the queen’s silver jubilee. i remember the streets being closed off, trestle tables and much alcohol. as far as i recall, at gentle bbc suggestion, people grouped together street by street and had parties. it’s the sort of thing that makes one feel old. it’s hard to imagine any event likely to induce such behaviour nowadays. anyway, the jubilee was a big event and there were official celebrations with visiting heads of state.unsolicited, idi amin sent a letter to the queen saying that he planned to attend and would bring 200 people with him, including royal dancers. he mentioned also that the UK economy had been taken over by asians and that he could help. at this time the UK government was not exactly seeing eye to eye with uganda and much discussion took place as to how this visit could be avoided. once memo from a senior civil servant discussed the potential outcome should the ugandan delegation not take too kindly to being denied entry upon landing at heathrow. any use of force, the memo says, may garner adverse publicity across the world. in the end they decide to stop anyone exiting the plane, refuel it, then point them back to the runway.
in a bbc radio interview david owen, the then foreign secretary, said that at one point he raised the possibility of assassinating amin with a senior diplomat that liaised with MI6. According to owen, the guy raised himself to his full height and said “We don’t do that sort of thing”, then added “any more.”
