Britain: Coptergate, A crisis tests Thatcher's iron

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Released two days later, the letter stated that Brittan had told British Aerospace's chief executive officer, Sir Raymond Lygo, that his company's involvement in the Euro-consortium "was not in the national interest" and that he "should withdraw." The account seemed to belie Thatcher's claim of neutrality. The government simultaneously released its own description of the Jan. 8 meeting. According to notes taken by Brittan's secretary, the Minister had said only that "it was not in the national interest that the present uncertainty involving Westland should drag on."

A motion for a parliamentary inquiry into the government's handling of the Westland affair was subsequently defeated by a vote of 370 to 217. Later in the week, Westland's board failed to muster the 75% shareholder approval needed to accept the Sikorsky bid. The biggest loser in the whole affair was clearly Thatcher: a Gallup poll published last week gave her Conservative Party only a 29.5% approval rating, its poorest standing since 1980.