In October of 1984, the Conservatives held their annual party conference in Brighton. At 2:54 a.m. on October 12th, a bomb blast cut through the hotel, ripping the frontage off the building, collapsing floors, killing 5 people, and injuring 31 others. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her husband Denis narrowly escaped being killed.
Prime Minister Thatcher’s reaction, after coming within a few feet of being blown to bits, came in her conference speech, in which she stated: “The bomb attack … was an attempt not only to disrupt and terminate our conference; it was an attempt to cripple Her Majesty’s democratically elected Government. That is the scale of the outrage in which we have all shared, and the fact that we are gathered here now, shocked but composed and determined, is a sign not only that this attack has failed, but that all attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail.” That was in 1984. In 2024, we have seen the opposite of such fortitude.
