30 year records reveal Bond-style assault on oil rig defences

A confidential briefing from the Ministry of Defence sent to the then Prime Minister James Callaghan described how crack commando teams from the Royal Marines would launch a clandestine mission in the Argyll oilfield to reclaim the offshore installation from "terrorists".

It said: "There are only two ways of getting on to a rig occupied by well-armed terrorists: from sea level up the legs or from above by helicopter. The most favoured tactic would be to introduce the SBS (Special Boat Squadron) on to the rig by clandestine means; there are several ways of doing this: by submarine from which they would make an underwater exit, by rigid raiding craft from a surface ship or by parachute into the water upstream of the rig.

"They would then swim to the rig and climb the legs, using magnets if necessary. Once they were on board they would attempt to pin the terrorists down, or divert their attention while the main assault force landed on the rig by helicopter - and this may have to be at the hover if the rig's landing platform is obstructed."

The exercise was planned for July 5 or 6, 1976, with warships, helicopters and armed troops all deployed and directed from maritime headquarters at Pitreavie.

Plans included the provision of an "immediate reaction troop" of 22 men from 45 Commando Royal Marines based at Arbroath "at two hours' notice to emplane".

An assault troop of 90 Royal Marines from home-based Commando units were at 24-hours' notice.

An explosive bomb disposal team and several Royal Navy Sea King helicopters were also on standby.

Officials had considered arming the rigs with missiles or other weapons, but ruled that idea out "on grounds of cost".

The briefing was sent to the Prime Minister ahead of a visit he was due to make to one of the offshore oil and gas rigs in the North Sea at the time.

Officials rated the threat level of such an attack as low, but added that although there was no evidence that a terrorist organisation was planning to attack any of the installations, the possibility could not be ruled out.

They said it would be "embarrassing and difficult for the government to deal with determined terrorists with no regard for human life on a highly flammable platform which if damaged could cause considerable economic disruption".

A letter to Mr Callaghan from the Home Secretary headed SECRET', dated July 28, 1976, said that the exercise revealed "a number of deficiencies in our procedures".

The subsequent lines in the letter, which were underlined in blue pen by Callaghan, stated that action was under way to improve the contingency plans.

At the top of the letter a note scrawled by Mr Callaghan shows how concerned he was.

It reads: "I would like to be kept in touch with developments and to be assured that our security arrangements are as secure as possible."

Prime Minister was urged to brief against SNP slogan The Prime Minister was urged to consider secretly briefing against the SNP's 1970s independence slogan, "It's Scotland's Oil', amid fears that the claim was damaging Britain's international standing.

Official documents from 30 years ago now published for the first time have revealed Westminster was concerned the Nationalists' campaign made it appear that an independent Scotland would take the source of Britain's future prosperity with it. In a letter to then Prime Minister James Callaghan, Foreign Secretary Anthony Crosland said his officials had pointed out the claim was untrue because if Scotland became independent and new international boundaries were drawn, some of the oil would end up in English waters.

Officials also pointed out that much of the oil was in the waters off Shetland and Orkney, neither of which was keen to be part of an independent Scotland.

They suggested a series of secret briefings to try to undermine the SNP's bid for independence by highlighting the flawed argument.

Mr Crosland's letter, dated 21 January, 1977 - just before the Scotland and Wales Bill was defeated - spelled out three recommendations.

They were to hold confidential meetings with "opinion formers", "inspire articles" on the matter and brief backbench MPs to raise the issue.

Mr Callaghan's private secretary Nigel Wicks wrote a note at the top of Mr Crosland's letter suggesting to the PM that it "looked sensible if handled sensibly".

However, a later typed note from Mr Wicks to Mr Callaghan dated 24 January 1977 was more guarded.

It read: "There is no doubt that the oil argument brought much lasting support for the SNP and that to shake the belief that Scotland would get all the money could do no harm. But even this would not eliminate the attraction as a third of the oil - and that sounds a lot - would go to Scotland, and we might get into the side issue of how much goes to England or elsewhere.

"We ought to encourage an article or two, but I am doubtful about briefing MPs."

Union request for beer and sandwiches' refused In the days when the phrase "beer and sandwiches" was synonymous with talks between union leaders and Labour ministers it was common for Downing Street to foot the bill for refreshments.

But government documents from 30 years ago show that at the height of discussions over massive unemployment in Scotland in the late 1970s Prime Minister James Callaghan was advised to turn down one such request from the Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC).

In one of many letters to Westminster about future meetings, congress general secretary James Milne asked whether "meal costs" for members coming to London in December 1976 would be met.

However, a note to Mr Callaghan from his private secretary Nigel Wicks suggests "politely turning this down".

The recommendation coincided with an increasingly strained relationship between the STUC and Labour over the 170,000 jobless Scots who unions said were victims of the party's policies. The STUC wanted selective controls on imports and increased public ownership of key industries to help support struggling businesses in areas including shipbuilding and electronics.

In a series of letters to the Prime Minister, Mr Milne warned that if government policies remained unchanged, then ministers risked losing the traditional support of the unions.

Tory leader's battle for the microphone at Q&A A US official was given an early lesson in the perils of trying to cut off Margaret Thatcher in full flow, according to official papers.

In October 1977, Thatcher - then leader of the opposition and still relatively unknown in the US - was invited to address the English Speaking Union (ESU) in Houston, Texas.

The local ESU president unwisely tried to draw the proceedings to a close before she was ready. "She so much enjoyed the question period that she had a short wrestling match with the president for the microphone," wrote the British Consul General, Roy Fox.

Less successful was the hotel chosen by the ESU for Mrs Thatcher and her party. The promised hairdresser and presser for Mrs Thatcher's dresses failed to materialise and her secretary was reduced to doing their laundry at the home of Mr Fox's secretary.

And Mr Fox wrote: "The inside handle of the bathroom wouldn't work and Mr Thatcher and Mrs Thatcher had to be released on different occasions."

Miners' leader was warned off' dispute Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan called for Arthur Scargill to be "warned off" after he led a series of mass pickets in the infamous Grunwick dispute.

Archive files suggest that the Yorkshire miners' leader was monitored by the Security Service MI5. Jack Dromey, now the Labour Party treasurer and husband of deputy party leader Harriet Harman, who was a key union organiser in the dispute, may also have been monitored, the papers suggest.

The long-running Grunwick dispute broke out after the north London film processing firm sacked workers for joining the Apex trade union, which the firm's owner, George Ward, refused to recognise.

There were mass pickets as trade unionists from around the country descended on the firm's premises, leading to clashes with police in some of the worst industrial violence of the 1970s.

On June 26, 1977, a worried Mr Callaghan told ministers gathered at Chequers - his official country residence - they were "not dealing with respectable unionism but rent-a-mob".

"If things continue on the present basis there could well be fatalities and in circumstances which might be in danger of bringing the government down," he warned.

Mr Callaghan was particularly concerned about the activities of Mr Scargill who was organising thousands of miners to join the pickets. On July 5, he instructed officials: "Keep me informed about Scargill's movements. He may have to be warned off." Ten days later, Graham Angel, an official at the Home Office which is responsible for MI5, contacted No 10.

He told Mr Callaghan's principal private secretary Ken Stowe that Mr Scargill would reject calls by the TUC to halt the mass pickets.

"Our sources are well aware of Mr Scargill's wish to resist TUC pressure that mass picketing be ended," Mr Angel reported.

"Our sources indicate that Mr Scargill has not indicated any definite date for his next action.

"Mr Dromey of the strike committee has expressed the view that the committee is not ready for another two to three weeks to call for further mass picketing action."

Mr Angel also disclosed that Mr Scargill had spoken about arranging some kind of shift system for 200 to 300 miners to maintain a round-the-clock presence at the plant. Mr Dromey, however, was not impressed.

"Dromey has doubts as to whether anything will come of this and moreover takes the view that only massive numbers would be effective,"

he said.

Tony Benn The "anti-monarchist" Tony Benn sparked a bitter Whitehall row amid accusations he deliberately tried to undermine the Queen's Silver Jubilee.

Major celebrations were planned across the country for the summer of 1977 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Queen's ascension to the throne on June 7.

In London, the chairman of the official celebrations committee, Lord Drogheda, wanted to floodlight the main public buildings along the riverfront as part of a "Light Up The Thames" event.

However, national archive papers have revealed fears that it would fall foul of an energy saving campaign by the Department of Energy where Benn was then secretary of state.

SAS London was so concerned after eight SAS soldiers were tried after straying into the Republic of Ireland in 1976 that Dublin faced a diplomatic onslaught before the March 1977 trial. It included telephone calls between Prime Minister James Callaghan and his Irish opposite Liam Cosgrave.

The men were acquitted of possessing firearms with intent to endanger life and fined £100 each for possessing unlicensed firearms, which they admitted. They had 11 weapons.

The British tried to have them freed, but a note to the prime minister said: "The Irish Government claim (as no doubt we would in similar circumstances) that they can do nothing to intervene with the Director of Public Prosecutions."

Weapons The strange, but not necessarily true, story of how the cover was blown on Britain's secret nuclear weapons test has been revealed.

Prime Minister Harold Wilson had gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent news of the test, carried out at the US underground facility in the Nevada desert on May 22, 1974, leaking out.

However, according to official papers, he was forced to come clean after the veteran Daily Express reporter Chapman Pincher learned about it in a dream while on a fishing holiday in Scotland.

The unlikely tale was recounted to the senior Foreign Office official Crispin Tickell by the newspaper's foreign editor, John Ellison.

Eden When Lord Avon - the former Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden, who had presided over the Suez debacle - fell desperately ill with liver cancer in Florida in 1977, James Callaghan was asked by the MP, Winston Churchill on January 7 for an RAF VC10 to bring him home Lord Avon was staying with Mr Churchill's mother and stepfather. Lady Avon was very keen that Lord Avon should return home but industrial action by Heathrow baggage handlers had led to cancellation of the BA flight.

A note in the archives says that from the Prime Minister's experience of RAF flights for his travel abroad, "it was very difficult to get hold of VC10s at the drop of a hat."

An RAF aircraft was sent and Lord Avon died on January 14, aged 79.