““But she’d been lucky to survive at all. The doomsday scenario Edmund Innes had outlined to her in 1969 hadn’t quite come to pass, but the Service was now a shadow of its former self. She was one of the few survivors of what was still referred to, on the rare occasions it was referred to at all, as ‘The Purge’. The prime minister had been unimpressed by Review Section’s report into Dark and the other traitors and had decided immediate root and branch reform was needed. Dozens of officers had been discreetly ‘retired’ as a result. A Conservative government had been elected a few months later, but any hope it might take a softer line had soon been dispelled by the new prime minister’s insistence that the agency immediately inform him of all the remaining skeletons in its filing cabinets or face the possibility of a full parliamentary inquiry.””
![“I think it is going to take another fifty years for the report to be in. If I were to give a preliminary report, I would say that [Margaret Thatcher] wrecked this country.” quote by Hilary Mantel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/7ec/hilary-mantel-440_country_i-think-it-is-going-to-take-another-fift_2952162.jpg)
![“Thirty years ago [written 2009], over-regulation, over-taxation, mis-regulation, statism, state corporatism, and economic folly, cosiness and regulatory capture, and a crescent ideological enemy without, who were assisted by enemies – both fifth columnists and useful fools – within, had led to a…” quote by G.M.W. Wemyss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/45d/g-m-w-wemyss-29518_economics_thirty-years-ago-written-2009-over-regul_2560796.jpg)
![“[When asked how it felt to be a female prime minister:] I don't know: I've never experienced the alternative.” quote by Margaret Thatcher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/324/margaret-thatcher-463_alternatives_when-asked-how-it-felt-to-be-a-female-pr_15081.jpg)
