WARNING: This site deals only with the corporate corruption of science, and makes no inference about the motives or activities of individuals involved.
    There are many reasons why individuals become embroiled in corporate corruption activities - from political zealotry to over-enthusiastic activism; from gullibility to greed.
    Please read the OVERVIEW carefully, and make up your own mind.

OPINION ONLY

When Prime Minister Margaet Thatcher was deposed by a Conservative Party coup in 1990 she retired to the backbench, but stayed on in the House of Commons for about 18 months. She was then made a peer, and sent to the House of Lords.

During her backbench period she spent most of her time touring the world and making speeches to large corporation, political groups and business-umbrellas at fees which vary between $30,000 and $190,000 a time [a claim by Mark Thatcher]. She had a private office in the UK run by her old aide Julian Seymour, and in the USA her affairs were run by her son Mark Thatcher, who lived in Dallas as a British car dealer — but who had multiple dubious schemes going — most of which landed him in trouble.

Thatcher worked as a high-charge political lobbyist through at least three fronts: The Grantham Company in Dallas was a partnership she had with her son Mark; her aide Julian Seymour ran Chesham Place Associates in Belgravia, and a well-connected (Prince Charles, Nancy Reagan) social-celebrity Robert"Higgy" Higdon ran the Margaret Thatcher Foundation out of Washington DC until it went bankrupt.

Philip Morris agreement:
Mark also organised the offers made to the Atlantic Ridgeway Oil Company (ARCO) and Philip Morris in 1991 for her to act as a secret consultant and lobbyist. She was able to provide introductions for them in East European, Middle East, South African and Asian countries — and lobby on their behalf with the power brokers of the old Soviet Union. The same offer was presumably extended to three other large corporations — her agreement specified that her confidential services were to be limited to five companies.

According to Mark Thatcher, ARCO paid $250,000 a year for her services (four meetings a year with their executives and unspecified activities). He offered Philip Morris a much more extensive deal that involved:

• Meetings with the top executives in their lobbying and strategic groups
  
• Use of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation as a front to channel money to research or entrepreneurial activities of their own choosing
  
• Having one of their staff members resident in Thatcher's private office (presumably able to use Foundation letterhead and other resources, under the pretext that it came from Thatcher)

She gave them advice on how to approach the Major Government, and have them act to change tax laws in the European Union Both Rothmans and British-American Tobacco used her services in the same way, but it is not clear from the documents whether this was done in addition to the Philip Morris agreement, or as part of it.

European lobbying:
Initially she lobbied in Europe for Philip Morris in Czechoslovakia. They wanted to prevent the break-up during privatisation of a state tobacco monopoly which Philip Morris wanted to buy whole, and so retain its monopoly value.

She also provide advice and contacts as to how these US and European cigarette companies should proceed to break into the Polish, Russian, and other East European markets following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In the Middle East, she had good working relationships with both the Sultan of Oman and the Emir of Kuwait, which served the cigarette industry which was trying to breaking into these Arab-state monopolies (called the GCC - Gulf Coorperative Countries).

China, beginning with Hong-Kong, was also canvassed as was South Africa and some of the ex-African colonies of the British.

The contact with Thatcher was driven by Geoffrey Bible working through corporate lawyer Murray Bring. It should be remembered that the CEO/Chairman of Philip Morris, at this time, was Hamish Maxwell, the son of UK's wartime tobacco rationing controller Sir Alexander Hislop Maxwell ('Sandy') who was the Conservative Secretary of Home Affairs before, during and after the second world war. He became the Chairman of the Tobacco Industry Council (TAC the lobby group) in the 1970s and '80s.

So Hamish Maxwell had impecable connections with Thatcher through the Tory Party — and also through his father to the UK secret service organisations who were actively promoting UK trade at this time.

A third connection was through Rupert Murdoch who sat on the board of Philip Morris, and had three successive CEOs of that company on the boards of News Ltd (Hamish Maxwell, R William 'Bill' Murray and Geoff Bible)

Some key documents

• The Margaret Thatcher Foundation was partially under tobacco industry control and run by trustees including Lord Harris of High Cross — the head of FOREST (Smoker's Rights organisation].

"The true Ashman (antismoker) does not regard health as a private issue l, at all but as something to be imposed on ordinary people at the behest of elites posing as disembodied experts acting on behalf of a collectivity." (Lord Harris of High Cross, trustee of Thatcher Foundation)

1990 Nov 27: Thatcher voted out as Prime Minister. The Times reported on Thatcher leaving No 10
    She had resigned as leader (but stayed in the House of Commons) and the Conservatives were to vote the following morning choosing between Haseltine and John Major.

1991: The Margaret Thatcher Foundation was formed to advance the cause of political and economic freedom. The Foundation has five broad goals:

• To promote the widest possible acceptance of democracy, market principles, the rule of law, and strong defence
• To encourage strong transatlantic links between Britain, Europe, and North America
• To assist and encourage the peoples of the former communist countries and other oppressive regimes across the world as they adopt democracy
• To foster greater contact between Western nations and those of the Middle East in the region's search for a lasting peace with security
• To further free trade throughout the world

1991 Jan 17: Operation Desert Storm - The initial bombardment followed by ground assult on 24 Feb. Cease fire after 100 hours The First Gulf War ended

1991 Mar 8: In the USA — speech to the Hoover Institution

1991 Mar 11: In the USA making a speech to North Dallas Chamber of Commerce [Mark Thatcher later claimed to Philip Morris that she had been paid $190,000 for this 60 minute speech] It was made at a Lowes Hotel [owned by Lorillard] it was full of platitudes:

• Praise for Bush response to Saddam Hussein's attack on Kuwait
• Requirements for peace
  • Iraq must renounce her claim to Kuwait. It is not well founded in law. Indeed twice Iraq has accepted the present borders —once in 1932, and again in 1963 when Kuwait joined the United Nations.
  • We must be satisfied by direct observation that chemical, biological and nuclear weapons which remain have been "destroyed". The United States was absolutely right to issue a stern warning against any further use of chemical weapons. (No assurance good enough. Must observe destroyed).
  • Some Western forces may have to remain until the position in Iraq is much clearer.
  • The Arab —Israeli conflict, to which Secretaries Schultz and Baker had already devoted their skilled and dedicated attention, will require renewed effort
• The success of the Gulf operation confounded the pessimists (and weren't we pleased: merchants of doom.). But more important it proved the wisdom of President Reagan and of Cap Weinberger, and Senator Tower who had kept our defenses strong and our technology ahead of that of others. At the time they came under great criticism how ill judged it now seems. They were right. Do not let us forget that lesson. It is weakness that invites tyranny. It is investment in defense that gives us the dividend of peace with freedom and justice
• In the last four years President Gorbachev has changed the Soviet Union and the satellite countries beyond recognition. — East/West relations have been transformed. — Glasnost was launched. Perestroika started. — the proud nations of Eastern Europe have been freed from the Soviet yoke — great strides have been made in arms reduction and control.
  
      But on the home front economic reform has hardly begun. While political reform —always the easier —has proceeded apace, living standards have fallen, the queues lengthened, the shortages grown and real hardship is being visited on many, many people within the Soviet Union
• The twelve member countries thrash out the mandate for the [European] Commission, a non-elected body, to negotiate. Hence the difficulties we have been having over the GATT negotiations.
  
      The USA, European community and Japan all give subsidies to agriculture and the battle in GATT is how far can we agree to reduce them.

1991 May 28-29: DShe was in the USSR speaking to Supreme Soviet and then to Leningrad State University.

1991 May 15 - 22: In South Africa making speeches

1991 June: Thatcher gave a speech to Philip Morris's lawyers in Colorado.

1991 June 17: She was in Chicago speaking to the Foreign Relations Council of Chicago

18th: She was in New York speaking to the Economic Club.

1991 June 24: The European ECOFIN Council on tax harmonisation decided to introduce a 57% minimum level of excise duty on cigarettes. This upset the cigarette companies and they turned to Thatcher for help.

    The appear to have been already utilising her as a keynote speaker and consultant, but on a casual basis.

1991 Jul:

1991 July 1: Chuck Wall to Murray Bring at Philip Morris:

Mark Thatcher called several days ago and said he planned to be in New York within the next three weeks and would like to meet to discuss a possible consultancy for his mother with Philip Morris. Their thinking is in the formative stages, and my guess is that Mark is mostly interested in finding out if there is a market with multinational corporations for his mother's talents.

    The only other comment he made to me was that his mother wanted to limit her consultancy to five or so companies. I told Mark we will be happy to discuss the issue further when he is in New York.

    The same topic may come up during your dinner with Mrs. Thatcher on August 6.

    Mrs. Thatcher has the ability to take a firm position on a controversial issue and make her views seem both reasonable and persuasive, She is a good advocate. I say this because her role need not be limited to giving advice. If she is willing, we may be able to use her as an advocate for our positions with her extensive governmental contacts.

In an effort to develop a specific proposal for Mrs.Thatcher's consultancy, I suggest we meet with Mark Thatcher to see how far his thinking on this issue has developed, ask the appropriate people in Corporate Planning, Corporate Affairs and International Legal (Pollak, Moy, Bible, Goldberg, von Maerestetten) to develop a list of issues that are of importance to us in the various regions, and then discuss with Mrs. Thatcher ways in which she may be able to assist.

1991 Aug 13: Bring is sent the details of "the foundation Mrs Thatcher is funding with her speaking engagement fees"

1991 Aug 20: Murray Bring to Michael Miles [The CEO of Philip Morris for a short while].

Last Friday I met for about three hours with Marc Thatcher to discuss a possible consulting arrangement between his mother and Philip Morris. Marc has taken responsibility for negotiating all such arrangements on behalf of Mrs. Thatcher, and he is the person with whom we would be dealing, at least until her "private office" , has been organized and is in operation.

    While Marc Thatcher is somewhat brash and a little arrogant, I found him to be, on the whole, quite pleasant to deal with. He is obviously very bright, and a non-stop talker. He appears to be a very successful entrepreneur in his own right, having organized an investment company which, among other things, owns the largest residential security company in the country. He also has business interests in Europe and Hong Kong. Unti11988, he spent a great deal of his time in car racing, and was a member of a Marlboro-sponsored team for three years (not Formula One).

    He advised me that his mother plans to divide her time between three projects of interest to her: the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, the writing of her memoirs, and the activities of her "private office." The latter will be the source of her private income and will coordinate speaking engagements and approximately five consulting arrangements with leading multi-national corporations

He volunteered that tobacco was not an issue, but then suggested that for "appearances sake" we might want to consider designating KGF as the contracting party.

1991 Aug 27: Murray Bring writes to Mark Thatcher. The consultancy has been discussed with Mike Miles and Hamish Maxwell, and they want to proceed.
[ Hamish Maxwell, the retired CEO/Chairman, had now been given the title of Emeritus Chairman of Philip Morris. He had an office near to that of Michael Miles.

    Maxwell was still very much in control because Miles wasn't trusted. Shortly after this he was given a golden handshake and two Australians, Bill Murray and Geoff Bible, took over, working closely under Maxwell. Rupert Murdoch on the Board was also a supporter of this coup - it was a British/Australian take-over of this US company.]

1991 Sep 13: Margaret Thatcher was in Hong Kong talking to business leaders. As prime minister she entered into the earlier agreement with China about Hong Kong's future.

1991 Sep 20: Probable date of conference with Philip Morris.

1991 Sep 25: From attached memo (say 5) days later. Partly indecipherable handnote on the meeting with (Mark or Maggie) Thatcher 9/2x

ECOFIN
World Affairs Conference
K [Street?] office

World Affairs Conference
1. . Worldwide Conf - Internet Speech 3,5
       Return on Gulfstream (Josh into it)
2. No phone - secure (but avoid)
3. June 1st week in Europe - Paris 3rd (looks OK)
4. Get calendar of dates in US
5. Asia - early Oct - Asia Sept/Oct
6. Private office
       - Director will be an organizer, a businessman, wealthy, British, wants no travel
       - Travelling companion
   • [to] prepare her for meeting - note taking - Schedule - Ty[pes] letters
   • Some of the work Mark does
   • Greenspon, Eaglelawyer/Eaglehammer. Strauss [possibly Canadian journalist Ed Greenspon and Airbus CEO Strauss]
   • Meeting Emir of Kuwait
7. (Do a job description) [Presumably for a staffer in her private office]
   • Nanny
   • Help to draft speeches
   • follow up — Tickler items
8. For us:
   • contracts, especially outside US
   • exposure to Mrs T
   • Stamina
   • Liason (to?) Foreign office
   • Letter writting
   • European xx American - English spelling
9. Fees - soft vs. hard dollars — Source fee - 250
10. the foundation (Biber Davids) - Dave Ear??
    • 250-500 a year - pre-approved
    • subject to agreement on specific projects (80% for grants and 20% to overhead)
    • non-quantifiable - soft dollars
11. will develop 40 minute documentary, illustration Picture
    • Trade problems
    • unions
    • (Some commercial by an Arabian cos — 2 or 3   30 second spots)
          (Smile upon it) (don't order)
    • videos to be used in schools re ethics & values
12. 5 documentaries re history of the 20th Century - how it will impact on 21st Century (Environment) (Can we participate)
13. Expenses
14. Associated with a group which/white desti cap in tertiar ins/unit - ??? (2 South Africans/250 Africans)
    • 220 a master column
    • 5 containers a month
15. disengagement after 1st year

1991 Sep 30: Murray Bring to Stephanie French [PM Corporate PR]

"Margaret Thatcher"
We are about to enter into a consulting arrangement with Mrs. Thatcher. It has been suggested by her representative, Mark Thatcher, that a portion of our fee should constitute an annual $250,000 grant to the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, which will soon be established in the USA. A branch of the Foundation has already been established in England.

    Mike Miles, Bill Murray and I are inclined to accept this proposal, but we wanted to make sure before we do so that you would feel comfortable with it. In particular, we would like to know whether you think the proposed activities of the Foundation will offer opportunities for directing our grant to one of our focused areas. In that connection, I am enclosing herewith a brochure on the Margaret Thatcher Foundation.

    Mark Thatcher advised me that the Foundation expects to be involved in a number of educational activities, and will also be heavily involved in environmental matters. He also indicated that we would be able to target our grant to specific Foundation projects which would be approved by us in advance.

1991 Oct 3: She is in Warsaw making a speech to the Polish Senate

1991 Oct 4: Bring has distributed the draft agreement retaining Margaret Thatcher as a consultant. Michael Miles (still the CEO) writes to Murray Bring (Senior Counsel)

"I guess this looks OK.
Have to say I really wonder if we're going to get $500,000 a year worth of value from this, but have probably come too far to back up.

    So, up to us to work it to ensure we do get our money's worth. You will need to help us keep this top of mind.

1991 Oct 10: /E Walter Thoma, President of PM's EEMA Region (East Europe and Middle East), has had a meeting with Margaret Thatcher.

1991 Oct 14: Meeting between Margaret and Mark Thatcher, and Philip Morris's Geoff Bible (CGB) and Ian Sargeant (ICS - European PR). Walter Thoma (WT) had sent her a London Economics study on ECOFIN — the tax harmonisation program that they were fighting in the EEC.

    They were exploring various ways she could help with the European tax harmonisation program. She was advising them directly on cigarette issues — about the need to lobby Chancellor Norman Lamont and suggesting that they contact Conrad Black to run a press article in the Daily Telegraph.

We were recommended to operate at all levels and on all fronts: ministerial, House of Commons, Committees, civil servants etc. She did not feel an industry association could be as effective as companies directly inputting their point of view and actually recommended not using the TAC for making the important approaches.

1991 Oct 15: Bring was still trying to finalise the contract with Mark Thatcher
    [Same day as the above advice]

1991 Oct 22: Margaret Thatcher is in St Petersburg making a speech to the Forum of Eastern and Central European Entrepreneurs.

1991 Oct 31: Bring has spoken to Mark Thatcher. His mother wants to be kept informed about ECOFIN.

1991 Nov 4: Sir Patrick Sheeny, Chairman of BAT, writes to UK Chancellor Lamont, complaining about the ECOFIN minimum cigarette tax of 57%

    The other companies also write to the Chancellor
[Although the contract was with Philip Morris, obviously it was being shared around the tobacco companies to their mutual benefit]

1991 Nov 12: L Girod to [Walter] Thoma at Philip Morris

I spoke to Ian [Sargeant] and passed on your message from Mr [Walter] Thoma re the letter to Mrs. Thatcher. Ian, in turn, has the following message for Mr.Thoma:

"I thnk it would be useful to follow up with another meeting with Mrs Thatcher in about two weeks time, if she is available. How do you feel about this?

    If you agree, how do you think I should go about this (should I see her alone, or with someone else)?"

Ian [Sargeant] has asked ms to hold back the letter until we receive a reply from Mr. Thoma.

1991 Nov 12: Ian Sargeant writes to Margaret Thatcher telling her that they were following her advice and contacting the Chancellor and members of the House of Commons, etc.

1991 Nov 20: Bring advises PM's Corporate Management Committee:

Mrs. Thatcher is available to facilitate introductions to and meetings with foreign government officials and business leaders who may be involved in international business transactions we are considering, or who are responsible for formulating or implementing policies affecting our business.

    Under appropriate circumstances, she will also advise us on approaches we should pursue in our dealings with foreign dignitaries and business leaders, and will assist us in making presentations to those leaders.

1991 Nov 25: Margaret Thatcher was in Kuwait to receive a Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Kuwait.

1991 Dec 3: Bible writes that Andreas Gembler has an urgent matter in Czechoslovakia, and wants to call "Mrs. Thatcher to see if she could be available to us on such short notice,"

    They are trying to stop the local monopoly Tabak SA, with five different manufacturing plants, from being broken off and sold to a number of their rivals. Philip Morris wanted to buy it in total, and retain it as a monopoly. Margaret Thatcher was asked to approch Krause, the Minister of Finance and other politicians.

    Also Poland has a tax problem, as does Saudi Arabia. They want protection from cheap imports. With Russia, she has a good releationship with Gorbachev, but maybe not with Yeltzin

1991 Dec 6: The IRS determines that the US version of The Margaret Thatcher Foundation, can be tax exempt under section 501(c)3.

1991 Dec 17: PM's top man in Asia, William Webb, writes to Geoff Bible (his superior) saying that they currently have no use for her services in Asian region

However we are developing a proposal for our dealings with the PRC [People's Republic of China] and it may be that at some point in the future if we decide to proceed,she could help us with introductions to the government officials at a very senior level.

I'm doing this on the run. As you know Andreas [Gembler - President EEMA Region] is using her on Czechoslovakia. Walter [Thoma - President EEC Corporate Affairs] on ECOFIN and Bill [Murray] may have need for her on China. That's all so far.

1992: Quotes from Lord Harris of High Cross.
[Harris was a confidant, and also the head of both FOREST, the UK industry's smoker's rights front, and the Institute for Economic Affairs]

"The true Ashman (antismoker) does not regard health as a private issue, at all but as something to be imposed on ordinary people at the behest of elites posing as disembodied experts acting on behalf of a collectivity." (Lord Harris of High Cross, trustee of Thatcher Foundation)

1992 Jan 7: Charles Wall to Murray Bring

"Thoughts on Margaret Thatcher:"

1. Can she help keep the proposed Ad Ban Directive under wraps? I can check with Hugh [Cullman] or someone can check with our Brussels people.
2. Can she help with any Eastern European countries where we are in negotiations, etc., with the governments? I do not know enough to be more specific.

1992 Feb: The ultra-libertarian American Spectator publishes an attack on Thatcher (probably on instructions from Richard Mellon Scaife)

Dumping Granny
For all her strength of character, Margaret Thatcher's legacy includes principles betrayed and an expanded welfare state.

1992 Feb 5: The PM team are arranging for Margaret Thatcher to speak at the Philip Morris Worldwide Conference in the Grand Florida Resort, Orlando, Florida, March 3. She will also have a private meeting with the executive strategist-lobbyists, and Miles wants this group kept to a minimum — only those who will be dealing with her in Europe, plus a few of the top men from USA.

1992 March: 5-6 She was possibly also lobbying for JPMorgan who ran a similar international information and contact making operation.

1992 Mar 3: Bible writes to Bring on the same day, but obviously just before the Worldwide Leadership Conference, re: the strategy meeting afterwards.

I am a little embarrassed that we may not have much of a specific nature to raise with Mrs. Thatcher. Walter Thoma will definitely update her on Ecofin and Andreas Gembler can talk to her a little about Czechoslovakia where she may give us a bit of advice — but, beyond that, we have not availed ourselves of her servicee.

I am sure that if I were to sit down and really think very hard about ways and means that we could possibly utilize her assistance more, there would be other topics that would eome to mind — I regret that I have not done more about this.

1992 Mar 3: Margaret Thatcher was the keynote speaker at PM Worldwide Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida. She was introduced by Mike Miles the CEO


    She sends her thanks for the "Tiffany 'World'"

1992 Mar 3: The Worldwide Conference in Orlando was followed by an executive lobbyist/strategists meeting

1992 Mar 11: A general memo from Geoff Bible invites senior executives to suggest further ways in which she can be employed.

1992 Mar 30: Murray Bring writes to Miles and Murray.

Now that we are four months into the Thatcher consultancy, I wanted to give you an update on her activities thus far.

    In addition to her appearance at the Worldwide Leadership Conference, Mrs Thatcher has been consulted, on two specific issues in Europe — Ecofin, and our efforts to acquire a tobacco company in Czechoslovakia.

    I am advised by the people in EEC who consulted with her on Ecofin that she was quite helpful in developing theories and lobbying strategies. They have met or spoken with her on three occasions; and she has been both accessible and useful.

    With respect to the Czechoslovakian situation, her advice was also helpful, but not as significant as in the Ecofin matter.

    She remains available to consult on any matter that we care to bring to her attention, but the initiative must, of course, come from us.

    Geoff [Bible] and I thought it would be a good idea to see if she could meet with a group of our European and Asian executives at the time of our budget meetings in June (Lausanne) and October (Hong Kong). These meetings would be for the purpose of discussing some of the specific items on the list that Geoff is compiling, as well as engaging Mrs. Thatcher in a general discussion about regional matters of interest to our executives.

1992 Mar 31: Bible to his executives

We have the ability to use Mrs. Thatcher's services and skills over the next three years. On the few occasions we have asked her for advice, she has provided very skillful help. However, we believe that we are not taking full advantage of all that she has to offer. As a result, I have attempted to summarize as many issues as I can think of where she may be able to offer guidance and assistance.

    Attached are those issues which come to my mind, but I am sure that there are others which you could add.

    Accordingly, would you please build on the list as appropriate for each region. Then, let me have back a one page summary on each of the points so that I can discuss them with senior management, finalize those which qualify for discussion with Mrs. Thatcher, and then meet with her to map out a game plan of how she might be able to help us over the coming years.

1992 Mar 31: Dinny DeVitre to Murrray Bring

I wanted to speak to you about the possibility of Maggie Thatcher meeting with us in Lausanne in the first week of June. As you may be aware we (MAM, RWM, GCB, AGB, etc.) are in Lausanne for the 2RF meetings at that time.

    Geoff suggested that we could have M.T. over for dinner on one of the evenings. We could arrange a small dinner and talk about EC issues.

1992 March 31: Mark Thatcher was now the Managing Partner of The Grantham Company in Dallas (a partnership with his mother). He writes to Bring to confirm that Margaret Thatcher will be meeting Geoff Bible in Chicago on April 4. They can also meet in Lausanne on June 5. He wants a corporate aircraft to take her from Paris to Switzerland.

    He and his mother will also meet them in Hong Kong in the second week of October.
[Note that Mark's partnership with his mother has been named after Margaret Thatchers home town of Grantham where the Roberts family had its grocery.]

1992 Apr: Notes from Sea Island Planning meeting. Rupert Murdoch asks a loaded question re European ad bans. [Which becomes a concern conveyed to Thatcher] See page 6

Sea Island Meeting Issues
Question (H. Maxwell): Do we feel in the 5-Year Plan that we will lose our ability to advertise in PMUSA? Will it help or hurt us?
Answer: We won't lose our total ability to advertise (but we likely will have more restrictions). We are by no means as strong as we were when we lost TV advertising. Brands like Virginia Slims and B&H do not have strong enough image at this point.

Question (J. Moore/R. Murdoch): What is our strategy in Italy in reference to the government monopoly? How do we see the future in Italy ?
Answer: There was a change of government in Italy recently (coalition of new force). With respect to monopoly in Italy, we expect it to remain as an official monopoly. As it loses market share we need to worry that it remains viable. We don't want it to take action against us. We need to help the monopoly as we continue our growth (i.e. giving it some of our production to keep it in business).

Question (R. Murdoch): What is the likelihood of European community ban on advertising?
Answer: U.K., Holland, Germany, Greece and Denmark are committed to opposing the ban on tobacco advertising. Reelection of conservative government in the U.K. keeps the coalition alive. We feel well-protected at the moment.

Question (H. Brown): What is likely to happen post-'92 in the European community re. the freedom of trade across borders ?
Answer: ECOFIN tax harmonization is a current issue. It is not clear whether tax harmonization will ever completely come into being because there is vested interests by the monopolies. Don't think there would be totally free circulation of goods in any case during this 5-Year Plan.

1992 Apr 4: Geoff Bible has had a meeting with both Mark and Margaret Thatcher in Chicago. She gave him advice on Turkey and obviously an introduction to Prime Minister Demirel. [See later thank you letter.

    Also the letter Bible sent to Margaret Thatcher]

Your ability to grasp quickly the difficulties we were confronting in Turkey is no less than amazing, and your advice was extremely helpful in positioning our problems to Prime Minister Demirel.

1992 May 1: Mark Thatcher wants the corporate jet for Maggie to have dinner with the Board,

1992 May 5: PM send a draft repayment of £5,043 to Thatcher's private office at Chesham Place Associates for air-tickets to the Worldwide Leadership Conference in March 1992.

1992 May 7: Geoff Bible organising discussion in Lausanne

1992 May 13: Bring's letter to Thatcher about the agenda in Lausanne. Bible will dine with her May 29 to outline the agenda

1992 June 5: Meeting with Mark and Margaret Thatcher and PM lobbyists/executives in Lausanne as planned, She comes from Paris.

1992 June 9: Murray Bring letter to Mark Thatcher re the contract

1992 June 12: Geoff Bible memo

We met with Mrs. Thatcher in Lausanne and discussed with her the briefing book which I think you were copied on.

    We didn't get to the issues you raised because we spent all of the time on the key issues, that is, Section one of the book.

    She will be with us in Hong Kong in October, and I would like to manage the meeting the same way again. in preparation for that, we will re-do the book and bring the Asian issues up to Category one as the "Key Issues For Discussion." we found the meeting with her to be extremely useful. She brings a fresh approach and tends to cut across the grain of our thinking and offers sound advice on how we should deal with governments and their officials.

1992 June 12: Geoff Bible to Bill Webb about Thatcher's help in the Chinese markets.

    Also another to Kathleen Linehan re South Africa

1992 June 12: Semi-decipherable hand note of a meeting with Maggie ThatcherThis is a partly illegible handwritten note in the Thatcher files which is difficult to decipher. However, it is clearly notes taken at a meeting with Maggie, and it gives and indication that she was to be used with

1. ECOFIN [Their tax harmonisation problem in European parliament ]
   ,li>>No agreement is better than a broad agrement - alcohol/tobacco
   • Ingredients?? 57% with/will lead to
     • Divergence and not harmonization
     • xxx to greater purchase of cheap cigarettes
       • reverse impact on health
       • Loss of revenue (contraband)
     • The RPI will go up (this is bad)
     • Helps the monopoly
     • 57% bad OR 35.00 ECU
       The European Parliament
     • The Wilson article - Re[eatable
       European crushed ??
   • Swiss PSO issue (unknown)
   • GCC (the Arabian Gulf Cooperative Country states) "She will talk to the D??? in Summer"
   • South Africa - [He uses So Africa a couple of times]
     • A group of minorities
     • Coalition of Asians, Zulus, whites and cape coloreds in Mandella's ANC
     • Mandella is not a very effective leader
     • ANC will negoitate/regulate.
     • They will not attck these xxx or nationalize
     • Invest ! — Worth the risk.
   • USSR
     • Offer to rebuild some factories
     • Kageshobace? and other Mac??? states??? (buy them with cigars - eight to take s??later)
     • Talk to Turkey.
     • Cydor/Cyclor is the key
     • "She will talk to Yeltzin re seriousness of problem"
   • China
     • . Should we buy the HK tobacco plant. What is the prospect.
     • opportunites about future.
     • Not sure if HK exports will get a preference. — depends on whether they are in GATT.
     • How do we get into China?...will consult with David Young - former UK Amb[assador] [must have been an aide - not Ambassador]
       (provide them with more background and facts)
     • "Use a HK business group to get in. Get the support of a city.

1992 July: Mike Miles to Philip Morris Board says

Our first contact with Mrs. Thatcher occurred last June when she agreed to be a guest speaker at a biennial conference of all of the Company's lawyers. She subsequently came to New York and had dinner with a number of members of senior management.

    Discussions about a possible consultancy with Mrs. Thatcher's representative have progressed during the past several months, and we are near to a final agreement. It is contemplated that Mrs. Thatcher would be available to consult with us for an initial three-year period, and that the fee we would pay for those services would consist of a $250,000 annual payment to her, and a $250,000 annual contribution to the Margaret Thatcher Foundation.

    The Foundation is in the early stages of formation and it will focus on providing support to entrepreneurial enterprises in the countries formerly controlled by the Soviet Union, in China, and in certain Third World countries.

1992 July 2: Wall Street Journal, Thatcher Weighs Advising PM Amid Protest

1992 July 2: Two of Six pages — Geoff Bible's list of possible discussion points

1992 July 10: Mark Thatcher was advised that they were transfereing the Asian meeting from Hong Kong to Tokyo.

1992 July 17: Internal advice from Murray Bring about the leak

I called Julian Seymour, the head of Mrs.Thatcher's private office in London. Seymour consulted Mrs. Thatcher and called me back to indicate that, from their point of view, they had no problem with my confirming that we are in the process of retaining Mrs. Thatcher as a consultant. He suggested that I describe the nature of the consultancy as one involving advice on "geopolitical" issues relating to various countries in which we do business. He urged that I not disdose the consulting fee and that I emphasize that no contract has been signed as yet.

1992 July 17: PM's Stig Carlson in email explains the phone call from Sunday Times journalist to the European strategy group.http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/eax42c00/pdf

1992 Jul 19: (Insight - Sunday Times) "Thatcher gets $1 m job with top US Tobacco Firm" She is to be paid to act as an "international political consultant" (elsewhere; "international ambassador")

Thatcher, a non-smoker, spoke out several times about the dangers of tobacco while she was prime minister. Three years ago she launched an £11m government campaign to halve the number of teenage smokers by 1993. At the time she warned that 95% of people who died from lung cancer were smokers. most of whom acquired the habit as children. Thatcher also strongly supported Europe Against Cancer Year in 1989, aimed at reducing the 220.000 annual death toll, from tobacco-related diseases in Europe.

1992 July 19: Statement by Craig Fuller



    Reuters carries the story that she is only discussing the arrangement

but has not yet reached a decision, her press spokeswoman said Sunday.Press secretary Elizabeth Buchanan denied reports in the Sunday Times newspaper that Thatcher, who does not smoke, would be paid up to $1 million a year.

    "Any suggestion of $1 million is ridiculous," Buchanan said. She said fees had not been agreed because Thatcher was still considering the offer to act as a consultant on geopolitical issues.

1992 July 19: Handnote of telephone conversation with Julian Seymour in Thatcher's private office in the UK. Mark Thatcher is being cut out of the dealing. ['Not Mark - only Julian now'] Thatcher is going to Australian in September.

    They discuss the benefits of charging the media with "theft" but decide it is best not to go on a 'witchhunt'.

    Thatcher urgently wants a letter from Geoff Bible about GATT

1992 July 21: Geoff Bible is trying to set up one-on-one meetings of his regional tobacco strategists Walter Thoma, Andreas Gembler and David Greenberg with Thatcher in August or September. She has already given them valuable advice on South Africa.

1992 July 26: — NOTE DATES - POSSIBLE DELIBERATE ATTEMPT TO CONFUSE DATES. [Travel agents/organisers are very date-conscious]

    She will be available to have dinner with the PM Board on March 30 [Could only be August 30]

    Craig Fuller, the political troubleshooter with the Republicans, wants to attend.


    Note that the date is also given incorrecly here in this advice to Sandy Warfield


    PM staffer Sandy Warfield is handling travel arrangements for Philip Morris — note that this meeting with her was actually set in March 1992

1992 July 27: Bible is deciding who will be at the Thatcher dinner, and who will meet her for one-to-ones on China, Japan and Advertising issues.

1992 July 27: Murray Bring's handnotes of his conference with Justin Seymour.

• Thatcher has had 70-100 letters — all negative
• do we need a K [Contract?]. What's xxxx with a handshake.
• No xxx off
• Still tell us if we're doing anything messy
• Future points of contact
  • Seymour
  • Sandy [Warfield]
• Wider issues & not nacxxxx ones - Geoff

1992 July 29: Julian Seymour of Chesham Place Associates in London to Murray Bring.

It was good to talk to you on the telephone yesterday and I look forward to seeing you in September. Following our conversation I had a discussion with the Principal and her son.

    We decided that hence forward all arrangements for meetings should be conducted by this office, in conjunction of course with yourselves, and with Sandy Warfiefd in Washington to be included only when an engagement is to take place in the USA.

    If you are agreeable to the above I am of course available to talk to any of your people and Clare Lowther would normally take care of the logistics.

1992 Aug: The Lancet editorial attacks Margaret Thatcher's tobacco temptation. It has a summary of details obviously obtained from the Sunday Times Insight team.

Its most immediate battle in Europe is the fight against the Brussels plan for a European-wide ban on advertising its products, a ban that the UK Government is sull resisting. Who better to advise them than the former British Prime Minister who had so many brushes with the European Commission in Brussels?

    Then there is the company's planned moves into Eastern Europe. In the past 12 months it has acquired large stakes in the former state-run tobacco companies in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. What better person to consolidate these moves than the Iron Lady, who so opposed the old totalitarian regimes? Thirdly, there is the company's need to penetrate the Third World to compensate for the continuing drop in consumption in the developed world.

    Aecording to the Sunday Times, which claims to have seen the company's plans for the Thatcher coup, Philip Morris believes she would be particularly helpful in its dealings with Vietnam, China, and South Africa, and in dealing with distribution problems in Russia. The company also wants to tackle restrictions on foreign ownership of tobacco csimpanies in Malaysia and Indonesia, and take on the Government's anti-smoking programme in Singapore.

    Finally, of course, the company will be manoeuvring to prevent tax rises on tobacco in all countries where it operates.

    {snip} Lady Thatcher is accustomed to such controversy. She has, in fact, never been a smoker, although her husband Denis is heavily addicted. As Prime Minister she resisted the proposed European-wide advertising ban and was against EC proposals to ban smoking in public, but she spoke out on the dangers of tobacco and launched a government campaign to halve the number of teenage smokers.

    That campaign, alas, seems to be faltering. A law passed to stop tobacconists from selling cigarettes to children had not produced a single prosecution on its anniversary. The proportion of 15-year-olds smoking has risen from one-fifth to one-quarter between 1988 and 1990.

1992 Aug 2: A Sunday Times story reported that Geoff Bible was trying to suggesst that Thatcher was lobbying for food issues.

    [Thatcher has triggered street demonstrations in London]

1992 Aug 14: Bring to Seymour telling him that they needed a formal contract [Seymour had suggested just a handshake instead]. Philip Morris also sent him a draft reply to critical letters.

1992 Aug 17: Philip Morris Asia Inc [run by Bill Webb] have created a "Pre-discussion Briefing for Asia" booklet. It deals with China and "Greater China" (including Hong Kong and Formosa/Taiwan), ASEAN countries, Vietnam, India and Pakistan.

    It includes a list of questions to put to Thatcher.
[It is clear that Margaret Thatcher would not be able to answer many of these questions herself, so, they were hiring her partly to get access to the British foreign service, on the basis that she would ask her associates in the British cabinet.]

1992 Sep 21: Colleen Flinn [PM logistics] was meeting with Thatcher's staff in New York. She advised David Greenburg that she could arrange for him to attend a meeting with Thatcher in London.

1992 Sep 25: Meeting between Bring and Julian Seymour in the New York office of Philip Morris.

1992 Sept 28: Arrangements for the Tokyo meeting. They are utilising the British Embassy and its personnel. She will be met at the Airport by the Ambassador. Part of the ground services was the responsibility of the Embassy and the other part, of Philip Morris

    Philip Morris's advance staffer, Colleen Flinn will be in Tokyo on Oct 5. The Embassy meeting appears to be on Oct 6th.

1992 Sep 30: Julian Seymour to Murray Bring,

I am glad that we are agreed from now on that we make no further comment of any kind to the press. The latter will undoubtedly continue to pester us from time to time and we shall simply have to deal with the proxy statement issue if and when it arises.

    As we discussed this office will now co-ordinate all meetings which need to be set up on your behalf. Clare Lowther is Lady Thatcher's diary secretary and in her absence Miranda Cracroft will take over. I am always available if required.

    Perhaps you would be kind enough to let Colleen Flinn know of those arrangements.

1992 Sept 30: Julian Seymour writes again to Bring after their meeting, putting decisions on the record.

I am glad that we are agreed from now on that we make no further comment of any kind to the press. The latter will undoubtedly continue to pester us from time to time and we shall simply have to deal with the proxy statement issue if and when it arises.

    As we discussed this office will now co-ordinate all meetings which need to be set up on your behalf. Clare Lowther is Lady Thatcher's diary secretary and in her absence Miranda Cracroft will take over. I am always available if required.

    Perhaps you would be kind enough to let Colleen Flinn know of those arrangements.

    I look forward to receiving the contract in due course.

• Three years from Jan 1 1992
  [At least a year after they began using her services on an ad hoc basis]
• Attendance of up to four meetings with Philip Morris
• Ad hoc meetings for a variety of matters
• Introductions to governments and business leaders
• Philip Morris will support such Thatcher projects as documentary TV programs — money to come from advertising budgets, etc.

1992 Oct: /E Handnote of the discussion with Julian Simmons, Thatcher's personal secretary. It contains a list of activities:
[Misdated in files - probably October 1991]

1. To date
   • ECOFIN
   • Czechoslovakia
2. Other potential projects
   • China with Bill Webb
   • Russia
   • Yugoslovakia
   • Australian excise taxes
   • South Africa
   • Environment
   • Other EEC — Greend??y (All Can)
   • Eastern Europe (Poland, Czech Hungry)
3. Meetings
   • A board meeting in fall - discuss
   • A meeting with Se? Tob/food executives, re European issues —? ???

1992 Oct 10: After a couple of changes of date and venue, the Philip Morris strategists were to meet Mark and Margaret Thatcher in Tokyo in October for a business session beginning at 2 pm Saturday afternoon - maybe continuing into Sunday morning.
[The contract would have been signed at this meeting.]

1992 Oct 22: Margaret Thatcher writes on House of Lords letterhead.

Following our meeting in Tokyo I promised to follow up a number of points.

    The first concemed the tax position in Hong Kong after 1997; zwSated to that was the matter of the customs border between mainland China and Hong Kong.

    The seeond referred to Foreign Exchange and whether the FTong Kong dollar would continue to be used.

    The third was about Hong Kang passports and travel documents - would they continue and/or could they be transferred freely into Chinese passports.

    The answers are to be found in the Agreement enclosed, including the elaborating Annex and Memoranda.

The Forcign Office advise: "that post 1997 China intends to maintain all its customs and border controls around Hong Kong. Any relaxing of those controls would be a matter for the post 1997 administration of Hong Kong and Peking although it is to be assumed that China is unlikely to relax its position unless there was a harmoniging of rates of duty and of praotice." There are further Explanatory Notes at the back of the Agreement on page 30.

    I enclose a copy of the F'ull Agreement. It includes details of the Sino-HriHsh Joint Liaison Group which continues until the year 2000.

    1 also enclose the latest rcplies in the House of Commons to questions on Tobacco Advertising

1992 Oct 29: Cooper and Lybrand has been consulted about

the treatment for United Kingdom value added tax (VAT) of fees to be invoiced to Philip Morris Companies Inc. by a UK consultant. While it may be difficult to define precisely what services will be comprised in this consultancy arrangement, since it is of a high level and strategic nature, we understand that the letter addressed to the consultant's office constitutes a reasonable description of the types of service that are expected to be rendered.

1992 Oct 29: /E Handnote following the meeting with Margaret Thatcher in Tokyo and probably after receiving VAT tax advice from Cooper & Lybrand

1. No further comments [Reaction to press]
2. No reply to letters; if so, advise xxxxx
3. The Foundation
4. VAT - 17.5%
   Invoice a PM UK Co that is registered and we would reclaim the tax
5. South African beer
6. Logistics
   • Seymour is contact
   • Advance notice of dates
   • Ceremonial occasions 1) advance notice 2) Ad hoc meetings
7. BP Azerbaijan - she got the deal done. present at the signing of the K [Contract]
8. Contribute to the cost of airplane for Eastern Europe - accesability & knowledge
9. Lobbying - ad hoc — case-by-case
10. Lee Kow Shoxxy - Hong Kong - Tycoon - Shecpa (????)
    Letter to him

1992 Nov 10: Philip Morris' General Counsel, Murray Bring, wrote Thatcher Foundation representative Robert Higdon pledging $750,000 to be split over three years beginning that year. Documents state that the contribution was just part of a larger financial arrangement that Philip Morris had with Thatcher.

In recognition of the outstanding contribution by Lady Thatcher to the development of international stability and cultural progress, Philip Morris is pleased to pledge an annual contribution of $250,000 to the Margaret Thatcher Foundation for a three-year period, commencing January 1, 1992.

    The contribution to the Foundation will be to support projects which fit within one of three focused areas to which Philip Morris' charitable giving program is directed: education, food and nutrition, and the arts. The specific projects to be funded in whole or in part by our contribution will be the subject of discussion between Philip Morris and officers of the Foundation, and application of our contribution to any specific project will require prior approval by Philip Morris.

1992 Nov 25: Clare Lowther of Thatcher's private office, askes PM to pay the cost of her flight to Tokyo. Thatcher and her companion C Crawford had airfare expenses of £5,288 on British Airways

1992 Nov 26: The Swiss Advertising industry writes to Philip Morris (Switzerland — known as FTR) asking for them to use Margaret Thatcher to influence an attempt to ban tobacco advertising in Switzerland.

    Philip Morris is wary about recruiting her as a guest speaker:

Philip Morris cannot be seen as the organiser of this meeting for political reasons. The Swiss Advertising Association is our major ally in the fight against ad bans. We are working very closely together and are using them often as spokespeople.

We would be very grateful if you could do your best to secure Lady Thatcher's presence in March in in Bern as a guest-speaker in order to emphasise the need for Swiss politicians to keep freedom of speech for legal products

1992 Dec 9: The draft outline of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation sets out five areas of operation written by Thatcher. This was given to Stephanie French of PM following a meeting with Robert Higdon

• Entrepreneurial Scholarships to enable young people in Eastern Europe to attand short intensive business courses in the UK and USA - helping to develop entrepreneurs.
• Free market propaganda/training - books, videos, conferences and summer schools
• Formation and promotion of Democratic Political Parties - promote first-past-the-post electoral systems. Intensive training courses

  I would also like to encourage the leaders of conservative parties to meet, debate, seek common ground, and where possible forge common programmes. In that way we may move towards stable democracies with powerful conservative parties.

• Anti-communist and anti-socialist persuasion against the "siren voices of socialism"

  We must persuade these people that capitalism, as well as producing the goods, is morally superior to socialism. So we must extend some of the facilities I have described above to people in South Africa and Latin America.

• Small grants to individuals in a Conservative 'Peace Corp', so that young people can act as catalysts for change.

1992 Dec 11: Two days after the Stephanie French/Robert Higdon meeting — and after removal of the obvious ideological and political crusading material — the redrafted Thatcher outline for the Foundation was circulated in Philip Morris as a request for $750,000 as a grant over three years. http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/pco85c00/pdf

    The agreement was finalised on Dec 16

1993 Feb 6: Margaret Thatcher was the celebrity guest at a fund-raiser for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation - tickets $500, tables $5,000. It is for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Center for Public Affairs

    Craig Fuller- ex President for Cabinet Affairs in Reagan Administration, and now to US political strategist for Philip Morris, wanted to attend.

1993 June: The International Democrat Union (IDU) was founded in London in June 1983 at a conference hosted by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the UK Conservative Parry.

    The IDU is an association of like minded political parties with most of the leading Couservative, Christian Democrat and other like minded parties as Members. It is the most broadly representative international organisation of its kind with 70 Member Parties from 56 countries belonging either to the IDU itself or one of its regional organisations. {The European Democratic Union now became a Regional organisation, as did the Pacific Democratic Union - which later expanded into Latin America and Asia.]

    Also later a Caribbean Democrat Union

1993 Jul 20: PM Corporate Contributions

Margaret Thatcher Foundation $122,500 Civic 3rd and final payment of a $250,000 grant for an eight week internship for ten Russians

1994 Jun 12:: Michael Pertschuk's Advocacy Institute report mentions Thatcher's "Million dollar PM consultant"

1994 July 9: A Philip Morris representative John Roberts has seen (two days before the broadcast) the World In Action TV program "The Fag Lady: Philip Morris and Lady Thatcher," The ITV channel was to run a segment exposing Margaret Thatcher's dealings with the tobacco companies.

I have now seen the World in Action programme and have a copy of the tape. This was delivered to me by our consultants here this morning.

    Overall it is negative, although it seems to be purely upon the premise that it is newsworthy that, when Prime Minister, Lady Thatcher said "Smoking Kills" and now regularly meets with Foreign Governments to persuade them to lower trade barriers to, amongst other things, Marlboro.

    Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Azerbaijan are featured. Allegations of attempts to circumvent advertising restrictions abound. Marlboro Classics and Red Hot Hits are used as examples.

    Some use is made of PM internal memoranda, including one which is supposed to list those areas of the world where Lady Thatcher could be helpful.

    The conclusion of the programme is that Lady Thatcher has been paid to further views which she did not necessarily espouse when in Government. It even suggests that she is hardly supporting Britain when PM succeeded in Azerbaijan against BAT. The link here is made with a visit by her son Mark Thatcher. [Philip Morris had beaten British-American Tobacco in the purchase of monopoly rights]

    The programme lasts about 24 minutes and although it can hardly be regarded as anything but embarrassing, it is essentially badly produced and tedious.

1994 Nov 10: Advocacy Institute, Directory of Tobacco Industry Spokespersons, Front groups and their allies. [NOTE THEY HAD A DRAFT COPY]

Margaret Thatcher
Former Prime Minister of Great Britain

Background: Thatcher is a part-time consultant for U.S. tobacco company Philip Morris, earning up to a million dollars a year. She advises on cigarette advertising, tobacco taxes, and the penetration of markets in Eastern Europe and the Third World.

Sources: San Francisco Exarniner 9-20-92;
Video: "The Fag Lady: Philip Morris and Lady Thatcher," World in Action, ITV Independent Television, July 11, 1994

1995 May 31: The Guardian article "Faggy Thatcher's Trail of Smoke" says that she was paid £500,000 pa (US$815k) "to use her clout to break into markets in central Europe, the former Soviet Union, China and Vietnam

1995 Oct 23: Philip Morris paid for a 70th birthday bash for Ms. Thatcher on 23 October 1995 in Washington, D.C. 800 guests attended and the estimated cost of the party was $1 million

1997 /E: Brochure of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation (for International Relations)

CONTRIBUTORS:lrt3 dhf2 ent2