Bullwinkle. wrote:
> You were forced to leave when you did, why is that?


I most certainly was *not* forced to leave! BD was a volunteer!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Defence_White_Paper

A good read on this special day. Here's a short extract:-

*

We were heading for war...and the Commons blamed me
By John Nott12:00AM GMT 14 Mar 2002

My visit was an emotional occasion. Unknown to the press, when I had
visited the same port less than a year earlier I had been besieged by
rioting dockyard workers, protesting about defence cuts and
redundancies. As soon as I had opened my mouth to speak, a hail of metal
bolts and other dangerous missiles had been hurled in my direction,
shattering the glass of several windows and doors. Amazingly, nothing
struck me. Hampshire police were called in, and when I left in a coach,
the men hurled more missiles at it, leaving several officials covered in
shattered glass.

This time, as I was about to go on board HMS Hermes, I saw a group of
the same workers standing on the dockside. I went up to speak to them.
For me, this was one of the most poignant memories of the whole
Falklands affair, because these were the very men whom I was putting out
of work. Several had received their redundancy notices a few days
before; but in spite of that, they'd all rallied round, working day and
night. I must have been a real nightmare to them.

However, although I had been in the centre of a very emotional row about
the future of the Royal Navy over the preceding six to nine months, and
although there must have been a number of sailors on board Hermes who
felt that I was responsible for having taken totally wrong decisions,
none of this came out at all during my visit.

I sensed that these naval officers and dockyard workers did not see me
as a visiting politician now, but acknowledged that I was there as the
Defence Secretary; that the nation had a crisis; and that we just had to
work together to put on a good show. It shows how much this country does
come together in times of crisis, and in a quite astonishing way.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4...blamed-me.html