1981 saw riots spread across the UK’s inner cities, as ethnic minority communities in Liverpool, Manchester and parts of London rose up against police, angry about racial discrimination. It was also the year that 10 IRA hunger strikers, including Bobby Sands, starved themselves to death in protest that they were being treated as criminals, demanding the rights of prisoners of war. It is widely perceived as one of the toughest years of Margaret Thatcher’s premiership. Now, confidential government documents from 1981 made available under the 30-year rule reveal details of what was going on behind the scenes.
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