Diplomacy is unfashionable in the world of knee-jerk reaction and the dogmatic sound bite on television.

History provides no precise guidelines.

No military timetable should compel war when a successful outcome, namely a disarmed Iraq may be feasible without war, for example by allowing more time to the UN inspectors.

Diplomacy is unfashionable in the world of knee-jerk reaction and the dogmatic sound bite on television.

Margaret Thatcher was fearful of German unification because she believed that this would bring an immediate and formidable increase of economic strength to a Germany which was already the strongest economic partner in Europe.

A genuinely democratic Iraq might well act as a fresh spur.

If Margaret Thatcher had been Prime Minister at the time, there would have been no Treaty of Maastricht.