Tam Dalyell at Edinburgh Book Festival 2012

• Stewart Smith
• 1 August 2012

This article is from 2012.

On Falklands, nuclear war and giving his home to the nation

As the title of his memoir, The Importance of Being Awkward, attests, former Labour MP Tam Dalyell has never been one to toe the party line. From the beginning of his parliamentary career in 1962, up to his retiral in 2005, Dalyell was a vocal critic of British foreign policy, opposing the invasion of Iraq and branding Tony Blair a war criminal.

At an event with Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University, Paul Rogers, he will be discussing his opposition to the Falklands War. He feels that the 1982 conflict was waged by Margaret Thatcher and Argentinean President Galtieri for ‘domestic political reasons’ rather than for the good of the islands. Victory for Britain ‘transformed the fortunes of the Prime Minister,’ he argues, ‘who in the March 1982 opinion polls was ranked lower than any previous Prime Minister, and went on to become the winner of a general election.’

Dalylell will appear in two other Edinburgh Book Festival events. He will discuss the role that the USSR had in the history of nuclear weapons with professor Paul Broda, and talk with Merlin Waterson about having donated his home to National Trust of Scotland.

15 Aug, 4.30pm, £10 (£8); 23 Aug (with Paul Broda), 5pm, £10 (£8); 20 Aug (with Merlin Waterson), 3.30pm, £10 (£8).