Cabinet records reveal 1971 secrets

Army chiefs advised the government against internment

Military opposition to the introduction of internment in Northern Ireland in 1971 has been revealed by previously unpublished government documents.

A BBC television programme to be broadcast on New Year's Day examines highly-sensitive Cabinet records released for the first time after 30 years.

The documents reveal the stories behind some of the most dramatic events of the year.

UK Confidential, presented by Brian Walden, also unearths government warnings about the single currency.

She [the Queen] was covered in spots and said it seemed a ridiculous disease to catch, especially when it isn't even from one's own children

Nicholas Jones
BBC political correspondent

These misgivings are publicised for the first time on the day when 12 European countries launch the euro.

But it is the military opposition to internment that is perhaps the most dramatic revelation.

In August 1971, troops in the Province rounded up and jailed a total of 342 men with suspected paramilitary links.

It became one of the most politically damaging events in the history of The Troubles.

'Threat to sovereignty'

BBC political correspondent, Nicholas Jones, said: "The violence and devastation which followed the introduction of internment without trial in Northern Ireland, and the rounding up of initially 300 terrorist suspects, was on a scale not seen before.

"What the 1971 Cabinet records reveal is that this was a political act and not recommended on military grounds."

The Cabinet documents have been released to the Public Records Office after the obligatory 30-year rule.

With uncanny timing, given events across Europe on New Year's Day 2002, UK Confidential also shows government fears 30 years ago about Britain's status within a future monetary union.

Walden reveals Cabinet secrets

A confidential Treasury memo on the Common Market warned that Britain's economic sovereignty could disappear with the creation of a European federal state with a single currency.

Other revelations shed light on the Pharaohs, Concorde and immigrations laws.

But on a lighter note, Nicholas Jones reports that "in her 1971 letter to the then Prime Minister Edward Heath, the Queen said she had chicken pox.

"She was covered in spots and said it seemed a ridiculous disease to catch, especially when it isn't even from one's own children."

Online forum

The programme will be broadcast simultaneously on BBC2 and the website at 1240GMT.

The website also provides extended interviews with some of the key figures involved in these events, plus transcripts of the records themselves.

There is also a special online forum presented by Richard Whitmore after the programme at 1345 GMT on New Year's Day.

The forum will enable viewers to question historian Lewis Baston about the programme.