December 31, 2001	Monday	Shawwal 15, 1422

LONDON, Dec 30: Oxford University has once again been unkind to Margaret Thatcher, the Sunday Times reported.

The university, which once refused the former British prime minister the customary honorary doctorate given to former prime ministers, suggests her place in history would be better assured if she had been killed in the Brighton bomb in 1984.

This assessment is in the forthcoming Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century British Politics, which is billed, according to the Times as “the most comprehensive and authoritative source of reference on British politics ever written”.

Pro-Thatcher historians contacted by the Times said, however, the entry on Thatcher might better be described as “opinionated, biased and abusive”.

The entry begins: “If Margaret Thatcher had died at the hands of the Irish Republican Army in October 1984, her historical standing would be outstandingly high... Survival that night in Brighton released her for quarrels with colleagues, obsessional causes, and a calamitous domestic enthusiasm, the poll tax and finally to exhaust the patience of the country.”

Thatcher went on to win another election, serving as prime minister from 1979 to 1990.

Referring to the current state of Thatcher’s party, the entry concludes: “It is entirely possible that with her other cloudy trophies may eventually be hung the destruction of the Conservative party.”

The Conservatives find themselves in the doldrums, having lost landslide elections in 1997 and earlier this year.

The entry on Thatcher was written by Edward Pearce, a journalist and former research assistant for the Labour party.

The OUP said the book was designed to be thought-provoking. “If the entries were purely dry and factual it would be rather boring book,” a spokeswoman said.—dpa