Ian Gow

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party suffered a political setback Friday, losing a House of Commons seat in one of its traditional strongholds to the minority Liberal Democrats in a special election. The reversal in a southern England seat held continuously by Conservatives since 1906 surprised party leaders and could mean a delay in the national election that Thatcher had hoped to call sometime next year.

A bomb hidden beneath a car exploded today, killing a top Conservative Party lawmaker who was on the Irish Republican Army hit list, police said. There was no immediate admission of responsibility. Ian Gow, chairman of the Northern Ireland Committee in the House of Commons, died a few minutes after the bomb exploded outside his home, said Inspector Mike Alderson of the Sussex police. No one else was injured.

The murder of British Parliament member Ian Gow, apparently at the hands of Irish Republican Army bombers, is a grim reminder that, however brightly the hope for a new Europe may dawn, it will have to be very bright indeed to illuminate all the Old World's dark corners. Ulster is one of those regions on which history's shadow rests most heavily.

Britain won a major victory Friday in its fight against the outlawed Irish Republican Army as a coroner's jury decided that British SAS commandos acted within the law when they shot to death three unarmed IRA guerrillas. The jury in the British colony of Gibraltar voted 9 to 2 for a verdict of lawful killing, deliberating for more than six hours on the manner in which the three--Mairead Farrell, 31; Daniel McCann, 30, and Sean Savage, 25--met their deaths.

LONDON -- It perhaps goes without saying that the death of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher did not prompt universal mourning. She could be a polarizing figure, nowhere more than in working-class communities of northern England, Scotland and Wales, where residents bitterly recall the fierce fights against her closure of Britain's mines in the 1980s, actions that caused thousands to lose their livelihoods. The National Union of Miners posted a few words of condolence to the Thatcher family, but followed it with a reminder: “The legacy of what the Conservative government did to British industry under Thatcher is not one to be proud of if you really did want the best for the people.” The working class had suffered “decimation” in the name of the free market, the message said, adding that “Thatcher lived long enough to see her beliefs demolished when the 'free market' collapsed and came running to the state for support.

In an extraordinary public announcement certain to severely strain Anglo-Irish relations, Ireland's attorney general said Tuesday that he has rejected a British request to extradite a former Roman Catholic priest on terrorism charges because the accused could not get a fair trial here. Irish Atty. Gen.

Two weeks ago, Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party lost a special election in Eastbourne, on Britain's south coast, slap bang in the middle of what is assumed to be the Conservative heartland. The consequence is that Thatcher now looks a better bet to win the next British general election--which must be held by the summer of 1992--than she has for ages. That seemingly strange conclusion flows from Britain's odd electoral politics.