Greenham Peace Camp leader hits back at Thatcher jibe

MARGARET Thatcher’s claims that the Greenham Peace Camp women were “just a bit eccentric” has been met with anger by one lady who dedicated 17 years of her life to the protest.
Mrs Thatcher’s views were revealed in government papers released by the National Archives recently.
It was on September 5, 1981, that the Welsh group, Women for Life on Earth, arrived at Greenham Common to debate the decision to hold 96 nuclear cruise missiles at the site.
When that debate was ignored, the women took matters into their own hands by setting up a peace camp outside the perimeter of the RAF Greenham Common Airbase.
It soon became known as Women’s Peace Camp and garnered attention from press all over the world.
The protesters were committed, determined and at times controversial, but Mrs Thatcher’s opinion, which openly dismissed the women as eccentric, has prompted 85-year-old Glaswegian Sarah Hipperson, who arrived at the camp in 1983 and was the last of three women to leave the peace camp after 17 years, 20 arrests and countless nights sleeping on cold ground, to give her view.
“What Mrs Thatcher is saying is absolute nonsense. She wanted to cosy up to the Americans by housing 96 nuclear cruise missiles and we wouldn’t stand for it,” she said.
“Mrs Thatcher resorted to trying to humiliate us and putting us down, to try and make us leave and let the police get back to doing their job.
“She probably thought it wasn’t possible for a group of women to live in those conditions 24 hours a day, but we were dedicated and determined and it was the most influential non-violent protest of all time.
“I’m proud I was, and still am, a part of it.”