Murray said: "When I first watched B7, as a nine year old, I made an automatic link between Servalan and Margaret Thatcher, both being strong, capable women, who would go far, a link strengthened by the latter's election victory in 1979, and her ruthlessness."
And Thatcher spent much of her early years in office battling for the mindset of the people over Northern Ireland and the freedom fighters/terrorists (depending on your point of view). The hunger strikes in the early 1980s were significant because when Bobby Sands died, that put a lot of people in the camp supporting the IRA's cause. There has always been a majority in Britain in favour of Britain pulling out of Ireland, and that made it more difficult for her, not just in the UK but on the world stage.
Also at the time, Thatcher was toying with the idea of privatising the BBC. I've always wondered how significant it was that the BBC pulled a programme that was hitting 10m viewers that made heroes of a bunch of freedom fighters/terrorists (depending on your point of view) fighting a strong female leader.
-- cheers Steve Rogerson http://homepages.poptel.org.uk/steve.rogerson
Redemption: The Blake's 7 and Babylon 5 convention 21-23 February 2003, Ashford, Kent http://www.smof.com/redemption