The terms 'Thatcherite' and 'Reaganite' are often used in political discourse across the globe, but the label 'Mintoffian' also made its way into British diplomatic dispatches, newly declassified documents in the UK show. The term was used in the 1980s to describe a "Machiavellian nationalist": Gibraltar's former chief minister Joe Bossano. In the same year, 1984, that Dom Mintoff resigned as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party, Mr Bossano's breakthrough in his country's general elections seemed to have caused unease in British Foreign Office circles. Mr Bossano, who founded the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party and went on to become Chief Minister of the colony, was described by the island's governor at the time, Sir David Williams, as having no soft spot for Britain. "The domestic political scene is not too encouraging. Gibraltar faces the future with an elderly, if still resilient, Chief Minister and a lacklustre set of ministers. Ranged against them is a charismatic leader of dubious and perhaps Mintoffian purpose," Sir David wrote to London. Reacting to the letter, Richard Parsons, then British ambassador to Madrid, referred to the Mintoff comparison. "I note his...
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