“Every Practical Step”: The Gleneagles Agreement and Sporting Links with Apartheid South Africa during the Thatcher Years

In 1977, British Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan joined Commonwealth leaders by committing to the Gleneagles Agreement and thereby pledged to “combat the evil of apartheid” by “taking every practical step” to prevent sporting contacts between Britain and South Africa. Within two years of the agreement being struck, the Tories came to power under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher. Until the end of Thatcher’s time in office (1990), Britain’s application of the agreement became more controversial and divisive than it ever had during Callaghan’s administration, as critics zeroed in on the new Prime Minister’s interpretation of what “every practical step” represented or required. Although there are several studies that explore how and why Thatcher’s government chose to apply Gleneagles, none consider how the agreement was interpreted, debated, and contested from multiple perspectives. In this article, we examine what motivated such different reactions to Gleneagles in Britain and the Commonwealth and why ultimately Thatcher could not seem to please anyone.