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432 INTO THE THATCHER ERA
rash undertaking that there would be only one round of disciplinary
proceedings, d promise that was soon broken. As the
various employees fell into a range of categories, this was always
likely to be a messy and prolonged business. 6o For GCHQ, the
small numbers of those who had refused to leave their union
or had rejoined it was not the issue. The main problem was the
impact on relations with the sizeable minority of employees
who had signed away their rights only reluctantly, typically
because of family commitments. GCHQ managers had expected
trouble from the Radio Operators, but not from the more cerebral
employees. In fact many of the mathematicians and
computer experts reasoned that it was illogical for the West to
be trumpeting the rights of free trade unions like Solidarity in
Poland, yet to be clamping down on unions at home. Some
mathematicians and cryptographers who worked in H Division
chose to leave. This unit was GCHQ's most valued human
resource, and the damage was serious. 61
Alexander Hamilton, a leading cryptanalyst, decided to take
early retirement. Hamilton was so eminent that his name had
been given to several systems for decryption. George Toumlin,
also in H Division, held out and expected to be sacked, but
reached retirement age before this occurred. 62 H Division's anger
at the management coalesced with other factors including poor
pay and limited equipment budgets. George Brauntoltz, who
worked at a senior level in H Division and had been with GCHQ
for thirty years, was particularly outspoken. He argued that
while the strikes had caused embarrassment, they had done
little serious damage, which had in fact been inflicted by government
pay policies which discriminated against scientists and
engineers, making it hard to get the cutting-edge staff that codebreaking
needed. There had also been continual cuts in capital
expenditure at GCHQ, making it difficult to 'get the tools to do
the job'.63
The point of exodus was frequently the Golden Valley Hotel
on the edge of Cheltenham, which had long been used by ATV
for the external shots for the daytime soap opera Crossroads.