The Thatcher government was sceptical of Eddie Fenech Adami’s “bleak” picture of 1980s Malta, describing his views as “wild statements”, recently declassified documents reveal.

UK Foreign and Commonwealth files, seen by The Sunday Times of Malta, contain reactions to a meeting between the then Opposition leader and a high ranking British minister back in 1983.

Though Dr Fenech Adami had described the meeting as positive, the documents shoot down most of his arguments.

Among the issues denied by the British commentator, Deputy High Commissioner Peter Marshall, are claims the 1981 election was rigged, that then prime minister Dom Mintoff was planning to resign, and that Church-State tensions were boiling over. All the claims were later proven right.

The commentator, on the other hand, attributes the claims to PN propaganda and inaccuracies.

The documents also reveal a basic misrepresentation of the famously reticent politician. Known locally as a man of few words, the documents repeatedly paint Dr Fenech Adami as a “talker”, describing his “gun fire style of utterance”, which at one point nearly broke the record keeper’s wrist.

Dr Fenech Adami meanwhile, gives a desolate view of 1980s Malta.

With violence on the rise and businesses leaving the island, Dr Fenech Adami says the Mintoff-led MLP government was putting democracy in jeopardy.