It is 40 years since an IRA bomb exploded in The Grand hotel in a bid to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It was October 12, 1984, and Thatcher, along with other senior Conservatives were staying there during the Tory Party's annual conference in Brighton.

 (Image: Simon Dack / The Argus)

Patrick Magee, a provisional Irish Republic Army (IRA) activist, had been tasked with murdering Mrs Thatcher and as many of her cabinet members as possible. 

Reporter Ramy Abou-Setta spoke to Jon Buss, who was crime reporter for what was then the Evening Argus, about the night he was called to report on the Brighton bomb. 

“Imagine this, I’m a crime reporter for The Argus and usually get about five to six calls a night about things that need covering,” Jon recalled. “Someone calls to say there’s been a fire in Eastbourne, or there’s been a robbery in Brighton. 

“This was different. I get a call that wakes me up at three in the morning and all I hear is a deep voice saying ‘there’s been a bomb at The Grand hotel'.

“All I could do as soon as I heard the news was sit up in the bed and say ‘f*** me!'."

The next half an hour for Jon involved calling anyone and everyone he could to plan the best next course of action.

“There was nothing like the sort of connectivity we have today," he said. "I had to ring one by one anyone I could to learn more about what had happened. 

“I had to call The Argus news desk, the news editor, deputy news editor and the picture news desk and get them to get the wheels moving.” 

(Image: PA)

Then he headed to the scene, which was devastating.

Confused and dazed Tory MPs in their nightwear covered in dust were wandering the seafront. Police, the fire service and ambulances lined the seafront in front of The Grand where a gaping hole exposed the interior of the shattered hotel to the night sky. There was rubble and glass everywhere.

“It was dusty, it was smoky and there was no police cordon," said Jon. "People were wandering around in a daze.

"Because I’d done the more sensible thing at the time and not rushed down as soon as I heard the news, I was very relieved to see that very quickly I was not there by myself. 

“There was this magnetic buzz created by the fire engines, which is typically created at these major events and it sort of set the tone for the night. There were people covered in dust and that was the main focus.  

“No one paid mind to the hole in the hotel, it’s not until a week later when I was walking with my children on the seafront that we noticed it. It shocked me when I was in actual daylight and not working” 

(Image: Simon Dack / The Argus)
Mrs Thatcher, who was awake at the time working on her conference speech, was unharmed but five people were killed and dozens injured. She and her husband Denis were taken to Brighton Police Station and then on to a safehouse. 

Jon, who is now 72 and living near Leicester, said:  “The Argus sent reporters to cover every single angle of the story, there was one at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, one at Brighton Police Station, there were about four or five of us at the hotel.  

“There were also photographers everywhere, it was a major operation. We had a very strong group of reporters and we set out to report the incident to the best of our abilities. 

“For many including myself this was the biggest story we would ever report in our careers.” 

The blast reshaped politics in the western world for years to come.  

Jon said that before it happened party conference delegates could walk freely around the premises, entering and leaving as they wished. Now there is cast-iron security at every event. 

(Image: PA)

The bombing further intensified the Troubles in Northern Ireland, escalating tensions and  hardening political positions. 

Jon said: "The bomb changed the way in which political conferences operated, they are now behind a sea of concrete and armed police officers, things that never existed before. 

“It threw national security into the mix of local journalism, we were aware of continuing security threats that would never have been in the forefront of our mind."

Jon chose the Brighton bomb as the subject of his thesis for the history degree he completed recently and he achieved a first.

He said: “The impact of the Brighton bomb on the reputation of the IRA, how much it impacted the peace process and its lasting political effect can be debated for years but I believe it had a major impact.”