Documents offer insight into post-war Britain

London: Newly declassified British documents provide a window into heated Cabinet discussions on Iraq, Israel-Arab relations, protecting the environment and a secret deal on when the prime minister would step aside for his ambitious No. 2.

Though many of the preoccupations are the same, these aren't Tony Blair's final months as prime minister. The Cabinet notes released yesterday instead provide an glimpse into the back rooms of Britain's post-Second World War government as the sun was setting on both the British Empire and the era of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Cabinet Secretary Sir Norman Brook's notebooks, covering the years 1954-1955, document discussions on what became known as the Baghdad Pact, a short-lived British-backed alliance comprising Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan aimed at keeping the Soviet Union out of the Middle East.

The pact collapsed three years later when a coup overthrew Iraq's British-installed monarchy.

During those discussions, Churchill dropped an apparent bombshell: His friend, British politician James de Rothschild, told him Israel was considering joining the British Commonwealth.

Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll out yesterday which showed nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real.

The survey found 47 per cent thought the 12th century English king Richard the Lionheart was a myth. And 23 per cent thought Churchill was made up.

The same percentage thought Florence Nightingale did not actually exist.

Three per cent thought Charles Dickens, one of Britain's most famous writers, is a work of fiction himself.

Indian political leader Mahatma Gandhi and Battle of Waterloo victor the Duke of Wellington also appeared in the top 10 of people thought to be myths.

Meanwhile, 58 per cent thought Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Holmes actually existed.