Kindle Notes & Highlights
At Mafeking (where I relieved myself!)
To Bristol for a recording of a programme for the younger generation (15–25-year-olds). What emerged was: Great ignorance about Parliament and its work. Cynicism about politicians and their sincerity. Great gap between politicians and young people. No inspiration of young people by politicians. Healthy disregard of politicians’ conceit. Dislike of party or intra-party squabbles except as entertainment.
Dr Poku, at my request, took a hypodermic full of blood and put it in a test tube for me, as a reminder of the ‘noble blood’ which I shall lose in a few days. He mixed it up with some anti-coagulant so that it wouldn’t clot and it turned blue most appropriately. He said he quite understood as his father was an Ashanti chief who had given it all up.
The papers are still full of Kennedy and today Lee Harvey Oswald, his alleged assassin, was shot while in police custody. The whole thing is so fishy and the shame of the Dallas police is complete.
The first edition of the new Sun newspaper was published today – after a huge press and advertising ballyhoo build-up. It is appalling.
In the evening we went to the Soviet Embassy and as George Blake, the spy, had just been ‘sprung’ from Wormwood Scrubs there were a lot of rumours around that he might actually have been in the Embassy at the time of the party.
Ceausescu is about forty-eight, grey-haired, modest mannered, very penetrating in his ability, and I liked him.
Wednesday 11 December I went to Cabinet and the Falkland Islands was the only item; a long discussion. The general view was that the scheme that had been worked out and presented by Michael Stewart, ie signing a memorandum with Argentina saying that we would hand over sovereignty as soon as possible on a date to be fixed, but having a simultaneous document saying we wouldn’t do it without the Falkland Islanders’ agreement, gave an impression of deviousness.
This was 1968!
I had dinner with Eric Heffer, then phoned Judith, Joan Lestor, and Peter Shore to see how we could contain what had emerged, namely a European Social Democrat wing in the Parliamentary Party led by Bill Rodgers which was a minority but intended to defy the Conference decision.
People took her away and she was fighting with them. Poor old Hugh Delargy, Labour MP for Thurrock, is very shaky and sick, and being a devoted Irish Catholic he looked as though he would have an apoplectic fit and there would be a fight on the floor of the House.
As I sat and talked about it all with her it became quite clear to me that if one is going to record every minute as fully and completely as this, one does have to ask oneself the central question: ‘Am I a participant in life and politics or am I an observer?’ and if there is any conflict between the two, one must be a participant. It is rather like filling up the North Sea with oil instead of taking it out.
When the crisis comes, and it will probably be over a slump or Europe, a few people will go; Reg Prentice, Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins and one or two others are bound to slip away into the centre ground, and the Labour Party will have to build itself up again.
The John Stonehouse drowning is a bit mysterious. Bob Mellish had dug out a Hansard text of the last written question John Stonehouse asked before he disappeared, requesting the statistics on death by drowning. It was a most extraordinary coincidence – or else very mysterious. People don’t believe he’s dead. They think that with the financial trouble that he’s in, he’s just disappeared.
I think we would be foolish to suppose that Mrs Thatcher won’t be a formidable leader;
I read the Hansard on the Tuesday debate in the House and I noticed the speeches by Heffer, Maudling, Oonagh McDonald, Enoch Powell, and Eric Ogden, which were very interesting and well informed.
Unfortunately I have lost the notes I made at Cabinet – whether I left them at the Cabinet Office or dropped them somewhere I don’t know. Anyway I shall have to dictate it from memory.
‘Margaret Thatcher’s a very cautious woman, you know, very cautious. She will have to get rid of Airey Neave and George Gardiner and broaden her base; she may be bold in thought but in action she will be very cautious. She wants to get on with the trade unions very much and thinks she can: she sees no reason why she shouldn’t. She knows they are powerful and she has got to learn to live with them. That’s the way the Tories operate.’
I found that the BP share offer had been oversubscribed within one minute of opening because of the discount. Every single BP share could be sold in Britain. This means we don’t have to sell them in America, but of course we feel committed, so the jobbers will be refusing British bids for BP in favour of New York. The National Iranian Oil Corporation, ie the Shah, is trying to buy 1 per cent so he can get a foothold in the North Sea. We have handed some of the most valuable assets of this country to the Shah, to the Americans and to private shareholders, and I am ashamed to be a member of the
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But the plain truth is that if the Argentinians wished to attack the Falkland Islands they could easily crush them. Fred Mulley pointed out that the Argentinian Government, a ghastly Fascist military dictatorship, had ordered £700 million of warships from Vosper Thorneycroft, so they would be crushing the Falklands Isles with British warships.
Neil Kinnock came to lunch, and Caroline advised me to let him talk. Well, there was no problem there because he talked for an hour. He hadn’t really thought deeply about the political situation and his conclusions were incredibly non-radical for a member of the Tribune Group. He believed that ‘Emperor Jim with his quiet-life policy’ was right for the Party and that this would be more comforting than Thatcher’s divisiveness. We couldn’t defeat right-wing populism, and his recommendations were so modest that they might have emerged from a latter-day Liberal. He often gave me the impression that
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Dennis Skinner was fresh from his NEC victory and looked slightly manic and aggressive. Eric said, ‘That man frightens me. Is he really democratic?’ Dennis is a pyrotechnic; he isn’t frightening at all. He’s just pleased because it’s another left-winger on the NEC.
The press attacks go on. The Daily Mail wrote an article implying that when the House of Lords was abolished we would have no more Elections in Britain – a scandalous comment.
On ‘The World at One’ Mrs Thatcher was reported calling for a state of emergency and saying she would take away social security payments from strikers.
We had got to the point where indiscipline was threatening the life of the community and the Government must have a clear line. The situation was extremely grave and the Tories could win, giving Mrs Thatcher a mandate for the most violent anti-trade union policy. But at least the trains would run on time, he said.
When I was in Newcastle recently, I heard an NUJ man deliver the most violent attack on the management of his paper and he swore that he would die in the last ditch with the printers. I discovered that he was a Tory candidate for a north-east constituency.’
The TUC has got to back them, because, to put it bluntly, if the miners are beaten, the Government will ride all over everybody and workers couldn’t stand up to it again, so the miners mustn’t be beaten.
We went on to the polling presentation, and Peter Mandelson said a few words. I find Mandelson a threatening figure for the future of the Party. He came in from the media eighteen months ago and has taken over, and he and Kinnock now work closely together.
