The Benn Diaries: 1940-1990 (53 page)

Went to the House for Questions and Norman Tebbit, the Tory MP for Epping, asked the Prime Minister whether he would arrange for the title of Lord Stansgate to be resuscitated. Another Member got up and asked whether Harold Wilson agreed with the statement I had made at the weekend, that it was not for Labour to instruct the miners on how they should vote. Harold got up and floundered a bit. I saw the Early Day Motion circulated by Harold Wilson attacking McGahey; indeed Harold said in the House that McGahey and Heath were the two extremists. I decided to do a bit of research and so looked up
The Times
for 1912; what was interesting was that in March 1912, the miners were balloting on a strike, the Government were rushing the Minimum Wages Bill through – which is like the
Relativities Report – and Tom Mann said the troops should assist the miners and was being prosecuted for sedition. Josiah Wedgwood, Bertie Russell and others set up the Defence of Free Speech Committee to defend Tom Mann.
The Times
’s leading articles were fulminating every day about syndicalist revolutions. And Ramsay MacDonald issued a statement warning against syndicalism but saying that the Labour Party wished the miners well. So there’s been no real change in the Labour Party since 1912!

After dinner Michael Foot and I had a chat and he told me that Dick Crossman is dying, which is very sad.

Wednesday 30 January

This morning there were massive attacks on Mick McGahey, and the
Guardian
actually ran a leading article saying, ‘Poor Mr McGahey, there’s not much difference between him and Mr Benn.’

In the Shadow Cabinet, Michael Foot said he wished to refer to the Early Day Motion condemning Mick McGahey, and to Jim and Ron’s statement. There had been no consultation on these. He said he disliked the attack on McGahey, McGahey might have been misreported, and anyway, he didn’t like Jim’s statement because it referred to extremists. Who were these extremists? Lawrence Daly?

Denis Healey said that the majority of the nation agreed with it and he was amazed at the naïvety of Michael Foot in not facing what he should have realised was a major threat to the social fabric of society. He wasn’t so surprised at
my
naïvety.

I interrupted, ‘Well, I, at least, am not an ex-Communist,’ which shook the Shadow Cabinet.

‘Well,’ said Denis, ‘perhaps it would have been better if you had been through these experiences when you were young.’

Douglas Houghton finished the meeting by saying that he was deeply troubled and the whole fabric of our society would be shattered.

It was a long, bitter and tough meeting.

Tuesday 5 February

Went to the House for Prime Minister’s Questions. It was clear from Heath’s answers that, with the announcement that the miners’ strike would begin on Saturday night, the Cabinet had in effect decided to go to the country. Heath was busy burning his bridges and his boats and everything else. The whole atmosphere was of the hustings, no question about that.

Speculation is starting among MPs that Heath will now go for an early Election, possibly as soon as 28 February.

Thursday 5 February

At 12.40, the Secretary of the PLP rang me to say that the General Election was to be on 28 February and this was announced on the 1 o’clock news.

Tonight Enoch Powell decided not to stand as a candidate because he feels the Election is a fraud and he can’t put forward a policy which he knows the Tory Government would break if they got elected. This is a very important factor. Many Tories will be extremely worried by Enoch’s defection and it will do Heath an immense amount of damage; it is bound to have an effect in pushing us up in the polls. If only Harold would look and sound a bit more convincing, we might have a good chance.

Monday 11 February

After lunch I went to Stockwood, the most difficult area in my constituency. It was windy and cold and pouring with rain. What was worrying was that out of fifteen houses there were three women – housewives between twenty-five and thirty-five – who had voted Labour in 1970 but were impressed by the arguments about the unions, about the miners, about Communists, about militants, about strikes and about being fair but firm. So Heath’s propaganda seems to be getting across and he is doing it on a big scale.

Came back absolutely persuaded that I would lose Bristol and that there would be a Tory landslide. Now, at midnight, having watched a lot of television and seen Heath doing a brilliant party political broadcast and Harold floundering away about the price of petrol, I am going to bed tired, exhausted and rather depressed.

Saturday 23 February

Today Enoch Powell made his big Birmingham speech – of which I have only heard the briefest reports – where he began to indicate that he would be recommending people who believed in renegotiation and the sovereignty of Parliament to vote Labour. That is going to be a major issue in this Election. The Common Market has come into its own in the last week. It is the big question because it touches at food prices, at Heath’s misunderstanding of the character of the British people and also at the basic question of the freedom of Parliament and the people. Focusing attention on the Common Market is the main contribution that I have been able to make to Party policy over the last three years.

Wednesday 27 February

Later in the day, Hilary arrived from London with a copy of the
Evening Standard
containing an article by Kingsley Amis describing why he was going to vote Tory, and saying that I was ‘the most dangerous man in Britain’.

Thursday 28 February

Polling Day.

We went to one polling station in Windmill Hill where there was a Young Socialist sitting with his YS badge and his Tony Benn sticker, and a boy taking numbers for the Tories. Later in the evening, we met the same boy in
our Labour Committee rooms in Windmill Hill helping us to knock up late voters because he had been persuaded by the Young Socialist that he had gone wrong.

After that we went and had a meal at the Golden Egg in Clifton. Back to the hotel and I had a quick nap before going back out from 5 to 9.30, doing a final round of major committee rooms. Canvassers were pretty contented. There were thirty cars available in Brislington. The place was absolutely crammed with people, with very little sign of Tory activity.

At 10 pm we were back at the hotel and we had a couple of hours there. By then the first results were out and it was quite dear that the swing was not uniform, that the Liberals were doing well in Tory seats and knocking the Tories out but not having anything like the same impact in Labour seats. So it all looked quite encouraging.

At 12.15 we all went to the Brislington School where the count was being held, and found there two complete television crews. The media appeared to have taken charge, with gossip writers, etc, no doubt all waiting for my defeat. Harlech Television had taken the domestic-science room on the ground floor and had a canteen there with a big notice ‘HTV staff only’. Caroline made such a row that we were allowed in for some baked beans and coffee.

The counting didn’t begin until 1.35 am and it was 4.35 before the result came out. But well before then one could see that I was well in the lead, and in the end the result was dazzling – a majority of 7,914.

Tuesday 5 March 1974

A WEEK AGO,
I thought I might be out of Parliament altogether and now I am in the Cabinet as a Secretary of State for Industry. I feel I have to keep the hopes of the Left alive and alight. The job is enormous and the press is entirely hostile and will remain so. I have to recognise that in putting forward my proposals to the Cabinet, all will be opposed: but there are four powerful Secretaries of State on the left – myself, Michael Foot, Peter Shore, and Eric Varley – and we are a formidable team.

Wednesday 6 March

Frances Morrell, Francis Cripps, my secretary Mary Lou Clarke and my PPS Frank McElhone and I had a long talk about how we would use public
ownership in the first instance as an ambulance for failed firms – because British Leyland and one or two other firms are in serious difficulties. Frances and Francis have both been appointed officially as my advisers; they are going to get about £4,000 a year and share a big office on the same floor as me.

The miners’ strike is over with a settlement of £100 m, twice what the Tory Government offered but still about £25 m below their full claim.

Thursday 7 March

At 11.55 I was summoned over to see the PM, who said, ‘About Ministers, I will let you have Michael Meacher as your Parliamentary Under-Secretary and I am giving you Gregor Mackenzie and Eric Heffer as Ministers of State.’ Brian Walden apparently would not accept because he can’t afford to take office and give up his other activities.

At 2 we had the Concorde meeting with David Jones, Deputy Secretary of the Department and Ken Binning, an Under-Secretary, both of whom I knew from my Mintech days. They told me in effect that there was unanimous official advice now throughout Whitehall for the cancellation of Concorde, and they had agreed that it was unsaleable in its present form. My own view is that we should continue with the present Concorde programme. This is one of the most difficult problems I have to tackle and I will have to fight it with tremendous care because it could be a disaster politically for me both in Bristol and personally.

Monday 11 March

At 10 o’clock we had a meeting about Norton Villiers Triumph at Meriden. Jack Jones came with Harry Urwin, Bill Lapworth (the Divisional Organiser of the TGWU at Coventry) and Dennis Johnson, the shop stewards’ convenor.

I agreed that we would make expert advice available to the people in the factory – probably taking on consultants who would work for the shop stewards in preparing a case for viability. Second, if they needed any further information from the company, I would ask Dennis Poore, Managing Director of NVT, to make it available and I may even use my powers to put a director on the board. Third, I would ask Poore to desist from any attempt to harass the co-operative. Foruth, we would try to find some way of getting the bikes to America to meet the summer demand. This was the best I could do and we agreed to a press statement afterwards, stating that ‘I had considered the position sympathetically and was helping the co-operative to get their case put forward in the best possible way’.

I agreed with my Ministers that I would leave home at 8.30 every morning, meet the press office advisers just after nine, and have a 9.30 ‘prayer’ meeting with advisers and Ministers only.

Thursday 21 March

The Government is in an interesting position. Harold depends on Michael, Michael brings with him Jack Jones’s loyalty and that triumvirate is
the
most important group in the whole Government. I think Roy Jenkins is being bought off. As to the rest, they are less important figures. Harold, of course, thoroughly enjoys this risky political position because it means he can do what he likes; so do the right-wing members of the Cabinet because they can always use the Liberals’ parliamentary strength as an excuse for delaying any programme that they don’t believe in. But this can’t go on for long; there will have to be another Election – September at the latest.

Went over to the Cabinet at 10.45 and parliamentary affairs was followed by free family planning on the Health Service which Barbara got the Cabinet to agree to. Denis said it would have to come out of her budget.

Tuesday 2 April

President Pompidou has died. This is very important for Concorde, because French Ministers will now be unable to move until there is a replacement, so Achille-Fould will probably not come to London next week and the whole Concorde decision will be held up.

It is now 1.45 in the morning of my forty-ninth birthday. Just going to bed very, very tired with a tremendous weight of work on my shoulders. My goodness me, you don’t have much time for thinking. But as Frances Morrell said to me, all Ministers have problems. Defence has got to make cuts, Crosland has to deal with mortgages, Jim Callaghan has to cope with Europe and Shirley Williams has got to deal with prices. Being a Minister is not an easy job.

Wednesday 3 April

Frank McElhone came to see me. The truth is that I have left him out in the cold and he was angry, like my secretary, Mary Lou, who feels isolated. He denounced me for ignoring the PLP, so I told him to fix things up, and he said, ‘I have fixed them up and they have all been cancelled. You are devoting yourself to the wrong priorities.’ So I have to placate Mary Lou and Frank; I have got to reallocate my work better so I spend more time with MPs; and I have got to keep the Ministers sweet, particularly Frank Beswick and Eric Heffer. I have got to be a better manager of people and I’m not very good at that, that’s my trouble. I had a knocking from him for forty minutes.

I came home and there was a birthday cake for me, and then I settled down to my boxes.

Saturday 6 April

I wrote a note to Anne Crossman following Dick’s death yesterday. Dick was a remarkable man, immensely intelligent and kind when he wanted to be but, of course, the teacher throughout his life – always preferring conflict,
which cleared his mind. He was absolutely unreliable in the sense that he often changed his views, but he always believed what he said, which is something you can’t say of others. He was also capable of being unpleasant and my friendship with him had deteriorated sharply in recent years. At any rate, he will be remembered through his diaries, which will be the best diaries of this period ever published; though I hope my own, if they are ever transcribed, will also turn out to be a reasonable record.