The Benn Diaries: 1940-1990 (48 page)

Saturday 12 February

Tom Holliday drove me over to the Northumberland miners’ meeting in the City Hall where Joe Gormley and I both had a tremendous reception. It was a very curious occasion because this huge hall was filled with working miners in their working clothes and the general impression was one of greyness and no colour, because of the dark browns and blacks and greys of their clothes, but they were in terrific heart even though beginning to experience some hardship themselves as a result of the strike.

The power cuts are now widespread and on alternate days we lose power for about three hours so that the whole economy is beginning to feel the effects of the strike. One aspect of this is that it set into being a tremendous emergency system of help for old people which had not existed before. I discovered that in my own constituency in Bristol, about 80 per cent of the streets are now covered by street wardens and street committees brought into being by the strike. The other remarkable thing about the strike is the extent to which the wives of the miners have supported their men and the extent to which the public – although gravely inconvenienced – are in sympathy with the miners.

Monday 14 February

To Transport House this morning, where we had a special meeting of the NEC on the miners’ strike. Judith Hart spoke first and said we must support the miners without equivocation and she asked whether we should demand the resignation of the Government. She also thought it necessary to say something about the old and the sick and the need for local authorities and Labour Parties to help.

Joe Gormley pointed out they could have forced a general strike, but if they had had one, Heath would have gone to the country. ‘We have never argued’, said Joe Gormley, ‘that we were a special case and we want a return to normality as soon as possible.

At the end of the meeting the resolution which I had drafted in support was accepted.

Tuesday 15 February

We had miners’ meetings in the House this afternoon. A mass lobby took place. People were very critical of the previous Labour Government which, they felt, had let them down and I think that they were right. Looking back on it, I think our policy towards the mining industry was very shortsighted: stimulating nuclear power before we were really ready and running down the mines.

The theme of anarchy and unmanageability is beginning to emerge now in the Tory press and indicates that they may be thinking of turning this to political advantage. I think Ronald Butt in the
Sunday Times
began it, and Hailsham and others are on the same tack. The fear of anarchy is something that drives people to the right and this undoubtedly is what Heath wants.

Thursday 17 February

Today we had the vote on the second reading of the European Communities Bill. Heath won by eight votes with four Liberals voting with him. There were fantastic scenes in the House and great rage that some Labour people who had abstained would have carried Heath absolutely to the brink of defeat if they had voted.

I looked in afterwards to see Harold. He was immensely depressed. The fact that he had held the Party together right through to the second reading of the Bill was a great achievement and he couldn’t understand why people weren’t grateful to him. Of course, in practice, the situation is that everyone is thinking of Heath’s humiliation, and nobody thinking of Harold’s success.

But understandably, he being human, the terrible experiences he has had over the last few months on Europe have made him obsessed with his own position and he wanted a boost. I tried to cheer him up.

Monday 28 February

John Davies announced £35 million for Govan Shipbuilders at UCS.

Harold was on television tonight. He is going through a bad patch, though how anyone can tolerate being Leader of the Labour Party I just don’t know. It is an almost impossible position. No one likes leaders, and though Harold seems unattractive, I can’t think of anyone who would be better.

Friday 10 March

Up at 5.45 and flew with Frank McElhone to UCS. Jimmy Reid was away, resting after the strain of the last few months but Jim Airlie was there and so were some of the others. They told me that Marathon, who manufacture oil rigs, wanted about £12 million for Clydebank which would work out at about £4,800 per job. The shop stewards were quite prepared to support the Marathon bid within reason; the men would hold together even if Marathon fell through.

I had coffee with Jerry Ross, who is one of the old Communist shop stewards, Roddy MacKenzie, who has been the Treasurer, Bob Dickie and Willy McInnes who is a Labour Party shop steward. We talked about the next stage and in fact what these great revolutionaries want is simply joint production committees to share decision-making with the management. When I said, ‘Surely you want more than this,’ they replied, ‘No – you must let the workers learn before you give them added responsibilities to carry. You must let them learn.’ And so, far from this being a great Trotskyist plot (not that I ever thought it was), it turns out the most modest demands are being made by these people. I was much impressed to hear Jerry Ross, for example, saying, ‘If we had a joint production committee, we should want to sit down when we made a profit and say “Now look, let’s share some of it out in dividends, some to the state in payment of interest for the money they have loaned us, some in wages and some in investment.”’

This is where you do have to rethink the propaganda that you get poured at you suggesting that the shop floor is irresponsible. In fact, the shop floor is not only responsible but painfully modest in the demands that it makes and I must try to get this point across in future speeches.

While I was with them, they told me that the ‘David Frost Programme’ had invited them to take part but in fact it was all planned to be a punch-up on the air. When they handed around a lot of drinks to the men before they took part, Jim Airlie had said, ‘If anyone has more than a single beer, I won’t let him on the programme.’ Very impressive.

Wednesday 15 March

A big issue today was the Special Branch raids in Liverpool on the International Socialists: some friends of Stan Orme and Eric Heffer have been arrested and there is a great row about it.

Thursday 16 March

This afternoon there was an absolute bombshell: President Pompidou announced there would be a referendum on whether the French wished to have the Community enlarged.

At the PLP I spoke briefly and said that the implications of the French calling a referendum were important. It indicated a complete breakdown of confidence between Heath and Pompidou, since Heath had not been informed in advance. It was a continuing problem and we would
have
to look at the whole issue again. The Executive would look at it next week and the Parliamentary Committee would have to interpret it. I thought that a referendum would bring about Party unity. There was a general sort of air of congratulation and I was cheerful today.

I came home and worked on a paper on the referendum for the Executive.

Tonight Dick Crossman was fired from the
New Statesman
. I think they had
hoped he wouldn’t recover from his illness over the winter, but he did. They then tried to get him to withdraw on the grounds of health, and he wouldn’t, so they just fired him.

Wednesday 29 March

By 8 to 6, the Shadow Cabinet voted for a referendum: Peter, Michael, Fred, Harold, myself, Jim, Ted, and Bob Mellish for; Roy (though mildly), Shirley, Harold Lever, Tony Crosland, Douglas Houghton, George Thomson against. So it was agreed to put a recommendation to the Party meeting that when the Market was debated again in April, we should vote on a two-line Whip in favour of a referendum.

Well, that was a tremendous victory.

Tuesday 4 April

Stansgate. Went shopping. Worked up in my little office. I was then diverted on to my carpentry. Mary Lou Clarke, my new secretary, started working at home today for the first time and we talked on the telephone getting everything straight.

I phoned Rupert Murdoch about the referendum, thinking it was about time I got some press support. Ian Aitken phoned and I tried to contact Alastair Hetherington of the
Guardian
to win him over as well.

Friday 7 April

Went to see Rupert Murdoch, who was with Larry Lamb, Editor of the
Sun
, and the Editor of the
News of the World
. Murdoch is just a bit younger than me. He is a bright newspaper man who has made a humdinger success of the
Sun
, which nobody else was able to do anything about, and the
News of the World
, although it has been declining in circulation, is now fairly stable. He was opposed to the referendum, because he is in favour of entering Europe, so his two Editors were opposed to it as well. But I used all the arguments I could and they asked if I would write about it.

Then I went to the Reform Club to see Hetherington to try to persuade him to change his opinion about a referendum and I said he couldn’t refuse just on the basis that it would embarrass Roy Jenkins and Dick Taverne, as he had told me yesterday.

Monday 10 April

In the afternoon, just as I was leaving a meeting in the House, Peter Carver, the
Bristol Evening Post
lobby correspondent, caught me, saying ‘Come with me’, and began running through the corridors. I sort of pursued him. ‘It’s urgent,’ he said, as he dashed downstairs and told me the rumour was that Roy Jenkins, George Thomson and Harold Lever were going to resign from the Shadow Cabinet because of the referendum. So I went to see Harold and he said that it was true. I think he was actually quite pleased.

Then we went to the Home Policy Committee and a statement was put out by Roy. As his attitude towards the referendum had been extremely relaxed at the second Shadow Cabinet, I don’t believe it was that, but more the fact that he realised he couldn’t go on as Deputy Leader of a party when he disagreed with a central part of the party’s policy. I think that is really the position. Of course what he has been able to do is put the blame on me for the referendum.

I was interviewed in a hostile way on the ‘News at Ten’ by Douglas Stewart. Then I went on ‘24 Hours’ with Harold Lever: he was most arrogant about the public and denounced the referendum. Although I like Harold personally, he really is a Tory – there is no question about it: a nice, kind, generous, humane, liberal Conservative. Brian Faulkner, the former Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, was also there, having been interviewed by Bob MacKenzie. He got entirely brushed aside by this row. I felt it was a bit discourteous until I remembered that the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland is just like the Chairman of the London County Council, nothing more.

All of a sudden, I realised that the referendum campaign had gone wrong on me because it made me out as a splitter, whereas it had originally been brought forward as a peace move. But you are judged by results and this is the price I’m paying for that.

Tuesday 11 April

The Labour crisis is the main headline news story. I got the blame, as I expected. I had to go off early to Dusseldorf for the International Metalworkers Conference: Olaf Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden was there; Bognar, Minister of Scientific Affairs from Hungary, and Ken Coates of the Institute for Workers’ Control.

I flew home in the afternoon because of the crisis in the Party, cancelling a visit to Lausanne.

Wednesday 12 April

PLP meeting at 10.30. Bob Mellish introduced it and said he wanted to give the background to the Common Market debate next Tuesday. There would be a three-line Whip on our amendment calling for a General Election before entry; and the Shadow Cabinet had decided to have a two-line Whip in support of the amendment by the Conservative MP for Banbury, Neil Marten, calling for a referendum. He recommended support for this course of action. I detected a great deal of coolness by the Party and the general feeling was that the referendum should now be dropped as too divisive.

Tuesday 18 April

Worked all morning on my contribution to the European Communities debate in the Commons this afternoon. First of all we had the amendment
on the General Election – a very powerful speech by Michael Foot – then I interposed on the referendum by agreement with Michael and Peter Shore. I made my speech, which was detailed and long, and of course I got the absolute anger and hostility of the pro-Marketeers.

It wasn’t a successful speech because frankly, every time I talk about the Market I just annoy people. The anti-Marketeers don’t trust me because I am not anti-Market on principle, and the pro-Marketeers loathe me because I have pinpointed the thing that they find hardest to get away with, namely that they haven’t got the support of the public for this. I do think I have suffered very much over the referendum argument. Anyway, a number of Labour people abstained on the referendum, enough for Heath to win the day. So once again, the coalition has worked and Labour MPs have saved the Government: everything the Government has done this year has been done with the consent of the pro-Market Europeans in the Labour Party.

Wednesday 3 May

I talked to Frank McElhone this evening. He was very candid and said ‘Frankly at the moment, you have only got two friends in the Parliamentary Party – myself and yourself.’ I think this is probably an accurate account of how things stand.

Thursday 4 May

The solemn conclusion I have reached is that my support for UCS and the shop stewards, and my support for a referendum and my line on the Common Market have really alienated everybody. Put quite crudely, I have got to mend my fences.

Monday 5 June

Went to the House of Commons, where there were tributes paid to the Duke of Windsor. I haven’t referred in my diary to the death of the Duke of Windsor and the odious hypocrisy with which the royal family and the press and the Establishment handled it. Somehow, yesterday, this reached a peak. I didn’t hear the debate but the government motion forgot to offer condolences to the Duchess and it was only as a result of a backbench enquiry that the amendment was made. The Trooping of the Colour was not cancelled and Parliament didn’t adjourn on the day of the funeral of the former King. Tonight on television there was a marvellous programme about the Duke of Windsor which told his whole life story up to his abdication. Really, a lot of people are rediscovering how unattractive the monarchy is through the story of the Duke of Windsor.