The Benn Diaries: 1940-1990 (98 page)

America is very conscious of its fall in world power, and that is what makes it so very dangerous.

Tuesday 2 March

Norman Atkinson told me that Rupert Murdoch had had lunch with Mrs Thatcher no less than three times last week. He had heard that from Ian Gow, Mrs Thatcher’s PPS, and he had the impression that the Tories were panic-striken that
The Times
might come out for the SDP. So they were offering Murdoch all possible help in return for support for the Tory Party.

Monday 22 March

To London Airport to get the flight to Glasgow, and who should I see at the airport but David and Debbie Owen going to Hillhead to campaign in the by-election for Roy Jenkins, who is standing as the SDP–Liberal Alliance candidate. Then George Brown came in and headed for the bar. So sitting in the airport were three people who had been Cabinet Ministers together at different times, and two of them had defected and were going to speak for Roy Jenkins. Brown and Jenkins – two former Deputy Leaders of the Labour Party.

I was met at Glasgow and taken to the Hillhead Labour Party committee rooms, where I had a cup of tea and a bun. Then I was taken into a little room in an old Co-op funeral parlour where the candidate, David Wiseman, and others were gathered – a panelled room where no doubt grieving Glaswegians were handed the bill for burying their relatives. Helen Liddell, the Secretary of the Scottish Council of the Labour Party, said they were frightened about my coming – Helen is very right-wing. They kept bringing up ‘extremism’ in the Party and said, ‘Your Marx Memorial Lecture didn’t help.’

I went to the meeting attended by 1,500–2,000 people. The SDP had put out a little red-baiting, McCarthyite-type leaflet referring to my lecture.

Thursday 25 March

Was picked up at 10.45 pm to go to the ITN studios to comment on Roy Jenkins’s victory in the by-election.

Thursday 1 April

Met Graham Allen, Bob Cryer and Willy McKelvey, and for forty minutes we cried in each other’s beer, because after Hillhead we are very depressed. The Party isn’t doing well, the Left has lost the impetus, and the Right hasn’t grasped it because they haven’t anything to offer, but they are benefiting from the defeat of the Labour Party.

Friday 2 April

Today the Argentinian Navy were sent to the Falkland Islands, thousands of troops appear to have landed and overwhelmed the British garrison of seventy marines and a population of 1,800. The Government’s defence policy has been completely shown up – not that I would favour sending the British forces in, because it’s a colony we grabbed years ago from somebody and we have no right to it; neither has Argentina, though it is closer to South America. Some 1,800 British settlers do not constitute a domestic population whose views can be taken seriously, or rather whose views can be allowed to lead us into war. But of course the real interest there is the oil. There is oil around the islands, and Caroline pointed out that we should lave done a deal years ago. Take the oil, divide it into two – say Argentina
can have half the oil and overall theoretical sovereignty, while we would retain the administration and the population would be given shares in our oil. But that isn’t the way these things actually work.

We have the Polaris submarine and nuclear hardware but absolutely no capacity to fight a war at that range.

Saturday 3 April

My fifty-seventh birthday.

The Falkland Islands is the big news.

The House was in the grip of jingoism. John Silkin and John Nott made very poor speeches, Nott trying to turn it into a party attack, which didn’t go down very well. I came away full of gloom because it is obvious that a huge fleet of forty or so warships will set sail for the Falklands, arrive three weeks later, probably be attacked by the Argentinians, and then there will be a major battle. The Falklanders are in effect hostages, and I don’t think the US will support us, since the last thing they want is a big British fleet in the South Atlantic overturning the Argentinian dictatorship. And that’s what will happen, because General Galtieri, the Argentinian President who attacked the islands to divert attention from the fall in living standards in Argentina, could himself be deposed. The Americans don’t want that, since the whole of Latin America would be set ablaze. Very difficult.

Monday 5 April

To the Tribune Group to discuss the Falklands. Stuart Holland said the real interest was the £5 billion investment in Argentina, and Lord Carrington and other Ministers had resigned because they disagreed with Thatcher’s policy. He said there was high drama in the Tory Party about it.

Robin Cook pointed out that the Argentine Navy possessed British missiles and ships, and that nuclear weapons were useless. The Government had blundered, the position couldn’t be reversed, and the Falklanders wouldn’t want us back.

Mik said there was a danger of our being carried away. In the long term, was a Labour government committed to the return of the Falklands? A show of force was no use because we wouldn’t be able to hold it afterwards. We could sink the Argentine Navy, raze Buenos Aires, sign a death warrant for the Falklanders and alienate the world, or we could evacuate the islands, compensate the islanders and have the fleet on standby.

I believed that it was a complex question about the remnants of empire, that we had to be realistic and recognise that the islands were indefensible. As with Suez, we would find that the Americans didn’t support us in the end because they had great interests in Latin America. From their point of view the Anglo–American alliance was less important than their control over the whole of Latin America, and jingoism couldn’t help us. We should take a clear and united stand condemning the Argentine Government for their
invasion, holding Her Majesty’s Government responsible for their failure to provide minimum military protection, believing that the prime concern of the Government should now be to secure the future of the Falklands under an administration that would safeguard their interests. We should decline to support the Government in its preparations for war against Argentina, a war which would cost many lives and threaten the life, safety and security of the Falklanders. We should urge the UN to take responsibility for seeking a settlement that would meet their needs, secured if necessary by the presence of a UN peacekeeping force while international negotiations took place.

Stan Orme agreed, arguing that we must fight Fascism and help the Argentine working class. A British presence may help to destabilise Argentina.

Afterwards I saw Norman St John Stevas in the corridor, and I asked him why Peter Carrington had resigned as Foreign Secretary today, together with all the Foreign Office Ministers. Did he think it was because Carrington didn’t agree with Mrs Thatcher’s policy? He said there could be a number of factors involved, but perhaps one of them was that he couldn’t stand ‘that woman’ a moment longer!

Thursday 8 April

Chris Mullin came for a talk from 11.30 till 3.30. He’s just been appointed Editor of
Tribune
to replace Dick Clements.
Tribune
has now admitted that circulation is down to 7,800; there are two months’ unpaid print bills, and the whole paper has just been killed by a completely weak political line. I think now we are going to see some big changes. We discussed various ideas and plans. The paper will have a cutting edge, and that’s important.

Monday 12 April

Easter Monday. The family watched Michael’s bathtime; he was lying kicking and smiling.

I had a temperature of 102 and went to bed later. Falklands still dominant but no shooting yet.

Thursday 15 April

Chris Mullin rang to tell me the
Daily Star
had a heading ‘Whose Side Are They On?’ with pictures of the ten of us opposed to the Task Force, implying our treachery. It is bound to happen; you couldn’t expect otherwise at this early stage of jingoistic fervour.

Friday 16 April

A very painful cough. My temperature was down to 94 degrees. Lay in bed all day – Falklands again dominating the news. Didn’t feel at all well.

Saturday 17 April

This morning Caroline took me to the doctor, who diagnosed viral
pneumonia and put me on antibiotics and cough linctus. I felt very tired, and it was horrible to be stuck in my room on such a beautiful day.

Tuesday 20 April

The press covered my visit to the hospital, saying I was seriously ill. I feel a bit lonely at the moment.

Friday 23 April

Masses of letters pouring in about Argentina; the overwhelming majority in support of my position. There are a handful of really vulgar and abusive ones. I’m certain that a majority of the British people are against the war with Argentina but the media are preventing that view becoming apparent.

To Croydon for the funeral of Terry Parry, General Secretary of the Fire Brigades’ Union, a very popular man. A fireman picked me up and took me to the entrance of the crematorium, and the fire brigade was out in force – hundreds of them – as Terry’s body was carried on a fire engine covered with flowers and a Union Jack. Bill Jones, Walt Greendale, Moss Evans, Clive Jenkins, Len Murray, Jack Jones, Hugh Scanlon, Gordon McLennan, Mick McGahey, Jimmy Milne, Enoch Humphreys, Ken Cameron, Jim Mortimer – the Labour Movement’s leaders were there in force.

The service, which was conducted by Bruce Kent, was really moving. Bruce said he had never known Terry Parry, but Terry had requested that he conduct the service. Jack Jones made an excellent speech, Len Murray not such a good one. A friend sang ‘The Impossible Dream’, and I’m afraid I sat there with tears rolling down my cheeks.

Afterwards I talked to fire officers from all over the country. I was invited to go in their coach to Crystal Palace Football Club for a little party.

Wednesday 28 April

An exhausting day. I got another 400 letters today, making 2,500 this week. Overwhelmingly supportive – I suppose coming primarily from middle-class people. Some white feathers and vulgar abuse. The mail is the biggest I’ve ever had.

Tuesday 4 May

To the House and heard Thatcher at Prime Minster’s Questions. Tam Dalyell scored a direct hit by asking, ‘Did the Prime Minister herself, personally and explicitly, authorise the firing of the torpedoes on the
General Belgrano
?’ Thatcher said yes, in effect, she had the Task Force under political control.

Pym made a statement about his visit to the UN and looked uncomfortable, like Thatcher. I think they’re beginning to worry in the Cabinet because of public disgust at the loss of life on the
Belgrano
.

I was called by the Speaker at the very end of Pym’s interrogation, and I got in a pretty good point: ‘Had the Foreign Secretary’s attention been drawn to the fact that in the
Sunday Times
a public-opinion poll showed that 6 out of 10 people in Britain were not prepared to see one serviceman’s life, or a Falkland Islander’s life, put at risk, and that such a majority in Britain will not be rejoicing with the Prime Minister at the loss of life when the ship was torpedoed without a declaration of war well outside the Exclusion Zone? Will the Foreign Secretary take account of the desire for peace in Britain by agreeing to a ceasefire and to the transfer at once to the United Nations of sovereignty of the Falkland Islands and its administration pending a settlement under UN auspices?’

The House exploded at my comment ‘not be
rejoicing
with the Prime Minister’ – the Tories were furious because it echoed Mrs Thatcher’s own use of the word on reacting to the
Belgrano
sinking. I simply repeated the point after the noise had died down. The public really are shocked by what’s happened, and it had to be reflected in some way. The Labour benches weren’t enormously warm in their response to me but they are uneasy. They are pleased with Michael’s refusal to go into the secret talks between Mrs Thatcher, David Steel and David Owen this morning, and now of course the SDP and the Liberals are absolutely part of the government coalition and can’t ask questions: David Steel didn’t ask any while I was there.

Monday 10 May

One thing I record with regret and sadness. A woman from Portsmouth rang me up in great distress and started to abuse me. It transpired that her husband had gone down in HMS
Sheffield
, and she felt, as she was bound to, that his death had been in a good cause, and therefore she hated me for having opposed the war. I tried to tell her how sorry I was, but she rang off.

I wrote an article for
Tribune
, and sent a letter to the PM asking if the
Sheffield
had been armed with nuclear weapons when she was attacked.

Three nasty telegrams were waiting at the House. I’m sure things will get more unpleasant.

Thursday 20 May

About twenty-five MPs who oppose the war met at the House, under the chairmanship of Tam Dalyell – Andrew Faulds, Ray Powell, Bob Cryer, John Tilley, Mik, Judith Hart, Frank Allaun, Dafydd Ellis Thomas (Plaid Cymru MP) and so on.

A short press statement was drawn up saying that those who intended to vote against the Government tonight after the debate on the war were pressing for an immediate ceasefire, and they would vote against for the following reasons: (1) they wished to avoid the loss of life involved in a British landing, (2) they wished to continue negotiations in response to the latest appeal of the UN Secretary-General.

In the debate, Tam made a very good speech, and Denis Healey made an awful speech supporting the Government up to the hilt. When it came to the vote, Tam moved the closure at one minute to ten, and 33 Labour members went into the No Lobby; 296 voted for the Government – less than half the Commons. It wasn’t a bad vote.

Tuesday 25 May

Heard on the 10 o’clock news this evening that another warship had been sunk. Absolutely tragic loss of life. People are going to ask how long this madness will last – 26,500 men out there and a hundred ships, of which we have already lost four, for 1,800 Falkland Islanders who could all be brought safely to Britain if they would only come. Absolutely crazy.