Authors: Jonathan Coe

What a Carve Up! (68 page)

2
Richard Howard Stafford Crossman (1907–74), Labour MP for Coventry East, was at this time Leader of the House of Commons. Curiously his own copious diaries contain no reference at all to this conversation.

1
Confounding the opinion polls, the Conservatives had just won an overall majority of 31 seats in the Commons, with 46.4% of the national vote. Edward Heath (1916– ) became Prime Minister.

2
Keith Sinjohn Joseph (1918– ), later Baron Joseph of Portsoken. Secretary of State for Social Services (1970–74) and subsequently for Industry (1970–81) and Education and Science (1981–86).

3
The National Health Service Reorganization Act (1973), which was finally passed on its third reading in the Commons on June 19th by a majority of 11.

1
Barbara Anne Castle (1910– ), later Baroness Castle of Blackburn: Labour MP for Blackburn and at this time Secretary of State for Social Services. The strike mentioned here was threatened by paramedical staff at Charing Cross Hospital, who were refusing to serve forty penthouse suites set aside for private patients.

2
Margaret Thatcher had defeated Edward Heath in a leadership ballot and on February 10th 1975 was elected the first woman leader of a major British political party.

1
He probably did. The article in question was entitled ‘The Dawn of a Golden Age’ and contained little evidence of socialist bias.

2
Winshaw’s reference is to James Callaghan (1912– ), later Baron Callaghan of Cardiff. His opponents in the leadership contest had been Michael Foot and Denis Healey.

3
Reginald Ernest Prentice (1912– ), later Baron Prentice of Daventry, justified his sudden change of political allegiance in an ingenious volume called
Right Turn
(1978). He subsequently became Social Security Minister for two years in Mrs Thatcher’s first government.

1
Respected and powerful merchant bank with which Thomas Winshaw (1914–91) was long associated, first as director and later as Chairman.

2
The Telecommunications Bill for the privatizing of British Telecom was introduced into the Commons in November 1982; it was not actually passed until April 12th 1984, after Mrs Thatcher had won her second term.

1
Sir (Ernest) Roy Griffiths (1926– ), Managing Director of Sainsbury’s plc, was Chairman of the Management Inquiry into the NHS which published its report in 1983. It was highly critical of the ‘lack of a clearly defined general management function’ in the Health Service.

1
The confrontation between miners and police took place at Orgreave and was the most violent of the year-long strike.

2
Neil Kinnock (1942– ): former leader of the Labour Party, now one of Britain’s two Commissioners to the European Community in Brussels.

1
Dr Jane Gillam, to whom Winshaw is referring here, left the medical profession in 1991 and has since become well known as a freelance journalist writing widely on health issues. For a different account of her television appearance with Henry Winshaw, see the following extract.

1
Mrs Thatcher’s government was returned for a third term on June 11th 1987, with an overall majority of 101 seats and 42.2% of the national vote.

2
Promoting Better Health
(1987).

3
Working for Patients
and
Caring for People
(both 1989).

1
Margaret Thatcher was deposed as leader of the Conservatives on November 22nd 1990. Her successor, John Major, led the party into its unprecedented fourth election victory in 1992, thereby ensuring continuity in health policy. But this was a triumph, of course, which Henry Winshaw would never live to see.