From the start the results went wrong. No. 1 Billericay, containing the New Town of Basildon, recruited by good Labour voters from West and East Ham. Surely a Labour gain. But no, held by Tories with 4,000 majority. True we held the two Salford seats but then came a stream of disappointments. Battersea South and Watford both held by Tories, and a Tory gain from Labour at Acton. And so, on and on.
In fact the first Tory gain was Holborn and St Pancras, where the handsome, personable television journalist Geoffrey Johnson Smith overcame Lena Jeger by 656 votes. Among those helping at the count was Anthony Heap, who – ‘much bucked’ by these ‘joyous tidings’ – then headed home for a ‘night of gladness’. ‘Election results coming in thick & fast,’ recorded Kenneth Williams. ‘All v. exciting. Tory gains all the time. Labour is going to be crushingly defeated.’ Shortly after midnight, Crosland squeaked through in Grimsby by 101 votes; half an hour later, Thatcher swept home in Finchley (‘the cheers, always more controlled from Tory than from Liberal or socialist lips, rose’, she remembered); and shortly before one o’clock at Leeds Town Hall, a dignified Gaitskell conceded defeat, promising that ‘the flame of democratic socialism still burns bright’. Bevan at every level was dismayed – ‘I would never concede,’ he told those around him at Ebbw Vale, ‘I would wait until the last vote was properly counted’ – while for Benn in Bristol it suddenly seemed a long time since those triumphant magazine-style PPBs. ‘The count is very depressing with the crowing Tories and our people very dejected,’ he noted. And, after retaining his seat with a sharply reduced majority, ‘back to the Grand Hotel too depressed to watch TV’.16
The eventual outcome, on a 78.7 per cent turnout, was an overall Conservative majority of 100 – an astonishing triumph for a government already almost eight years old. The shares of the popular vote were 49.4 per cent for the Conservatives and 43.7 per cent for Labour, a wider margin than predicted by any of the final opinion polls, while the Liberals more than doubled their share, up to 5.9 per cent, but were still stuck on six seats. Strikingly, the Conservatives fared particularly well in newly prosperous areas like Dagenham and Coventry (where Labour lost a seat for the first time since the war) and in new working-class housing developments, such as at Borehamwood or Birmingham’s outer estates, as well as (of course) at Basildon. By contrast, a mixture of unemployment and pit closures gave Labour a 3-per-cent swing in Scotland, though that country still produced plenty of Tory victors, including Sir Colin Thornton-Kemsley at Angus North and Mearns and Sir William Anstruther-Gray at Berwick and East Lothian, not to mention Lord John Hope at Edinburgh Pentlands. Elsewhere, winners included Julian Critchley, Charles Hill, Jeremy Thorpe, Dudley Smith and Peter Tapsell; losers included Michael Heseltine, Michael Underhill, Lawrence Daly (though securing almost 5,000 votes), Michael Foot, Shirley Williams, John Arlott, Alan Gibson, David Pitt and Betty Boothroyd (congratulated by her opponent Harmar Nicholls on being ‘a bonny fighter’). There were two particularly outraged losers. Robert Maxwell at Buckingham declined to shake the victor’s hand, claiming he would have won ‘had the Tories fought cleanly’; and, in arguably the election’s single most important – and heartening – result, Oswald Mosley in North Kensington simply refused to accept that he had lost his deposit.
Early reactions included frantic trading on Friday morning on the floor of the Stock Exchange, now it was clear the steel industry would not be renationalised; Graham Greene hearing about Labour’s defeat while on a plane over Canada and celebrating with a slug of whisky; and Larkin in Hull observing ‘some long faces in the University on Friday, haw haw’, while expressing his own hope that ‘the present crowd don’t do anything silly in their mad flush of victory’. A quartet of female observers had their own takes. ‘Now we can have Stable Government for another 4½ years,’ reflected Florence Turtle; for Nella Last, notwithstanding her satisfaction with the outcome, it was ‘the gallant attitude of Mr Gaitskell’ that she thought would remain with her, ‘& his courageous smile as he spoke of the defeat as a “set-back” only’; Tom Courtenay’s mother in Hull wrote to him that she felt ‘very sorry for the Labour people, mainly Welsh and Scottish, and I’m sure they will hate clever buggers English mainly non-industrial South’; and Mrs B. K. of Camberwell announced in the Daily Sketch how glad she was, ‘as a woman’, that the election was finally over: ‘It will be so good to have our menfolk peacefully at home again – without having to endure their arguments with neighbours over the garden fence. Or having to listen to them laying down the law to their wives and families, who apparently aren’t expected to have minds of their own!’17
Why had the Conservatives won so conclusively? Some emphasised Gaitskell’s tax-pledge blunder, some the Conservatives’ much greater advertising spend during the long run-up to the election, some their greater organisational capacity in the decisive weeks. For Richard Crossman, writing up his diary on the Friday, one ‘simple truth’ had ‘dogged’ his party’s efforts: ‘Tory voters are far more afraid of another Labour Government than Labour voters are afraid of another Tory Government. The Tories were able to exploit fear of nationalization, inflation, flight from the pound, trade unions, and so on.’ Ultimately, though, the most common – and surely correct – perception was that, whatever the attractions or otherwise of Labour’s case, the electorate just did not want to change horses at a time of such welcome prosperity. ‘He votes for his stomach, or not at all,’ was the view of a ‘furious’ John Fowles about the typical voter, while the young David Owen, just starting as a medical student, was equally jaundiced. ‘Can any party ever have won an election on a more immoral slogan, a positive disgrace and a sign of the moral depravity of our life?’ he asked himself. ‘People seem to vote solely on their bellies.’ And famously, Trog drew a wonderful cartoon for the Spectator, showing Macmillan sitting in best Edwardian manner opposite an array of consumer durables (fridge, car, washing machine, TV set) and saying, ‘Well, gentlemen, I think we all fought a good fight . . .’
There was one other dimension to this instant analysis. ‘A prosperous, mainly middle-class Britain cannot be stampeded by the crude old cries of under-privilege,’ declared The Times on Saturday the 10th. Macmillan himself fully agreed, composing that day a letter to the Queen that finished with a paragraph he must have known was destined for the history books:
The most encouraging feature of the Election from Your Majesty’s point of view, is the strong impression that I have formed that Your Majesty’s subjects do not wish to allow themselves to be divided into warring classes or tribes filled with hereditary animosity against each other. There was a very significant breakdown of this structure of society which, in spite of its many material advantages, was one of the chief spiritual disadvantages of the first industrial revolution. It will be curious if the second industrial revolution, through the wide spread of its amenities of life to almost every home in the country, succeeds in destroying this unfortunate product of the first. At any rate, anything that makes Your Majesty’s subjects more conscious of their unity and of their duty to each other seems to me to be a real gain.
Macmillan had probably not read (despite its address) a letter that had appeared in late August in the Viewer, the TV magazine covering the Tyne Tees area. ‘Every time the quiz show Concentration comes on, it annoys me to death,’ complained G. Barraclough of Lincoln Grove, Albany Estate, Stockton-on-Tees. ‘I have never yet seen an ordinary working-class person on it, they are always middle-class – and most of them, no doubt, already have the prizes which they win. I might add that my friends and neighbours think the same!’18
Notes
Abbreviations
Abrams Mark Abrams Papers (Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge)
Amis Zachary Leader (ed), The Letters of Kingsley Amis (2000)
BBC WA BBC Written Archives Centre (Caversham)
Benn Ruth Winstone (ed), Tony Benn, Years of Hope: Diaries, Letters and Papers, 1940–1962 (1994)
Crossman Janet Morgan (
ed), The Backbench Diaries of Richard Crossman (1981)
Crossman Diary of Richard Crossman (Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick)
Daly Lawrence Daly Papers (Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick)
Dee Diary of Dennis Dee (East Riding of Yorkshire Archives, Beverley)
Fowles Charles Drazin (ed), John Fowles, The Journals: Volume 1 (2003)
Fowles John Fowles Papers (Special Collections, University of Exeter)
Gorer Geoffrey Gorer Papers (Special Collections, University of Sussex)
Hague Frances and Gladys Hague Papers (Keighley Library)
Haines Diary of Alice (Judy) Haines (Special Collections, University of Sussex)
Heap Diary of Anthony Heap (London Metropolitan Archives)
Langford Diary of Gladys Langford (Islington Local History Centre)
Larkin Anthony Thwaite (ed), Philip Larkin, Letters to Monica (2010)
Larkin Unpublished Letters of Philip Larkin to Monica Jones (Bodleian Library, Oxford)
Last Diary of Nella Last (Mass-Observation Archive, Special Collections, University of Sussex)
Lewis Diary of Frank Lewis (Glamorgan Archives, Cardiff)
Macmillan Harold Macmillan, Riding the Storm: 1956–1959 (1971)
Macmillan Harold Macmillan Papers (Bodleian Library, Oxford)
Martin Diary of Madge Martin (Oxfordshire History Centre, Oxford)
M-O A Mass-Observation Archive (Special Collections, University of Sussex)
Preston Diary of Kenneth Preston (Bradford Archives, Bradford Central Library)
Raynham Diary of Marian Raynham (Special Collections, University of Sussex)
St John Diary of Henry St John (Ealing Local History Centre)
Turtle Diary of Florence Turtle (Wandsworth Heritage Service)
Willmott Diary of Phyllis Willmott (Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge)
All books are published in London unless otherwise stated.
1 Isn’ ’e Smashin’?
1. The Society of Housing Managers, Report of Conference, Housing Management, Thursday and Friday 10th and 11th January 1957 (1957), pp 5, 18, 49; Haines, 12 Jan 1957; Preston, 12 Jan 1957; BBC WA, R9/19/2, Viewer Research Newsletters, Jan 1957 (II); Richard Webber, Fifty Years of Hancock’s Half Hour (2004), p 214; Larkin, Ms Eng. c. 7415, 13 Jan 1957, fol 61.
2. Iverach McDonald, The History of The Times, Volume V (1984), p 319; Macmillan, dep.d.28, 3 Feb 1957, fol 13; Michael Cockerell, Live from Number 10 (1988), pp 54–5; Nigel Jones, Through a Glass Darkly (1991), pp 354–5; Last, 18 Jan 1957; Benn, p 226; Richard Ingrams, Muggeridge (1995), p 187.
3. Spencer Leigh, ‘Alan Sytner’, Independent, 13 Jan 2006; Liverpool Echo, 17 Jan 1957; St John, 19 Jan 1957; Listener, 7 Feb 1957; Aurelia Schober Plath (ed), Sylvia Plath, Letters Home (1976), p 293; Heap, 24 Jan 1957; Sunday Times, 27 Jan 1957.
4. John McIlroy, ‘“Every Factory Our Fortress”’, Pt 2, Historical Studies in Industrial Relations (Autumn 2001), p 75; H. A. Turner et al, Labour Relations in the Motor Industry (1967), p 276; Richard Etheridge Papers (Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick), 202/S/J/3/2/19, 28 Jan 1957; Daily Mail, 12–13 Feb 1957; Turner et al, p 277; Barking, East Ham and Ilford Advertiser, 16 Feb 1957.
5. Last, 30 Jan 1957; Educating Archie, 30 Jan 1957; Muir and Norden Archive (Special Collections, University of Sussex), Box 19, Take It From Here, 30 Jan 1957; Daily Mirror, 30–31 Jan 1957.
6. BBC WA, R9/7/26 – VR/57/66; News Chronicle, 5 Feb 1957; Joanna Moorhead, New Generations (Cambridge, 1996), pp 7–10; Daily Sketch, 6 Feb 1957.
7. Picture Post, 25 Feb 1957; Leicester Mercury, 4 Feb 1957, 6–7 Feb 1957; Picture Post, 25 Feb 1957; News Chronicle, 6 Feb 1957; Bill Law, ‘The Boys Who Got Us Swinging’, Guardian, 7 Mar 1997; Ray Gosling, Personal Copy (Five Leaves edn, 2010), pp 42–3.
8. East London Advertiser, 8 Feb 1957; Architects’ Journal, 14 Feb 1957; Glasgow Herald, 9 Feb 1957; East London Advertiser, 15 Feb 1957.
9. New Statesman, 9 Feb 1957; Sunday Times, 17 Feb 1957; Birmingham Mail, 14 Feb 1957; Last, 11 Feb 1957.
10. Last, 11 Feb 1957; Daily Mirror, 11–12 Feb 1957; Heap, 15 Feb 1957; Daily Mirror, 18 Feb 1957; Sunday Express, 17 Feb 1957.
11. John Hill, ‘Television and Pop’, in John Corner (ed), Popular Television in Britain (1991), p 90; Daily Sketch, 11 Dec 1956; Hill, p 90; Radio Times, 8 Feb 1957.
12. Pete Frame, The Restless Generation (2007), p 219; Hill, p 93; Sunday Times, 17 Feb 1957; BBC WA, R9/7/26 – VR/57/95; News Chronicle, 18 Feb 1957; Daily Telegraph, 18 Feb 1957; Daily Mail, 18 Feb 1957.
13. Radio Times, 15 Feb 1957; Daily Mirror, 18 Feb 1957; Sunday Times, 24 Feb 1957; Daily Mail, 19 Feb 1957; Radio Times, 15 Feb 1957.
14. New Statesman, 23 Feb 1957; Daily Mirror, 19 Feb 1957; Daily Telegraph, 19 Feb 1957; Daily Mail, 19 Feb 1957; BBC WA, R9/7/26 – VR/57/110; Leonard Miall, ‘Donald Baverstock’, Independent, 18 Mar 1995; Alasdair Milne, DG (1988), p 15; Asa Briggs, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, Volume V (Oxford, 1995), pp 161–4; Andrew Crisell, ‘Filth, Sedition and Blasphemy’, in Corner, Popular Television, p 149.
15. http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/ward.htm; Sunday Times, 24 Feb 1957.
2 A Lot of Mums
1. Alan Bennett, Untold Stories (2005), p 402; Chas Critcher, ‘Sociology, Cultural Studies and the Post-war Working Class’, in John Clarke et al (eds), Working-Class Culture (1979), p 17; Guardian, 7 Feb 2004; New Statesman, 2 Mar 1957 (Chatto & Windus advertisement); Manchester Guardian, 23 Feb 1957; Richard Johnson, ‘Culture and the Historians’, in Clarke et al, Working-Class Culture, p 59.
2. Peter Townsend Collection (Qualidata, University of Essex), Box 60, File B, Michael Young memorandum, 8 Jan 1956; Star, 23–7 Apr 1957; Daily Herald, 26 Apr 1957; Daily Mirror, 26 Apr 1957; News Chronicle, 27 Apr 1957; Daily Telegraph, 26 Apr 1957; The Times, 26 Apr 1957; Daily Mail, 30 Apr 1957; Financial Times, 13 May 1957.
3. Spectator, 1 Mar 1957, 21 Jun 1957; Nick Tiratsoo and Mark Clapson, ‘The Ford Foundation and Social Planning in Britain’, in Giuliana Gemelli (ed), American Foundations and Large-Scale Research (Bologna, 2001), p 212; Listener, 30 May 1957; Encounter (Sep 1957), p 84; Times Literary Supplement, 25 Oct 1957; Case Conference (May 1957), pp 24–5.
4. Michael Young Papers (Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge), 5/23, 28 Apr 1957; Dartington Hall Trust Archives, DWE/G/11/C, 5 May 1957.
5. Encounter, Apr 1955, p 14; John Vaizey, In Breach of Promise (1983), p 119; David Marquand, Britain since 1918 (2008), pp 246–7; Lawrence Black, The Political Culture of the Left in Affluent Britain, 1951–64 (Basingstoke, 2003), pp 85–6; Michael Young and Peter Willmott, Family and Kinship in East London (Penguin edn, 1986), p xvii; Young and Willmott, Family and Kinship (Pelican edn, 1962), pp 197–8; Young and Willmott, Family and Kinship (1986), p xix.
6. Spectator, 20 Jan 1956; Architects’ Journal, 31 Jan 1957.
7. Margot Jefferys, ‘Londoners in Hertfordshire’, in Ruth Glass et al, London: Aspects of Change (1964), pp 239–43; J. B. Cullingworth, ‘The Social Implications of Overspill’, Sociological Review (Jul 1960), pp 77–96; J. B. Cullingworth, ‘The Swindon Social Survey’, Sociological Review (Jul 1961), pp 151–66; Royal Society for the Promotion of Health Journal (Mar–Apr 1959), pp 206–8.
8. Maurice Broady Collection (Special Collections, University of Glasgow), uncatalogued red-and-green box, interview with Mrs Stewart, Craigbank, 20 Feb 1957.
3 Never Had It So Good
1. Daily Mail, 4 Mar 1957; David Jeremiah, Architecture and Design for the Family, 1900–70 (Manchester, 2000), pp 167–8; New Statesman, 9 Mar 1957; Robert J. Wybrow, Britain Speak Out, 1937–87 (Basingstoke, 1989), p 49; Punch, 13 Mar 1957; Anne Hardy, ‘Reframing Disease’, Historical Research (Nov 2003), p 540; Simon Berry and Hamish Whyte (eds), Glasgow Observed (Edinburgh, 1987), p 239; Fowles, p 388.
2. Deborah Geller, The Brian Epstein Story (2000), pp 18–21; Guardian, 20 Feb 2010 (David
Lacey); Daily Telegraph, 14 Dec 2007 (Jim White); Macmillan, dep.d.29, 4 May 1957, fol 18; Anthony Thwaite (ed), Selected Letters of Philip Larkin, 1940–1985 (1992), p 276.
3. Economist, 2 Mar 1957; Huw Beynon, Working for Ford (1984 edn), p 61; Steven Tolliday, ‘Ford and “Fordism” in Postwar Britain’, in Steven Tolliday and Jonathan Zeitlin (eds), The Power to Manage? (1991), p 88; The Times, 12 Apr 1957; H. A. Turner et al, Labour Relations in the Motor Industry (1967), p 277; John McIlroy, ‘“Every Factory Our Fortress”’, Pt 2, Historical Studies in Industrial Relations (Autumn 2001), p 75.
4. Raynham, 16 Mar 1957; Heap, 20 Mar 1957; John Bright-Holmes (ed), The Diaries of Malcolm Muggeridge (1981), p 473; Observer, 24 Mar 1957; Macmillan, dep.d.28, 15 Mar 1957, fol 81; George H. Gallup, The Gallup International Public Opinion Polls: Great Britain 1937–1975: Volume 1 (New York, 1976), p 408; Robert Shepherd, Iain Macleod (1994), pp 124, 126–7; New Yorker, 13 Apr 1957; Shepherd, Iain Macleod, pp 127–8. For a full account of the strikes, see Nina Fishman, ‘“The Most Serious Crisis since 1926”’, in Alan Campbell et al (eds), British Trade Unions and Industrial Politics, Volume One (Aldershot, 1999), pp 242–67.
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