The Benn Diaries: 1940-1990

by Benn, Tony

  In the evening Caroline, Stephen and I went to Peter Townsend’s party. Peter teaches at Essex and I was surrounded by three of his young sociology students who just called me a Fascist and called me it so often I got rather angry. A dull German professor linked me with a lot of other Fascists and when I said to him, ‘Could you give me the names of any world politicians who disagree with you but are not Fascists?’, he said, ‘That is a Fascist’s sort of question.’ He defined Fascism as a belief in technology, and technology as a belief in the use of machines to change social values. Altogether I thought he was very poor stuff, of the kind you get among sociologists who don’t study technology or industry or what is happening in the world. We very foolishly stayed till about 2, and I had to work on my boxes till 4.

  Tuesday 17 February

  There was a very significant development over UCS. In my diary last week, I referred to the fact that Jack Diamond went up to Upper Clyde. He found himself confronted by six chartered accountants and was very impressed by their figures so he agreed to pay the full £7 million to UCS, as authorised by the Cabinet, Harold Lever having asked for £4 million and Jack previously being prepared to give only £2.5 million. In addition he has decided to dismantle the monitoring system because he is afraid that if you monitor you would have to pay the creditors.

  Tuesday 24 February

  Ivor said to me today, ‘You are getting too many “Noes” from Number 10’, which had a profound effect on me. I have had a lot of noes, so I tried to work out what they had been about; usually broadcasting proposals that Number 10 had turned down, my paper on government information services and another on persuasion in industrial disputes, and Ivor made the point that no Minister should have proposals turned down as often as that. So in the light of this, I didn’t, for the time being, pursue another issue I had in mind.

  Wednesday 25 February

  Meeting with Yugoslav Prime Minister, Mr Ribicic, at Number 10. He said he was glad to see more and more people becoming involved in the problems of world peace and he hoped the interests of the superpowers would not dominate the world. He had got better relations with the Soviet Union because the Soviet Union needed Mediterranean friends and access to warm waters, and there were now closer economic and industrial links with the other Eastern Europe countries, except for Bulgaria whose claim for Macedonia had created a great problem. He also said he had good economic relations with America, but was critical of their policy in Vietnam, and their support of Israel.

  He was afraid of great-power influence disturbing the Balkans, which was why he had opposed Israeli aggression and the invasion of Czechoslovakia. Relations with China were normalising because he thought the Chinese were settling down; he believed that Soviet–Chinese conflict was not really ideological but more a clash of interests and China was now actually preparing for a war with the Soviet Union.

  Yugoslavia just wanted to be a European country, he added, but was not getting on very well with, for example, the Germans because of the problem of reparation and Yugoslavian émigré terrorism in Germany.

  Harold then said he was glad relations with Russia were improving but we couldn’t accept the Brezhnev doctrine. Michael Stewart made his usual negative speech, saying that we didn’t really like the European conference proposal because our security was bound up with NATO, and this would have helped East Germany and underwritten the Brezhnev doctrine, though we hadn’t rejected the idea outright.

  To the Royal Society where I made my speech to the Manchester Technology Association on technology and the quality of life. I had worked hard on it and it got a very enthusiastic reception.

  Thursday 26 February

  To the Commons, where we held Auntie Rene’s eighty-eighth birthday party and about fifty Benns of various ages turned up; Stephen came back from Keele and I had arranged for a cake. Margaret Rutherford – very depressed with two broken hips – was there. But Auntie Rene made a marvellous speech about how enjoyable life was as you got older. She had first been inside the House of Commons in 1892 when my grandfather was elected and she was a girl of ten, and Gladstone was Prime Minister – quite remarkable.

  I had to go back to my office to meet Henry Ford II, who had come over from America at my request, following the announcement that Ford Cortina exports to America were to discontinue and the Capri was to be manufactured and exported from their German factory. Stanley Gillen, Bill Batty and Walter Hayes, Vice-President of Ford of Europe, were present. I put the case as strongly as I could, that this was an extremely important decision. We welcomed the size of the Ford operation in Britain and their investment and export record, but a decision made in Detroit which had led to the blanking out of certain British car exports to America was very serious, with damaging consequences for the British balance of payments and for Britain’s reputation for exports.

  I questioned him about the survey on which they had based their decision, and Ford said the reasons were much broader than that. British cars had a bad reputation for quality and reliability. I said, ‘Doesn’t this indicate some defect in quality control?’ He rather agreed and said this was being looked at, and did say in the end that he would look again to see whether it was only in the first instance that the cars would be coming from Germany and that exports from Britain might not be ruled out. That was encouraging and it was well worth while having the meeting.

  Ford went off but Stan Gillen, Bill Batty, Walter Hayes, Otto and others came and had dinner with us at the Café Royal together with Charles Smith and Ieuan Maddock. We had quite a discussion.

  I am not very impressed with Batty. He just wanted to bash the workers – a typical British businessman. Walter Hayes is much more sympathetic. He has always been struck by my argument that the BBC and broadcasting is too important to be left to the broadcasters and we considered the whole question of how important issues could be seriously discussed on the air.

  Sunday 8 March

  At 9 I left for a meeting of the Inner Cabinet at Chequers with the Prime Minister, Michael Stewart, Roy Jenkins, Dick Crossman, Denis Healey, Barbara Castle, Jim Callaghan, Peter Shore, Bob Mellish, Tony Crosland and Fred Peart; Burke Trend and Michael Halls were present in the morning, although officials didn’t come in the afternoon.

  We sat in the library on the first floor and the first paper we considered was Jim Callaghan’s on law and order, or what he preferred to call the ‘war against crime’. This was split into three parts. First, the student question and Harold wanted to know why universities didn’t take a stronger line and whether they could withdraw the students’ grants. Michael Stewart was attracted to this idea. Dick Crossman said the situation was like the early days of the Weimar Republic, he could see democracy coming to an end, and we should have no hesitation in dealing with people who were destroying free speech.

  I chipped in and said that self-discipline was what was required here; that on the merits of the issue students were very often right. I described my meeting with students at the sit-in in Bristol and how they had desperately been seeking a way out of it, and how the thugs – the extremists – had in fact been routed. It was important not to use police in the universities if this could be avoided. Barbara agreed with me, but there was a nasty touch of authoritrianism from other Ministers, which I found depressing. But we did agree that before Ted Short gave his response to the select committee report on student unrest, there should be a meeting for a few Ministers to discuss it.

  Then we discussed the extremely difficult problem of the visit by the South African cricket team, and the fear that this would trigger off demonstrations all summer. Jim is going to see all the police chiefs to discuss it. He also said the Commissioner of the Metropolis had been invited to meet Ted Heath and that he hadn’t objected, but he thought the Commissioner would tell Ted Heath that he didn’t want law and order to be mixed up in party politics.

  The third element in this discussion was crime and we all agreed that international comparisons would show how much better the si
tuation was in Britain than elsewhere, although there is a rising tide of urban violence. Jim said he would discuss with Charles Hill and Lord Aylestone the crime and violence on television, on which I very strongly supported him.

  Roy began the discussion by saying that he was fed up by the rumours that had appeared in the press that morning to the effect that the Chancellor was at bay and his colleagues were urging a soft Budget. Denis said he thought it was very damaging.

  Tony Crosland went on to talk about an employment-generation programme, particularly in the regions where the construction industry is badly hit. Another £7 million was proposed for cleaning up our rivers. Harold thought there was a good political point here, since there were many Labour-voting anglers. In the end the choice is a political choice, not an economic one, and this was very evident as we discussed all the alternatives today.

  After lunch I went for a walk with Barbara and Peter Shore. Peter is rather an authoritarian on student questions; Barbara is much more sympathetic – this is like the early days of industrial relations strikes in the ninteenth century. The temptation to take fierce measures is strong.

  Then we really got on to the hard political stuff. Harold went round the room asking when we thought the Election should be and Denis said he was attracted by the ‘long haul’ – ie October – but that we should be ready to go earlier if things improved, and Fred said the same. I said, ‘Well, if we are ready to go earlier, we had better be ready from June onwards. If it isn’t right in June, we’ll go until October, and if it isn’t right in October, we’ll go right through to the spring. But don’t let’s work on a date that is later than we think might be necessary.’

  Harold gave his views. He said he had thought about the date for the Election for the last four years or more and the conflict with the World Cup had to be considered, and whether there might be strikes. He was a little afraid of a Tory campaign building up to the autumn and possible attempts to shake confidence in the pound: the weather would be better in the summer, the hours of daylight would be greater. I felt Harold was moving towards an earlier date.

  Denis said he thought the expectations of better times to come would be greater than the reality, and so that was a sort of censensus that we should be ready for June.

  The next question was what should we fight the Election on? Barbara said that people were bored with the balance of payments; they wanted better benefits and housing was important.

  Jim said he thought the environment was too middle-class a weapon with which to attack the Tories.

  Michael Stewart said that foreign affairs were going rather well, and emphasised the fact that no British soldiers had been killed in action.

  Tony Crosland said he thought we ought to cut income tax or release people from the lower ranges of income tax and add it on to SET.

  Dick said what he wanted was a working-class Budget, a real sloshing working-class Budget. People had waited a long time and they were entitled to it. He spoke about relief which would probably cost between £400 million and £600 million.

  When I was called, I said I thought that fear of the Tories’ right-wing policies would mobilise the faithful, win the middle ground and neutralise the Conservatives. The people would like us because we were a known team but we had to have confidence in ourselves and really believe we would win. If there was reflation to be done, let’s do it selectively.

  Then Fred Peart said that courage, competence, compassion and an egalitarian approach were necessary.

  Denis said the public were bored with politics and would like a government that would relieve them of the responsibility for handling political matters. Then he went on to discuss in detail what he wanted to see in the Budget and at that moment, as Denis was describing in detail how he thought the Budget should be handled, what should happen to SET, income tax and purchase tax, with Dick chipping in, the Wrens came in with tea. Roy was getting agitated at this open discussion of the Budget in front of the women, and so indeed was I. But Denis carried on and the risk of a leak from that, I thought, was enormous.

  Looking back it was a very pleasant and informal day and much better than formally sitting round a table.

  Sunday 29 March

  Easter Day. Had a lie-in. Caroline is reading a book called The Feminine Mystique about the new Women’s Liberation movement which is beginning to develop strongly in the States and even in Britain.

  There was a power cut this evening which put us on candles and butane gas for the kettle.

  Thursday 2 April

  Interview with Michael Barrett on the BBC programme ‘Nationwide’ on the motor industry. There has been serious disruption and in particular a strike of 112 inspectors at Vauxhall which has thrown thousands of people out of work.

  I was very nervous, curiously, and I didn’t do at all well. When I got home Joshua said, ‘It was terrible.’ Caroline said the lighting was bad and I looked grim and uneasy. I felt grim and uneasy. I do so hate those BBC interviews where instead of talking to you about a problem, they are always aggressive towards you, which makes you defensive and not at your best.

  Monday 6 April

  Had a word with Peter Shore on the phone tonight. He is very pleased with the reaction to his speech on the Common Market which caused a lot of trouble, because he does believe, very strongly, that the Common Market is an illusion and politically it will be advantageous if it is clear that there are some members of the Government with reservations about entry. My view is different from this. I don’t think economics are everything by any manner of means and if we have to have some sort of organisation to control international companies, the Common Market is probably the right one. I think that decision-making is on the move and some decisions have to be taken in Europe, some in London, and an awful lot more at the regional and local level.

  Wednesday 8 April

  Dinner at the Swedish Embassy given by Olaf Palme, the Prime Minister of Sweden who is over here. Caroline sat next to Tony Crosland and on his other side was Lady Greenhill, the wife of Sir Denis Greenhill, the head of the Foreign Office. Crosland said to her, ‘I understand your husband is the head of MI5 or MI6 or MI7 or something.’ Lady Greenhill said, ‘Well, I’ve never heard of it.’

  In fact Greenhill is alleged to be in charge of MI6 but it was the maddest thing that could possibly be said. Then Crosland didn’t have a side plate and made a big fuss about that and pulled the waiter towards him and asked if he could borrow Caroline’s side plate. The Ambassador got very agitated, as you can imagine, and asked Caroline, ‘Is he always as rude as that?’ She said, ‘Yes,’ and he replied, ‘Well, I suppose now that George Brown has gone you’ve got to have somebody like that in the Government.’

  I sat next to Dick Mabon’s wife who is Jewish and very interested in Buddhism. She was really rather nice. Opposite was George Thomson: I asked him about his talk with Kozyrev and he said he hadn’t made much of an impression.

  I had to vote and missed Olaf’s speech but I heard a bit of Harold’s, which was odious. I can’t quite say why but he is so conceited in his speeches and so ponderous.

  I talked to Mrs Palme who is a child psychologist and very charming. Caroline said to Gerald Gardiner that the House of Lords was completely out of touch on education: he didn’t understand but she made such an impression on him that the following day she got an invitation to go and have dinner with him at the House of Lords.

  Friday 10 April

  To Bristol. Mr Jeffries of BAC drove me to Filton where a four-engined Herald was waiting to take me up to Fairford. I got there and was kitted out in flying gear for my flight in Concorde 002. Brian Trubshaw, the chief test pilot, greeted me with the co-pilot and engineer and other members of the crew.

  They had a suit all ready for me with W. BENN printed on the front. They gave me a parachute, strapped me into the plane and told me how to escape. It was an extremely uncomfortable seat; the poor navigator was sitting on an upturned bucket or something and trying to do his navigation
in such a way as not to disturb me. I took a movie camera on board and they lent me a Sony VTR machine.

  Finally we taxied away and began to take off. I was very tightly strapped in, my suit was too small and as we moved away I did wonder whether I wasn’t being extremely silly; it would be ludicrous to be killed on a venture of this kind. It was only the fourth time that 002 was going to fly supersonic, so it was a genuine test flight and I had insisted that they treat it as such and take no notice of me. As we took off I was plugged into the intercom and could hear everything that was said. The only thing that went wrong was that the Nacelle doors around the undercarriage didn’t close and they had to be put right.

  Up we went, over the Isle of Man and Ulster and Stranraer, and then we turned and did a supersonic flight down the Irish Sea, but only at mach 1.05, so I don’t think there was a bang. You couldn’t feel anything. I took off my wristwatch and I thought I could just hear a faint tick even at supersonic speed. Then they did some tests. They kicked the rudder bar, rotated, turned, cut one engine right back, and so on. Then they came in and I heard a bump and thought they had put the undercarriage down but when I looked I found we had actually landed. I was unloaded, we got out of the plane and we found a mass of photographers. It was great fun. It took me back twenty-five years to the air force.

  I changed and went to see the shop stewards from Filton, where there is an unofficial overtime ban over a £4-a-week increase. I got my first unofficial and somewhat unusual opportunity to try persuasion in industrial disputes. I told them how vital it was that Concorde should succeed and how awful it would be if I arrived in Washington for a meeting and somebody said, ‘What about this unofficial strike at Filton?’ They are going to consider what to do at a meeting on Monday.