The Benn Diaries: 1940-1990 (11 page)

There was dancing in one room and people got slightly tight. In many ways it was a little depressing to see the Leader of the Party halfway to being sozzled. But it might have been a great deal worse and certainly Winston always looked that way from lunchtime onwards so it can’t be a complete bar to a successful premiership.

Monday 15 July

Although I have forgotten to mention it in the last few days Lords’ Reform is coming back into the news.

Father and I agreed that it would be worth asking for an interview with Macmillan. Accordingly I rang his Private Secretary, and asked whether the PM could spare a few mintues of his time. He said that I would hear in due course. Today I had a message to go and see Ted Heath, the government Chief Whip. He is a most amiable and friendly soul whom I have known casually since very early 1951. I had then been in Parliament about two months and he about eight months. He has done brilliantly well to have risen to his present position of eminence within such a very short period.

Anyway that is all by the way. He told me that the PM was too busy to see me before the recess and was in any case doubtful about forming a precedent in agreeing to see an Opposition backbencher on a point of
policy. He would, however, be glad to receive a letter from me ‘which would then be sent to the right people’.

Thursday 18 July

To the Buckingham Palace Garden Party this afternoon. What an occasion it is. The spacious royal park with its ornamental lake and bridges and the splendid front of the Palace dominating it. There in the private enclosure are the royal family surrounded by the Diplomatic Corps and the ‘distinguished’ guests. Outside promenading on the lawns are 9,000 more guests. The occasional bishop, the invariable sultan with his umbrella, the sprinkling of turbans, saris and white duck jodhpurs, the grey toppers and the flowery dresses with the wide-brimmed hats. The two Guards bands under their tents blowing for all they are worth in their scarlet tunics. The whole pattern is like a gigantic ballet – a Cecil B. de Mille crowd scene.

There is a secret way of eating two teas. One at the beginning when the royal family are arriving and everyone is crowding for a peep, leaving the tea tent deserted, and the other at the end when they’re leaving and the same thing happens. In the middle when everyone else is jostling, pushing and shoving, you promendade yourself looking disapprovingly at those who seem ‘only to have come for the food’. Actually Joe Lyons and Co. do quite a good job with the catering, though the bridge rolls were soggy.

But like the story of Cinderella the romance evaporates. At the end hundreds of people were waiting for their cars to be called over the loudspeaker. You could see the guests still immaculate, if a little tatty. And you would hear: ‘The Town Clerk of Little Chippings’ – that tall figure whom you thought was a central European Ambassador (at least) scuttles away to get into his Austin 7 driven by his son. ‘The Chairman of the S.W. Area Gas Board’ the flunkey announces . . . and so it goes on. Now we know the secret and slip out the back door and catch a bus.

30 September – 4 October – Labour Party Conference, Brighton

This week at Brighton was a very exciting one. Everyone thought it was going to be the dullest Conference ever, but they turned out to be wrong.

The elections offered no surprises and Jim Callaghan displaced Sydney Silverman from the National Executive. I stood for the first time. I missed election by two places and 48,000 votes. But to get 517,000 on first standing was wonderful.

The first day we spent in condemning the Government’s economic policy and bringing forward our own emergency resolutions on rents. Of course all this can only work if there is co-operation between the trade union movement and the Labour Government. What has to be got across discreetly to the public is that this co-operation will be forthcoming without any binding undertaking on either side.

We then reached two very important decisions on pensions and public
ownership. After excellent debate the national superannuation scheme was adopted. The new policy of share-purchasing in place of nationalisation was also overwhelmingly adopted after an important speech by Hugh Gaitskell. Finally, in a day full of drama the Party decided to continue with the manufacture of the H-bomb, although it expressed its readiness to suspend tests unilaterally.

The Party thus can claim to have reached firm decisions about important matters and to have done so in an atmosphere of unity. The decay of this Cabinet and the prospects of a Labour government within a short period has helped to bring us to our senses again in our personal relations. The triumphs of individuals are worth recording. Harold Wilson delivered two speeches: one on the economic situation which was well received, and one on public ownership which was less well received. I admit I never find him very convincing although he has great ability. Nye Bevan cut away his left-wing support by his cruel wording during the speech on the H-bomb. Though I think he was right in the line he took, it was a very unhappy speech. It earned praise from the
Daily Telegraph
and the
Daily Worker
. Neither of those is a good indication of his talent and I still distrust him profoundly.

Dick Crossman was probably the greatest personal success. After his difficult change of front over the years and the rage he had stirred from the Bevanites he had then annoyed the trade unionists with his unwise article in the
Mirror
saying that only a handful were fit for high office. Therefore when he rose it was to a polite handclap. But so brilliant was his speech and so lucid his exposition that he sat down to a thunderous ovation that carried him to the inner councils of the Party.

Tuesday 5 November

The trouble about a personal diary is that it is entirely subjective. It is not a history, nor has it any value except such as it gets from the personal slant it shows on events. But of course these events are the framework on which the thin personal story is woven. Every now and again one has to step back a little and assess the changes that are taking place outside.

This is particularly true this autumn. The staggering news in October of the launching of the Russian satellites, Sputnik I and II, has really changed the course of world history. It shows the brilliance of Soviet technology, alters the balance of military power, and more important than either of these two, it marks the beginning of the space age. As long as recorded history exists, 4 October will be remembered and remarked upon. It is far more momentous than the invention of the wheel, the discovery of the sail, the circumnavigation of the globe, or the wonders of the industrial revolution.

Looking at the political situation there are not so many momentous events to report.

The Government is losing popularity steadily. Despite this, Macmillan
remains confident and Lord Hailsham wanders about the country making ebullient speeches. What drift there is against the Government is not coming to Labour but is going to the Liberals.

The Labour Party on the other hand is in really good shape. Hugh Gaitskell has emerged as a popular Leader in Parliament, although he lacks certain dramatic qualities and loses effectiveness thereby. Nye Bevan is determined to be Foreign Secretary and is touring the world making speeches and influencing people. Whether he is winning friends is another question. His Russian talks were evidently cordial and he is at this moment engaged in lecturing the Americans about their own affairs and policies in a way that is causing a lot of excitement, but not a little interest. Americans like people who ‘talk turkey’. There is none of the diplomatic hypocrisy about Nye Bevan. I do not altogether trust him, for I think he lacks the qualities of self-confidence, serenity, generosity and personal loyalty, which are desperately necessary for high office. On the other hand he has energy, imagination, the gift for good human relations, directness, courage, vividness of expression, a wide view, a good political sense, a colourful personality, most lovable faults and a lot of other things which are missing in those who possess the qualities he lacks.

Thursday 5 December

To Robin Day’s party. He was voted TV personality of the year yesterday. It is a tremendous honour that he richly deserves. He was celebrating by producing a girlfriend who was Miss Great Britain – a not very glamorous blonde. All our Oxford contemporaries were there.

Saturday 7 December

Drove to Oxford for the Nuffield College dance. Caroline came down by train from London and we had dinner with David Butler beforehand in his rooms. Nuffield is vigorous and forward-looking. It has absolute equality between men and women and dose camaraderie between teacher and student. It draws its Fellows from a wide social background. There is no snobbery about it at all.

Tuesday 7 January 1958

Today’s sensational news of Thorneycroft’s resignation has reawakened everyone to politics again with a bang.

The political implications of this resignation are not hard to see. The question at stake was whether the Government’s economic policy should be carried to the point where the structure of the welfare state was to be partially dismantled. The Prime Minister and most of the Cabinet shrank from a course of action which would have such grave political consequences. Thorneycroft was willing to wield the axe even against the Social Services.

Inside the Conservative Party therefore, this is a left versus right struggle.
The Butler wing have won a tactical victory over the wild men of the City. We should all be grateful for small mercies but the consequences for the Conservative Party need to be assessed.

There is already a nucleus of disgruntled right-wingers inside the ranks of the Tory MPs. They first appeared in 1954 as the Suez Group. During the war against Egypt in November 1956 they thought they had captured the Prime Minister. Then came the sell-out and the humiliation of the evacuation. Eight of them resigned the Whip and decided to sit as Independents. They are still there in open opposition.

Now Thorneycroft, Birch and Powell are thrown up as real leaders of this dissident group. The financial issues on which they have resigned will attract the support of the Independent Conservatives. And the Cyprus problem looms up right ahead.

Tuesday 10 February

To Lime Grove for Nye Bevan’s TV party political programme. Nye arrived a bit late and was just impossible for the first three-quarters of an hour. He launched into an attack on the BBC for bias, distortion and discrimination against himself and all the rest. It was an ignorant attack, so easily refuted by the facts. The atmosphere was extremely tense and I was unhappy since I could not support him. The programme was going to be terrible if this went on. To make it worse, Nye wouldn’t drink anything before the broadcast so he was on edge even more.

Then between, the steak and the cheese we got on to farming. Nye, the farmer, mellowed before our eyes. On grazing and pigs and subsidies he found common ground with Gerald Beadle. He began to laugh and do imitations of Tom Williams, who was our Minister of Agriculture, and by the time he came up for the first run-through the tears were running down his cheeks with good humour and giggly laughter.
NOTE
: Nye must never do another broadcast without having some of his intimate friends there beforehand to keep him sweet.

The show itself was very good, I thought. Reckoning the limitations we had to face, a talk with a lot of young people was undoubtedly the best projection of his personality. The
Daily Telegraph
next morning said it was the best Labour Party political yet.

Thursday 20 February

Had a talk to Frank Barlow at the Commons. He told me that some sections of the Party (Jim Callaghan, Tony Greenwood, Alf Robens and Nye) were sick to death of my campaign on the peerage and were being very rude about it. This plunged me into depression.

Nye Bevan opened the debate today. Apparently he made a most appalling speech – his worst flop yet. He tried to explain what he had said at
the Conference at Brighton about the H-bomb. All he succeeded in doing was alienating his new friends as well as his old ones.

Friday 21 February

To dinner with Cecil King at the Dorchester, with a lot of commerical TV tycoons. I must say they thoroughly irritated me. Here were these extremely powerful men who were not interested in programmes as such but only in making money. The whole conversation was the financial carve-up of the world. I came away feeling that the public-accountability issue is a really important, live one. Couldn’t all public companies be put in the same position as nationalised industries and made subject to directions from a Minister in the public interest? I shall do some work on this.

Monday 3 March

At 7 o’clock in the Division Lobby I saw Geoffrey de Freitas and asked for a word with him privately. He knew what it was about before we had sat down in the Members’ Lobby. I asked to be relieved of the responsibility of being No. 2 on Air matters. I explained that I had had many anxious hours of thought about it (as indeed I have) and that I had come to one definite conclusion: under no circumstances would it be right or sensible for Britain to use the hydrogen bomb. I said I did not know yet in my own mind what the right course of action was, but I could not conscientiously be the spokesman of a policy with which I was in disagreement.

Geoffrey was very sweet. He said he absolutely understood my view and the motives that had prompted it. He said he wished he could be relieved of the burden of the Air Force but there was nobody willing to do it. I pointed out that it wasn’t reluctance to do the donkey work that influenced me, and he understood that. We left it that he would tell the Chief Whip that I was from that moment discharged.

Without making too much of this it was, of course, a tiny resignation and may not be popular in high quarters. But I really can’t help that. If one allowed oneself to be dragged along doing something one thinks is wrong, it would be hopeless.

Friday 7 March