The Benn Diaries: 1940-1990 (114 page)

That doesn’t mean I want to join another party or set one up. I don’t want the Labour Party to lose, but I want people to understand clearly what is really happening, otherwise they are going to waste their time, they’ll be cynical, frustrated, and so on.

That’s my work from now until the end of my life.

Wednesday 31 May

I went to Chesterfield Royal Hospital with Tom and Margaret, and we were taken round by the unit manager, who, of course, is a chartered accountant. It is a beautiful hospital. When we came to the premature baby unit, she dropped her voice and said, ‘Mr Benn, this is the most expensive end of the business.’ I thought, ‘God! If premature babies are uneconomic units, where the hell are we?’

Tuesday 15 August

Went to St Thomas’s Hospital, where Mother had been taken by ambulance after a fall. She was in a poor way. Her face was vacant, her skin was white and her wig was at an angle. I talked to Dr Norman Jones, the consultant, who said she had a touch of pneumonia, and it is a high-risk situation for the next four or five days.

Wednesday 16 August

I went off to the hospital at 11 and Mother was still looking very poorly. She
cried and said, ‘My time has come. What is there to live for? I’ve lived long enough. I am ninety-two. There is no point in going on. I have nothing to look forward to.’ It made me cry too.

I decided I must try to cheer her up, so I said, ‘You’ve got a new great-grandchild due next month, Stephen and Nita’s baby. You’ve got your eye operation on 11 September and then you’ve got your book to finish.’

She slowly came round. We talked about the old days and about her parents, and how her father, D.T. Holmes, had been one of three survivors out of eight children. Then Joshua arrived, and she had lunch and began to perk up. She looked out of the window at Big Ben across the river.

Sunday 1 October – Labour Party Conference, Brighton

To the Conference NEC, where we spent about an hour organising our responses to the Conference resolutions.

What was clear to me was that Kinnock apparently did not want us to be committed to anything, even to the rundown of nuclear power within fifteen years. He was just convinced that we have got to get power first. Still, we’ve got a 10 per cent lead, and the press is giving him smashing support.

One of the most interesting discussions was on proportional representation, which is supported by Robin Cook, Ken Livingstone, John Evans and Clare Short. Hattersley, Kinnock, Gould, Beckett and I spoke against it. In the end there was a vote, with 23 to 4 against even having an NEC inquiry into it.

Wednesday 4 October

Stephen and Nita had their first baby – Emily, born by Caesarian section at 2.59 pm.

Friday 6 October

Geoffrey Parkhouse from the
Glasgow Herald
gave the traditional vote of thanks to Conference on behalf of the press, and referred to the fact that during the debate on labour relations Emily Benn had been born, and he looked forward to hearing her views on her grandfather in years to come. There was a lot of laughter at that.

At the end we sang ‘The Red Flag’, ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and this new song ‘Meet the Challenge, Make the Change’. Neil and Glenys stood carrying a little baby, and members of the staff of Walworth Road threw roses at the audience. It was just like an American convention. The Conference has been disastrous for the Left.

Cleared up and drove to May Day Hospital, Croydon, where I saw Emily.

Thursday 26 October

It was announced on the 6 o’clock news that Nigel Lawson, the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, had resigned because he was not prepared to work with Thatcher’s economic adviser, Professor Alan Walters. Well, earlier this afternoon the Prime Minister had announced that she had full confidence in Lawson, although it became clear that she knew of his decision to resign before she made that declaration. So when Geoffrey Howe, standing in for her, made a statement later I got in a question, saying that, in view of the fact that the Prime Minister knew that the Chancellor had resigned before she made her statement, she had misled the House. As she is first Lord of the Treasury, she ought to take responsibility for her actions.

For the first time for a long time, our people cheered at my question. It is an enormous political event, and everyone was gossiping in the lobbies. Then we heard that Professor Alan Walters had himself resigned – not that that makes much difference, because he can still feed his advice through to her privately. But it was seen as another massive blunder by Thatcher. She lost Heseltine and Brittan over Westland. I think the fact is that the economy is in a real mess, and Nigel Lawson is happy to get out in good time. Secondly, the British Establishment want to get Britain into the European Monetary System, and therefore they want to discredit the Prime Minister, who is opposed.

Friday 10 November

Out of the blue, and quite amazingly, the Berlin Wall is being removed. The Brandenburg Gate was opened yesterday, and today bulldozers and cranes went in and began hammering holes in the wall and thousands of East Germans are coming over into the West. But in reality it is causing enormous anxiety in NATO because the whole defence argument has changed, while the Labour Party continues to call for three Trident submarines as a first priority. So it is an extremely important event, and very moving.

Wednesday 15 November

I was picked up by car and taken to a studio for a programme called ‘Head On’, done ‘down the line’ from Glasgow. Richard Shepherd, the Tory MP for Aldridge-Brownhills, also took part at my suggestion. He is such a sensible person, and we were able to have a serious discussion.

After it was over, Richard and I fell to talking. He thinks there could well be a ‘stalking horse’ against Thatcher this winter. He said, ‘It would be better to have a centre-right figure than a wet.’ He thought a lot of people would abstain and, if there was a poor result, Norman Tebbit would go to Mrs Thatcher and tap her on the shoulder and say, ‘Time to go.’

Tuesday 5 December

In the House, I heard that the Tory MP Sir Anthony Meyer, who decided to
stand against Mrs Thatcher for the Tory leadership, received 33 votes. It has obviously shaken the Prime Minister a bit more than she would like.

Sunday 31 December

A tumultuous decade and a dramatic year have ended.

World politics in 1989 were earth-shattering. In Poland, Lech Walesa came to power and emerged as a real right-wing, Thatcherite, Catholic nationalist for whom I have very little sympathy. He came to Britain saying he was going to offer cheap Polish labour to British investors, and told the CBI he wanted profit to play a larger part. Then there were demonstrations in Prague, which were put down by force and led to the total overthrow of the Czech regime and a new government. Hungary developed in a similar way. Then the Berlin Wall came down after tremendous outpourings of public feeling, the East and West German governments came together, and there was talk of German reunification. All this was accepted by Gorbachev, who is still desperately trying to make a go of his reforms in Russia, but there are problems in Armenia and the Baltic States, and the economic situation is terribly difficult. The Tories aruged that this had all come about due to the fact that we had nuclear weapons, but people didn’t really believe it any more.

Sunday 21 January 1990

I have been thinking a lot lately about the role of conscience. I realise that I have got built into me, through my upbringing or whatever, a tremendously strong inner voice saying what I should do at any one moment. It says: You should get up and get the breakfast. You should ring the children. You should not smoke. You should get on with your work. You should go to bed earlier. If I disregard it – as I regularly do over a whole range of issues – then it builds up an unhappiness in me which comes out in other forms. People say I’m a workaholic, but if an inner voice is telling you all the time to do something or another, you can’t avoid it. It is the ‘still small voice’, though sometimes it becomes quite loud.

Sunday 11 February

Had a phone call telling me that Mandela would be released today and asking me to go to Trafalgar Square at 12.30. There were hundreds of people gathered there and the organisers were, of course, the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group, who had been picketing outside South Africa House in Trafalgar Square non-stop for 1,395 days. There was a tremendous sense of excitement. People were singing and waving their arms and kissing and hugging. Somebody had draped on Nelson’s column a banner with the words ‘Nelson Mandela’s Column’, and I was pushed on to a platform.

I’m afraid my speech wasn’t very clear. I simply said, ‘This is a great day.
Free Mandela. Free South Africa. Free Britain. Free working people from exploitation.’ There was a cheer, but I don’t think people could hear much, and I could hardly hear myself.

It was a marvellous event; people were dancing and shouting, and an ANC choir were singing. It was fantastic. I don’t think there has been anything like it since 1945 when the war ended.

A really great day. On television live from Cape Town was Mandela, this tall, slim, distinguished man with a strong voice, walking out of prison and reaffirming the need for the armed struggle.

Tuesday 27 March

To County Hall for the last meeting of ILEA. It was really rather moving to think that there had been a London education authority for over 100 years, that my grandfather had been a founder member in 1889 and that my son, Stephen, was a member as it ended. Nita and little Emily were present, and Emily sat on my lap in the Council chamber and listened to her dad speaking.

Saturday 31 March

To the anti-poll tax demonstration, which started from Kennington Park and marched to Trafalgar Square.

We came up Whitehall and on into Trafalgar Square, which was absolutely crammed. There must have been 150,000 people. I was pleased to see George Galloway there. Jeremy Corbyn was there, but before he was due to speak the rally was stopped because of the trouble which occurred.

I got off the platform and began walking back down Whitehall, but found the police had thrown a barrier across the road, so that people couldn’t get up or down, though they let me through. In the crowd I found myself being pressed from behind by riot police and mounted police. People were terribly frightened. I forced my way through until I came to the line of police, who didn’t look like police at all. I wondered if they were soldiers in police uniform. I asked where the senior officer was and finally was introduced to a man with a crown on his shoulder.

I had a tape recorder running part of the time, and I asked, ‘Why don’t you let them go by?’

He said, ‘They won’t move.’

Well, that wasn’t true. He claimed there had been a lot of violence. I think that what they had done was to break the march up, squeeze the people in the middle and frighten them, and then no doubt some bottles and things were thrown. It reminded me a bit of Wapping.

I said to the commander, ‘Don’t forget what the Northamptonshire police said about the behaviour of the police at Wapping.’

He got a bit angry and said, ‘A few mistakes were made then.’

Sunday 1 April

The papers were full of the riots and looting in Trafalgar Square. A man rang me and left a message on my answerphone: ‘You fucking cunt. Now you’ve lost the next Election for us.’ That was the only unfriendly one.

Wednesday 11 April

Most of the letters are pretty supportive. Three Anglican bishops, a Catholic bishop and five free churchmen came out today in favour of non-violent protest against the poll tax.

Tuesday 8 May

Jeremy Corbyn and I had a bite to eat, and then went down to the Commons Crypt with a Black & Decker drill and my brass plaque commemorating Emily Wilding Davison. We screwed it on the door, in place of the temporary notice I had put up with Miss Frampton’s help.

Monday 23 July

I saw Heseltine in the post office of the Commons today, and said to him, ‘I noticed when you were interviewed not long ago on television that one of my books was on the shelf behind you. I presume it was there to impress people!’

‘I’ll remove it at once,’ he replied.

Wednesday 1 August

On holiday at Stansgate. Absolutely perfect weather, temperature in the nineties – higher than in Athens or North Africa. In the evenings the sunsets are beautiful, and we saw two swans with their cygnets on the river, just heavenly. Caroline is so happy working on her biography of Keir Hardie.

Friday 3 August

Serious news today of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Alliances are being built up; the Americans and Russians issued a statement, Thatcher is going to America, Bush warned that Saudi Arabia mustn’t be attacked because Baghdad can’t be allowed to control two-thirds of the world’s oil supplies. We could be hovering on the edge of a Third World War, and the only comforting thing you can say about it is that the Cold War is over and the superpowers are not fighting this war by proxy. King Hussain of Jordan, who is a great friend of Britain but is also a friend of the Baghdad Government, has been to Iraq.

When the Iraqi Army invaded Kuwait, the Iraq Government claimed a list of grievances against Kuwait – some of which originated in the historical settlement of the borders in the region by the victorious powers after the First World War.

In 1922, the British High Commissioner, Sir Percy Cox, had delineated the borders of Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, giving Kuwait a coastline of 310 miles, and Iraq one of
only 36 miles, at the top of the Gulf. The kingdom of Iraq had comprised the former provinces of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra (which had included Kuwait).

In 1990, therefore, Iraq tried to argue that it had old territorial claims to Kuwait. But the two countries had more recent differences, including the ownership of the Rumaila oilfield, lying under the Iraq–Kuwait border; Kuwait’s refusal to lease two islands in the Gulf to Iraq to give her a deep-water port; and serious debt.