The Benn Diaries: 1940-1990 (54 page)

Tuesday 9 April

At Cabinet, the question of selling our warships to Chile came up again. Jim Callaghan reported that he had met a group of Labour MPs on the previous evening, half of whom had been in favour of releasing the existing warships. He said it would require legislation to stop the release, and how would you get the Chilean sailors off the ship already doing trials off the English coast, and so on and so on.

Michael Foot came out very strong against and I said, ‘It is absolutely untrue that it would require legislation. What about the arms embargo against Israel during the recent war? What would we say if we discovered that the Russians had put in an order for some fighters from British Aircraft Corporation? Of course we can do it, it is a decision we are absolutely free to take.’

I raised the question of the repair and overhaul of Rolls Royce engines at East Kilbride for the Hawker Hunters which we had sold to the Chilean Government I said, ‘This is even worse because these Hawker Hunters may actually be used to strafe guerrillas with bombs.’

We lost. Only two of us spoke against, Michael Foot and myself. Barbara Castle was silent, so was Peter Shore, perhaps because, as Trade Minister, he was worried about the threat to copper supplies, which might be stopped in retaliation if we don’t go ahead with the deal.

Wednesday 10 April

At 5 o’clock I went to the second Cabinet meeting, held for the first time in Harold’s room in the House. Harold made a reference to Marcia and her brother Tony Field and the press allegations of improper land deals. He said he felt he had driven the press into a corner but he continued, ‘I must tell you, there are two other members of the Cabinet, whose names wild horses wouldn’t drag from me, who are being pursued by the press. One has been tailed for five years and on the other they have got a dossier two feet thick. They both would be regarded as being in the leadership stakes if I went So I just want to warn you.’

This was Harold telling us that if any of us made a move against him, he might take action against the person. It was an extraordinary thing and showed him in the cheapest light because if he really had any information
about two people in the Cabinet who were being tailed the decent thing would have been to tell them.

Northern Ireland came up next and Merlyn Rees reported that the situation was getting extremely serious; the IRA were involving women and using hostages to drive bombs into areas. Under a pledge of the utmost secrecy, we were told it was decided to surround Belfast and prevent any cars entering. This is to be announced soon.

It was agreed, again under the highest secrecy, that we would begin considering the implications of a total withdrawal. Of course, if that got out, it would precipitate bloodshed but we felt we simply had to do it. Roy took that view. Jim looked very doubtful but thought it needed to be done. Fred Peart, Peter Shore and Willie Ross are 100 per cent pro-Protestant. So the Cabinet would divide on Catholic–Protestant lines in the event of this happening.

Thursday 11 April

At 12.15 Sir Antony Part, my Permanent Secretary, came to see me. He hummed and hawed a bit and then said, ‘Minister, do you really intend to go ahead with your National Enterprise Board, public ownership and planning agreements?’ ‘Of course.’

‘Are you serious?’ he asked.

‘Of course. Not just because it is the policy but because I was deeply associated with the development of that policy.’

He said, ‘Well, I must warn you, in that case, that if you do it, you will be heading for as big a confrontation with industrial management as the last Government had with the trade unions over the Industrial Relations Act.’

‘I am not going to jail any industrialists. I am not going to fine them. We have just got to move forward.’

‘I know,’ he said, ‘and I will try to lubricate things, if that’s really what you mean.’

‘Well, of course it is. I know I can’t do it now but we have got to move in that direction.’

Then, blow me down, he put in a paper and tried to get me to agree verbally to a proposal that because of the extra burden on industry, which has reduced their liquidity position, we should allow them to put all wage increases through the Price Commission as an allowable cost which would give an extra £600 million to industry at the expense of the consumer. I said, ‘That is an even more relaxed view of price control than the previous Government agreed.’

‘It’s the only way,’ he replied. I refused. ‘You can put your analysis of liquidity to the Treasury if you like, but I won’t accept that.’

This is the way in which the Department of Industry acts, simply as a mouthpiece for the CBI, and that is what I won’t have.

Sunday 14 April

Judith Hart rang me up to say she had been very worried by Eric’s speech about warships for Chile because it had put her in a difficulty and she wondered whether
she
should make a statement, or resign. I told her to keep quiet, say nothing and leave it. Since I find myself saying to other people what Frances says to me, perhaps it would be better if I took my own advice and kept quiet.

Friday 3 May

Went over to Transport House and Jack Jones and the TGWU gave me, on loan, a beautiful old banner, ‘The Workers’ Union’, about nine feet by nine feet. I’ll have to give it back if there is a change of government.

Jack asked about Meriden and I said, ‘I saw them and have told them to prepare a case against what officials are advising.’

He said, ‘I know that and I appreciate it. What can I do to help?’

‘You can press Denis Healey, Harold and Michael Foot at the critical moment when it comes before Ministers.’

Back to the office to see the Russian Ambassador, Mr Lunkov. I was just in the process of hanging up my banner and he took a lot of interest in it. My office is getting to look more and more messy, like my basement office at home.

Thursday 9 May

Peter Shore and I had a drink in the office and we talked a little bit about the EEC. He said that Helmut Schmidt, who is likely to succeed Willy Brandt as Chancellor, is much more Atlantic-orientated. He is a great friend of Giscard d’Estaing and the whole Community would take a very different direction than it had when Germany had been led by Brandt and France by Pompidou.

It is astonishing, the number of heads of state that have fallen recently. Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, fell today and there is going to be an Election there. Brandt’s resignation is an extraordinary one because it now contains a hint of scandal: an East German spy, Gunter Guillaume, had been to Norway on holiday with Brandt and has taken compromising photographs of him.

Sunday 12 May

Frances said this afternoon that she was convinced that the Department of Industry was sabotaging my industrial proposals. I feel the same. Sir Antony Part is making no progress, they just turf back things I want with their objections and I then have to force them to carry out my wishes – as I had to do with Meriden, with all the European questions, and so on. Frances says that on the planning agreements, the National Enterprise Board and the Industry Act, the officials are simply skating over the really difficult questions
so they are never explored properly. It is as if I’m trying to swim up the Niagara Falls.

Monday 13 May

I had a sandwich lunch and asked Antony Part his view of whether there would be a slump. He said there might be. Then he added, ‘We’re reaching the point of the crossing of the Rubicon and your speech about workers’ control will lead to tremendous opening of fire on us because industrialists fear you are going to establish it.’

‘I am not trying to cross any Rubicon, I am sitting on the banks of the Rubicon, waiting for consultation before I proceed but if
they
cross the Rubicon and attack me that is a very different thing.’

Sunday 19 May

My relations with Harold are absolutely rock bottom. Tomorrow night there is a dinner at Number 10 for Academician Kirillin, and Harold hasn’t invited me, though I am one of the principal Ministers (not that I want to go particularly). But I will have to consider how to improve my relations with him. He really does think that my public statements about ‘open government’ and so on, are destroying the Labour Party, whereas I think it is the only hope.

Monday 20 May

Dinner at Number 10 for Kirillin. I had queried the fact that I hadn’t been invited so Harold put me back on his guest list. Harold spoke, beginning with a long, detailed description of all the negotiations with the Russians, describing dates, places, times, projects, what had happened. It was a display of his virtuosity of memory – amusing, though a bit egocentric.

As they were leaving, Peter Shore, Harold and myself stood on the steps of Number 10. It was a beautiful warm May evening and there were a few people watching from the other side of the road. Harold described how the Foreign Office had tried to get round the Cabinet proposals on the Chilean aircraft contract. He reminded us of a Ministry of Works memorandum to Attlee saying, ‘We have read the Cabinet’s proposals.’ Attlee replied, ‘The Cabinet does not propose, it decides.’ So he has had a great fight with the Foreign Office and he is making a statement tomorrow on the Chile situation, which will be total victory. It couldn’t be better. The Rolls Royce engines will not be overhauled and that is it.

Thursday 23 May

The amusing news tonight is that Harold has made Marcia Williams a peer.

Monday 3 June

I went to speak at Eastbourne to the National Union of Sheet Metalworkers,
a very old union. My speech, which had been very carefully prepared, went down like a pancake on a wet pavement. No real response. Afterwards we sat round and talked about it to some of the men. They said, ‘Workers are suspicious. They don’t believe what’s happening. They think all this involvement is a substitute for real power, and they know that they have real power, if they want to use it. They want socialism’, and so on.

I think many unions are in a sense saying, ‘We want the whole thing or we shall just use our veto because we can deal with management at any time we like so long as government keeps out of the way.’

Tuesday 4 June

There was an amusing incident today. The visiting Bulgarian Minister of Trade had given me as a parting gift a tablecloth and a little Bulgarian calculating machine, a tiny hand-held one in beautiful yellow, which had a memory. It was a lovely thing. The department that advises on gifts said I could keep the tablecloth but that the calculator was too valuable and it should be for office use only. I asked today what had happened to it and was told it had been sent away to be debugged in case it had a recording device in it, and when the technicians had looked at it closely, they had been enormously impressed by the quality of its circuitry, which they said was the best they had seen among American, German and Japanese examples. They were very puzzled by how the Bulgarians could have got hold of such marvellous technology. So it could be that Britain is reduced to copying the Bulgarians, though if that happens we really are finished!

A group of Scottish Labour MPs – Hugh Brown, Tam Dalyell, George Lawson, John White, Harry Ewing and John Robertson – came to see me at the House about the workers’ newspaper co-operative in Glasgow. They were absolutely persuaded that the workers were serious people who ought to be supported. The most amazing thing of all was that George Lawson, who is a dour, tough, right wing, pro-Market MP and a stern critic of mine, said he believed the workers’ co-operative was something that reflected the best in my ideas and he felt it was something we should support. It was like getting a kiss and a hug in public from Royjenkins. It did indicate that there has been a shift of opinion. I told them to go and canvass other Ministers and I would do my best.

Tuesday 11 June

There were three items on the agenda at the Public Enterprise Committee of Cabinet, first being the Meriden crisis. Joel Barnett and Harold Lever recommended that in view of what Geoffrey Robinson and Dennis Poore had said to them, the whole thing should be dropped. I fought like a tiger – I have never fought harder than I did there. To my amazement I got away with it. I have lost all respect for Harold Lever and Barnett too, the way they
have handled this. If I had accepted their recommendation, there would have been endless trouble.

On IPD, I said I was very reluctant, but I felt you could not sack 1,200 people even though it was a bum firm. So it was agreed that the firm should go bust, that we should tell the Receiver we intend to buy the factory and set up a company for it, have a feasibility study and save the jobs as best we could. A sort of legalised work-in. That was not a bad conclusion.

I dashed over to the husbands-and-wives’ dinner, with Barbara and Ted, John Silkin and Rosamund, Peter and Liz and Tony and Judith. I told them I have now declassified my Home Policy Committee document, and it will be available at the PLP for them to see tomorrow. I added that I was under heavy pressure and I wanted a bit of support.

Barbara turned on me. ‘You with your open government, with your facile speeches, getting all the publicity, pre-empting resources – “I’m the big spender, I can’t do it without money” – trying to be holier than thou and more left wing than me.’ She was extremely angry with me. ‘I know we can
only
get this expenditure if we go for a statutory wages policy,’ she said, revealing once again her hatred for the trade unions.

I said, ‘Look, Barbara, I haven’t spent a penny, you’ve had pensions, the nurses’ increase. I haven’t been allowed to spend a penny. I’m thinking about future policy, and the only job I’ve been given is to sack 21,000 people in my own constituency working on Concorde. I have never said anything about pre-empting resources because I know that has got to be done collectively, but I am simply developing a case.’

But she retorted, ‘How are we going to solve the problems?’

‘We’re going to solve them by trading off wealth for power,’ I replied. ‘We have got to admit it is an unfair society, and give people a perspective, and I am not prepared to accept that Britain is declining.’ My God, Barbara’s hatred really came out. I think she is feeling guilty.