The Benn Diaries: 1940-1990 Page 16

  There were fifty-seven Acts requiring the Royal Assent and the Peerage Act was somewhere in the middle. The ceremonial seemed awfully silly especially when the Clerk read out the names of some Bills like the ‘Public Lavatories (Turnstiles)’ Bill and the other Clerk said ‘La Reyne la veult.’ As soon as the words of assent were given to the Peerage Act, we got up and walked out and Caroline accidentally banged the door of the Gallery which rang like a shot through the Chamber. The Times said we left ‘as if a starting pistol had been fired’.

  Downstairs a Badge messenger escorted us straight to the Clerk of the Crown’s office, where one of his officials was waiting for us. Two Daily Express men were standing outside and asked if they could go with us. We said firmly ‘No’, and closed the door. By then it was 6.12 pm and just after 6.15 we were ushered into the office of the Clerk of the Crown, Sir George Coldstream. Sir George himself came in in his full-bottomed wig, took it off and put it on the table. I had a bag full of documents in case any of them were needed but none was asked for.

  Sir George was absolutely charming and his face was wreathed in smiles. He said that he was glad I was the first to renounce and he showed me the Register of Renunciation which had been specially prepared pursuant to the Act, in which the names of those who had renounced would be written. My name will go as No. 1. Sir George then said to Mother how much everyone missed Father and what a popular Member of the House he had been.

  At our request he let us out of the side door and we slipped down the stairs into the Chancellor’s Courtyard and through the arches in the open towards the Strangers’ Cafeteria, where the lobby were waiting. As we passed one of the Badge messengers of the House of Lords he said, ‘Goodnight, Sir!’ It was all over.

  Caroline and I went over to Kenneth Rose’s flat. Among his other guests were John and Patsy Grigg. John had renounced eight minutes after me and the Clerk of the Crown had said, ‘I hope you don’t regret it!’ As he left, one of the secretaries in the office said, ‘We have been dreading this day, but it hasn’t been too bad.’ I suppose this was a reference to my appearance. I must seem an ogre and monster to that department. Also there at dinner were Lord and Lady Freyberg. He is a major in the Guards, with special responsibility for ceremonial. We felt so ‘one up’ on him. If status symbols mean anything, far and away the best is to have had it and given it up.

  Thursday 29 August

  After lunch I went to the Commons – the first time for nearly three years as an MP. I wandered into the Chamber which was absolutely deserted – no crowds, no messengers, no police, nobody. I just sat in my old seat on the back benches and looked around and thought. It was an extraordinary experience, incredible and exciting and vaguely unreal, like a man coming back from the dead. I stayed for about ten minutes there, then wandered around for a while and came home.

  Monday 9 September

  The Post Office telephone engineer came to the house this morning to discuss our new telephone system and I think there is one which will exactly meet our needs. Just after that, a man came and demonstrated the Ansafone. This is a tape recorder that answers the phone, repeats a recorded message, records an answer and signs off. Not only would it mean that the house was manned telephonically while I was out or away, but would also mean that I can monitor incoming calls to decide whether it’s necessary to phone them back.

  Saturday 21 September

  Tony Crosland came in for a drink – self-invited. Susan is in Baltimore and we had a talk about George Brown and the state of the Party and our prospects – personal prospects – of office. He is busy preparing himself and I think would make an excellent Minister. We are very old friends now and although we don’t agree about certain fundamental things I greatly enjoy talking to him, and after all these years it would be hard to have a serious cleavage.

  Thursday 26 September

  The Denning Report on the security aspect of the Profumo case was published this morning and is creating a storm. The confusion at the top is very evident. Denning skates over the other scurrilous scandals that have been circulating.

  Caught the 1 o’clock train to Scarborough with Peter Shore, Barbara Castle and Tom Driberg. We stayed at the Royal Hotel and a whole flood of hideous memories of 1960 – when we had the nuclear disarmament clash – came back. What a ghastly Conference that was and how different this one is going to be!

  Sunday 6 October

  The boys are frantically tunnelling in the garden, following a film they saw about POWs escaping during the war. They are way under the concrete path and will be in the next garden unless stopped. It is a beautifully concealed tunnel with a wooden top covered with mud and can already hold two full-sized people. Joshua gives it away by removing the lid and disappearing himself when the other boys aren’t there.

  Thursday 10 October

  Home to hear the news of Macmillan’s decision to resign. At 9.30 Robin Day phoned from the Tory Conference in Blackpool to tell me that Hailsham had just announced his intention to renounce his peerage and could I let him have a quote that he could throw at Hailsham in a TV interview later that evening. I gave him one: ‘It is a sad comment on Lord Hailsham’s respect for the House of Commons that he is only prepared to give up his hereditary privileges when he stands to gain something from it personally.’ Robin put this to Hailsham and I’d hoped he would explode but he is so determined to keep a grip on himself that he gave a pompous reply about ‘my great sacrifice’. David Butler phoned to tell me that the Tories were so busy committing themselves to one or other candidate that when the choice was made it would tear them apart. Macmillan could hardly have done them a worse turn and there simply is no machinery for settling the leadership.

  Monday 14 October

  The correspondence in The Times is now well under way and it looks as if Lord Home may be the accepted third choice, able to unite the Butlerites and the Hailshamites. He will, however, be a dud when it comes to exciting the electorate and Wilson will run rings round him. The only men I fear – Macleod and Maudling – are both out of the race.

  Friday 18 October

  Macmillan resigned this morning and Home was asked to form a government. It is incredible that such a thing should have happened. From the Labour Party’s point of view he is much less dangerous than Maudling but I am disturbed that my battle should have paved the way for a Conservative peer to come back to the Commons as PM.

  Tuesday 12 November

  To the Commons this morning where Parliament was opened for the new session. As the Queen is pregnant it was done by a commission – the Lord Chancellor read the Queen’s Speech from the Throne – and I didn’t bother to go along and hear it. In fact it is an Election manifesto and very thin in substance.

  Friday 22 November

  Just as I was leaving home to speak in Acton the phone rang and Hilary answered it and it was one of his friends. When he rang off he said that Kennedy had been shot and I didn’t believe it. But we switched on the television and there was a flash saying that he was critically ill in Dallas. I drove to Acton and heard the 7.30 bulletin, just before going in to the meeting, which announced that Kennedy had died. It was the most stunning blow and at the beginning of the meeting we all stood in silence for a moment in tribute.

  I dashed home to watch TV and hear the details. George Brown was drunk when he was interviewed but everyone else who spoke was sensitive and touched and it was a most moving evening.

  Saturday 23 November

  Kennedy’s death blotted out all other news and we watched a film transmitted via Telstar during the night. Melissa and Joshua drew the most wonderful pictures of what they had seen and it helped to get it out of their system.

  This afternoon I took Hilary and his friends to a birthday treat to see 55 Days at Peking. Caroline and I went to the Shores this evening. I heard from TV producer Jeremy Isaacs what happened when George Brown was on TV last night. He was so tight that he nearly got in a fight with someone else who had also come to pay tribute to Kenned
y and they almost had to be separated. He is a complete disgrace and one day it will all blow up. One almost wishes it was more obvious so that Harold would have Party backing for removing him.

  Sunday 24 November

  Worked all afternoon and most of the evening. The papers are still full of Kennedy and today Lee Harvey Oswald, his alleged assassin, was shot while in police custody. The whole thing is so fishy and the shame of the Dallas police is complete.

  Wednesday 27 November

  Back to the House and worked on a speech on the Commonwealth Immigration Act. The debate lasted for just over three hours and although the Whips passed round a note asking us not to speak I was so provoked by Cyril Osborne and his racial venom that I launched into him. In fact, we were only defeated by fifty votes, which was very good.

  Thursday 28 November

  Looked in at the Party meeting, where George Brown made a brief statement apologising for his tribute to Kennedy last week. It was acutely embarrassing and there was no comment, nor even grunts of sympathy from MPs there.

  Saturday 30 November

  Home, preparing for a party. About thirty-five people came, including the Ungoed-Thomases, the Youngers, Anthony Sampson and Ivan Yates, Dave and June, Crosland and Susan Catling, Bryan Magee, Freddie Ayer and Dee Wells, Jan Le Witt, Michael Flanders, Donald and Janet Swann, John Gross, Robin Day and Katherine Ainsley, and the Labovitches.

  It went well though there was a tremendous row before the party broke up at 3 am about George Brown. Tony Crosland thought this was a left-wing plot to ditch George and it was all malicious and unnecessary. Unfortunately it is not as simple as that.

  Tuesday 3 December

  To see Harold Wilson at 6 o’clock at his request. Caroline had said some time ago that she thought Harold was anxious for people to advise him on what he should do and that I should think some things out in case I was summoned. In fact this was exactly what he wanted and I had some points ready. The Labour campaign has lost its impetus and must be begin again in the New Year, with a series of meetings that Harold is to address. I suggested that he anticipate our Election manifesto with one major keynote speech in which he outlines the programme of a Labour government. This programme must have a specific name like the ‘New Britain’ programme – an idea Caroline had suggested – comparable to Kennedy’s ‘New Frontier’.

  Harold more or less asked me to become his principal speech writer and personal adviser. He said we should meet regularly to talk and I could consult with others like Peter Shore and Ted Willis in order to prepare and polish phrases for this great speech and others. I asked about using Dick Crossman but he said that Dick was ‘going through one of his moods’, which suggests there might be a slight estrangement there.

  As I left he told me to keep up on transport, which suggests that I am going to get that, which is a most difficult job, posing problems that no Labour government can actually solve within five years. I would much rather be out of the Cabinet and in New York doing the UN job.

  Friday 17 January 1964

  To Kingswood Youth Club, Bristol. About sixty youngsters were there and I don’t think most of them wanted to listen to me at all, but the vicar had invited me and they sat there while I talked. As soon as I had finished and the questions had stopped, they leapt up and got on with their dancing and I was sorry I had accepted. I sometimes wonder whether it is true that young people are supporting us. They were so defeatist about Britain and thought that nothing could be done to improve things.

  Thursday 23 January

  When I was in Wilson’s room today, Marcia came in to say that Robert Carvel of the Evening Standard was on the telephone to enquire whether Harold had any speech writers. Harold said, ‘No. I am working on a speech now, every word of which I have dictated.’ Marcia looked at me and asked if I minded. I said, ‘Of course not.’ The last thing I want is to be known as Harold’s speech writer and I think it is the last thing he wants too.

  Tuesday 25 February

  To the Soviet Embassy for a farewell party for Romanov, the Minister-Counsellor. We chatted to Mr Ossipov who is the Izvestia correspondent. He was very critical of Wilson and I described Wilson’s background and achievements as Leader of the Party. We ended with Trofimenko, who is the Radio Moscow correspondent in London. Harold Wilson had turned up at the party, which was decent of him as he is just leaving for America. He and Romanov have known each other for a long time. The Russians all think there will be no change when a Labour government is elected and indeed some of them are quite naïvely sympathetic to Home. This is partly because their philosophy doesn’t allow them to admit that there is much difference between parties in a bourgeois state and partly because they would like the Labour Party to be much more specific about Anglo-Soviet relations and can’t understand why we are not.

  Saturday 29 February

  Surgery in Bristol this morning and eleven people came with a host of problems. I have never known my constituency work heavier. About a hundred letters a week coming in and about two hundred a week having to be written.

  Wednesday 4 March

  To the Commons this afternoon and saw Harold Wilson with Peter Shore about Harold’s speech in Liverpool this Saturday. He has just come back from America where he had got on excellently with President Johnson. I think they are both highly political animals and understood each other well. He was very worried about the report that had appeared concerning his alleged proposals to hand the Navy over to the United Nations. For my part I found it a very exciting idea and was rather sorry to see him backtracking so fast.

  Thursday 19 March

  Bought a second-hand photocopier this morning. It is the most fabulous machine and when I have got over using it as a toy I think it will be very handy. Caroline and I went shopping this afternoon and went for a meal.

  Tuesday 14 April

  Barbara Castle confided in me last night that she had grave reservations about Harold, and I have myself. He just doesn’t like a showdown and yet until a political leader is prepared to fight a stand-up battle with his colleagues for the things in which he believes he can’t be tempered by the fires of controversy and win the dominance and respect he must have to lead.

  Sunday 3 May

  To Bristol this afternoon for May Day and back in the train with Jim Callaghan. Jim commented on Harold’s technique of leading the Party by means of a succession of bilateral interviews – resisting committee discussions and not keeping people informed about where they stand. Jim thought this might make for admiration while it succeeded but would fail to build personal loyalty on which to rely in bad days. He thinks he himself will last about two years as Chancellor and is worried about the enormous bill he will have to meet. He told me he thought Frank Cousins would come in as Minister of Transport and asked me what office I would like. I said, ‘The UN or the Post Office.’

  Monday 11 May

  To lunch today with Denis Healey in Highgate. It was for Mr Walter Lippman, the distinguished American commentator, and his wife, and George Thomson, Chris Mayhew and Roy Jenkins were also there. We had a long discussion which ranged round the situation in Vietnam. Afterwards I went up to see Karl Marx’s grave in Highgate cemetery with the Lippmans and Roy.

  Saturday and Sunday, 16–17 May

  We spent three days at Stansgate. The sun was hot and bright all the time. I didn’t do a hand’s turn of work, just sat on the grass or on the beach, with the children playing about. They love the place.

  Tuesday 9 June

  To the Transport Committee joint meeting with the Science Group to hear Mr Duckworth, the managing director of NRDC, Mr Hennessy, his deputy, and Mr Kennington, the chief engineer of Hovercraft Development Ltd, describing their plan for the tracked Hovercraft as a means of 300-mile-per-hour inter-city transport, which offers higher speed, lower passenger costs, lower track costs, and lower fares than any other form of transport. It was an impressive presentation. It may be that this is the right way of tackling the London Airport lin
k instead of monorail.

  Wednesday 10 June

  To the House of Commons this afternoon and took part in the debate on the Finance Bill on the fuel tax for public-service vehicles. It gave me an opportunity to make quite a serious speech about the need for developing public transport and the way in which we had to achieve a steady shift from private to rented vehicles.

  Sunday 14 June

  Hyde Park Corner to join the head of the procession to march to Trafalgar Square about the Rivonia trial. Nelson Mandela has been sentenced to life imprisonment with others. Most of the banners there seemed to be for the Committee of 100 and the London Anarchists and the Trots and others. That’s the trouble about these demonstrations; they are always taken over by those who are keenest. Anyway we marched to Trafalgar Square and I took the chair. Among those who spoke were Bertrand Russell, the Bishop of Woolwich, Elwyn Jones, Fenner Brockway, David Ennals, Angus Wilson the author, Andrew Faulds, and someone called First, who had been the editor of a magazine in South Africa. There were two or three thousand people there and we collected £300 from them. Afterwards a few of us marched to Number 10 and handed in a letter to the Prime Minister.

  Wednesday 24 June

  Up at 5 and worked until breakfast. Arriving at Transport House this morning for the National Executive meeting, I heard a lot of chanting and shouting and saw a number of people with placards outside the building. It was a demonstration laid on because of the suspension of the Streatham Young Socialists. I don’t know how many of them had been whipped up by the Socialist Labour League and its leader Gerry Healy. The place was crawling with police. We did expel two Young Socialists and there was no discussion of this at all. I would certainly have raised it but for the demonstration.

  The only other thing of interest this morning was that we approved the Ombudsman proposal, which I think is very important indeed.

  Saturday 27 June

  A lovely hot day and the family was in the garden most of the time. I spent the afternoon working to get the basement kitchen organised. Caroline went to the hospital to see June and her new baby, Frances. Every few minutes the phone seems to ring with another American who’s in town and hopes to see us. We have almost got to the point of taking the telephone off the hook.