Tony Benn - Conflicts of Interest: Diaries, 1977-80

Contents

Tony Benn, who first entered Parliament in 1950, has been the Labour MP for Chesterfield since March 1984. He was elected to the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party in 1959, and was the Chairman of the Party in 19712. He has been a Cabinet Minister in every Labour Government since 1964, holding the positions of Postmaster General, Minister of Technology and Minister of Power. From 19749 he was Secretary of State for Industry, later Secretary of State for Energy and one-time President of the Council of Energy Ministers of the European Community. He contested the leadership of the Labour Party in 1976 and in 1988.

He is the author of eleven books, including Arguments for Socialism, Arguments for Democracy. The previous volumes of his Diaries, Out of the Wilderness, Office Without Power and Against the Tide, have all been published to great critical acclaim. He holds four Honorary Doctorates from British and American Universities. He is married to Caroline, and they have four children and six grandchildren.

OUT OF THE WILDERNESS: Diaries 196367

OFFICE WITHOUT POWER: Diaries 196872

AGAINST THE TIDE: Diaries 197377

This volume is dedicated to Caroline with
love; her knowledge of, and contribution to,
the ideas of socialism have been the greatest
single influence in my political life.

This is the fourth volume in a series of political diaries which span nearly twenty years and which are themselves drawn from political and personal records encompassing nearly half a century

A project of this magnitude could not possibly have been undertaken without the support of a team of people who have worked together to turn the raw material into the published text.

Ruth Winstone, the Editor, has been in overall charge of the series from the beginning, and her role has developed far beyond the usual editorial tasks of checking facts and preparing notes, background and biographical material and appendices: her judgment in discussing and recommending passages for inclusion, ensuring continuity and intelligibility without compromising the original much lengthier account, has made these books very much her own.

Sheila Hubacher and Ruth Hobson again undertook the awesome job of the transcription for this volume of almost two million words, and were invaluable in their informed criticism and comments throughout; as was Linden Stafford, who had editorial responsibility for preparing the final text for the printers. Her meticulous eye and her suggestions and advice added significantly to the quality of the finished book.

I have also to record again my thanks to Random Century who took on this long-term series in 1986, particularly to Richard Cohen who has overseen the unfolding saga and to all those in the company who have worked on the project.

Having said all that, the final responsibility for this volume, and for any errors that may have crept in, rests with me alone.

Tony Benn 1990

First Section

. Jim Callaghans Economic Summit (Popperfoto)

. The Cabinet

. Carter and Callaghan (Popperfoto)

. Jim Callaghan with Commonwealth leader (Syndication International)

. The Callaghans visiting the Forties Field (Syndication International)

. David Owen (Popperfoto)

. Alex Eadie (Benn Archives Collection)

. Down the pit at Betwys (Benn Archives Collection)

. With Bernard Ingham (Benn Archives Collection)

. With Armand Hammer and James Bretherton

. Visiting Shetlands oil terminal (Benn Archives Collection)

. Summit at Guadeloupe (Syndication International)

. Callaghan with the General-Secretaries (Syndication International)

. Rubbish piles up in central London (Syndication International)

. Nurses and Health Service auxiliaries protest (Syndication International)

. Canvassing in Bristol (Benn Archives Collection)

. An uneasy partnership (Popperfoto)

. Margaret Thatcher arrives at Number Ten (Syndication International)

. Three Prime Ministers (Syndication International)

Second Section

. Susan Crosland with daughters (Popperfoto)

. Jeremy Thorpe (Syndication International)

. Larry Lamb (Popperfoto)

. The Fourth Man (Popperfoto)

. Working with Frank Chapple (Popperfoto)

. Terry Duffy (Syndication International)

. Clive Jenkins (Syndication International)

. Moss Evans (Syndication International)

. The left platform (Benn Archives Collection)

. Caroline and Tony Benn (Benn Archives Collection)

. Jill Craigie, with husband Michael Foot (Syndication International)

. Marching with Bruce Kent and Susannah York (Benn Archives Collection)

. Being framed by Denis Healey (Private Eye)

. Paul Foot and Tariq Ali (Benn Archives Collection)

. Rosalind Retey Benn

. Michael Meacher and Les Huckfield (Chris Mullin)

. Tony Banks (Chris Mullin)

. Frances Morrell with Geoff Bish

. Ayatollah Khomeini (Popperfoto)

. President Reagan (Popperfoto)

Cartoons

Nicholas Garland, New Statesman ().

The Fourth Volume of Tony Benns political diaries has the distinction of being the only published contemporaneous account of the Callaghan Governments last years, and of Labours first twelve months in opposition to Margaret Thatchers administration.

As with previous volumes, I have tried to maintain the balance of the daily record of a Member of Parliament engaged in the activities of Government and Party at the highest level. Conflicts of Interest was planned to include Michael Foots three years as Leader, ending in 1983. However, this would have required such drastic paring of the original diary transcript that it was decided to end this volume in May 1980, at the point when the pressure for democratic reform in the Party was building up. Even so, two million words of transcription had to be reduced to one-eighth of that total, so that inevitably certain themes have had to be omitted; while the meetings, decisions and events included represent only a fraction of Tony Benns actual prodigious daily activity.

Ensuring continuity and intelligibility has as a result proved increasingly difficult, and notes, linking passages and appendices have been designed with this problem in mind. I have, as before, assumed that readers have a basic background knowledge of recent political events; nevertheless, it was still a lesson to me to discover that the expression Selsdon man was unknown by one colleague; indeed, when Edward Heath held his famous meeting at Selsdon Park Hotel in 1970, most A level students now studying that period of British Government were not born! So I should apologise for omissions of explanation which I should have foreseen, and for any errors of spelling in names which it proved impossible to check despite Tony Benns formidable collection of papers, press cuttings and manuscript notes and books.

I could not have managed without the support of Linden Stafford who, in addition to copy-editing, took over many of the functions of advice and criticism formerly provided by Hutchinsons editor, Kate Mosse, who went on maternity leave. Also, Hugh Scott provided invaluable and reliable assistance at later stages in checking and in preparing appendix material.