alternatehistory.com

Part XVII:


♥ Philip Gould, Confessions of an Adman, (HarperCollins, 1996):

"In the run-up to as yet undeclared general election of '87 much wiser men than I began to look harder than ever at the electoral maps to identify the mystical firewall of Labour seats which would ensure we would not face a third crushing defeat in a row. Some hopeful soul staked out the Midlands as the road to total victory. More sober men saw Wales turning red. Some clearly not sober men and women said we would do better than expected in South of England. Realists pointed to the North of England turning crimson. But those with the biggest slide rules kept saying we would much better in '87 than the last two tries in Scotland. I saw eye watering reports claiming we could win 50 out of 72 Scottish seats."


♤ David Mellor, My Moment, (Fourth Estate, 2000):

"While Heseltine, Lamont and Portillo were busy splintering the Party, I and fellow loyal members of the Party strove to unite it and find the best approach to the rapidly looming but not yet announce October '87 election. My brief at Energy by the sensitive nature of the industries involved put me in close contact with quite a lot of my fellow ministers as matters impacting Energy had a way of quickly overlapping their briefs as well. After two years in office, I am glad to say more than a few ministers had begun to confide in me in conversations they simply could not have in full Cabinet. The most astute observer of the dangers facing us was Malcolm Rifkind, the then Secretary of State for Scotland."


♠ Mark Robinson, A Better Britain, (Pimlico, 2000):

"Even in the cabinet of curiosities that was the King's ministry of '87, Malcolm Rifkind managed to stand out for his rapid fire style of talking, his Scots-Jewish heritage and his university experiences in Rhodesia. It was Malcolm, during his spell in the Foreign Office as a minister under the loathsome Leon Brittan, who first set the precedent for Western diplomats to meet with members of the banned Solidarity movement in Poland during the course of each official state visit to the chagrin and horror of the military regime. It was Malcolm, while still in the Foreign Office, who took the lead in the drive to re-engage the Soviet Union in diplomatic talks, arguing isolation never helps. And it was Malcolm who in his then position as Secretary of State for Scotland warned select members of the Cabinet in the Spring of '87 of the trouble the Tories would face North of the Border in the looming general election. Ted (Heath) was much impressed with Malcolm's analysis and shared his fears with me."


☆ John Bercow, Thatcher, Thatcherism, and Thatcherites, (Faber, 1998):

"Mr. Rifkind's 5 May 1987 memorandum on the Scottish Problem explained how the Conservative Party could be down to just scant half dozen seats in Scotland in '87, down from the sixteen elected in '83. The loss would then be further compounded by a predicted return of 45 Labour MPs from the 72 Scottish seats. Mr. Rifkind attributed the decline of the Conservative Party in Scotland to a number of issues and asked for formal permission to act upon them. Mr. King consulted his inner Cabinet war council on the Rifkind Memorandum. Norman Tebbit (Home Office), Kenneth Clarke (Employment) and Sir George Young (Trade) were against any major changes by the Scottish Office on the eve of the not as yet declared October general election. George Younger (Defence), Lord Young (Treasury), David Mellor (Energy) and Sir Edward Heath (Lancaster) were in favor. Mr. King went with the majority view."


♤ Brian Monteith, The Rise and Fall of Thatcherite Tory Edinburgh, (Constable, 2009):

"In the days before devolution and Assembly, the Secretary of State for Scotland ran our lands with more leeway than a Viceroy or a satrap. Therefore, when I was summoned to see Mr. Rifkind, I felt more than a small twinge of fear. He began to talk in that high Morning side accent of his, which when deployed with speed, clarity and emphasis has a way of making you feel small indeed. He poured scorn on my Conservative student activism and the Blue Saltire's efforts at Party disunity and factionalism and was on the verge of making me cringe and mutter apologies when he set aside the stick and offered the carrot: rates reform. My heart leaped to my throat."


♤ David Mellor, My Moment, (Fourth Estate, 2000):

"Local government finance was the chief preoccupation of Mrs. Thatcher since her election. Yet the controversial nature of the measures proposed and the sheer effort to implement them was such it invariably was shunted aside. But the issue remained. 40% of all local council spending was financed by householders or local businesses. A large proportion of people were not classified as householders, however, and did not have to pay any rates at all. Disproportionately the non-rate payers were Labour voters. By contrast the rate payers and local businesses tended to lean Tory, especially in Scotland. And it was in Scotland that the high-profile left-wing councils, led by such darlings of the left as Alistair Darling, increased the council spending and put an even greater burden on local businesses and rate payers to support their projects. The issue was further made much worse in Scotland because, unlike England or Wales, it had a statutory obligation on revaluation of all property. Therefore at times of inflation, with the property values going up, the rates went up along with it at a phenomenal clip. The rates were fundamentally broken and unfair, but their reform and indeed replacement was a political minefield. The only alternatives to rates were a local income tax or a community charge - a poll tax. Neither option was a glittering prize, especially when bandied about this close to a general election, but the demand for any alternative to the current system in Scotland was such it would energize our base and increase activism in an area of the nation hardest hit by Party disunity."


♠ Mark Robinson, A Better Britain, (Pimlico, 2000):

"Ted was supportive of an income tax in Scotland but vehemently opposed to a poll tax. Lord Young, on the other hand, favored the poll tax, as did David Mellor and George Younger. Malcolm Rifkind argued for poll tax as well but mollified Ted by agreeing to raise the Rate Support Grant from 60% to 80% to keep the poll tax at a very low level. Lord Young further agreed to have a detailed breakdown on the extent of a poll tax per each town and county in Scotland. We were dealing with dynamite and knew it. When the announcement was made, its complexity was largely misunderstood. Labour denounced it on general grounds of it being a Conservative initiative. Liberals denounced it for levying taxation on those who had as yet to pay taxes before. Social Democrats called it a political ploy, and it was. While the Scottish National Party accused us of using Scotland as a 'guinea pig' to test mad economic theorems. By and large though, most voters did not care one way or another, for the community charge was couched in accounting language and no one as yet had to pay a single bills, until the measure was passed after the general election. The main effect of the announcement on the Scottish Tories, however, could not be underestimated. Blue rosettes blossomed among a sea of red and Malcolm Rifkind was feted as the saviour of Scotland, with even Mrs. Thatcher praising his decisions as Michael Portillo grimaced with feigned delight. Scottish businesses increased donations and civic organizations pledged support. The situation in Scotland was turned much in our favour, though by how much was an open question given the widespread loss of manufacturing jobs North of the Border."


♣ Roy Jenkins, Centre Ground, (Harper Collins, 1991):

"Internal polling revealed the Social Democrat position in Scotland was quite precarious and none more so than in my own constituency. The trouble started from the very start. I was a Welshman without an ounce of Scottish blood in my veins or burr in my speech in a very Scottish seat, and while the late 19th and early 20th centuries is littered with examples of Liberal and Conservative Englishmen and Welshmen holding Scottish constituencies by the middle of the 20th century they had all but disappeared due to growing nationalism. The other issue was the nature of the seat. Glasgow Hillhead encompassed the great Scottish city's West End, which in addition to its middle classes entrenched upon its namesake hill also included a river-land populated with a rather militant band of manual workers among whom the fifes of 'Bennery' found eager dancers. I did not campaign along the river as well as I should have in the by-election and my obligations as Leader of the SDP in '83 made me neglect it further. I then compounded the troubles issue by vetoing the redrawing of the boundaries of my constituency. The proposed boundary change would have given me more hillside voters, but would have necessitated a change in the name of the constituency to 'Kelvin.' I regarded the change as rather offensive. In this I was supported by the Labour Party, which should have been a sign for me to reconsider, but I did not. I was thus faced with the only other alternative boundary change, one which let my constituency keep the name of Glasgow Hillhead but which took in more of the river-lands. I thus made my continued political existence in Parliament much harder because I cared more about the label on the bottle than its contents. By '87 it was clear to me I would most likely be swept out of my seat along with more than a few of my fellow Social Democrats and Liberals, barring a ghastly mistake by Labour. The revelation did not trouble me as much as I thought it would have. If anything I felt rather relieved. From the 1950s through '72, I entertained the great hope of becoming Leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister. Choices I had made in my life regarding Europe prevented me from achieving those twin goals. My mind was quite settled by '76 when I had to bear witness to the elevation of Jim Callaghan and went off to become President of the European Commission. From my eyerie in Brussels I regarded the subsequent self-destruction of the Labour Party with a curious detachment. It was as if I was reading a novel whose characters I felt deeply about but whose lives were nonetheless the stuff of fiction. Though all that changed upon my return. My plunging into the task of a creation of a viable fourth party in the UK in '81 quite exhausted me but did whet my appetite. For a brief moment in '82 I had a fluttering of hope of becoming Prime Minister. The loss in '83 quite thoroughly destroyed my dream. I had resolved in the unlikely event the Alliance would form government in '87 to take on whatever brief was offered but stand down at earliest opportunity. I had been in the Home Office twice and was Chancellor. At one point in my life I rather imagine I would have liked to have been Foreign Secretary, but my age and health prevented me from seeking such an active and demanding position. Realizing I was nearly finished in the House in the run up to the general election of '87 allowed me a degree of freedom I had not felt since I resigned from the frontbench of Labour Party. I saw my tasks in the coming election to help those Social Democrats and Liberals in the marginal seats in need of aid of the reflect light the dimming wattage of my political celebrity still offered and to ensure there would be no recriminations between the Social Democrats and Liberals. In retrospect, I should have picked a far less lofty goal, such as bringing democracy to North Korea."


♤ Nigel Lawson, The View from No. 11: Memoirs of a Tory Radical, (Bantam Press, 1990):

"It would be easier to bring democracy to Iran than order to Northern Ireland, but Margaret (Thatcher) did attempt to make a stab at it despite the fumbling of (the then Foreign Secretary) Leon (Brittan), I regret the Westland squabble distracted us all from finalizing the Anglo-Irish agreement, denounced as it was among the Unionist parties of that troubled place. There was talk of mass resigning from the House to force the by-elections for all Unionist MPs in Northern Ireland, a pathetic protest which would have amounted to nothing, but the threat did scare of Tom (King) and the Anglo-Irish agreement never did take place. I do not know what peace it could have brought to that troubled land, but whatever it was, it was stopped dead by Tom's weakness."


♣ Bill Rodgers, Call Me What You Will, (Politico's, 2000):

"In November of '86, David Owen called me and Shirley (Williams) into his lair in the House of Commons in our formal capacity as the Vice-President and President of the Party, respectively. Flanked by his Political-Commissar Mike Thomas and sidekick John Cartwright, he announced he had single-handedly solved the Alliance seat-allocation issue. The seat distribution of '83 would simply carry over into '87, with two additional SDP allocated seats surrendered to Liberals in return for the two recent Labour to SDP defections in Makerfield and Hemsworth. I was stunned. Six months of painful and inconclusive committee meetings initiated by him were to be wiped clean and a deal even a child would see as patently obvious was to be adopted. He looked rather pleased with himself, but I gave him nothing. Shirley, much better at this than I, quickly thanked him for his speedy resolution and made polite small talk while I sat there like a great big stone. When we walked out, Shirley turned to me and spoke at her best charming bossy headmistress, 'Wasn't that just wonderful?' The ridiculous thing was that it was wonderful. We had abandoned an illogical approach in favour of sanity and saw reason to celebrate it, which tells you how much we had all expected insanity from our Dear Party Leader."


♣ Chris Patten, Roamer, (HarperCollins, 1995):

"I deliver no Columbus like discovery when I observe the great tragedy of the former-Labour SDP leadership is that they had broken off from Labour to avoid the personality based factionalism and its ugly side-effects only to find even sharper factionalism within their new Party. I increasingly found myself offering solace to increasingly disillusioned SDP MPs from the former-Labour wing of the Party. Peter Walker was the first to notify me I could be seen as a unifying figure for SDP, due to my split from the Tories being seen as a matter of principle not personality. At the time I dismissed his predictions."


☆ John Bercow, Thatcher, Thatcherism, and Thatcherites, (Faber, 1998):

"Defying predictions, Alan Clark let his name go forward to the selection committee of his constituency of Plymouth Sutton. Since fleeing England in the middle of the night, Mr. Clark has been hiding out in South Africa, periodically emerging to embarrass his Party by a variety of headline grabbing acts, including being named as plaintiff in a divorce accusing him of seducing the wife of a judge and her three daughters. Yet despite not setting foot in the House since his 'incapable' antics played a key role in the downfall of Mrs. Thatcher's government, Mr. Clark thought he would be named candidate to his old constituency and to the utter dismay of senior Tory leadership was almost named as such. Mr. Tebbit personally visited the constituency and had an almost polite conversation with the committee. Mr. Clark was quietly de-selected and William Hague was selected to run in his place. Ian Gow, once called by 'The Telegraph' as 'Mr. Clark's only friend in the Conservative Party,' was sent down to South Africa to personally entreat with Mr. Clark to keep quiet. Upon his return, Mr. Gow indicated his mission went well. More than a few Tories hoped it would be the last they heard of Mr. Clark."


♧ Mike Thomas, Separate Ways, (Duckworth, 2000):

"After the disastrous by-election in Greenwich the last thing I wanted to hear was the very name of the constituency, but Alec McGivan, our national campaign organizer, rang me up and said, 'There is someone I need you to meet, she can win back Greenwich and more.' I immediately thought poor Alec had gone crackers from the pressure of dealing with Liberals. I muttered something polite and hung up. Alec rang me up a day later and reiterated I had to meet the candidate. I muttered something not nearly as polite and hung up on him again. He then showed up at campaign headquarters with some strange woman, who looked overwhelmed. I was as charmless as possible. Alec begged the woman's pardon, asked her to please step outside, grabbed me by the lapels of my sweat soaked stained shirt, walled me, and snarled into my bleary face, 'You bloody idiot, she's the key to London, the Midlands and more!' He then released me. Before I could blink, he stepped back out and escorted the young woman back inside. That is how I met Mrs. Rosie Barnes. The more she spoke about herself and her goals in life, the more I stopped feeling like a cornered animal. I at once knew I had met the perfect candidate. I immediately called Dr. Owen."


♧ David Owen, Into the Maelstrom, (Macmillan, 1991):

"Mike Thomas discovered Mrs. Rosie Barnes during his re-vetting of all of our candidates. He called me, swallowing half of his words and not making entirely too much sense. The upshot as I understood it on the call is that I had to meet with some candidate he found immediately. After making polite inquiries as to the state of Mike's mental health I acquiesced. Fifteen minutes into my conversation with Mrs. Rosie Barnes I realized I was talking to the new face of our national campaign. She was the perfect candidate."


★ Alastair John Campbell, The Claret Revolution, (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1993):

"The daughter of working-class parents, Mrs. Rosie Barnes was a grammar school girl with a degree from Birmingham University. At the time of the proposed general election she was 40 years old, mother of three, married to a Greenwich councilor and having a job in market research. Mrs. Barnes was the poster girl for the so-called 'service-class' of aspirational former working class people yearning to find a new political identity for themselves. But much more importantly than the phrenological considerations was her personality. Upon meeting her, the clearly smitten Shirley Williams delivered a verdict which has since then stood the test of time, 'She seems nice because she is nice.' And while certain Tory tabloids derided her as a mascot, she was the centerpiece of the Social Democratic charm offensive. For the first time, the SDP slogan 'tough and tender' found the appropriate 'tender' counterpoint to the toughness of Dr. David Owen."


♤ David Mellor, My Moment, (Fourth Estate, 2000):

"After surviving a tough summer in a state of near anxiety, Mr. King finally rang me on 21 September 1987 and gave the long awaited date for the general election 14 October, 1987. I was relieved. The great undertaking would finally start its course. At the time I paid no special attention to the date, though Mr. King explained he chose the date because Parliament could begin its scheduled opening on 21 October, 1987 without any interruption. It was a phrase with which to tempt fate."


★ September, 1987. House of Commons: Before the General Election:

♤ Conservative Party (Leader Tom King, Deputy Leader Lord Atkins): 352 seats

♥ Labour Party (Leader Neil Kinnock, Deputy Leader Giles Radice): 179 seats

♦ Liberal Party (Leader David Steel, Deputy Leader Alan Beith): 60 seats

♧ Social Democratic Party (Leader David Owen, Deputy Leader John Cartwright): 37 seats

★ Other Parties: 22 seats.