Long read: The 1970s - a conversation with David Kemp
It’s a deep dive into the 1970s from ‘Letter from Scotland’ this weekend with two pieces - this long-read interview with my uncle David Kemp about his role in UK and Scottish politics in the 1970s and a column about the ad campaign of the 1979 election.
Jackie: As political editor at Granada, you were close to some of the important events of the 1970s. Probably the most important event in UK politics of the last 50 years was the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 - you made a couple of programmes that she regarded as significant milestones on her path to power. The Labour administration from 1974-79 was dominated by devolution and you were able to get hold of important secret papers on that and pass them to your brother Arnold, who was deputy editor of the Scotsman. The 70s was also the decade when the UK joined the EU - another huge moment and you made programmes about that too. I’m interested to get your take on these important events. Let’s start with Margaret Thatcher.
David: There were some documentaries - two in particular - that ended up being important to Margaret Thatcher. I was proud of them in a professional sense, rather than a personal one. I tried to keep my own political views out of my work.
Jackie: Those were done during your time as political editor at World in Action - can you give the background to that?
David: In 1972 or 3, I was working as a Labour party press officer when I got a call from Granada from Gus Macdonald, a fellow Scot who had started in the shipyards. Part of his remit was to develop the political team and I became their political editor. Granada was unusual in terms of TV companies as it was run by a Labour supporter, Sidney Bernstein. One important strand was “World in Action”, an alternative to the BBC’s rather dull “Panorama”.
Jackie: World In Action was the most popular and influential current affairs show in the UK throughout the 1970s. “Public Issue Television: World in Action, 1963-98” edited by Peter Goddard looks at the history of the show. In 1969 the team was in the front line of a massive anti-Vietman war demo in Washington, and they were tear-gassed. "Five Days In Washington" was the first shot in colour - it made headlines around the world. WIA also made 17 shows about Nothern Ireland, one of which was banned by the Independent Broadcasting Authority. In 1975, it exposed a huge corruption scandal in Dundee where a massive rebuilding programme was underway and councillors were accused of taking bribes to award contracts.
What was your role? How did the process work in the pre-internet days?
David: I was personally involved in the making of hundreds of documentaries, as the team produced one a week. I remember making one about the Barlinnie Special Unit, for example, that might be of interest today. As well as producing programmes, I would also liaise with the MPs from the North of England (Granada’s core area) - if someone needed a question asked or answered they would call the white telephone that sat on my desk at my office in Westminster and I would go and find the MP and get a quote.
When filming was finished on shows I was producing, I would travel to Manchester to spend a few days watching the footage and assembling it into a one-hour show. I would write the identifying names and numbers for scenes on paper and cut them out, sticking them with glue onto a cardboard template. When this was done, the editing team used this as a guide, and would take scissors to the loops of film and splice them together in the right order.
The finished print was usually a few minutes over the running time. Then it was viewed by Gus and other members of the team, who suggested minor changes. I would create a new paste-and-cardboard editing template and then the show would be re-edited and then it was ready to air.
Jackie: So there was really just a one-step editing process, that is interesting. I have been reading about the early 70s. In popular memory, the “winter of discontent” now means the exceptionally cold winter of 1979 when there were a lot of strikes under the Labour government - but in fact, it was used first about 1973/4, which had more disruption, but was a very mild winter. The front page headline of the Evening Standard in February 1974 shortly before the first election of that year was “Now is the Winter of our Discontent”.
A miners’ strike was supported by flying pickets, who gathered outside power stations and closed down electricity supplies. That meant many factories had to shut for up to four days a week and there were frequent blackouts. The miners had a lot of general support then though - they really didn’t earn much and it was dangerous work. There were actually many more power cuts then than in 1979.
The Conservative government under Edward Heath’s Parliamentary term ended with the House of Commons sitting in near darkness, lit by candles. However, there seems to have been a certain gaiety about those days. In the book “Crisis What Crisis, Britain in the 1970s”, Andrew Turner writes that: “Chef Jennifer Paterson noted that nothing rounded off a blacked-out dinner party quite so well as setting light to a Crepe Suzette.” It was a time of ferment, high inflation of course, and lots of industrial action. What do you remember about it?
David: It seemed as if revolution was round the corner. In a power cut one night in my flat in Fulham, I lit an ornamental candle someone had given me in the shape of hand which flared up and left wax all over the carpet. Looking out of the window, I saw what I thought was a barricade at the end of the street and I recall feeling distinctly annoyed that the revolution had started and nobody and told me. I went to bed in disgust - and the next day, I realised it had been a gas leak.
The negotiations between the miners and the Heath government famously took place over beer and sandwiches at number 10. Heath asked the miners’ leader Joe Gormley why he had brought his colleagues to Downing Street as he clearly didn't intend to settle. Joe Gormley replied: "Brought dogs to see rabbit!", which I remember finding amusing.
Jackie: The failure of this negotiation led to the "Back me or sack me" election - the second election of 1974 - when the Conservative PM Heath went to the country to get a stronger mandate. But of course, he didn’t get the answer he wanted, and a Labour government was elected under Harold Wilson. That election was a historic breakthrough for the SNP, because 11 MPs were elected, led by Gordon Wilson. The SNP got 30% of the vote which was pretty astonishing at the time. That was the first time they out-polled the Conservatives, although they did not win as many seats.
Heath resigned as leader of the Conservatives after the defeat and there was a leadership election. That was when Margaret Thatcher emerged on the scene. Initially, she was seen as a Tory grand dame married to a millionaire, but she managed to replace that impression with one of her as a grocer's daughter, in tune with the struggles of ordinary people. She talked about her struggles to juggle family life with a career in the World In Action that you made about her which aired on the eve of the leadership vote. What do you remember about that?
David: Gus and I agreed that Margaret Thatcher was one of the strongest candidates for the Conservative Party leadership. She was a great communicator. She had a way of talking about things that really resonated with the audience. She was different from the other candidates.
We started making a programme focusing on Margaret, and the camera crew and I shadowed her on several outings and spent time filming the family at home, in a kitchen confidential style that was quite new.
I visited Margaret at her home in Sloane Street in Chelsea. There were very few books, with some Redears' Digests prominently displayed and not much on the walls, no paintings that I recall, just some photos of Dennis taken on business trips. I filmed scenes of the Thatchers in their family home.I got the impression Carol was less keen to be involved.
"Why I Want to be Leader - by Margaret Thatcher"
TRANSCRIPT
David Kemp: Do you feel that you have to support your mother politically?
Carol Thatcher: No, I think we disagree, don't we, every now and then?
Mrs Thatcher: Yes, not fundamentally … about politics.
Carol Thatcher: No, no.
Mrs Thatcher: And you support the Conservative cause and help during elections, etc
Carol Thatcher: Well I don't help during elections, Mark does. Mark's more active than I am.
Mrs Thatcher: Carol keeps the house going for us during elections, which is a tremendous help.
David I remember this very strange conversation between a workman who cleared away human remains, kneeling down to clean Margaret's shoes after she visited the site on a hospital trip, we included it in the programme.
TRANSCRIPT
Man: No, I clear, I clear, … how can I put it …?
Mrs Thatcher: Refuse?
Man: Refuse and people who die, you know.
Mrs Thatcher: Oh yes.
Man: And all the ashes, you know from the hospitals, we clear them out of the boiler house.
Mrs Thatcher: Yes, yes. And then …
Man: That's why they say they can't afford to pay.
Mrs Thatcher: Well no, it's a job that has to be done
Man: It's got to be done, somebody got to do it
Mrs Thatcher: Someone with quiet dignity to do it.
Man: I can assure you it's not a clean job.
Mrs Thatcher: No, it isn't.
Man: No
Mrs Thatcher: It's a jolly important job. How many lorry drivers have you got? I've never seen so many lorries here.
Man: Well, there's about 150 vehicles running at the moment.
Mrs Thatcher: 150 altogether.
Man: Yes
Mrs Thatcher: It's an enormous capital expenditure.
Certainly is. Man kneels down to clean mud off MT's shoe
Mrs Thatcher: Oh look that's marvelous, thank you very much, very kind of you. I didn't realise it would be quite so muddy. I was here just a few days ago. Never had this done in my life before. It's a great thrill!
Jackie: This show aired just before the leadership vote and was regarded as influential as it convinced wavering MPs that Thatcher was a strong candidate who could connect with working-class women in particular. The Conservatives had already identified this group as a key one for them.
In an interview he gave in 2015, presenter Gordon Burns said:
“Probably the highlight for me (on Reports Politics) was when I got to interview the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. That was an interesting and strange experience, by the way it came about. My co-producer, David Kemp, who had also worked for World in Action, had made a documentary about Mrs Thatcher when she ran for the leadership of the Tory Party against Ted Heath, who was the current leader, and nobody believed in those days that a woman could ever – especially in the Tory Party – become leader; it would have to be a man – and Ted Heath was the red hot favourite. But David Kemp made this film about Mrs Thatcher, followed her on the campaign trail to be the leader, talked to him, he interviewed her in her home surroundings, all that sort of thing, and she knew how to put it across to be the caring women, the housewife but politician who understood people’s needs and so on, and she did very well in that programme – it opened people’s eyes to a side of Mrs Thatcher they didn’t know, because she wasn’t very well known at the time. She had been education secretary or something like that, but nobody knew very much about her, she wasn’t a big name, and a few days after that, the election happened and she had beaten all the odds and beaten Ted Heath to become leader, and the rest is history.
But she had always said after that, and said it to David Kemp when she next met him, that she believed that that programme was the turning point, and that when people saw her as she was it swung a lot of support around her, even in the Tory Party, and that’s how she narrowly won the vote against Ted Heath, which wasn’t exactly music to David Kemp’s ears, as David Kemp worked in World in Action, which I hope you will forgive me for saying, but in those days was a hot bed of lefties, of which David will I am sure put himself amongst, and for him to carry the blame, as far as lefties were concerned, of the future Thatcher years, was a lot for him to bear – and he was reminded regularly by his leftie friends about it. But nonetheless, he carried on manfully, and in the programmes he made he was always fair, reasonable and balanced. But she had always said, “I owe you a favour, David, and any time you need a favour, let me know.” (That interview was scheduled for what turned out to be the middle of the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, but Thatcher stuck to her word and gave the team from a regional show the big interview of the moment.)
Home Rule for Scotland
Jackie: Devolution was a defining issue for that Labour administration of the late 70s. The Scotsman had many front pages on the subject - I know you had a hand in some of them. How did that come about?
David: I was friendly with a young researcher who worked for Ted Short, who was the deputy leader of the Labour Party when the Devolution White Paper was being worked on, and she passed me all kinds of secret documents about the white paper and the plans for devolution, which I used to feed to my brother Arnold who was then deputy editor of the Scotsman. As I remember, Arnold got a few front-page scoops out of that but nobody worked out where the leak was coming from.
Hansard HC Deb 13 October 1975 vol 897 cc852-5
Mr. Canavan Although there are differences of opinion about what specific powers the Scottish Assembly should have, will my right hon. Friend remind the House that the setting up of such an assembly is the policy of the Labour Party, the Scottish Labour Party and the Scottish Trades Union Congress, that it was included in the Labour Party Manifesto and the Queen's Speech earlier this Session, and that the overwhelming majority of opinion among the Scottish people is that the Government must not renege on this promise and must proceed with as much haste as possible to set up a meaningful assembly with meaningful devolution rather than separatism?
Mr. Short I agree with my hon. Friend. The Labour Party fought the General Election on the clearest promises about this matter, as did all the parties. Every party went to the last General Election with a clear promise that it would set up an elected Scottish Assembly.
Mr. Buchan Does my right hon. Friend accept that many Labour Members will welcome the flat statement that at long last the White Paper will be published in November? Does he agree that no White Paper in history has been leaked more voluminously than this over the past 12 months, and that perhaps a short period of silence should be welcomed by all parties until we see the Bill in the flesh? We shall then be able to deal with the main problem, which is the real crisis facing this country.
Questions were asked about this scoop in the House of Commons. The Scotsman reported that Wilson was asked: “Will the Prime Minister study the reports in today’s Times and yesterday’s Scotsman which confirm the widespread fears in Scotland that the Assembly Bill will be subject to delay and prevarication?”
Jackie: Yes I have had a look at the Scotsman that time on microfiche in Edinburgh central library. There is a real sense of urgency about the new Assembly being established - but it seems as if the Labour Party were dragging their feet when they are actually in power. At that time nobody seemed to consider a referendum would be necessary - the idea of a Scottish Assembly had broad support from both the politicians and the people, as shown by polling.
The idea of a referendum about a Scottish Assembly was first mooted after the referendum on EU membership in 1975. The SNP was hugely damaged by the decision it took to oppose membership of the EU. The Labour Party gained at their expense - and that seems to have been what sparked the idea of lobbying for a referendum on the new Assembly among some Labour strategists, like Tam Dalyell. They saw a referendum as an opportunity for Labour to divide the Home Rule movement.
Then in November 1975, Margaret Thatcher decided that the Conservative Party under her leadership would oppose devolution. Once she came to power, that would make a Scottish Parliament out of the question until 1997 - but nobody knew that back then of course.
As leader of the Conservative Party, Margaret Thatcher decided to oppose the Devolution Bill - and yes, that is the infamous Robert Maxwell relaxing at a Business Club dinner.
Jackie: Looking through the 1970s Scotsman reminds me of the time when my father Arnold was a politically-engaged journalist in Scotland and the country was like a doughnut, there was no power centre here. London was the real capital of Scotland - it was where all the decisions were made and I think it was very frustrating for Scots like him who had come back to work in Scotland. All the real political weather was being made elsewhere. Many talented Scots like you, David, had to take the road to London to further their careers. I remember one of the things you have often said is that now it is much more possible than it ever was in your day to have a career as a political journalist in Scotland.
David: Yes that is true. I think things have got immeasurably better for Scotland since we have had our own Parliament. But of course, the UK media is still very London-centric. The UK news channels I watch typically cover Scotland like a foreign country with one correspondent.
Jackie: Reeling back to June 1975 and the referendum to ratify Britain’s membership of the EU. I can remember Arnold getting very fired up about the European project - as you did and I think many Scots still feel the same way. It was about more than trade for both of you - it was about defending the democratic institutions of modern Germany and supporting freedom and democracy across Europe. It was also about opportunity - both you and Arnold were committed Europhiles who would have loved the chance to work and study in Europe that the next generation had.
You also made a programme about the EU referendum - what do you remember about that?
David: In 1975, World in Action showed its first two-part Special, 'A bus round the market', in which Mike Scott took Lord George Brown, Clive Jenkins and a coach party of Britons on a tour of Common Market countries and people. It was intended as an entertaining and informative way to explain the benefits of joining what would become the single market.
I set that up but didn't go on the trip. As I remember we took George Brown and Clive Jenkins, the trade unionist, for a trip round Europe with a busload of voters, visiting "wine lakes" and so on. Before signing them up, I took Brown and Jenkins to lunch at a restaurant in Charlotte Street that I often used. Brown, who got drunk very easily, leaned across the table and gripped Jenkins by the throat, saying "I've always known you were in the KGB". The waiters, who loved a lord (which Brown was by then), rushed up and said "Do you wish us to throw this man out, your lordship?" The trip met catastrophe when Brown got drunk in Brussels, fell over a hotel balcony, and broke his leg.
I am not sure what influence those shows had on the outcome of that referendum, which was a two-thirds majority for Yes.
Looking back to the 1970s, one of the best things about my life in London in those days was the proximity to Europe. I took full advantage of the chance to leave the UK at weekends, often traveling to Berlin or Paris. West Berlin in the 1970s was a far cry from the glamorous international city it is now. It was full of bomb sites and dominated by the Wall. I remember seeing gunboats on the Spree.
I went to Czechoslovakia, as it then was, on holiday, and stayed with the family of my friend, Eva Kolouchova, who worked with me at Granada. She had been a student leader in Czecho, and had been sentenced to jail in her absence, so she couldn't go back.. She asked me to pick up her feather duvet (we didn’t have those in the UK then) and take it back with me. At the border with Austria, the border guards cut it to pieces. They didn't find anything, of course. It was just an act of pure malevolence.
Personally, like many of the post-war generation who had grown up in the shadow of World War Two, I am a great believer in the European project. Brexit has been a source of great sadness to me. I think it was a huge mistake.
Jackie: On to the late 1970s. James Callaghan was the PM by then because Harold Wilson had resigned halfway through Labour’s term, in 1976. Nobody knows why he resigned but subsequent research has shown that he was convinced he was under surveillance by the deep state. James Callaghan took over - and towards the end of the term, attempts to maintain agreed wage restraint with the Unions fell apart. The winter was harsh. There were widespread strikes. Did gravediggers actually down tools as is often alleged? “Crisis What Crisis” records that it was more threatened than actual - though the Daily Mail headline “They Won’t Even Let Us Bury Our Dead” was a milestone moment. But even without the gravediggers, huge disruption was caused - compounded by unusually heavy snow. Callaghan himself was angry about what he saw as a lack of discipline in the Labour movement.
After a lot more delay and prevarication, the Labour Party eventually held a referendum on a Scottish Assembly, on March 1 1979. The Yes side won - but not by the margin that an amendment to the Bill had set - which was that 40% of the electoral roll, not the turnout. That bar was not a government idea - it was an amendment proposed by a Labour backbencher and voted through by the Conservatives along with 34 Labour MPs.
In the event, it proved crucial because the referendum result was 52% for an Assembly but it didn’t pass the 40% bar. The government had promised to repeal this ruling if necessary - but they showed no sign of doing it. The Labour Party was kicking the Assembly can further down the road - and when the Conservatives called a vote of no confidence on March 28 1979, the SNP voted with them to bring the government down. That was a dramatic moment - the government lost by just one vote. In his book about those days, The Hollow Drum, Arnold explained how one SNP MP, Hamish Watt, tried to change his vote at the last minute.
“Watt told me that he spent an absolutely miserable evening. His constituency party had mandated him to vote with the Government. He had been elected in Banff by Labour voters and knew they would reject him, as indeed they did, should he help to bring Mrs Thatcher to office. Watt had the impression that Walter Harrison thought the Government had sneaked through and did not so much care what the SNP would do. After the division some SNP and Labour members thought the Government had just won. A teller gave a misleading thumbs up. When Watt realised the truth, it is said he tried to cancel his vote – permissible if you can get to the other lobby in time. He made a dash for it but it was locked just as he reached it. According to the folklore, he beat despairingly at it, demanding entry in vain. In conversation he told me this was not true; he did discuss reversing his vote with the Labour whips but the lobby door closed before any conclusion could be reached.”
The vote of confidence forced a general election, which was held on May 3. That 1979 election turned out to be a watershed - the start of 18 years of Conservative rule. We think of the result as inevitable now, but, despite the backdrop, it didn't seem so at the time. Polls showed that Callaghan was much more popular as a potential PM than Thatcher, and his stock improved through the early weeks of the campaign.
On the eve of the election, there was a Granada special where the UK leaders appeared together on TV - and this was thought to have given a boost to Thatcher. You produced that show (which is analysed by Bob Self in the book ‘Political Communications, the General Election of 1979’ ed by Robert Worcester, the founder of MORI.) What do you remember about that?
David: For years, we had been working on the idea of the first TV election debate among the leaders. These had been happening in the US since the famous debates between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960. The first UK 'debate' was in 1974, when we convinced the three leaders to participate in a World In Action Special to answer questions from an invited audience. We had established a credible forum. Bolton East was a bellwether seat and with the help of Robert Worcester and MORI, we identified 500 people who were an accurate reflection of political views. We ran programmes every night in which these 500 ordinary people interrogated politicians on the issue of the day.
They would get a briefing document to read about the central issues on that evening’s topic - defence, education or whatever. They would come into the theatre a few hours before the show and a couple of experts would brief them. I think they even got fed there.
The politicians would arrive, one from each party. The Secretary of State for defence, the opposition spokesman for defence, and the Liberal. And an hour-long television programme would be done live, in which the audience could speak to the politicians and ask questions of the politicians. In 1974 these programmes had aired in the afternoon. But in 1979 they were moved to prime time. They aired at 9pm every night and drew a huge audience.
We wanted to have a head-to-head TV debate in 1979. I was working on a dual approach - the first choice was to have a debate between the three main party leaders but the backup plan was to have them appear in sequence and answer questions from the Bolton 500, which was what actually happened.
I started with David Steel, who I had been at University with. For Steel, who was a persuasive speaker in third place, it was an attractive opportunity. Margaret also saw the event as a potential game-changer for her - she was confident of her ability to think on her feet. James Callaghan was the most reluctant - but I drew on my background as a Labour Party press officer and the carefully calibrated audience to persuade the Labour team to agree.
For the final show, the live debate, on April 30 three days before the election on May 3, instead of trying to take the leaders to Bolton, we decided to bring the 500 down to London, to a theatre that was at the back of the London School of Economics.
Granada arranged a train to take the 500 people with various friends and relatives, researchers and so on down to London from Piccadilly. The train had on the front of it ‘The Granada 500’.
I was behind the scenes as the leaders assembled. Thatcher was poised and confident, so was Steel. Callaghan however was pale and silent. I could see he was suffering from terrible stage fright.
Jackie: I have looked at the transcript. Thatcher came on first. The first question was - would she lose male votes through being a female leader of the Conservative Party. She made a comparison with Queen Elizabeth the First.
TRANSCRIPT
Q: Well, a lot of men that I've spoken to have said “I would vote Conservative if a man was the leader of the party” .
Thatcher: Oh, how very strange. Well I hope they'll still vote Conservative. You know, it's as well they didn't live in Elizabethan times, isn't it? [laughter]—the first Queen Elizabeth. After all, we did very well then, very well.
The second question was on how she would deal with union militants. After proposing to outlaw flying pickets and the closed shop, Thatcher made a conciliatory speech.
Thatcher: But above all, we have to remember this, there are 12 million members of trade unions. They're not sort of a set of people apart. I imagine there are many of them among the audience. They're just like the rest of us. They have the same ambitions for their families. They really would rather like to get on by their own efforts. They don't like paying too much tax. They are very keen on law and order. There aren't many who are militants, and between us, all of us, we have together to deal with those militants and that's why I want to help with a postal ballot or secret ballot, because I am determined that those few destroyers should not destroy the freedom which I was brought up to believe was the heritage of every British citizen.”
David: Gordon Burns introduced “the Prime Minister, James Callaghan.” It was live TV. In the wings, Callaghan stood stock still. He had frozen. Another second passed. To me, the pause seemed interminable. Eventually, I placed my hand in the small of Callaghan’s back and pushed him out onto the set. You can see Callaghan jolting out onto the stage.
A young nurse in the front row asked: “When are you going to give us nurses more money?” And Callaghan took her on, responding angrily. He was felt to have bullied and shouted her down. The performance was thought to have cost him the election.
Jackie: In “Political Communications”, Bob Self wrote:
“Mr Callaghan's image profile had improved considerably during the campaign. In this context, therefore, Mrs Thatcher's superior performance rating in the World in Action Special is even more surprising…the explanation must be largely attributed to the quality of Mrs Thatcher's performance and the contrast between her style and that adopted by Mr Callaghan…
“In contrast to Mrs Thatcher's friendly, relaxed manner, Callaghan arrived at the Greenwood Theatre in a state of considerable anxiety, and just before entering the studio he expressed doubts about participating in the programme at all…Mr Callaghan entered to the warmest welcome of the afternoon, and only two days before the MORI recall of the panel had given him a fourteen-point lead over Mrs Thatcher as the better potential Prime Minister.
“Replying to questions, however, Mr Callaghan appeared nervous and edgy; an impression substantiated by his tendency to reply before questioners had finished speaking. Moreover, he personalised the issues and occasionally made disparaging references to the Conservative leader, a strategy conspicuously avoided by both his rivals. Probably most important in alienating audience support, however, was his frequently aggressive attitude towards his questioners. To a supplementary question on pay from a nurse, for instance, the Prime Minister replied in a hectoring voice: What's wrong with that, love.?..It's no use shaking your head love, these are the facts!' The facts may have been incontrovertible but the manner in which they were expressed was disastrous for Mr Callaghan.”
The election result was a landslide for the Tories - in England. In Scotland, it was a Labour landslide. James Callaghan famously said at an election rally that the SNP had been “turkeys voting for Christmas” and they lost all but two of their 11 seats. Jim Sillars who had founded the breakaway Scottish Labour Party also lost his seat - to George Foulkes. Gordon Wilson held on - partly because the Labour candidate for his seat was the left wing Jimmy Reid. And Donald Stewart in the Western Isles was the only other SNP survivor.
That was the first of four successive general elections - 1979, 1983, 1987, and 1992, where Scotland answered to the call - Vote Labour to get the Tories out - but ended up under what felt to many like the alien rule of a Conservative government, with a hefty majority in Westminster but little locus in Scotland. In these years, the Labour Party’s contention that long periods of Conservative rule were a price worth paying to remain in the Union started to wear thin.
Thanks, David, for sharing some of your recollections of those memorable times.