Against the Tide: Diaries, 1973-1976

Tony Benn Diaries #4

by Tony Benn, Ruth Winstone (Editor)

This third volume of Benn's political diaries brings us to a watershed in British politics - the post-war consensus is finally buried, with the defeat of Heath, the stormy resignation of Wilson and Callaghan's brief rule preparing the way for a new era of Thatcher domination. 1973 saw Ted Heath's ailing government locked in confrontation with the miners and the three day week, incapable of responding to the OPEC oil crisis. Candle-lit offices and power cuts finally forced a general election on the issue of "who governs Britain", returning the surprised Labour party back into power. But Tony Benn himself is under attack from all sides - an increasingly hostile and crafty press, the CBI, the Treasury and, most important, Number 10 itself - as he attempts to pursue the radical policies in Labour's election manifesto. The first two volumes of Benn's political diaries are entitled, Out of the Wilderness and Office Without Power.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Diary, Biography, History

768 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC, formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate, was a British Labour Party politician. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1951 until 2001, and was a Cabinet Minister under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan in the 1960s and 1970s. After his retirement from the House of Commons, he continued his activism and served as president of the Stop the War Coalition.

Reviews

[Bill Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading Tony Benn's Diaries more than ten years ago - the first was a Christmas gift and was, at the time, the most recently published. I was captivated and read to the end as each new volume was published and then started at the beginning. I take my time reading bits as days and months go by. Reading this volume over the last two years was resonant with the times as the debates over the 1975 referendum on the continued membership of the European Economic Union were outlined in real time by Benn. It was fascinating to see the same lines being trotted out as over the past 5 years. Nothing had changed in 40 years. The arguments and false narratives. Benn is an interesting witness. I agree with him on many key issues. I did not on Europe. I understood his argument, and once you start from the premise he did, it was well argued. However, I disagreed with his premise. I find the insights into the way that government 'works' fascinating and you become aware of the compulsion of power, that those at the top can make the changes that will improve the world. The more I read, the more I feel this is the illusion. Governments need to think less of their power and more about enabling change. The world won't change unless it wants to.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting to be reading this against the background of the next EU referendum and to see how much has changed since the 1970s (when broadly the Left were against and the Right were pro Europe). This period was not an easy one for Tony Benn, or for anyone else really. Some of what he talks about is dry stuff (incomes policy, industry, the PSBR, energy) but he is so enthusiastic that he carries you along. Shocking to read of the harassment of the press and the apparently officially sanctioned - presumably - bugging of his phone. A lot of things fall into place reading at a distance of 40 years about what was actually going on, and the parallels with today. Ends gloomily on the verge of the IMF grovelling episode.