Author:Bernard Donoughue
The first volume of Bernard Donoughue's Downing Street Diary was described by Charles Moore in the Daily Telegraph as 'the best account of Harold Wlson's last days'; 'the sheer scale and detail are fascinating' wrote Peter Riddell in the Times Literary Supplement. This second volume covers the three years, 1976-79, when Donoughue was Senior Policy Advisor to James Callaghan.
At first Callaghan quickly established dominance over his cabinet and restored calm after the plots and scandals of the later Wilson years. His incomes policy reduced inflation and, in the teeth of opposition from the left wing, he negotiated the notorious IMF loan at the expense of eliminating some of Labour's most cherished dreams. By 1978, Callaghan, a politician of great patriotism and decency, seemed to have succeeded in steering Britain into calmer waters. But then the storm broke. Trade union militants brushed aside their mediocre leaders and launched a ferocious attack on Callaghan's pay policy, driving up inflation and demonstrating the government's impotence. In the diaries we see the prime minister and the government paralysed as the 'Winter of Discontent' began to bite and politics took to the streets.
As Labour drifted to inevitable defeat in the 1979 election we see Callaghan fighting honourably. From the smoke of battle there emerges a striking new leader: Margaret Thatcher. The diaries describe vividly both the decline and final collapse of 'old' Labour and how Mrs Thatcher took the opportunity to launch her crusade to dismantle trade union power and much of the British public sector.
Besides James Callaghan the chief figures in this volume of Lord Donoughue's diaries are Roy Jenkins, Denis Healey, Tony Crosland, Michael Foot, Shirley Williams, David Owen and Tony Benn.
These diaries...convey a fresh and vivid sense of the tensions and strains of this period
—— Literary ReviewDonoughue's diaries of his time as political advisor to Jim Callaghan are proving gripping reading
—— The TimesSuperb book... historians will plunder the Donughue diaries to gain an understanding of one of the great turning points in modern British history. But this book also has a huge contemporary resonance. It is very accessible to the general reader an I cannot recommend it highly enough
—— Daily MailAn admirable and important contribution to British history ... A copy of Donoughue's fascinating book should be sent to every minister in office
—— Roy Hattersley , ObserverAs an inside account of the collective political nervous breakdown suffered by the Labour movement in the late Seventies, these diaries have no equal
—— Daily TelegraphBernard Donoughue's superb Downing Street diaries
—— Matthew D'Ancona , Sunday TelegraphAn absorbing political thriller written by someone on the inside track
—— Brian MacArthur , Daily TelegraphDonoughue's diaries of the death rattles of Labour's last administration should be essential reading at No. 10. Books such as this rise far above mere political gossip: they are essential reading for any member of British government
—— Dominic Lawson , Sunday TimesHistorical biography's newest star
—— BooksellerHis conclusions neatly balance the equally pertinent questions of why Communist systems collapse, and why they lasted so long
—— Stephen Howe , IndependentOne of Britain's leading experts on communism provides a grimly humorous and richly anecdotal study
—— George Pendles , Financial Times, History books of the yearScholarly, well-paced and critical...few can match him for insider knowledge
—— Tristram Hunt , Sunday TimesBalanced, insightful, illuminated by intriguing detail and flashes of humour, this worldwide panorama is a miracle of compression
—— Christopher Hirst , IndependentThis superb book gives the history of the ideology and the reasons for its decline
—— Simon Heffer , TelegraphIt reads like Sovietology rendered by John le Carré
—— Timothy SnyderThe book is well written with flashes of mordant humour and sufficient records of personal foibles and institutional stupidity to keep the reader going through some dreadful moments of human history
—— Political Studies Review
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