European Diary, 1977-1981 Part 13

Stood waiting for Sir Richard Strachan.

Sir Richard, longing to be at 'em.

Stood waiting for the Earl of Chatham.

In other words, waiting for everything to advance together was a recipe for never advancing at all.

This went rather well with Jim because he knew the jingle, though got it wrong when he tried to requote bits of it back to me, but it put him in a good humour, and generally from that moment onwards things went rather better. Towards the end of the evening it seemed possible to draft a highly constructive introduction to the paper itself which would enable it to be published, without any definite commitment on anybody's part, except a definite commitment to work on this scheme, to refine it by 31 October and to take a decision in December. Eventually I got a form of words accepted by everyone including Callaghan as a working hypothesis.

Then, a curious sub-committee, consisting of Schulmann as one of the authors of the paper (Clappier was not there), Lynch because he had been particularly concerned about transfer of resources, and me, sat down at the end to try and put into detailed words what had been agreed. Schmidt stayed behind, hovering around us, and, eventually, after about twenty minutes, I got something written out which was accepted as being satisfactory and was taken away to be typed. Bed only at 2.15 (3.15 Belgian time) but in a state of considerable exhilaration at the dramatic upturn after the low point of dinner.

FRIDAY, 7 JULY. Bremen and East Hendred.

To the Rathaus for the so-called 'family photographs' at 9.45. We a.s.sembled for these in the Sea Captains' Hall, comparable in scale to the main hall of the London Guildhall, and so named because it is where a traditional banquet to say goodbye to the sea captains was held. But the main thing that we appeared to be saying goodbye to that morning was the degree of agreement which we had reached the previous evening. Schmidt came up to me saying that Callaghan was running out on what he had agreed and was getting some support from Andreotti and maybe van Agt. This was confirmed by a brief interchange which I had with Callaghan himself and a word which I overheard him having with Andreotti. Their reasons for caution were quite different. Callaghan was not much in favour of the scheme politically, Andreotti was very much in favour of the scheme politically, but was doubtful whether Italy could sustain a place in it without substantial support.

The session began at 10.00 in an intimate and satisfactory little room, and we quickly got down to the European currency part of the communique and argued over this for, I suppose, two and a half hours. At times things got rather bad-tempered between Callaghan and Schmidt, less so between Callaghan and Giscard, mainly I think because Giscard cared less than did Schmidt whether Callaghan came along. From a fairly early stage it was possible to see verbal compromises which could be satisfactorily incorporated and this was what we eventually did. But Schmidt and particularly Giscard were leaving Callaghan to wriggle on his hook at this stage, and saying that they wanted no papering over of cracks where real differences existed.

The essential point which I stressed several times was that the British should agree to study the scheme put forward, if necessary to try to amend it, but not just to tour all round the intellectual horizon, and this was what was eventually accepted. Callaghan was slightly tiresome in saying he thought the draft produced the evening before went far beyond what had been agreed, which was not remotely true, and indeed was strongly contested, particularly by Giscard who said the draft was wholly accurate, as did at least five other people who spoke.

The tiresomeness lay in challenging the accuracy of the draft; there was nothing wrong in Callaghan retreating a little, as it is reasonable and indeed fairly normal to have overnight thoughts on matters of this sort, even when less important, at sessions of the European Council. However, in spite of having said that my draft went beyond what had been agreed, Callaghan, as well he might have been, was extremely agreeable to me throughout and thanked me very warmly at the end for having been helpful to him, as indeed did Schmidt and Giscard and the others. It was a very wearing but on the whole satisfactory meeting, with the Commission in a far more nodal position than at previous European Councils.

The session lasted until 2.30 p.m. After a snack I did the press conference with Schmidt, which was huge and lasted no less than eighty minutes. This was mainly because Schmidt read out an extremely long and boring statement and was also pretty diffuse in answering his own questions. (I had a few, but he had more.) I think for some reason or other he was anxious to be as boring as he could be. He was certainly not sparkling, although-what was more important-he had done extremely well in the Council. He and I then parted on excellent terms. He had offered to take me to Hamburg in his helicopter to get a plane from there, but the long press conference scuppered this plan. So I went to Bremen airport and spent a long but contented time there waiting for a later plane. East Hendred just before 9.00.

SUNDAY, 9 JULY. East Hendred.

Gilmours, Willie Whitelaws and Hugh Thomas's to lunch. A perfectly agreeable lunch, though Willie talked rather too much about Conservative Party politics without saying anything very interesting. He and Hugh Thomas apparently didn't get on very well together; no doubt he thought Hugh Thomas had become too right-wing! The Gilmours, who brought the Whitelaws because they were staying with them, seemed curiously oppressed by their presence.

MONDAY, 10 JULY. London.

Lunch with the Labour Committee for Europe. Quite a successful gathering, though some of them were surprisingly unaware of the significance of Bremen. At 6.00 I went to see Ted Heath in Wilton Street in order, which was not difficult, to line up his support for the Bremen initiative. I found him enthusiastic and anxious to make a speech later in the week. I may say that Willie Whitelaw and Ian Gilmour had been perfectly sound the day before, in considerable contrast with the non-committal statement which had been issued by Geoffrey Howe6 on Sunday and which foreshadowed Mrs Thatcher's indifferent line in the House of Commons.

A dinner at the Savoy Hotel for my former Permanent Secretaries, Sir Richard Way, Sir Charles Cunningham (I hesitated over whether to ask him7 but decided there should be no exceptions; he accepted, I put him on my right and was very glad I had had him). Sir Philip Allen (now Lord Allen of Abbey dale), Sir William Armstrong (then Lord Armstrong of Sanderstead), Sir Douglas Allen (now Lord Croham), Sir Sam Goldman, who was never a full Permanent Secretary but of equivalent rank in the Treasury, and Sir Arthur Peterson, of my second period at the Home Office, with Sir Robert Armstrong, never a Permanent Secretary of mine but now one (he was a Private Secretary and a Deputy Secretary of mine) to make up what I thought would be an appropriate balance of present as well as past. The only one who couldn't come was Sir Frank Figgures. I enjoyed the occasion and was very glad I had organized it.

TUESDAY, 11 JULY. London and Brussels.

9.25 plane from London Airport. I gave lunch to the British journalists, whom I found about as boring as usual. After some routine work in the office I went home at 6.45, where Jennifer had just arrived from London.

It was the evening of our dinner for the King and Queen of the Belgians. The other guests we had a.s.sembled were the Tines and the Tugendhats. We had intended to have the Dohnanyis, but they chucked in stages, she at two weeks' notice, Klaus the day before. We asked Laura as soon as Frau von Dohnanyi had cancelled, and we then luckily managed to replace Dohnanyi with Giolitti, whom by rather convoluted logic we thought singularly appropriate as he had just failed to become President of the Italian Republic after a brief period as favourite. The main problem was seating, for it became clear that if Giolitti was to sit on Jennifer's left, which she was insistent should be the case, the only thing which really worked was for Laura to sit next to the King, which she claimed to be apprehensive about but appeared to enjoy. The King and Queen were agreeable and easy. Marie-Jeanne cooked unusually well. I feared her nerve might have cracked, as she was very excited by the occasion, but not at all. They stayed until nearly 12 o'clock, talking animatedly, and the whole occasion was satisfactory.

WEDNESDAY, 12 JULY. Brussels.

Commission completed in the morning, owing to a light agenda. I then had an agreeable lunch with Brunner and Ralf Dahrendorf.8 Dahrendorf talks very well and Brunner, despite his faults, is also a good conversationalist. It was a great contrast with the gloomy lunch I had had at the same restaurant with the British a few months previously.

SAt.u.r.dAY, 15 JULY. Brussels and Bonn.

In the early evening Crispin and I drove to Schloss Gymnich, this side of Bonn, for the Western Economic Summit. We dined there with the Canadians: Trudeau, Jamieson, the Foreign Minister whom I know quite well and like, and Chretien, the fairly new Finance Minister whom I met in Ottawa and who can hardly speak English. An agreeable but not enormously pointful dinner.

SUNDAY, 16 JULY. Bonn.

A beautiful morning: cool (maximum temperature that day was 63F), settled sun and low humidity, a remarkable and lucky combination for the Rhine Valley in mid-July. Helicopter to the Chancellery grounds. The first session was from 10.00 to 12.30. In sharp contrast with the London position fourteen months before, there was no question of my being excluded from any of the meetings. The only mild indignities were in relation to meals, where I was not allowed to lunch or dine with the heads of government, except at the large general lunch given by Scheel, and invited to do so with the Finance Ministers. But in the meetings, which was far more important, I was given full treatment as a head of delegation, and invited to speak frequently by Schmidt. Callaghan, a little brazenly I thought, pa.s.sed me a note early on saying, 'Isn't it extraordinary that all that trouble that Giscard made about your attendance last year should now have disappeared so completely?'

At the first session we devoted most of the time to a general tour de table. Quite good, quite short contributions were made. I hadn't prepared anything, but thought it essential to speak, and therefore made a ten-minute intervention after the heads of delegation.

We rea.s.sembled from 3.15 until 4.20, had a break for Schmidt to go and brief the press, and then met again from 4.50 to 6.35. This third meeting was the crucial one at which we discussed international monetary matters. It did not go very well. This was partly but not entirely bad luck. Giscard opened at Schmidt's invitation, and while he was doing so Schmidt pa.s.sed me a note saying that I must 'back up Valery' on this as it was very desirable to get something helpful in the communique.

I pondered exactly what to say, but did not for the moment have to do anything because after Giscard's opening f.u.kuda spoke and made some highly critical remarks about the dollar, delivered quietly and politely but nonetheless biting home quite hard, and saying, which is probably exaggerated, that the main reason why everything had not gone well since the London Summit-in the j.a.panese case at any rate-was due to the neglect of the dollar by the Americans. This nettled Carter, who replied rather defensively, and I think put him in a bad temper altogether. I then spoke after this, and tried to still American and to some extent-though this was less necessary-j.a.panese fears about the EMS, and I hope did so reasonably persuasively, but I am not sure.

After this Schmidt himself spoke at considerable length, and I thought too provocatively against the Americans, and for once not persuasively at all. He and Carter got involved in a sharp argument, which certainly made Carter sound much more reserved towards the EMS scheme than we were told afterwards he was briefed to be or had intended to be. The American officials went round the corridors that evening saying that the US position was more favourable than the impression which had come out. But, of course, the fact that the Americans sounded so reserved in the session itself eased the position of the British, and certainly gave Callaghan, Healey and Owen the feeling that they were less in a corner than they might otherwise have been.

After this unsatisfactory session I set off to go back to Schloss Gymnich by helicopter. No sooner had we taken off than one of the pilots came plunging back into the cabin of the large helicopter looking panic-stricken, losing his helmet on the way, and scrabbled about at the back, failed to do what he was trying to do, and then came forward signalling desperately to the other pilot to put the machine on the ground, which he proceeded to do in a cornfield just the other side of the Rhine.

Apparently a door was open. I wasn't greatly frightened, though thought it disagreeable, and was glad when we were on the ground and knew what was happening. However, after that we got back safely to Schloss Gymnich, had a quick change and returned to Bad G.o.desberg where I dined, not particularly rewardingly, with the Finance Ministers in Le Redoute, a familiar place from old Konigs-winter days and, indeed, other meetings since. I think there was no conversation of any particular significance, except for one or two of Denis Healey's p.r.o.nouncements. Denis said that he was certain there would be an election in October. He was confident of the result, but he would not remain Chancellor of the Exchequer after a Labour victory. Dinner was over early but it was too dark for helicopters. I gave Jean Chretien a lift back to Schloss Gymnich having to talk French the whole way, because it actually seemed easier than his strangulated English.

MONDAY, 17 JULY. Bonn and Brussels.

Up early on a fine morning and ran from 7.30 under the somewhat bewildered gaze of the many security guards standing around in the agreeable grounds of Schloss Gymnich. A meeting on MTNs with Denman and Crispin at 9 o'clock, and then helicopted in for the third Summit session, which took place from 10.30 to 1 o'clock. After a preliminary period on hijacking and anti-terrorism measures we got down to the MTN discussion, which I opened. The Trade Ministers-Strauss of America, Deniau of France, Lambsdorff of Germany, Dell of Britain-were wheeled in instead of their Finance Ministers for this item. There were obvious differences within the Community, which meant that after the opening I felt I had to lie back. The French were quite skilful-particularly Giscard, though Deniau to some extent as well-and undoubtedly moved the Americans a little without getting into any sort of impa.s.se. They presented their case better than did the Germans and had some reason to be pleased with themselves afterwards, as they noticeably were.

We then walked across to the Villa Hammerschmidt for Scheel's ceremonial lunch, which went on too long so that the afternoon session did not begin until 3.30. It then continued on until 6.15. This was mainly communique stuff with problems about energy and the Third World, though the more specific remaining point to be settled was the figure for the various growth targets, and the German one in particular; eventually it was agreed that this should be raised by 1 per cent of GNP, whatever exactly that means.

So the much-heralded Summit came to an end. It was not vastly exciting, but probably better than the London one because more precise. It was certainly better from our Commission point of view, and just good enough to present to the press and the world as an achievement rather than a setback. Then we went off to the press conference which was held in some vast auditorium, but I think was deeply unrewarding for the press because it merely took the form of nine statements with no questions. (It was agreed that I should sit in the front row but not make a statement, although I at least had a microphone, unlike in London!) This was over by 7.20, and we all 'ran for the bus', in my case a Mercedes to Brussels.

TUESDAY, 18 JULY. Brussels.

I saw Ortoli at 11.15, and had a brief meeting about Italian steel problems with Donat-Cattin, the only disagreeable man in the Italian Government.

I then had w.i.l.l.y Brandt at noon for an hour's talk followed by an enjoyable lunch. Then, at 3.55, f.u.kuda arrived early so that when I got downstairs he was already out of his car but that, as the j.a.panese were very free to admit, was their fault and not ours. I had a reasonably satisfactory private meeting with him for nearly an hour, and then received the presentation of a large picture of a waterfall by the 'second best-known artist in j.a.pan', as they quaintly put it. We gave f.u.kuda in return a rather beautiful late eighteenth-century Italian celestial globe, with the signs of the zodiac, which Crispin had cleverly bought. Then an hour's Commission meeting with f.u.kuda, followed by a forty-five-minute press conference, and after that a respite.

To Val d.u.c.h.esse in good time (this time) to receive the j.a.panese and, after dinner, partly at the prompting of Crispin, who thought they had been slightly offended by Haferkamp, I made a prepared, warm, friendly speech, which was generally thought to have smoothed any ruffled feathers, and meant that they left in a good humour and reported themselves subsequently as very pleased with the visit.

WEDNESDAY, 19 JULY. Brussels and London.

Commission for three hours. Then to Simonet's house in Anderlecht, where he gave a useful and enjoyable lunch for Van Ypersele, the Belgian Chairman of the Monetary Committee, Professor Robert Triffin,9 Lahnstein of the German Finance Ministry and maybe one other. An optimistic discussion about the state of play after Bremen and Bonn.

Commission for another three hours, which was long without being killing, and I then saw Vredeling who told me, not entirely to my dismay, that he had decided not to take on Personnel from Tugendhat. 8.35 plane to London. A substantial amount of late-night work in Kensington Park Gardens on my Ess.e.x degree speech, which was intended to be one of substance about the post-Bremen position.

THURSDAY, 20 JULY. London and Colchester.

11.30 train from Liverpool Street to Colchester and up to the university for an enjoyable lunch with old Rab Butler,10 the Chancellor, on one side of me, and Mollie Butler on the other. Rab looked in an appalling condition, with bits of him coming off, but interesting to talk to as always. A short congregation in the afternoon, during which I spoke for about twenty minutes, as far as I could tell quite successfully, then a quick tea and a train to London.

FRIDAY, 21 JULY. London and East Hendred.

To the Bank of England to lunch and address their EEC Committee, a gathering of about seventy to whom I spoke without a text and, as a result, better than usual. After that, feeling that I had broken the back of the summer's work, I drove with Jennifer to East Hendred.

SAt.u.r.dAY, 22 JULY. East Hendred.

It should have been a very good day for morale, having got so much work over, but, alas, I woke up with a sore throat and a cold which I didn't at first take at all seriously, but mistakenly so.11 Robin Day12 came at 12.30, and I put to him the proposition that he might become head of the Commission's London office. He seemed attracted, while rightly reserving his position.

MONDAY, 24 JULY. Brussels.

Formal opening session of Lome II, from 10.30, a vast gathering -which went on until about noon, and at which I had to make rather a routine speech. Lunch with the Council of Economic and Finance Ministers, which was mildly interesting because it gave me a good idea of how their follow-up meeting at Bremen had gone.

A Coordination Meeting,13 fairly brief, before the Foreign Affairs Council. A farewell call from David Marquand, three amba.s.sadors with credentials, an hour's meeting with Dohnanyi and the Germans and then a dinner with him alone. This was enjoyable in spite of my cold.

WEDNESDAY, 26 JULY. Brussels and London.

Final Brussels morning of the summer. Commission from 10.10 to 1.05, going along rather well and easily apart from a slight difficulty about 'Crisis Cartels'14 at the end, which we had to adjourn until the afternoon. Lunch with Crispin and Hayden, to discuss the autumn term, and Commission again until 5.45. We got through Crisis Cartels, having twisted Davignon's arm, but it was time that that was done on this issue. However, it was a more difficult Commission to bring to an end in time than had been the previous pre-holiday ones, and I eventually left in some disorder, without being able to say goodbye to anyone much, let alone have the customary gla.s.s of champagne with the cabinet. Just caught the 6.25 plane to London, got home in time to go to Solly's very agreeable Zoo dinner of about twenty for us. I sat between Joan (Zuckerman) and Caroline (Gilmour) and afterwards had a long talk with Evangeline (Bruce) for the first time since David died. A very good evening, but late.

THURSDAY, 27 JULY. London.

To the opera with the Mosers (also Jennifer and the Donaldsons) -Bellini's Norma. A fairly but not spectacularly enjoyable performance, much though I like the opera, a very weak tenor, but b.u.mbry acted magnificently throughout and sang well in the second part. And anyway my cold was fairly awful.

FRIDAY, 28 JULY. London and East Hendred.

I gave a long background interview to Stephen Milligan for his Granada television programme on the various Summits, which is to be presented in December. Lunched with the Bar Council at Grays Inn because their President, David McNeill, was an old Oxford acquaintance and he had there a.s.sembled about twelve legal luminaries, including Leslie Scarman, whom I was particularly glad to see, Elwyn-Jones and Peter Rawlinson. I drove to East Hendred on a rather attractive day, not settled weather, but good light and good, clear sky, thinking that I had a long and not undeserved summer holiday ahead.

MONDAY, 31 JULY. East Hendred.

The day of my cabinet meeting at East Hendred, which last year had been held in the garden in such spectacular suns.h.i.+ne that poor Renato Ruggiero nearly melted. This year there was pouring rain, which never ceased throughout the day. They struggled in, some from Brussels and some from London, in time for us to start at 11.40. We were thirteen altogether, including Jennifer, and John Harris from outside. In the morning we mainly discussed plans for reorientating the work of the Commission so that it concentrated on major issues where there was a chance of progress rather than flogging horses which were minor as well as dead; this meant certain consequential changes in personnel policy and greater flexibility in moving people around. In the afternoon we dealt with the Common Agricultural Policy and questions of the transfer of resources to poorer countries. I did not think the discussion was as good as last year, but the others seemed reasonably satisfied by it. We ended at 6 o'clock and most people left pretty rapidly to catch their planes.

FRIDAY, 4 AUGUST. East Hendred and Norfolk.

Drove via Kettering (lunch Bradleys) to stay with the Zuckermans at Burnham Thorpe for four days.

MONDAY, 7 AUGUST. Norfolk.

Solly, Jennifer and I drove over to the rather oppressive shrines of Walsingham about 6.00. Then back for a young man whose work was much admired by Joan Zuckerman (though less so by Solly) to attempt a drawing of me. He was very dissatisfied with the result and refused to let me have it and went off in a state of gloom. We rang him up during dinner and said that he could come back the next morning and have another go, which he duly did. Dined in and then stayed up late that night writing the greater part of the foreword to Joan Zuckerman's book on Birmingham (which I finished the following morning), having just previously written a Times piece about John Mackintosh, who, alas, had died the week before.

TUESDAY, 8 AUGUST. Norfolk and Suffolk.

Weather still as awful as ever. We left at 12.15 and drove to Norwich, which was immensely crowded, I suppose because so many people had been driven in from Cromer, Yarmouth, etc. by the appalling weather. I have never seen a church so full of sodden people as was the cathedral. We lunched in the Maid's Head Hotel, a splendid old fossilized 1930s (if not earlier) restaurant. Very bad food, rather nice service, with two tables looking as though they were occupied by people out of the film of The Go-Between. Then drove, still in pouring rain, to the Rothschilds at Rushbrook, near Bury St Edmunds, for dinner and the night.

FRIDAY, 11 AUGUST. East Hendred.

Lunch with the Rolls, who had Kingman Brewsters (the American Amba.s.sador in London), Robert Marjolin and Michael Stewarts (ex-Ditchley)15 to lunch at Ipsden. The good view I had formed of Brewster on the brief occasion when I had had a drink with him in London a few months before, was sustained. Not primarily serious conversation, though about half an hour on the political aspects of monetary union.

MONDAY, 14 AUGUST. East Hendred.

Diana Phipps, George Weidenfeld and Nicko Henderson to lunch with Jennifer at the Blue Boar. An enjoyable lunch, Nicko ebullient, George agreeable and unpus.h.i.+ng in every way, I suppose because his ambitions are now fulfilled. I have never known him so well informed on a wide range of issues. The Annans came to East Hendred for several sets of tennis between 5.30 and 7.30.

TUESDAY, 15 AUGUST. East Hendred and Sare.

Plane to Bilbao. Drove across the French frontier to reach the Beaumarchais' at Sare by 6.00. Jacques had his foot in a plaster case as a result of a broken bone and was therefore rather immobile and subdued.

THURSDAY, 17 AUGUST. Sare.

The first fine day for a long time. I collected the Tavernes16 from Bayonne Marina and brought them back to the Beaumarchais' for lunch. They were on very good form, both elegant with completely grey hair, d.i.c.k Viking-like in a sort of naval casquette, but balanced and sensible in his judgements: a highly attractive and intelligent man.

MONDAY, 21 AUGUST. Sare.

The weather had cleared again. I drove into Biarritz with Jennifer and Marie-Alice and swam, then lunched in, read, and worked on a review of Arthur Schlesinger's Robert Kennedy. Dined at the f.a.goagos' (a local doctor) to meet the Spanish-Basque nationalist leader, Monzon, who has lived in St Jean-de-Luz since the civil war, and was a typical exile, interesting culturally, but totally unrealistic politically. He wanted an independent Basque state, which would form some sort of loose Iberian federation with Spain on the same basis as, he suggested, Portugal should do. He slightly reminded me of old Gwynfor Evans.17 WEDNESDAY, 23 AUGUST. Sare.

Drove into Biarritz earlier than usual, with Jennifer and Robert and Serena Armstrong (who had arrived to stay), swam in the usual bouncing breakers, went into the Hotel du Palais to show the Armstrongs the plaque commemorating Asquith's kissing hands there with King Edward VII on his appointment as Prime Minister in 1908, and noted again that although only about fifty words long it contains two mistakes.

Chaban Delmas'18 to lunch. Chaban, although looking somewhat older than when I had seen him last two years ago, seemed more vigorous and, although talking desultorily during lunch, was striking afterwards. His perspective of French politics was at once traditional and personal. He was indifferent to Giscard, but in favour of maintaining the prerogatives of a President of the Fifth Republic, and bitterly critical of Chirac, whom he thought the embodiment of all evil, for opposing him, a curious reversal of positions since Chirac supported Giscard in 1974 and scuppered Chaban's own candidature as a result. Chaban believed that Mitterrand remained in a powerful position, still full of ambition for the 1981 election, but that when he had gone, which he thought would not be until after that, the French Socialist Party might well split up as there would then be n.o.body to hold it together.

THURSDAY, 24 AUGUST. Sare and East Hendred.

We left just at 11.00, getting into Spain in an hour. We got slightly lost on the way to Bilbao airport, but this at least gave us a view of Bilbao, which reminded me of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, before they got rid of the smog. East Hendred at 5.00 on a fine but cool afternoon. The visit to Sare had been a great success. It was, as always, a great pleasure to be with the Beaumarchais', and the Armstrongs made a bonne-bouche at the end. I think Jacques needed guests and I suspect if he remains immobile for much longer and Giscard blocks his having anything to do, he may go into a slight decline, which would be very sad indeed.

FRIDAY, 25 AUGUST. East Hendred and North Wales.

Left mid-morning to drive to Talsarnau and stay with the Harlechs. We went via Cirencester, Gloucester, Ledbury and Leominster, just beyond which we picnicked in a field with a good Herefords.h.i.+re red soil view and the sun coming out on a beautiful but cool day. Then on to Ludlow, and to Craven Arms and Bishop's Castle, through my old 1940 forestry camp area over the road up which David Ginsburg and I (Anthony Elliott joined us next day) had bicycled on a warm mid-July evening in 1940, stopping at a pub for supper and hearing one of Churchill's most famous 9 o'clock Sunday evening broadcasts -1 think the 'fight on the beaches' one.19 Then on through the rolling open countryside of Montgomerys.h.i.+re into the tiny town of Montgomery where I had never been before, and to Bala, which looked a little less bleak in the sunlight than I had ever seen it, but which was true to form in refusing us a drink because we were too early (normally it is because it is a Sunday). Glyn at 6.30.

SAt.u.r.dAY, 26 AUGUST. North Wales.

A perfect day, strong sunlight, quite cool. Tennis morning and evening. Lunch in the garden. At the end of the afternoon I went for a short drive down to the sea to see the view of the mountains. After tennis it was such a perfect evening that I then drove alone once again to the sea at 8.15 and saw a memorable sunset over the Lleyn Peninsula.

MONDAY, 28 AUGUST. North Wales.

A difficult drive via Beddgelert and Caernarvon to lunch with the Cledwyn Hughes'20 on the edge of Anglesey at Trearddur Bay. Of all my close friends in the House of Commons I think he was the only one whom I hadn't seen since leaving and I was anxious to fill the gap. He is not standing again and therefore has probably been in the House of Commons for the last time as a member. He said he was bored with the House, most of his friends had left and he thought he preferred to get out at sixty-one rather than sixty-five and get other things to do, of which I think he will find a considerable number. Indeed he had already been asked, most surprisingly, to be Ombudsman but, wisely I think, had turned it down. He had had Callaghan on the telephone on Sat.u.r.day night who was obviously wavering considerably about an October election, although it was Cledwyn's view that it was still more likely than not that Callaghan would come down for October and that this would be wise.

We then drove back across the island to call on the Angleseys21 in their new flat at the top of Plas Newydd, they having evacuated and turned over the rest of the house to the National Trust.

WEDNESDAY, 30 AUGUST. East Hendred.

s.h.i.+rley Williams for lunch from 1.30 to 4.45, all in the garden. I found her buoyant. The rumours that she was disenchanted with politics and was going to give up, although not specifically denied by her, did not seem to me to fit in with her mood, which was one of considerable commitment. She is very pro Bill Rodgers, but fairly critical of most other people, particularly David Owen, but Hattersley22 too. She thought Denis (Healey) would not become leader unless the whole thing was absolutely made for him by Callaghan. He would only succeed as heir in very propitious circ.u.mstances. He would not have enough people fighting on his side to get him through a difficult contest, and if Callaghan-as he might well if he won-stayed on two or three years, that would probably see Denis out.

She, I think, was rather in favour of a spring than an autumn election, but not very certain about this. She was thoroughly sound on all European questions and anxious to be briefed on monetary issues, having had some quite long talks with Blumenthal (whom she had found wobbly and wavering) at Aspen where she had spent the summer, and she thought the American att.i.tude was crucial for a UK Government decision.

THURSDAY, 31 AUGUST. East Hendred.

An incredibly dismal, dark, cold morning. We turned the heating on in the house and I lit a fire before lunchtime. Jennifer went to London for the day. In the evening we drove to West Wick near Pewsey to dine with the Devlins,23 who produced a (mainly) Oxford and legal dinner party with, as always, very good food and wine. Enjoyable evening.

FRIDAY, 1 SEPTEMBER. East Hendred.

I had a long telephone talk with Bill Rodgers, with whom I had not been in touch for some time, and also a call from Debbie Owen saying that David was very anxious to see us, which slightly surprised me.

SAt.u.r.dAY, 2 SEPTEMBER. East Hendred.

Edmund Dells and Michael Jenkins's to lunch. It was the first time that Edmund Dell had ever been to any house of ours, and I had asked him-strange, shy, rather silent, good man that he is-mainly because I had been told by so many people that he was unsound on monetary union. I had therefore spoken to him at the Council of Ministers in July and said that I had heard that this was so, and why was it? To which he rather sweetly replied, 'Well, perhaps it is because you haven't talked to me enough.' So I thought that maybe a talking session would be a good idea. Hence the lunch.

He proved more talkative and agreeable than I had expected on general subjects-China, music-and they were both good guests. I had a go at him on the central subject afterwards but I am not sure that I made much impression, not at the time at any rate. He produced a remarkably complicated and oversophisticated, also highly pessimistic-perhaps the two are the same-reason for his opposition. It was that he thought we would get too much German subsidy, too much German money, which would act, rather like North Sea oil, as a false cus.h.i.+on for us and go on making it unnecessary for British industry to make the fundamental changes, without which it was a.s.suredly doomed.