Michael Chanan

A bunch of recent television programmes about Harold Wilson brings back to mind an experience I had in 1965, when I had a job between school and university with National Opinion Polls. In the 1964 General Election which brought Wilson to power, his preferred foreign minister, Patrick Gordon Walker, lost his seat. Wilson named him foreign minister nonetheless (unusual, but apparently not unconstitutional) and waited for the first by-election in a safe labour constituency, where he then put Gordon Walker in as the candidate. This turned out to be Leyton in East London in January 1965. NOP sent a whole bunch of us down there for a weekend’s interviewing. Read more

Oh What a Lovely Democracy

If the treasurer of the Labour Party didn’t know about those loans; and if the people who loaned the money were then put up for peerages; and if peerages are given by No.10; then the conclusion is obvious: who knew was No.10. Adorno used to speak about the coincidence which is not just a coincidence.
No.10 – a useful euphemism. More evidence, if any were needed, that Mr Blair, the man who ignored the largest protest demonstration ever seen in London, and went to war on the coat-tails of Mr Danger (as Venezuela’s Chavez calls Bush the Son) – this is someone basically anti-democratic. Like Mrs Thatcher. (Whereas Chavez has won more genuine elections and referendums than any other elected leader anywhere in the world.)
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