Prime Minister: The Conduct of Policy Under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan

Politics & Social Sciences

Donoughue, Bernard

Politics & Government

JONATHAN CAPE.

Early in 1974, Bernard Donoughue was invited by Harold Wilson first to help fight the General Election and then to found and run the Policy Unit at Number Ten Downing Street, a body independent of the Civil Service machine working solely for the Prime Minister. He thus joined Wilson’s notorious "kitchen cabinet" with Joe HainesWilson’s combative press secretaryand Marcia Williams, Wilson’s personal and private secretary. Donoughue remained in Downing Street throughout Wilson’s final premiership, and his daily diary provides an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Harold Wilson struggling to hold the Labour Party together, drinking heavily, increasingly paranoid about "plots" and the press, and apparently in thrall to Marcia Williams. Williams had an extraordinary hold over the Prime Minister and violently resented "intrusion" from any other advisors, Donoughue included. Though the story of Wilson’s "kitchen cabinet" has been told before, there has never been an account as intimate and explosive as this extraordinary diary. One of the most extraordinary accounts of modern times, this is an intimate and often explosive look at life at the heart of Harold Wilson's government.

Downing Street Diary: With Harold Wilson in No. 10

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

RANDOM HOUSE UK

The first volume described Harold Wilson’s years; this second volume covers 1976-79 when James Callaghan was P.M., and includes a vivid description of the decline of “old” Labour and the emergence of Margaret Thatcher.

Downing Street Diary, Volume Two

Herbert Morrison; portrait of a politician

Weidenfeld and Nicolson

On 2nd May, 1997, Tony Blair swept into Downing Street, ending almost twenty years of Conservative government and beginning a decade as Prime Minister. Bernard Donoughue, a Labour peer in the House of Lords, chronicled the path to this momentous election victory in his diaries and this volume sheds new light on the process of forming government and on life working as a minister in the House of Lords. Infused with Donoughue's trademark wit and insight, the diary covers daily life for a working peer―from the committees, bill discussion, and public appearances to political spats―both policy-related and personal. Donoughue also casts a wry glance at a peer's extra-curricular events―from dinners and other high-profile social events to his own favourite hobby, horse-racing. Featuring a cast of high-profile political characters, this book is a must-read for fans of political diaries and anyone with an interest in the inside workings of Westminster.

Westminster Diary: A Reluctant Minister under Tony Blair

History

World

I.B.Tauris

Morrison, "the chirpy cockney sparrow" and agitator, rose from an errand boy to rule London as Britain's most famous city boss; then, nationally, he shaped the Labor Party's policies and directed its successful electoral strategies. Churchill even chose him to fight the German blitz throughout the war...but later, he ended his career overwhelmed by problems and seemingly inexplicable failures as Foreign Secretary. An inspiring biography, with a new author's preface and foreword by Morrison's grandson, Peter Mandelson.

Phoenix: Herbert Morrison: Portrait of a Politician

Jones, G.W.

Historical

Phoenix

Bernard Donoughue was in the frontline of British politics for three decades. His experience stretches from the Wilson government of 1974 to the first Tony Blair government of 1997, in which he served as a minister of agriculture. This book talks frankly of his relationships with the political giants of the age.Lord Donoughue was an adviser to Harold Wilson and James Callaghan and a Minister in Tony Blair's Government.

The Heat of the Kitchen

Arts & Literature

Politicos

In one of the most extraordinary political diaries of modern times, this is an insider’s often explosive account of life at the heart of British Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s Labour government in the 1970s. From the Hardcover edition.

Downing Street Diary

Pimlico

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 Labor’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 paralyzed as the Winter of Discontent’ began to bite and politics took to the streets. As Labor drifted to inevitable defeat in the 1979 election we see Callaghan fighting honorably. 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” Labor and how Mrs. Thatcher took the opportunity to launch her crusade to dismantle trade union power and much of the British public sector.

Downing Street Diary Volume Two: With James Callaghan in No. 10 (2)

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