Politics Tony Benn was a Member of Parliament (MP) for 47 years between the 1950 and 2001 general elections and a Cabinet minister in the Labour governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan in the 1960s and 1970s. He published nine volumes of his diaries across the years of which Out of the Wilderness was the second.
George Alfred Brown, Baron George-Brown, PC was a British Labour politician who served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1960 to 1970 and also in several Cabinet posts, including Foreign Secretary during the Labour government of the 1960s. He was a leader of the Labour Party's trade union right wing, and an effective election campaigner [wiki].
He had a colourful life, of which Benn captures a small fraction and I decided to include all of the surrounding entries to cover the whole of this mini-scandal.
Sadly, 55 Days in Peking is probably long enough that Hilary will have missed Doctor Who. Perhaps he caught up on the repeat the following week.
Friday 22 November
Just as I was leaving home to speak in Acton the phone rang and Hilary answered it and it was one of his friends. When he rang off he said that Kennedy had been shot and I didn't believe it. But we switched on the television and there was a flash saying that he was critically ill in Dallas. I drove to Acton and heard the 7.30 bulletin, just before gong in to the meeting, which announced that Kennedy had died. It was the most stunning blow and at the beginning of the meeting we all stood in silence for a moment in tribute.
I dashed home to watch TV and hear the details. George Brown was drunk when he was interviewed but everyone else who spoke was sensitive and touched and it was a most moving evening.
Saturday 23 November
Kennedy's death blotted out all other news and we watched a film transmitted via Telstar during the night. Melissa and Joshua drew the most wonderful pictures of what they had seen and it helped to get it out of their system.
This afternoon I took Hilary and his friends to a birthday treat to see Fifty-five Days in Peking. Caroline and I went to the Shores this evening. I heard from TV producer Jeremy Isaacs what happened when George Brown was on TV last night. He was so tight that he nearly got in a fight with someone else who had also come to pay tribute to Kennedy and they almost had to be separated. He is a complete disgrace and one day it will all blow up. One almost wishes it was more obvious so that Harold would have the Party backing for removing him.
Sunday 24 November
Worked all afternoon and most of the evening. The papers are still full of Kennedy and today Lee Harvey Oswald, his alleged assassin, was shot while in police custody. The whole thing is so fishy and the shame of the Dallas police is complete.
Thursday 28 November
Looked in at the Party meeting where George Brown made a brief statement apologising for his tribute to Kennedy last week. It was acutely embarrassing and there was no comment, nor even grunts of sympathy from MPs there.
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