European Diary, 1977-1981 (92 page)

THURSDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER.
Brussels.

The group of Brussels British journalists to lunch rue de Praetère. About half the conversation was on British political affairs. I tried to play for time by saying they should not think in terms of the launch of a political party on 6 January,
⁵⁹
but rather in terms of some intellectual groundwork leading, I hoped, to my making a number of significant speeches. This line was subsequently reported -remarkably fairly–by John Palmer in the
Guardian.
Nobody else took it in, or perhaps did not believe it.

FRIDAY, 26 SEPTEMBER.
Brussels, London and East Hendred.

Plane to London and Frank Chapple
⁶⁰
to lunch at Brooks's. He had recently been excluded from key committees of the TUC, but was nonetheless in a cocky, aggressive, agreeable mood. He agrees with me on absolutely every aspect of policy, but still does not want to contemplate a break, not out of weakness, but rather out of ill-informed confidence in the strength of his case. He believes that everything can be won by a tough battle from within, including committing the Labour Party almost to a nuclear missile in everybody's back garden. Curious that he should have this element of political unrealism. It was nonetheless well worth seeing him, probably a pity I did not do so earlier.

MONDAY, 29 SEPTEMBER.
East Hendred and London.

An hour's meeting with Michael Palliser at Brooks's from 5.30 to 6.30, partly about the new British Commissioner, mainly about the future of Crispin. Mexico looks increasingly settled for him which is, I think, satisfactory. His knighthood rather less settled. Also discussed the future of Michael Jenkins. In addition, I put to Palliser my dilemma about the grand honour the Spanish Government were proposing to bestow upon me at the end of the week. He sensibly more or less invited me to accept it on the run, as it were.
⁶¹

Dined at home and watched a lot of television, first
Panorama,
a programme on the state of the Labour Party, and then reports from Blackpool which showed Benn madder than ever, the conference in an ugly mood, Shirley in great fighting spirit, orating very successfully even if occasionally a little incoherently at I think a Campaign for Labour Victory meeting. Altogether well worth seeing—a full evening's conference television. No great tugs upon the heart strings, but great interest. The conference looks as though it is going worse even than I thought it would.

TUESDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER.
London and Brussels.

In the afternoon a series of meetings, first with Ian MacGregor,
⁶²
the new Chairman of British Steel, who has been hired at such vast cost, not so much in salary as in compensation to Lazard Frères. Thought him quite a tough Scotsman, no doubt very shrewd, but he did not seem to me the most dominant personality in the world, or the most dominant brain. He must be better than he looks.

Later saw Vredeling on his paper for increased worker consultation etc., which is causing a lot of trouble with UNICE and the employers generally. But I think that he has now concerted it well with Davignon. It has gone through the various processes of consultation and should be supported. I told him that I would do so in the Commission the next day.
⁶³

THURSDAY, 2 OCTOBER.
Brussels and Madrid.

Early plane to Madrid. Met by Punset, the new Minister described earlier, and drove in with him to the Ritz Hotel, finding him very bright indeed. He raised two serious points of discussion, of exactly the right level, on the way in. It was a beautiful day in Madrid, quite different from when we were last there, clear sunshine and very hot for October, I think 85° during the afternoon, though cool at night. A 2 o'clock lunch (specially early in our honour) with Calvo Sotelo and Punset at the Palacia de la Trinidad.

Then an hour with Punset alone. Back at the hotel, I had a visit from Simonet, who had rung up saying he was there learning Spanish. I said, ‘Even for you, Henri, the Ritz Hotel, Madrid, strikes me as a rather grand educational
pension.'

I had a one-and-a-quarter-hour meeting at the Moncloa Palace with Suárez, the Prime Minister. Curiously, most of the conversation was about what we would call devolution, what the Spaniards call decentralization, the Basque and Catalan problems and their impact on the structure of the Government. He had been meeting the Basques all day and was obviously greatly preoccupied by that, Suárez still seems to me an impressive personality, and an
agreeable one too. He remains very determined on European membership, even though his mind is much on internal Spanish questions.

At 9.30 in the same building he gave me a dinner, and also the Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III. Spanish political conversation with Suarez–through an interpreter even at dinner because he is absolutely monolingual. Very good food.

FRIDAY, 3 OCTOBER.
Madrid and East Hendred.

Crispin and I went to the Prado for half an hour, concentrating on the Goyas which are an extraordinary mixture (I had seen them once before) of styles and approach, but seen in sum are quite remarkable. Then the Community ambassadors for half an hour, they perfectly agreeable, particularly Bobbie de Margerie, the Frenchman who clearly hopes to come to London.

Then a slow drive to Zarazuela, interrupted by a brief walk in a hot, sun-baked countryside looking as though we were still at the height of summer, for an audience with the King at noon. I saw him alone. He expressed strong continuing commitment to Europe, some dismay at the fact that decentralization was dismantling the state to the extent even that it might not be possible to hold it together, but at the same time fair confidence about what had been achieved politically. He has come to look older in the past two years; I still much like him.

We parted very friendlily, I presenting all my party to him and he asking me to propose myself for lunch or dinner with him whenever I was in Spain in the future. I thanked him warmly and also for the Grand Cross of Charles III, which is visually a splendid decoration with an enormous blue and white sash (much worn by those in Velazquez and Goya portraits in the Prado). It is, alas, difficult to think of many occasions when I might wear it.

Then back to Madrid for a glimpse of the Plaza Major, which is always worth revisiting, and a fairly grand Ministry of Foreign Affairs lunch given by Pérez-Llorca (who is thirty-nine but looks fifty-five, like my last Home Office Minister of State, Brynmor John) but without significant speeches–the significant speech had been at dinner the night before, which had been very well received by the Spaniards–Bassols (their Ambassador in Brussels) was said
to have tears in his eyes. From there direct to the press conference at 4.30, which was perfectly easy, mainly on the timetable for Spanish entry, but I had worked out quite carefully what I could say on this. Also one or two routine questions about my position in British politics and some other matters about the Community. 6.15 plane to London. East Hendred at 9.30.

SUNDAY, 5 OCTOBER.
East Hendred.

I spent almost the whole morning on the telephone, picking up impressions of the Labour Party Conference. I had spoken to Shirley the previous day, but I then spoke to Tom Bradley, to Clive Lindley, to Bill Rodgers, who said he was coming to lunch, to David Marquand for a long time, and to various other people. The Rodgers' arrived at 1.20, which was relatively punctual for them, and stayed till 4.30 with a good political talk. It was a much better meeting with them than the August one, which somehow had not gone right. Bill's broad view was that while they (the Gang of Three, etc.) were going to see what happened over the leadership, they were very dissatisfied with Healey.

I just cannot decide whether or not Bill is willing to break with the Labour Party. I suppose the odds probably remain that he is not. But he is certainly much nearer to it than nine months ago, and I think opening up the issue of a split, as I did in Dimbleby and subsequently in June, has been right. Certainly my analysis of the state of the Labour Party has been right. So I think have been my tactics of waiting for the autumn rather than rushing in further in the summer. I now feel much easier about the political situation and whatever it may hold. I do not feel myself boxed in, in the way that I did in June, July and August.

MONDAY, 6 OCTOBER.
East Hendred, Brussels and Luxembourg.

To Brussels and saw Heseltine,
⁶⁴
the Queen's deputy Private Secretary, for half an hour to tie up the plans for the Queen's visit in November. He was rather hesitant about the idea of the Queen participating in a Commission meeting, obviously being rather
doubtful whether the Queen would like it, or would want to ask questions, and was distinctly unreassured when I said that in the case of the Dutch visit Prince Bernhard had in fact asked quite a lot of questions and no doubt Prince Philip could do the same. Then to Luxembourg by train.

TUESDAY, 7 OCTOBER.
Luxembourg and Brussels.

A meeting with Thorn at 9 o'clock, nominally about the agenda for the Council. The main point which emerged was that he had been to see Giscard the day before and had found him
‘impitoyable'
towards the Commission. Giscard had clearly frightened Thorn out of his life by telling him that the independence which had been shown previously was not acceptable and must stop. The Commission must represent the interests of the member states rather than having an independent role, Giscard apparently said, presumably equating member states with one member state. Thorn was visibly shaken.

Council immediately after that. The early part of the morning was taken up with a foolish argument over the preparation for a Community/Israeli Council. Then came the Association Council itself attended by their Foreign Minister (Shamir)
⁶⁵
which went particularly badly, he being ungracious, boorish, hectoring, everything one can think of. As a result, the second leg of the BBQ—the supplementary measures and the timing of payments—did not start until about 12.45 which put Peter Carrington, who had arrived specially for a 10.45 start, in a very bad temper which persisted throughout lunch.

But mysteriously it all came out easily in the wash in the afternoon, the French being much less difficult than had been expected, and the Germans not difficult at all. 7.30 train to Brussels.

MONDAY, 13 OCTOBER.
Brussels and Strasbourg.

Lunch in the Berlaymont for a group of British lobby correspondents. Fred Emery was the most notable. I tried to keep them off British politics, but inevitably only half-succeeded. As
a result Emery wrote a prominent front-page
Times
piece developing what Palmer had said previously. Quite satisfactorily put from my point of view.

Avion taxi to Strasbourg. Question time at 6.30. Only one question for me, about bloodstock of all things, which I had to take over from Burke, who, although responsible, runs away from it because the Irish are behaving so badly on the issue. I managed to have mild fun with the supplementaries. Then back to the hotel to finish Mrs Castle's 1974–6
Diaries.
They are too sprawling and self-obsessed, but nonetheless I have found them compulsive reading. She is neither particularly friendly nor particularly disagreeable about me. However, I agree with quite a number of her judgements on others but rarely with her judgements on herself, though occasionally even with those. On Wilson, curiously, I agree with her to a very substantial extent.

TUESDAY, 14 OCTOBER.
Strasbourg.

Extremely nice weather. To the Parliament at 10 o'clock, and hung about as is habitual there waiting to deliver a quite important steel statement which eventually came on at about 12 o'clock. It was a rather good, firm statement and Stevy was very pleased with it.

In the evening, rather amazingly, I took Barbara Castle to dinner for three hours. She was very talkative, as self-obsessed as ever, and I think probably rather pleased to have been asked and to gossip about old times. She is half sensible and half incorrigible. I enjoyed the evening.

WEDNESDAY, 15 OCTOBER.
Strasbourg.

I decided I could not go to Brussels that afternoon, as I wanted. There was a
grève sauvage
at Zaventem and in addition it was thought I ought to stay for (and perhaps intervene in) the institutional debate which was really the Parliament beagling Thorn for not resigning as Foreign Minister of Luxembourg (and hence President of the Council) in time to prepare for his presidency of the Commission. As it turned out there was no need to intervene in the debate. But it was worth being there. It was quite a full house. And it was interesting to see how Thorn handled it. At
one stage he said surely the Parliament did not wish him to add himself to the number of unemployed in Europe, and who was going to pay him if he resigned, which was not the most persuasive way of putting things. I think he will have to go pretty soon, or he will be in quite serious trouble.

FRIDAY, 17 OCTOBER.
London and Belfast.

12.30 plane to Belfast. I opened the new Commission office in a semi-skyscraper, looking down on the splendidly flamboyant City Hall. I then did three television interviews, one for each Northern Ireland channel and one for RTE, the Dublin channel. These fortunately were not as dull as might have been expected, because I had to sort out the question of a possible £100 million Community grant for ‘concerted action' in Belfast, about which Burke had gone too far in a speech in Ulster the week before, and which had led to a controversy between him, the City Council and the British Government. However, we had a tenable line on it, and in fact the whole incident, by dominating the press, focused attention on the Community and added considerably to the interest in my visit.

Called on the Lord Mayor, an ex-Unionist member of the Westminster Parliament who has now moved to a fairly centre position. Then out to Hillsborough. I was particularly struck, not so much by the house as by the small town at the gates, which is a beautiful early nineteenth-century ensemble with a town hall and another public building, good shop-fronts and houses, remarkably attractive, all in good stone. Then to Queen's University for a dinner which Geoffrey Martin, our new Commission representative in Belfast, had organized very well indeed. A great representative turn-up with about 120 people, including the Lord Mayor, all the other Ulster mayors, Humphrey Atkins
⁶⁶
(Secretary of State) who spoke, Paisley and Taylor (two of the three MEPs—Hume was ill), the Vice-Chancellor, and various other notabilities.