Free At Last: Diaries 1991 - 2001 by Benn Tony

Author:Benn, Tony [Benn, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781407096711
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2009-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

Part Four

May 1997–May 2001

New Labour now found itself in a position of unchallenged political power, able to do almost everything it wanted with impunity, and certainly acting as if Parliament, Party and public were all in uncritical support of its policies and leadership.

Under the banner of modernisation many of the policies of the Conservative governments of the 1980s and 1990s reappeared – privatisation; the retention of severe restrictions on the trade unions; a refusal to raise taxes for the wealthy; continued enrichment of corporate ‘fat cats’ and, most significantly, the search for economic stability required of governments whether Tory or Labour, by the Maastricht Treaty, which delayed the necessary provision of funds for the public services. Public expenditure levels set by the Conservatives were maintained for the whole of the 1997–2001 Parliament.

Britain went along with the United States in again bombing Iraq, making war on Yugoslavia and giving apparently unquestioning backing to Clinton in his foreign policy and military strategy – even to continuing general support for Israel, though that country was denying the Palestinians the right to their own state.

The most optimistic progress came with the positive and imaginative policy pursued in Northern Ireland, which led to the Belfast Agreement and the establishment of an Assembly in Stormont that gave the Nationalists their place in the government of the province.

The record on constitutional change was impressive, with legislation set in motion for a Scottish Parliament, a Welsh Assembly, a Mayor of London, and the replacement of most hereditary peers, albeit by others appointed through patronage.

For the last six months of my fifty-one years in Parliament, I was engaged in various end-of-term activities, while remaining actively involved in political campaigns. I was particularly interested in the system for electing the Speaker: this was dictated by convention and, owing to the large number of candidates who put themselves forward this time, became a complex and unnecessary process, but ended with the right candidate in Michael Martin.

Caroline’s health became my major concern from 1996 when her spinal cancer was first diagnosed and this is reflected in the diary increasingly from then until her death in November 2000.

She was determined that, despite her illness, I should continue to play as active a part as possible in my constituency, in the House of Commons and in the election campaign in 1997.

Indeed it was she who suggested that when I left parliament I should explain that it was ‘to devote more time to politics’, a phrase which has been widely understood and appreciated.

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