are going to grow up about why lost the there's a whole series of factors which undoubtedly played a part, but don't think were factors.
Undoubtedly a major reason for the creation of the SDP was to keep Labour out of office. was clearly the objective behind the establishment of the SDP, and it was to a degree effective.
Also, there's the question of the Falklands. It wasn't helpful, even if agree with Denis Healey and Neil Kinnock just for once, it wasn't particularly useful to raise the question of the Falklands given that our record on it was so bloody abysmal!
. would have been quite happy to on the doorstep if we'd opposed the vaso• Dul ne baoour rarly TUCK ed backwards and forwards, first of all sounding more jingoistic than the Tories and actually creating the base trom which Thatcher was anie launch the invasion. And then afterwards deciding that, when . ported sendino the task didn't think they were going to kill anyune wnel wey col were.
Neither was crucial
Callaghan the issue of defence. It didn't help. But then. it we look at what happened to Thatcher, she had all of her wets - she just brushed them aside. Had we had a party committed to its policies and were those policies coherent, we could have brushed it aside as well.
It's on this question of economic policy that I think we see the reason wily we lost. because I you look al what's happened throughout campaign, for all the talk of an alternative economic strategy, in the last nine months in the run un to the elec tion the labour leadership put forgimmick going. waru even We had the idea that valued the pound by 30 per cent, this would De the miracie cure or une British economy. They stopped talkwhen the pound was devalued by 20 per cent and matters got worse.
There were people still rabbiting on about import contros as thouch they could solve the economic crisis all on their own. I don't think anyone convinced of that because KIUW perfectly well it would unleash a trade war which would rebound on us right away. capital, we have to argue The same I think is true of this nonsense Everytime I saw Peter Shore on television he was talking about borrowing our way out of the crisis. that we may be on the brink of a col. lapse of the world banking system ... I don't know what that brings to your mind, but Peter Shore rushing to the banks to borrow some money before they collapse so that economy can survive ...? It's not convincing ordinary voters, anymore than the National Economic Assessment. It's just a very long way of say ing an incomes policy. that all those gimmicks were just gimmicks and weren't going to solve the economic problems of our society An awful lot of those Labour MPs who've lost their seats actually helped themselves lose by Party year by year witch hunts burges hey're quite naive if they assum though they're arrogant enough to that the average Labour voter actually distinguishes between a Labour MF and the Party generally.
The media attack clearly had an impact, but once again I think that if we had had convincing policies, aside.
Allnougn across the LIC COLLUSIOI because the we supforce fudging:
with the the strategy watered down this vear world revised it.
if we deremember when would actually economic crisis?
the lines ofNo, they only SHOW posed in government.
collectively because what borrowing.
Well, given British being CLOU volers reals what they smearing the say that the and calli chink for electorate on.
We've set of swept people the public policies. vul resolved economic of Labour's Adoralle boom.
interviewed candidate - and one of the renDive Kritain's weaknesser wert. - I talk about it will be. Perhaps before has when.
cuts in public we expected the exposed for Is. The common denominator acceptable to the conte rette policies we fought the election on were a betrayal of Parti conference, we have to honestly sa! that the conference has fudged for a decade what sort of economic and other policies we're going to go to the made advances, but they' ve always been advances that have been so compromised, that when we came to the crunch of having to of Ireland. key areas isn't time. It was quite illogical for to go stomping around saying we wes get rid of nuclear ' weapo:
We had John Silkin saying we' going to get rid of nucleal and spend more on conventional on‹ - and the whole thing is exposed a We are still wedded into defence strateg which says we part and parcel of te rentagon struggle and it's directed Eastern Europe and Russia We have to challenge this, and ui til we do then we are in a positio where we're inevitably dragged bac into saying don't worry about gettir rid of nuclear weapons, because we have plenty of conventional ones fight off the red menace.
There's key Gueslie which I don't think is an issue on tl doorstep this time, but could escala into it at any time, and that is the issi Until we can go into an electi committed to withdrawal of trool Irelana, election in which a Labour gover ment is committed to using all the a paratus of repression against Iri workers that has been built up ov the last ten or fifteen years, and can't honestly go into an 'electic defending that.
Those are most probably the thr the economy, defen and northern Ireland which have to get straight.
'I notice that the Evenin Standard, usually no friend of the left, has decided to back Mr Kinnock. And as I say, it' no friend of the left!' I notice that the Evening dard, usually no friend of the left, h decided to back Mr Kinnock for t leadership. And as I said, they're r friend of the left!
was opposed automatic reseleetion back in the mi seventies, and gol on tue dalluwag once it became massively popular
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'It isn't a question now of going along just defending our policies, we have to argue for the control of
for the extension of public ownership. In doing that we've got to counter some 30 years of damaging propaganda