501 Newsnight

First  viewed  : 16  July  1981

I  first  caught  BBC2's  long  running  current  affairs  show  on  the  date  above  when  it  was  a  special  edition , extended  to  cover  the  result  of  the   Warrington  by-election.

For  those  who  weren't  around  at  the  time  the  by-election  was  one  of  the  most  extensively covered  of  my  lifetime  and  was  in  the  papers  every  day  for  a  month  before  the  poll. The reason  for  this  extraordinary  interest  was  the  candidature  of  former  Labour  Chancellor  and Home  Secretary  Roy  Jenkins  in  the  first  electoral  contest  for  the  new  Social  Democratic Party.

Jenkins  had  been  absent  from  Parliament  for  five  years  having  taken  the  job  of  President  of the  European  Economic  Commission  ( as  it  was  then )  when  Jim  Callaghan  easily  saw  him off  for  the  leadership  of  the  Labour  Party  in  1976. The  leftward  drift  of  the  party  since  defeat  in  1979  led  to  three  prominent   Labour  moderates  deciding  to  quit  and  set  up  a  new  party. Having  already  let  his  membership  lapse  Jenkins  was  quick  to  jump  on  board  and  make  it  the  "Gang  of  Four" (  ironically  an  expression  recycled  from  communist  China ). He  already  had  a  good  relationship  with  the  Liberal  leader  David  Steel  who  was  able  to  persuade  most  of  his  party  to  co-operate  with  the  new  players  in  the  centre  ground.

The  first  electoral  test  was  the  unpromising  seat  of  Warrington,  vacated  by  the  previous  MP  becoming  a  judge  and  solidly  Labour  since  1945. One  of  the  Gang,  David  Owen ,no  great  admirer  of  Jenkins, later  wrote  that  the  most  popular  of  the  quartet, Shirley  Williams, who  had  lost  her  seat  in  1979,  ducked  the  contest  on  the  advice  of  psephologist  Tony King.  Jenkins  decided  to  pick  up  the  baton  with  the  local  Liberals  (  a  distant  third  in  1979 )  accepting  him. As  the  Alliance  between  the  two  parties  hadn't  yet  been  cemented,  he   was described  on  the  ballot  paper  as   "Social  Democratic  Party  with  Liberal  support". The  coverage  made  much  of  Jenkins'  patrician  air  , wondering  how  his  reputation  as  a  bon  viveur    would  play  in  a   northern  working  class  constituency.  Moreover,  Jenkins's   previous  constituency , Birmingham  Stechford,  had  been  a  safe  Labour  seat  giving  him  little  experience of  hard  campaigning.   His  Labour  opponent  Douglas  Hoyle  was  a  rather  charmless  left  winger  who'd  been  turfed  out  of  his  previous  constituency  in  1979.

I  was  interested  because,  with  the  Tories  under  fire  for  the  huge  unemployment  figures , the SDP  seemed  the  best  hope  of  blocking  the  rise  to  power  of  Anthony  Wedgewood  Benn. Benn's  utopian  socialist  vision  was  utterly  anathema  to  me  because it  threatened  my  most fervent  hope  for  the  future,  namely  earning  more  money  than  the  people  who  bullied  me  at school . I  wasn't  intending  to  hire  people  to  take  them  out  but  I  certainly  would  have enjoyed driving  past  while  they  queued  up  at  the  Post  Office. So  anything  that  pushed  Benn  out  to the  margins  was  worth  supporting. As  time  went  on  my  support  for  the  SDP  took  on  a slightly  more  positive  aspect. As  my  personal  life  nosedived , the  prospect  of   these  key figures  from  the  Callaghan  era  returning  to  power  seemed  increasingly  appealing. If  the  clock could  be  turned  back  politically,  to  the  time  in  which  the  Littleborough  Travelling  Society flourished,  perhaps  it  too  could  be  resurrected ?   The  early  SDP's   policy  prospectus  was  later criticised  by  key  figures  in  the  party  as  unimaginative  and  timid. I  think  it  was  David Marquand  who  said  they  were  promising  "a  better  yesterday"  but  that  was  exactly  what  I wanted. Unfortunately,  a  military  dictator  thousands  of  miles  away  put  paid  to  that.

In  the  event  Hoyle  squeaked  home  by  a  whisker  with  Jenkins  collecting  42%  of  the  vote. His  speech  at  the  count  commented  that  it  was  his  first  defeat  in  30  years  in  politics  but "by  far  the  gweatest  victowy"  in  which  he'd  ever  been  involved. Expectations  for  the  new party's  prospects  ballooned  and  Jenkins's  political  courage  now  made  him  the  frontrunner  for leadership  of  the  SDP. Even  his  political  foes  were privately  impressed; Jim  Callaghan  later said  his  opinion  of   Jenkins  had  shot  up  during  the  campaign. In  a  personal  sense  Jenkins' words  were  truer  than  he  realised; if  he'd  actually  won  at  Warrington  rather  than  Glasgow  Hillhead  six months  later,  the  membership  would  have  had  rather  more  time  to  ruminate  on  his  poor  performances  in  the  Commons  and  might  have  plumped  for  David  Owen  instead.

After  that  I  began  watching  Newsnight  semi-regularly . It  was  to  have  started  broadcasting  at  the tail  end  of  1979  but  a  strike  at  the  BBC  delayed  its  launch  until  January  1980.  I  enjoyed the  political  analysis  and  Peter   Snow  became  a  great  favourite. I'm  a  bit  surprised  to  read that  its  most  famous  presenter / interrogator  Jeremy  Paxman   didn't  join  the  programme  until 1989.  The  programme  has  made  mistakes  as  any  institution  that's  lasted  for  over  35  years  is going  to  and  has  thankfully  survived  its  greatest  crisis  over  the  Savile  affair. I  don't  watch  it religiously  but   will  often  check  what  it's  covering  if  I  have  the  remote  around  10.30pm.