Chapter 1519 – Callaghan’s Visit
“Mrs. Thatcher has said she will stand by the workers and stop the unfair treatment of them by the Labour government?” Even Pamela Mountbatten, who was at home, was greatly surprised by this.
It was her impression that the Conservative Party had not made such a statement, but she was in Perth for half the year, and it was possible that when the Conservative Party had made such a statement she had not known about it.
When she looked at her husband with a puzzled gaze, Alan Wilson also shook his head, “There was one years ago, but this would be the first time since Margaret Thatcher was party leader.”
Post-war Britain was in the midst of consensus politics, that is, Churchill was holding a meeting in Potsdam, and then after the Conservative Party lost that election by more than a hundred seats, the Conservative Party changed the party constitution to indicate that many of the views of Britain advocated by the Labor Party were also pursued by the Conservative Party, and that was consensus politics.
However, since Margaret Thatcher became the leader of the Conservative Party, the Conservative Party has rarely mentioned consensus politics, and in Alan Wilson’s memory, Margaret Thatcher came to power and overthrew consensus politics, replacing it with neoliberalism, but even if there is such a stance, it’s not unintelligible that, in electoral countries, the opposition party’s stance is based on the polls.
Even if Mrs. Thatcher had no feelings for consensus politics, it was not unreasonable to make the above statement by splitting the coalition of trade unions and the Labour Party to consider.
“What do you think? Will Callaghan back down?” Pamela Mountbatten opened her mouth to inquire, “What’s the situation in the Labor Party now, is it internally united?”
“I haven’t heard of any internal splits yet, but the external environment alone is harsh enough. After the five-seat by-election in October, Labor is close to the tipping point for a hung parliament. In the polls, Callaghan couldn’t close the gap with the Tories. As a result, as you can see, Labor is now afraid to move at all.”
Alan Wilson replied softly, “Not being able to move doesn’t mean that the problem doesn’t exist, even if this pay rise stabilizes the position, there will be many similar things in the future. You get a pay rise and I get a pay rise, everyone gets a pay rise.”
This was still based on the fact that the Conservatives didn’t take advantage of the situation, but soon the news came from the House of Commons that the Conservatives had shown in action that this time the Conservatives were really standing with the unions.
Regarding the government’s sanctioning of companies, including Ford, for violating the five percent limit, the Conservatives also moved a motion in the House of Commons calling for the withdrawal of the sanction, and despite its postponement, the proposal to oppose the government’s “arbitrary adoption of economic sanctions” to penalize companies that have reached a consensus with labor was passed by a vote of two hundred and eighty-five to two hundred and seventy-nine, and then by a vote of two hundred and eighty-five to two hundred and seventy-nine. The proposal was passed by a vote of 285 to 279, followed by a vote of 285 to 283 against the government’s sanctioning of companies that exceeded the “five percent limit” on pay raises.
The following day Callahan initiated a self-certifying vote of no confidence in his own government and was retained in office by a vote of three hundred to two hundred and ninety, effectively leaving the government powerless to regulate or penalize any company that violates the “five percent limit.”
“This winter seems to be extraordinarily colder than usual.” Alan Wilson stood by the window and looked at Pamela Mountbatten with a solicitous gaze, “Darling, are you really not going to Perth for the winter this year?”
“I heard that inflation has exceeded ten percent in last month’s statistics?” Pamela Mountbatten met her husband’s nod, “I’m in London at this time of year, I can help you with some things as well. Isn’t it a relief that the Prime Minister has just passed a vote of no confidence.”
“So far, once a vote of no confidence is initiated, it basically equates to a serious problem. It’s just a matter of how long it will be delayed, and all I want now is a trip to China.” Alan Wilson replied slowly, Callaghan had had enough of the pinch this time around dealing with the pay rise issue.
But you can’t just give up without getting things done, or at least get the China visit done before thinking about it later.
International affairs, there is another thing that has attracted the attention of Whitehall, that is, some time ago, the Pakistani border patrol here when patrolling, was from the direction of Afghanistan’s armed men attacked, the attack led to four Pakistani soldiers died on the spot.
This border, that is naturally the aftermath of the British attack on Afghanistan, it must be said that Afghanistan at that time was the second most powerful country in the pacifist world, second only to the Ottoman Empire.
The British Expeditionary Force did not conquer Afghanistan, but since then Afghanistan has been obliterated in the Pacifist world.
After Daud was overthrown, the new Afghan government, though it was probably just taking over power because it had planted the recognition of the Durand Line on Daud, had not yet made any moves against Pakistan.
But the momentum had been created, and it is just not clear if it was the Soviet Union that was shaping the animosity between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It could be that the communists in Afghanistan had just seized power and were in the process of cleaning up internally, and Afghanistan was a pacifist country, and there were foreign Soviet ideas, and naturally there were ideas about the pacifist religion, and the two ideas were sure to collide, and communism normally couldn’t touch the pacifist religion without a certain amount of justification.
That is why, during his visit to Moscow, Allen Wilson firmly told Alexeyev that the territorial dispute must be flagged immediately after the overthrow of Daoud. And not to wait until the situation was stabilized to do so, otherwise it would be much less effective.
Since the seizure of power, it was led by Nur Taraki. Under his leadership, some better reforms are happening, maybe better, except that the religion of peace doesn’t see it that way.
Land was redistributed to farmers and on Afghanistan’s Independence Day he launched the country’s first TV channel. He stopped the practice of unfair loans. He stopped the practice of buying brides. He also disempowered the clergy of the religion of peace. Girls were sent to school.
He was so opposed to religion that religious elements in Afghanistan began to take more extreme positions. At that time there were two main political parties in Afghanistan. Since the beginning of their parliamentary election system. One pacifist, the other communist.
Now Nur Taraki is purging the pacifist party on the grounds that the pacifists are too close to Pakistan and have made Afghanistan a puppet of Pakistan. Whether it will succeed or not is not yet known.
At the end of December, a major country held a meeting of historical significance, and while Alan Wilson was secretly observing, he began to make arrangements for the Prime Minister’s visit to China, in order to carry out the harvesting of foreign dignitaries visiting China after the meeting.
This can also rub off on the heat, which is supposed to be a turning point in history, very historic, and the British Prime Minister’s visit can add more historical significance.
First and foremost, it is still necessary to solve the problems of Britain itself, at least temporarily suppressed, so that Callaghan can feel at ease with the visit, as previously mentioned, Britain this year’s winter is exceptionally cold, the severe cold to the already in the discontent of the United Kingdom has brought more trouble.
Snowfall has made roads impassable in some areas, North Devon can only even communicate with the outside world by helicopter, two Scottish trains of three hundred are stranded in the snow, all English rugby matches have been canceled, and only three of the Premier League New Year’s Eve fixtures have been played on time.
The tanker drivers’ strike in December added insult to injury, many homes could not even be heated consistently, and it all seemed to foreshadow the political storm that was to come.
With the government having effectively lost control of business, the union side began to act. Truck drivers in the Transport and General Workers Union went on strike, demanding a forty percent pay increase.
The Labor government, which always backs down in the face of successive strikes, has already shown the consequences; the cycle of promising pay rises, increasing inflation, pay rises that don’t work, and continued strikes for pay rises is, as Whitehall has said before, a left-foot-on-the-right-foot, inflation-spiral-to-the-heavens game.
Drivers were reminded of previous strikes where Ford workers managed to get a pay rise and decided to go on strike immediately to get better conditions, the truckers’ strike this led to the temporary closure of petrol stations across the country and they also occupied several major ports making the transportation situation worse.
“It’s amazing how unsympathetic the workers are to the government’s difficulties.” Alan Wilson, arriving at 10 Downing Street, almost thought he’d heard wrong, that the Labor Prime Minister had spoken so highly of his working class brethren, had he fallen under the spell of the Tories?
Now we know that constant concessions will only give the unions an inch, think about how many strikes there have been in recent years. Inflation in the UK is also striding towards the ten percent mark.
Callaghan saw Allen Wilson to, also do not hide anything, “the current trade union requirements and the government’s initiatives to reduce inflation is diametrically opposed to the Whitehall can not think of a way?”
This question I will, Allen Wilson spoke directly, “The increase in inflation and the truckers’ strike have a close relationship, the truckers’ strike blocked the supply chain, inflation can be called supply chain inflation.”
The United States under the Sleeping King’s sovereignty had run into this kind of thing and then came up with the term supply chain inflation, in short, the responsibility did not lie with the government, but the truckers who shouldered the supply chain caused the increase in inflation.
“Prime Minister, your travel arrangements are ready. For the response to the strike I’ll do it, first of all we need to make it clear to all citizens that supply chain inflation is hurting the country’s economy. Let the citizens understand that constant strikes are hurting the British economy. If the government wants to take a hard line and stop backing down. Then it is best to negotiate when the Prime Minister is not in the country. Being out of the country can be a distraction, and we’ll deal with the union side.”
“Alan, can you manage that?” Callaghan was indeed perturbed, his constant concessions to the unions seemed to have put the government in the middle of a vicious circle, that even if the unions were the main supporters of the Labor Party, he had put up with enough, not to mention the fact that a forty percent pay rise on that basis would be very excessive indeed.
“Someone always has to do it.” Alan Wilson shrugged his shoulders and said that this time, Whitehall absolutely one hundred percent of the implementation of the policy of fighting against the inconsiderate Cabinet difficult to deal with the difficult people.
In January 1979, before the cold winter had passed, Prime Minister Callaghan opened a far-reaching visit, and Allen Wilson opened a dialog with the representatives of this strike at the same time.