For both it’s awful. The TV and news bulletins kept describing people who were turning up at Number 10 and I was getting gloomier and gloomier and planning a completely new life. Then at 4.45 Number 10 phoned. Would I stand by for tonight or tomorrow morning. It was a great relief. I worked till about 2 am, reading all the Post Office stuff that I had collected and just couldn’t go to sleep. Monday 19 October Up early and still waiting for the phone and still hearing of other people going down to Downing Street. I had completely given up hope again. Then at 10.55 am the phone rang and I was summoned. There was a huge crowd of photographers outside and inside Bob Mellish and Lord Bowden were waiting. Finally I went in and there was Harold looking extremely relaxed. I shook him by the hand and we had a chat about the general situation and then he said, ‘By the way, I want you to take the Post Office. I am giving you Joe Slater as Assistant PMG. Then in about eighteen months time I shall be reshuffling the Government and you will be in the Cabinet.’ Then he beckoned me over to the window, and pointed into the garden of No.
What do You think about The Benn Diaries: 1940-1990?
