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Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff was a British statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980. Callaghan is the only person to have held all four Great Offices of State, having also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1964 to 1967, Home Secretary from 1967 to 1970 and Foreign Secretary from 1…
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politics · Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 · economist · politician · trade unionist · also James Callaghan, Lord Callaghan, Jim Callaghan, Lord Callaghan of Cardiff, James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan, James, Baron Callaghan
Born 27 March 1912 · Died 26 March 2005 · Q9576
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We used to think that you could spend your way out of a recession and increase employment by cutting taxes and boosting government spending. I tell you in all candour that that option no longer exists, and in so far as it ever did exist, it only worked on each occasion since the war by injecting a bigger dose of inflation into the economy, followed by a higher level of unemployment as the next step.
Well I was a Labour Prime Minister – what more could I do?
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“We used to think that you could spend your way out of a recession and increase employment by cutting taxes and boosting government spending. I tell you in all candour that that option no longer exists, and in so far as it ever did exist, it only worked on each occasion since the war by injecting a bigger dose of inflation into the economy, followed by a higher level of unemployment as the next step.”
“Well I was a Labour Prime Minister – what more could I do?”
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“Have you ever thought of being a bit more active in politics?”
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“The House has rarely faced an issue of greater social significance for our country and our children.”
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U.S. News & World Report: James Callaghan
Encyclopaedia Britannica: James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan
Public attention spiked: 5,419 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3.9× the usual 1,380, with 0 article edits.
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Public attention spiked: 9,162 Wikipedia readers in one day, 6.6× the usual 1,380, with 3 article edits. Editors noted: Undid revision 1360623424 by JohnEdzikan (talk) RV low quality image
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Died 2005-03-26.
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“Peace-or-war, not cost-of-living, was the most important issue at the election. He did not believe that peace with Stalin would be easy to achieve. Some delegates seemed to think it was all a matter of “getting together with Joe.” Had they forgotten their Marxism, and its interpretation of history. That was what they were dealing with, not Uncle Joe.”
“There could be no democratic and independent Socialist Party in this country unless they aligned themselves with others against the insidious attempts of Communism to break the Socialist movement.”
At the age of 92, and remains to date the UK's longest-lived former prime minister
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“But the policies of the 1960s would not be successful today. No more would general import controls.They benefit some home industries at the expense of the livelihood of everyone working in exports. We would be robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
“[D]espite the indignation and horror with which most of us regard the actions of the Provisionals, we must not allow our policy to be dictated by revenge or by passion. If we do, we shall not only behave in an immoral way; we shall lose the battle.”
“Too much stress is being put on the soldiers and the RUC to solve problems which politicians have failed to solve for so many years. There must be a political solution if the gunmen are to be divided from the rest of the population.”
“The Treaty of Rome was tailor-made to support French agriculture and German manufactures. It is by no means ideal for Britain's future trading arrangements. It was not designed for this purpose. The question is whether it is worth joining on the terms that are on offer or, as I believe, whether we would do better for ourselves by waiting.”
“We have had a tremendous battle over the past 12 months. Sterling is safe. That battle is won.”
“We should be aiming in the latter part of the 1960s for a 5 per cent. and then a 6 per cent. growth rate. Only then shall we attain the programme of social expenditure that is both necessary and desirable.”
“I have not the slightest doubt that the economic measures and the Socialist measures which one will find in countries of Eastern Europe, will become increasingly powerful against the uncoordinated, planless society in which the West is living at present.”
“s worst prime minister in 200 years. He also said in this interview that he”
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Awarded honorary doctorate presented by The Open University (1996).
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Callaghan moved an amendment to the Copyright Designs & Patents Act, then under consideration in the House of Lords, to grant the hospital a right to royalty in perpetuity despite the lapse of copyright, and it was passe
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Awarded Knight of the Garter (1987).
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Was made a Knight Companion of the Garter and stood down at the 1987 general election after 42 years as an MP
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His autobiography, Time and Chance, was published
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Was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Callaghan of Cardiff
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Career landmark: member of the 49th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1983–1987).
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Attacked Labour's plans to reduce defence, and the same year became Father of the House as the longest continually-serving member of the Commons
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Callaghan criticised the government of Margaret Thatcher for its decision to withdraw Endurance from the islands; a decision which contributed to the Argentine invasion that year
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Along with his friend Gerald Ford, he co-founded the annual AEI World Forum
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And took the chair for a JCF symposium in 1990, being the final event of that ten-year lecture series
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Election won: 1979 general election.
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Career landmark: Leader of the Opposition (1979–1980).
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Campaign: 1979 general election.
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Career landmark: member of the 48th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1979–1983).
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“You know there are times, perhaps once every thirty years, when there is a sea-change in politics. It then does not matter what you say or what you do. There is a shift in what the public wants and what it approves of. I suspect there is now such a sea change and it is for Mrs Thatcher.”
Labour spent the next 18 years in opposition; this is described by some commentators as some of the party's "wilderness years"
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And so he attempted to hold pay rises to 5% or less
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Callaghan's government passed the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977, which nationalised the shipbuilding industry, creating British Shipbuilders, and the aircraft industry, creating British Aerospace
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Caused controversy with the appointment of Peter Jay, his then son-in-law, as the British Ambassador to the United States
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Career landmark: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1976–1979).
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To allow the IMF to control the government budget
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Career landmark: Leader of the Labour Party (1976–1980).
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Campaign: 1976 leadership election.
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Argentina made territorial claims on the Falkland Islands
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Callaghan flew out to Uganda in order to bring home the British lecturer Denis Hills, who had been sentenced to death by Uganda's dictator Idi Amin for writing a book critical of him
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Career landmark: Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1974–1976).
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Career landmark: member of the 47th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1974–1979).
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Career landmark: member of the 46th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1974–1974).
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After an approach from the Conservative Chancellor Anthony Barber he agreed to have his name go forward for the job of managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), however, this was vetoed by the French go
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Career landmark: Shadow Foreign Secretary (1972–1974).
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Career landmark: Shadow Secretary of State for Employment (1971–1972).
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Career landmark: member of the 45th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1970–1974).
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Career landmark: Shadow Home Secretary (1970–1971).
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Callaghan, a strong defender of the Labour–trade union link, led the successful opposition in a divided cabinet to Barbara Castle's White Paper In Place of Strife which sought to modify trade union law
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Callaghan purchased a farm in Ringmer, East Sussex, and in his retirement he and his wife commenced full time farming there
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Career landmark: Home Secretary (1967–1970).
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“If we achieve our target, 1967 will be a different year from the last two, a year in which we will begin to move forward again, and 1968 to 1970 will be the years of achievement in which the fruit of the work now being done will be shown.”
Career landmark: member of the 44th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1966–1970).
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Career landmark: Chancellor of the Exchequer (1964–1967).
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Career landmark: member of the 43rd Parliament of the United Kingdom (1964–1966).
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Career landmark: Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (1961–1964).
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And for leader in 1963, but was defeated by George Brown for the former and Harold Wilson for the latter
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Career landmark: Secretary to the Admiralty (1950–1951).
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Callaghan was given responsibility for deciding how the money allocated to the Royal Navy for rearmament was spent
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Had contributed to that government's downfall
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With 20 other MPs from the group calling for a 'socialist foreign policy' which would create an alternative to the capitalism of the United States and the totalitarianism of the USSR
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Career landmark: Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport (1947–1950).
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And began to move increasingly towards the right wing of the Labour Party, while maintaining his reputation as a "Keeper of the Cloth Cap" – that is, seen as maintaining close ties between Labour and the trade unions
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Joining 22 other rebels in voting against accepting the Anglo-American loan
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Decided to be known by his middle name James, and from then on he was referred to as James or Jim
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Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Callaghan applied to join the Royal Navy, but was initially turned down on the basis that a trade union official was deemed to be a reserved occupation
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Callaghan was appointed a full-time union official and to the post of assistant secretary of the Inland Revenue Staff Federation (IRSF), and resigned from his Civil Service duties
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Was transferred to Inland Revenue offices in London
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Passed a Civil Service exam that enabled him to become a senior tax officer, and in the same year he became the Kent branch secretary of the AOT
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But could not afford entrance to university and instead sat the Civil Service entrance exam
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When the first Labour government was elected, and introduced changes allowing Mrs Callaghan to be granted a widow's pension of ten shillings a week, on the basis that her husband's death was partly due to his war service
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Harold Wilson's Labour government preferred not to intervene in the affairs of Northern Ireland
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Of a heart attack at the age of 44, plunging the family into poverty, and forcing them to rely on charity to survive
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Joined the Coastguard and moved the family to the town of Brixham in Devon
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Born 1912-03-27.
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