Written by Richard Ward, Archives Officer
Midway points in decades tend to be transitional moments determining the direction a nation is taking and its future hopes and aspirations. This latest instalment of our ‘A Year Like No Other’ blog series focuses on 1965 and examines the various forks in the road for UK politics and society.
We find Britain twenty years on from the privations of World War Two. Beginning to embrace modernity and culturally swinging into action. Artful and industrious with an all-encompassing positivity helping to breed a confidence to start addressing social issues as the world outside morphed from post-war monochrome to glorious technicolour.
STOP ALL THE CLOCKS
They queued for hours on a bitterly cold Thames Embankment before entering Westminster Hall to observe Sir Winston Churchill’s lying-in-state. As the curtains closed on a designated three-day mourning period around 300,000 people had paid their respects, testimony to his legacy as wartime Prime Minister. Churchill’s funeral took place on Saturday 30 January, broadcast live on the BBC to an audience of 25 million. The meticulously choreographed coffin procession from Parliament to St Paul’s Cathedral included a ninety-gun salute at St James’s Park marking each year of his life. Prior to this the most a ‘commoner’ had received was seventeen.
No small detail was overlooked as Speaker of the House Sir Harry Hylton-Foster entered St Paul’s as instructed by the organisers in traditional robe and wig accompanied by a trio of doorkeepers to ceremonially protect the Commons Mace. All the living ex-Prime Ministers acted as honorary pallbearers watched on by an array of international statesmen. At Tower Pier the dockyard cranes were perched at half-mast as a small naval flotilla sent Churchill on the initial part of his final journey to Waterloo Station where a special train was commissioned to take him to be laid to rest in Bladon, Oxfordshire.
Read the House of Commons messages of condolence to Sir Winston Churchill
AN AMERICAN IN SMETHWICK
Smethwick was still smouldering from the embers of a highly inflammatory election in 1964. Conservative Peter Griffiths had captured the seat amidst notable race tension. The result caught the attention of radical American Civil Rights activist Malcolm X who decided in the following February to visit the West Midlands town on the invitation of Indian-born trade unionist Avtar Singh Jouhl. A previous British trip had famously seen Malcolm X debate at the Oxford Union on the question of ‘extremism in the defence of liberty’ a motion he lost by 228 votes to 91 despite his speech receiving a ninety-second ovation.
He made his presence felt leading a band of followers to Marshall Street in an area the local authorities intended to exclude ‘persons of colour’ from either renting or buying property. Telling the press pack he’d ‘not wait for the fascist element in Smethwick to erect gas ovens’. Malcolm X and the incumbent MP Peter Griffiths didn’t arrange to meet and discuss these matters though the latter did table a Parliamentary Written Answer enquiring why the overseas visitor wasn’t denied entry into the country as an ’undesirable alien’. Just over a week later Malcolm X was assassinated in New York.
Read Peter Griffith’s maiden speech speaking on the Smethwick election
ARTS EXPLOSION
It’s not unusual for No 10 Downing Street to ride on the wave of contemporary trends. By 1965 it was clear a varied arts explosion was gathering momentum and the new Labour Government had to get itself on board. Awarding individual MBEs to The Beatles for commercial endeavours was one thing, but the arts needed consistent funding and a comprehensive blueprint. Prime Minister Harold Wilson entrusted veteran Parliamentarian Jennie Lee to deliver a White Paper to set the tone. An independent spirit and committed culture enthusiast Lee laid down a significant marker by green lighting an unprecedented state subsidized package.
Supplementing a 300% upturn in Arts Council expenditure rising from £3.2m in 1964-65 to £9.3m by 1970-71. Lee revived a seemingly dormant National Theatre redevelopment and in her productive tenure 125 Art Centres got built alongside 36 regional theatres. A passion project for her was to make the homegrown film industry a lucrative money-spinner. Belied by the box-office success of films like Darling starring Julie Christie, she created a National Film School to be a source of untapped talent especially from the provinces. Lee was praised for bringing enterprise into the heritage domain and lessening metropolitan dominance of the arts.
Read Jennie Lee debating the arts
Read more about Jennie Lee’s story
TIGER IN THE TANK
The sixties thus far hadn’t been kind to a Conservative Party scarred by the scandal attached to the 1963 Profumo Affair and subsequent election defeat. Once the dust had settled Lord Alec Douglas-Home moved aside as leader to allow a ‘bright young thing’ from the ranks to pick up the reins. Waiting in the wings was Shadow Chancellor Edward Heath basking in the glory of recently severing Labour’s Finance Bill putting pay to any plans to raise capital gains tax. A man of esoteric tastes he learned of Home’s summer 1965 resignation at a Glyndebourne Festival performance of Verdi’s Macbeth.
Cloak and dagger would best describe past Conservative leadership contests due to its secretive backstairs dealing nature. However, in this instance an inaugural open member’s ballot was organised to much fanfare. Heath found himself second favourite behind the suitably experienced Reginald Maudling with Enoch Powell an outside bet. BBC’s Panorama profiled all three dubbing the pugnacious Heath as a ‘tiger in the tank’. A confident and purposeful lobbying campaign produced dividends as he topped the list by seventeen votes. The 1966 Election came a bit too early for the Conservatives to mount a serious offensive and Labour comfortably retained office.
Read Edward Heath challenging Labour’s 1965 Finance Bill
Read more about the 1963 Profumo Affair
MIXED EMOTIONS
Election manifestos can be deemed as a political party relaying numerous statements of intent if elected. In 1964 Labour pledged to legislate against racial discrimination. A tall order yet a chink of light for Britain’s black communities and liberal-minded pressure groups. Home Secretary, Frank Soskice understood that Labour’s miniscule majority required him to tread carefully in formulating an amenable bill structured to punish incitement and foster conciliation to acquire cross-party support. This tentative approach disappointed the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD) as it seemed to swerve the pressing concerns of housing and employment which the Smethwick episode had viscerally highlighted.
Perhaps somewhat underwhelming nevertheless the Race Relations Bill was given Royal Assent in November 1965. A core tenet of the statute being the formation of a Race Relations Board to resolve discriminatory cases regarding prejudice in public places. Soskice recruited former West Indian test cricketer turned politician Learie Constantine to be deputy chairman giving the programme in terms of representation a degree of credibility. Controversially West London based Black Power advocate Michael X became the first person charged and imprisoned with ‘incitement to racial hatred’. Soskice’s successor Roy Jenkins brought forward additional legislation centred on a far-reaching ‘equal opportunities’ ethos.
Read the 1965 Race Relations Bill 2nd Reading debate
Read more about the life and times of Learie Constantine
HANGING DIVIDE
Back in 1948 Labour MP Sydney Silverman had unsuccessfully tabled an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill for suspending the death penalty. So ingrained was this form of retribution within the legal system that chief executioner Albert Pierrepont was something of a household name. The abolitionists versus retentionists stand-off continued throughout the fifties with the House of Lords proving to be a stout defender of the status quo. Harold Wilson on gaining the premiership in 1964 had other ideas and in a show of governmental strength referenced a freshly drafted abolition bill in the Queen’s Speech opening the 1964-1965 Parliament session.
Party lines remained relatively consensual, and Silverman’s perseverance was rewarded by the bill becoming law in the winter of 1965. Westminster’s decision didn’t mirror the electorate’s viewpoint primarily amongst the working classes as opinion polls showed only 23% in agreement with the constitutional change. The crimes described in the 1966 Moors Murderers trial ignited a rallying cry to reinstate hanging with immediate effect. Silverman was challenged in his Nelson constituency at the same year’s General Election by Patrick Downey, an uncle of a Moors Murder victim. Acting as an independent on a ‘Pro-Hanging’ card he accumulated a substantial vote share.
Read Sydney Silverman’s speech on his 1948 Death Penalty Suspension amendment
Read more about Sydney Silverman’s campaigning
SOURCES
White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties by Dominic Sandbrook
A Northern Wind: Britain 1962-1965 by David Kynaston
From The Beatles to The Bomb by Juliet Gardiner
Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain by Peter Fryer
Edward Heath: A Singular Life by Michael McManus
Sydney Silverman: Rebel in Parliament by Emrys Hughes
The Linchpin for Success? The problematic establishment of the 1965 Race Relations Act and its Conciliation Board, Contemporary British History, Volume 31, Issue 3 by Simon Peplow
Making Britain a Gayer and More Cultivated Country: Wilson, Lee and the Creative Industries in the 1960s, Contemporary British History, Volume 20, Issue 3 by Lawrence Black
Malcolm X Visit to Britain 1964-1965, Institute of Race Relations by Michael Higgs
Malcolm X Visit to the Midlands, Hyphenonline, by Taj Ali
Hansard Parliamentary Debates
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