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James Callaghan

(b. Portsmouth, 27 Mar. 1912; d. London, 26 Mar. 2005) British; Prime Minister 1976 – 9; Baron (life peer) 1987 James Callaghan held key posts in Labour governments between 1964 and 1979 and is the only Prime Minister, to date, to have already held the three great offices; Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary, and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was the son of a naval chief petty officer and left school at 14. He began work as a tax officer and then was employed by the TUC.

After war service, Callaghan was part of Labour's landslide victory in the 1945 general election. Between 1945 and 1950 he was MP for Cardiff South and subsequently Cardiff South East, until his retirement in 1987. By the last date, he was one of only four MPs remaining from the 1945 parliament.

In Labour's thirteen years in opposition, Callaghan rose steadily, on the centre-right of the party. When the Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell died in 1963, he stood for the vacant post; he finished last of three candidates with a respectable forty votes.

He was Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 1964 Labour government. The initial decision of Harold Wilson and himself not to devalue the pound from its value of $2.80 proved to be disastrous. The British economy was weak and the pound was regularly under threat for the next three years. Devaluation eventually came in November 1967 and the discredited Callaghan resigned as Chancellor. He was moved to Home Secretary and managed to repair his fortunes. He revoked the right of East African Asians to settle in Britain and postponed the changes to parliamentary boundaries proposed by the impartial Boundary Commission He also sent troops to Northern Ireland in 1969 to cope with the worsening violence. From his position on Labour's national executive he opposed Cabinet policy of reforming the trade unions. Callaghan was a powerful spokesman for trade union resistance and, as one of the few Cabinet ministers from a working-class background, earned the title "the keeper of the cloth cap". Harold Wilson saw Callaghan's opposition as yet another plot to unseat himself as leader.

With Labour in opposition again after 1970, Callaghan might have left politics if a post in the World Bank had materialized. He was older than Wilson and was no longer regarded as an obvious successor. As shadow Foreign Secretary he kept apart from the growing faction fighting. He accepted the left's demand for a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Community — as an answer to the party's division. When Labour was returned to office in 1974, it was his task to conduct the renegotiations with Community partners and these were approved in a referendum the following year.

Harold Wilson's unexpected resignation in March 1976 provided Callaghan with a late chance of reaching the top. He was, at 64, the oldest of the six candidates. But he was also most clearly the "middle of the road" candidate. On the third ballot he defeated Michael Foot by 176 votes to 137. He was the second choice of many Labour MPs and the least divisive of all candidates. It was the first time that a British Prime Minister had been elected by MPs.

Callaghan's three-year premiership was always under pressure, political and economic. Yet, only at the end did his sure touch for the mood of the party desert him. Callaghan also had to cope with a strong left wing, which was influential in the party's national executive and Conference and regularly opposed the government's economic policies. His government was soon faced with a sterling crisis which led to negotiations with the IMF for a rescue package. The IMF conditions threatened to split the government, but Callaghan gained high marks for keeping ministers together and getting the loan. The cuts in planned public expenditure and continued pay restraint made the left unhappy. In spite of pressure to bear down on inflation and cut government borrowing, the left-wing conference continued to vote for more spending. Labour's narrow majority in the House of Commons disappeared in March 1977 and the party negotiated a pact with thirteen Liberals. In return for consultation on policy, the Liberals agreed to back the government in any confidence vote in the House of Commons.

When the Lib-Lab pact ended in summer 1978, Callaghan was widely expected to call an election in the autumn. Instead, he decided to soldier on, with a prices and incomes policy to combat inflation. This proved a misjudgement, as workers took industrial action against the pay policy over the winter. The upsurge of industrial unrest, subsequently dubbed "the Winter of Discontent", destroyed Callaghan's authority and Labour's claim that it could work with the trade unions. Ministers appeared impotent in the face of industrial disruption. In January 1979, on his return from sunny Guadeloupe to strike-bound Britain, a tabloid famously misquoted his reaction as "Crisis! … What crisis?" On 28 March, the government lost a confidence vote in the Commons by one vote and Mr Callaghan was now forced into an election which Mrs Thatcher won. Callaghan's premiership ended ingloriously. The Conservatives continued to make political capital for many years from the "Winter of Discontent".

Callaghan remained as party leader for a further eighteen months, but the left grew in influence and steadily repudiated many of the last Labour government's policies. Callaghan exercised little influence as the left reformed party institutions and nearly thirty Labour MPs departed to form a new party. He was out of sympathy with many new policies, particularly the repudiation of incomes policy and membership of the European Community. He caused a stir in the 1983 general election by expressing his disagreement with the party's new policy of unilaterally giving up nuclear weapons.

Callaghan retired from the House of Commons in 1987 and was given a peerage. He published his memoirs, Time and Chance, in the same year.

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Biography: Leonard James Callaghan

Leonard James Callaghan (born 1912) was a Labor member of the British Parliament for over three decades and was prime minister from 1976 to 1979.

Leonard James Callaghan was born in Portsmouth, England, on March 12, 1912. His father, James Callaghan, was a chief petty officer in the Royal Navy. Upon his death in 1921 the family was plunged into poverty when instead of a pension only a small gratuity was forthcoming. A local Labor member of Parliament was instrumental in securing a weekly allowance of 26 shillings for Mrs. Callaghan and 10 shillings for the boy. As Callaghan said many years later, "after that we were staunch Labor for life."

His formal education ended at age 16. A year later he successfully passed a government test and began work as an income tax clerk. At 24 he became a full time trade union official with the Inland Revenue Staff Federation and became a specialist in the handling of arbitration cases. By 1938 he had risen to the position of assistant secretary in the union and was actively being considered as a prospective Labor Party candidate for Parliament.

Callaghan joined the Royal Navy in 1939 and served for the duration of World War II as a lieutenant in naval intelligence in the Far East. He was elected Labor member of Parliament (M.P.) for Cardiff south in the general election of 1945 and represented Cardiff south east uninterruptedly after 1950. He held two minor posts in the 1945-1951 Labor government: parliamentary secretary to the minister of transport (1947-1950) and parliamentary secretary to the admiralty (1950-1951).

The 1950s saw Callaghan's emergence as a national figure and spokesperson for Labor. He appeared frequently on radio and television and was active as a free-lance political journalist. He was also a lobbyist for the Police Federation, a national policemen's interest group. First elected to the executive of the parliamentary Labor Party in 1951, he won election to the party's national executive committee in 1957, was opposition spokesperson on colonial questions from 1956 to 1961, and was shadow chancellor of the exchequer, 1961-1964. He stood unsuccessfully for deputy leader in 1960 and for leader in 1963 following Hugh Gaitskell's death. During this period he gained a reputation as a bitter opponent of Aneurin Bevan and of supporters of unilateral disarmament in the Labor Party.

Labor won a narrow victory in the general election of 1964, and Callaghan accepted Harold Wilson's offer to become chancellor of the exchequer. From the outset he opposed devaluation as a measure to help correct the British economy's sluggish growth rate and chronic tendency toward balance of payment deficits. He imposed a severely deflationary budgetary package in the aftermath of the 1966 sterling crisis, warning that unless it were implemented he might join the devaluers.

As late as July 1967 he was still insisting that "devaluation is not the way out of Britain's difficulties." However, in November 1967 there was another massive run on the pound, and Callaghan informed Wilson that the drain on the reserves was intensifying. On November 18, 1967, a 14.3 percent devaluation of the pound - from $2.80 to $2.40 - was announced.

With the government's economic policy in disarray and the opposition demanding his resignation, Callaghan agreed to step down as chancellor, but remained in the government as home secretary. He was responsible for the Immigration Act of 1968, a hastily contrived piece of legislation prompted by Conservative assertions that an influx of Kenyan Asians would soon inundate the country. Rushed through the Commons in a week, it placed entry controls on holders of United Kingdom passports who had "no substantial connection" with Britain by setting up a voucher system. He was also responsible for sending troops to Northern Ireland in August 1969. The Catholic community welcomed him as a protector, and he successfully pressured the Northern Ireland parliament to abolish the "B-Special" paramilitary auxiliaries to the police.

When Labor returned to office in 1974, Callaghan accepted the post of foreign secretary. The sudden and unexpected resignation of Harold Wilson in March 1976 necessitated an election among Labor MPs to choose a successor, and Callaghan was chosen on the third ballot, winning 176 votes to Michael Foot's 137.

Callaghan's minority premiership was marked by the exceptionally difficult nature of the issues confronting the government and by an unusual constitutional arrangement with the Liberals by which they exercised a pre-emptive veto on proposed government legislation. Unemployment stood at a post World War II high, and the pound was once again falling. The government negotiated a $3.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, raised interest rates to record levels, and made deep cuts in public spending. By 1978 inflation had fallen to single-figure levels and the balance of payments showed a small surplus.

Less successful was the government's industrial relations policy. A massive series of strikes in the winter of 1979 caused widespread disruption of public services and was settled on terms that far exceeded the government's stated pay guidelines. Finally, legislation providing for Scottish and Welsh elected assemblies with limited powers went down to defeat in referendums. Welsh voters rejected the measure outright by a 4 to 1 majority, while in Scotland it failed to gain a required affirmative vote by at least 40 percent of the electorate. On March 28, 1979, the government, having lost the support of the Liberals and nationalist MPs, was defeated in a dramatic vote, 311 to 310. In the ensuing general election Callaghan led the Labor Party to its worst electoral defeat since 1931, as the Conservatives, led by Margaret Thatcher, attained a majority of 43 over all other parties. (This episode, dubbed "the winter of discontent," was the subject of a symposium at the Institute of Contemporary British History in the late 1980s.)

In September 1980 Callaghan resigned the party leadership. During the 1983 general election he vehemently attacked Labor's stand on defense and disarmament in a speech that received blanket coverage in the media, delighted the Conservatives, and infuriated Labor Party activists. He was one of only four MPs returned in 1983 who had been first elected in 1945. In 1983 he was elected Father of the House of Commons, a largely honorific title. In 1987 James Callaghan was honored as a life peer.

The Rt. Hon. The Lord Callaghan of Cardiff

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 5 April 1976 – 4 May 1979
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Preceded by	Harold Wilson
Succeeded by	Margaret Thatcher
Foreign Secretary
In office 5 March 1974 – 5 April 1976
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Alec Douglas-Home
Succeeded by	Anthony Crosland
Home Secretary
In office 30 November 1967 – 19 June 1970
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Roy Jenkins
Succeeded by	Reginald Maudling
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office 16 October 1964 – 30 November 1967
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Reginald Maudling
Succeeded by	Roy Jenkins

Born	27 March 1912(1912--) Portsmouth, England
Died	26 March 2005 (aged 92) Ringmer, East Sussex, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Audrey Callaghan
Religion	Baptist

1912 to 1944: Early life and career

James Callaghan was born at 38 Funtington Road, Copnor, Portsmouth, England on the 27 March 1912. He was named after his father. James Callaghan senior was^[1] a Royal Navy Chief Petty Officer of Roman Catholic Irish ancestry, who died when Callaghan was nine years old in 1921. His mother was called Charlotte Callaghan née Cundy. He attended Portsmouth Northern Secondary School (now Mayfield School). He gained the Senior Oxford Certificate in 1929 but could not afford entrance to university and instead sat the Civil Service Entrance Exam.

At the age of 17 Callaghan left to work as a clerk for the Inland Revenue. While working as a Tax Inspector, Callaghan was instrumental in establishing the Association of Officers of Taxes as a Trade Union for those in his profession and became a member of its National Executive. Whilst at the Inland Revenue offices in Kent, in 1931 he joined the Maidstone branch of Labour Party. In 1934 he was transferred to Inland offices in London. Following a merger of unions in 1937, Callaghan was appointed as a full-time union official and to the post of Assistant Secretary of the Inland Revenue Staff Federation and resigned from his civil service duties.

His union position at the Inland Revenue Federation brought Callaghan into contact with Harold Laski, the Chairman of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee and a respected academic at the London School of Economics. Laski encouraged him to stand for Parliament. Callaghan joined the Royal Navy Patrol Service in World War II from 1943, rising to the rank of Lieutenant. Whilst training for his promotion his medical examination revealed that he was suffering from tuberculosis and was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar in Gosport near Portsmouth. After he recovered he was discharged and assigned to duties with the Admiralty in Whitehall. He was assigned to the Japanese section and wrote a service manual for the Royal Navy entitled "The Enemy Japan".

Whilst on leave, Callaghan was selected as a Parliamentary candidate for Cardiff South. He narrowly won the local party ballot with 12 votes against the next highest candidate George Thomas with 11 votes. He was encouraged to put his name forward for the Cardiff south seat by his friend Dai Kneath, a member of the IRSF National exectuive from Swansea, who was in turn an associate and friend of the local Labour Party secretary Bill Headon.^[2] During 1945 he was assigned to the Indian Fleet and served on HMS Elizabeth in the Indian Ocean. After VE Day, along with other prospective candidates he returned to Great Britain to stand in the general election.

1945 to 1976: Parliament and Cabinet

Labour won a landslide victory on 26 July, 1945 bringing Clement Attlee to power. Callaghan won his Cardiff seat in the 1945 UK general election (and would hold a Cardiff-area seat continuously until 1987). He won with a stunning 6,000 majority over the sitting Conservative incumbent candidate, Sir Arthur Evans, the two in total respectively polling 17,489 to 11,545 votes. He campaigned on such issues as the rapid demobilisation of the armed forces and for a new housing construction programme.^[3] At the time of his election, his son Michael was born.

Callaghan was soon appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport in 1947 where, advised by the young chief constable of Hertfordshire Sir Arthur Young, his term saw important improvements in road safety, notably the introduction of zebra crossings, and an extension in the use of cat's eyes. He moved to be Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty from 1950 where he was a delegate to the Council of Europe and resisted plans for a European army.

Callaghan was popular with Labour MPs and was elected to the Shadow Cabinet every year while the Labour Party was in opposition from 1951 to 1964. He was Parliamentary Adviser to the Police Federation from 1955 to 1960 when he negotiated an increase in police pay. He ran for the Deputy Leadership of the party in 1960 as an opponent of unilateral nuclear disarmament, and despite the other candidate of the Labour right (George Brown) agreeing with him on this policy, he forced Brown to a second vote. In 1961 Callaghan became shadow chancellor. When Hugh Gaitskell died in January 1963, Callaghan ran to succeed him but came third. In the difficult leadership election in 1963 it was too early for Callaghan to win though he did gain the support of right-wingers, such as Anthony Crosland, who wanted to prevent Wilson from being leader but who also didn't trust George Brown.

Chancellor of the Exchequer

In October 1964 Conservative Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home called a general election It was a tough election but Labour won a small majority gaining 56 seats (a total of 317 to the Conservatives 309). The new Labour government under Harold Wilson immediately faced economic problems and Wilson acted within his first hours to appoint Callaghan as Chancellor of the Exchequer. The new government had to cope with a balance of payments deficit and speculative attacks on Sterling. It was the policy of the whole government, and one in which Callaghan concurred, that devaluation should be avoided for as long as possible and he managed to arrange loans from other central banks and some tax rises in order to stabilise the economy. Callaghan's time as chancellor was to be during a time of crisis; with high inflation, high unemployment and an unstable economy with a deficit in the budget, a deficit in the balance of import and exports and most importantly conflict over the value of the pound.

On 11 November Callaghan gave his first budget and announced increases in income tax, petrol tax and the introduction of a new Capital Gains Tax, actions which most economists deemed necessary to take the heat out of the balance and sterling deficit, though international bankers disagreed.^[4]

Increasing difficulties with the economy were evident by late November when the surcharge of imports under the previous Conservative government were forcing the reserves to be depleted by as much as £50 million per day. On 23 November it was decided to increase the bank rate from 2% to 7% which generated a large amount of criticism. Handling the crisis was made more difficult by the attitude of Lord Cromer, the Governor of the Bank of England, who argued against the fiscal policies of the new Labour government. When Callaghan and Wilson threatened to call a new general election, the governor soon raised a £3 billion loan to stabilise the reserves and the deficit.^[5] His second budget came on the 6 April 1965 in which he announced efforts to deflate the economy and reduce home import demand by £250 million. Shortly after the bank rate was reduced from 7% down to 6%. For a brief time the economy and British financial market stabilised, allowing in June for Callaghan to visit the United States and to discuss the state of the British economy with President Lyndon Baines Johnson and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In July the pound came under extreme pressure and Callaghan was forced to create harsh temporary measures to demonstrate control of the economy. These include suspending all current government building projects and postponing new pension plans. The alternative was to allow the pound to float or to devalue it. Callaghan and Wilson however were again adamant that a devaluation of the pound would create new social and economic problems and continued to take a firm stance against it.^[6] The government continued to struggle both with the economy and with the slender majority which by 1966 had been reduced to one. On 28 February Harold Wilson formally announced an election for the 31 March of 1966. On the 1 March Callaghan gave a 'little budget' to the commons and announced the historic decision that the UK would adopt the decimal system. (It was actually not until 1971, under a Tory government, that Britain ended the system of pounds, shillings and pence, and entered a decimal system of 100 pence to the pound.) He also announced a short term mortgage scheme which allowed low wage earners to maintain mortgage schemes in the face of economic difficulties. Soon after Labour won 363 seats compared to 252 seats against the Conservatives, giving the Labour government a large majority of 97.

Callaghan introduced his next Budget on 4 May. He had informed the house that he would bring a full Budget to the House when he made his 'little budget' speech prior to the election. The main point of his budget was the introduction of a selective Employment tax focusing on services rather than manufacturing. Twelve days after the budget the National Union of Seamen called a national strike and the problems facing Sterling were multiplied.^[7] Additional strikes caused the balance of payments deficit to increase and the 3.3 billion loan was now due. On 14 July the bank rate was increased again to 7 percent. On the 20 July Callaghan announced an emergency ten point programme with a six month freeze on wage and salary increases. By 1967 the economy had begun to restabilise once again and the bank rate was reduced to 6% in March and 5.5% in May.

It was under these conditions that Callaghan beat Michael Foot in a vote to become Treasurer of the Labour Party.

However the economy was soon in turmoil again with the Middle East crisis between Egypt and Israel raising oil prices. Furthermore the economy was hit in mid-September when a national dock strike lasted for eight weeks. A run on Sterling began with the six day war and with the closure of the Suez Canal and with the dock strike, the balance of payments deficit grew to a critical level. A Common Market report suggested that the pound could not be sustained as a reserve currency and it was suggested again that the pound should be devalued. Wilson and Callaghan refused a contingency fund offered from the IMF because of several conditions attached, and on Wednesday 15 November the historic decision was taken to commit the government to a 14.3% devaluation. The situation was a great poltiical controversy at the time. As Denis Healey in his autobiography, notes:

"Nowadays exchange rates can swing to and fro continually by amount greater than that, without attracting much attention outside the City columns of the newspapers. It may be difficult to understand how great a political humiliation this devaluation appeared at the time - above all to Wilson and his Chancellor, Jim Callaghan, who felt he must resign over it. Callaghan's personal distress was increased by careless answer he gave to a backbencher's question two days before the formal devaluation, which cost Britain several hundred million pounds."^[8]

Callaghan immediately offered his resignation as Chancellor and increasing political opposition forced Wilson to accept it. Wilson then moved Roy Jenkins the home secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Callaghan became the new Home Secretary on 30 November 1967.

Home Secretary

Callaghan's tenure as Home Secretary was marked by the emerging conflict in Northern Ireland and it was as Home Secretary that he took the decision to deploy United Kingdom troops in the province after a request from the Ulster Unionist Government of Northern Ireland.

Callaghan was also responsible for the Immigration Act of 1968; a controversial piece of legislation prompted by Conservative assertions that an influx of Kenyan Asians would soon inundate the country. Rushed through the Commons in a week, it placed entry controls on holders of United Kingdom passports who had "no substantial connection" with Britain by setting up a voucher system. In his memoirs Time and Chance, Callaghan wrote that introducing the Commonwealth Immigrants Bill had been an unwelcome task but that he did not regret it. The Asians had "discovered a loophole", he wrote - probably the strangest term for a British passport ever coined by a former prime minister. He told a BBC interviewer: "Public opinion in this country was extremely agitated, and the consideration that was in my mind was how we could preserve a proper sense of order in this country and at the same time do justice to these people - I had to balance both considerations."

Lord Gilmour, one of the original opponents of the bill, put it rather differently: "That was why the bill was brought in - to keep the blacks out. If it had been the case that it was 5,000 white settlers who were coming in, the newspapers and politicians, Callaghan included, who were making all the fuss would have been quite pleased."

Also significant was the passing of the Race Relations Act in the same year, making it illegal to refuse employment, housing or education on the basis of ethnic background. The Act extended the powers of the Race Relations Board at the time, to deal with complaints of discrimination and unfair attitudes. It also set up a new supervisory body, the Community Relations Commission, to promote "harmonious community relations".^[9] Presenting the Bill to Parliament, the Home Secretary, Jim Callaghan, said, "The House has rarely faced an issue of greater social significance for our country and our children."

After Wilson's shock defeat by Edward Heath in the 1970 general election, Callaghan declined to challenge him for the leadership despite Wilson's vulnerability. This did much to rehabilitate him in Wilson's eyes. He was in charge of drawing up a new policy statement in 1972 which contained the idea of the 'Social Contract' between the Government and Trade Unions. He also did much to ensure that Labour opposed the Heath government's bid to enter the Common Market — forcing Wilson's hand by making his personal opposition clear without consulting the Party Leader.

Foreign Secretary and appointment as Leader of the Labour party

When Wilson was again appointed Prime Minister in March 1974, he appointed Callaghan as Foreign Secretary which gave him responsibility for renegotiating the terms of Britain's membership of the Common Market. When the talks concluded, Callaghan led the Cabinet in declaring the new terms acceptable and he supported a Yes vote in the 1975 referendum.

During his second term Wilson announced his surprise resignation on March 16, 1976, and unofficially endorsed Callaghan as his successor. Callaghan was the favourite to win the leadership, although he was the oldest candidate, he was also the most experienced and least divisive. Popularity with all parts of the Labour movement saw him through the ballot of Labour MPs to win the leadership vote. On the 5 April 1976 at the age of 64 years and 9 days Callaghan became Prime Minister (the oldest person to become Prime Minister at time of appointment since Winston Churchill).

1976 to 1979: Prime Minister

Callaghan was the first Prime Minister to have held all three leading Cabinet positions - Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary - prior to becoming Prime Minister.

James Callaghan arriving at the White House US president, Jimmy Carter in 1977.

Callaghan's time as Prime Minister was dominated by the troubles in running a Government with a minority in the House of Commons: he was forced to make deals with minor parties in order to survive - including the Lib-Lab pact, and he had been forced to accept referendums on devolution in Scotland and Wales (the first went in favour but did not reach the required majority, and the second went heavily against).

James Callaghan at the 1978 TUC sings 'Waiting at the Church' in an attempt to tell delegates there would be no general election that year. Callaghan came across on television with the opposite message - that if he called the election, the Conservatives would not be prepared.

Despite these difficulties, by the autumn of 1978, most opinion polls showed Labour ahead. And the expectation grew that Callaghan would call an Autumn election. Famously he strung along the opposition and was expected to make his declaration of election in a broadcast in early September 1978. His decision to go on was at the time seen by many as a sign of his domination of the political scene and he ridiculed his opponents by impersonating old-time music hall star Marie Lloyd singing Waiting at the Church at that month's Trades Union Congress meeting: now seen as one of the greatest moments of hubris in modern British politics but celebrated at the time. Callaghan intended to convey the message that he had not promised an election, but most observers misread his message as an assertion that he would call an election, and the Conservatives would not be ready for it.

Callaghan's decision not to call an early election has been described as the biggest mistake of his premiership.

'The Winter of Discontent'

Main article: Winter of Discontent

Callaghan's way of dealing with the long-term economic difficulties involved pay restraint which had been operating for four years with reasonable success. He gambled that a fifth year would further improve the economy and allow him to be re-elected in 1979, and so attempted to hold pay rises to 5% or less. The Trade Unions rejected continued pay restraint and in a succession of strikes over the winter of 1978/79 (known as the Winter of Discontent) secured higher pay. The industrial unrest made his government extremely unpopular, and Callaghan's response to one interview question only made it worse. Returning to the United Kingdom from an economic summit held in Guadeloupe in early 1979, Callaghan was asked:

James Callaghan is interviewed on his return from Guadeloupe, and tells the press that other people in the world do not think there is mounting chaos.

"What is your general approach, in view of the mounting chaos in the country at the moment?"

Callaghan replied:

"Well, that's a judgment that you are making. I promise you that if you look at it from outside, and perhaps you're taking rather a parochial view at the moment, I don't think that other people in the world would share the view that there is mounting chaos."

This reply was reported in The Sun under the headline:

Crisis? What Crisis?.

Callaghan was forced to advise The Queen to call an election when the House of Commons passed a Motion of No Confidence by one vote on March 28, 1979. The Conservatives, with advertising consultants Saatchi and Saatchi, ran a campaign on the slogan "Labour isn't working". As expected, Margaret Thatcher won the election.

Resignation, Backbenches and Retirement

Callaghan resigned as leader of the Labour Party in September 1980, shortly after the 1980 party conference had voted for a new system of election by electoral college involving the individual members and trade unions. His resignation ensured that his successor would be elected by MPs only. In the second round of a campaign that laid bare the deep internal divisions of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Michael Foot beat Denis Healey to succeed Callaghan as leader.

In 1983, Callaghan became Father of the House as the longest continuously serving member of the Commons and one of only two survivors of the 1945 general election - Michael Foot being the other, but he had been out of the House from 1955 to 1960. In 1987 he was made a Knight of the Garter and stood down at the 1987 general election after forty-two years as a member of the Commons. Shortly afterwards, he was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, of the City of Cardiff in the Royal County of South Glamorganshire.

In 1988, Callaghan's wife Audrey, a former chairman (1969 - 1982) of Great Ormond Street Hospital, spotted a letter to a newspaper which pointed out that the copyright of Peter Pan, which had been assigned by J. M. Barrie to the hospital, was about to expire. Callaghan moved an amendment to the Copyright Bill then under consideration in the Lords to extend it permanently (which is permissible in the UK) and this was accepted by the government.

On February 14, 2005, he became the longest-lived British Prime Minister, surpassing Harold Macmillan, and had the longest life of any British prime minister when he died at his farm in Ringmer, East Sussex on March 26, 2005, on the eve of his 93rd birthday. At the time of his death Callaghan had lived 92 years 364 days, exceeding by 42 days the life span of Macmillan.

Personal life

James Callaghan's interests included rugby, tennis and agriculture. According to the official history of 10 Downing Street, he is believed to have been the tallest prime minister in British history at 185 cm. He married Audrey Elizabeth Moulton, whom he had met when they both worked as Sunday School teachers at the local Baptist church,^[10] in July 1938 and had three children — one son and two daughters. Lady Callaghan died on 15 March 2005, only 11 days before James Callaghan's death on the 26 March.

One of their daughters, Margaret became Baroness Jay of Paddington and was Leader of the House of Lords from 1998 to 2001.

James Callaghan in popular culture

The song "Time For Truth" from The Jam's debut In the City, a scathing critique of the state of the British nation, directly addresses Callaghan: "I think it's time for truth, and the truth is you lost, Uncle Jimmy."

In 1977 James Callaghan was immortalised in a cartoon strip, debuting in issue # 17 (2 February 1977) of Captain Britain comic, published by Marvel. He is briefed by Nick Fury of a Nazi plan by supervillain the Red Skull to take over Great Britain. In issue # 21 (2 March 1977) Callaghan is kidnapped by the baddies and sentenced to death, by firing squad, alongside Captain Britain and Captain America, before making his escape. It is not known what Callaghan's reaction was to his appearance in cartoon form.

Titles from birth to death

James Callaghan, Esq (March 27, 1912 - 1943)
Lieutenant James Callaghan, RNVR (1943 - July 26, 1945)
Lieutenant James Callaghan, MP (July 26, 1945-October 21, 1964)
Lieutenant The Right Honourable James Callaghan, MP (October 21, 1964-?)
The Right Honourable James Callaghan, MP (?- April 23, 1987)
The Right Honourable Sir James Callaghan, KG, MP (April 23 - June 11, 1987)
The Right Honourable Sir James Callaghan, KG (June 11 - November 5, 1987)
The Right Honourable The Lord Callaghan of Cardiff, KG, PC (November 5, 1987 - March 26, 2005)

External links

More about James Callaghan on the Downing Street website.
An interview with Chancellor Callaghan after an IMF interview at Rio, Brazil
Official portrait of James Callaghan by David Griffiths
'Prime Ministers in the Post-War World: James Callaghan', lecture by Professor the Lord Morgan at Gresham College on 5 June 2007 (with video and audio files available for download)

Notes

^ Page 1, Callghan: British Prime-Ministers of the 20th Century, Harry Conroy, Haus Publishing 2006
^ Page 11, Callaghan: British Prime-Ministers of the 20th Century, Harry Conroy, Haus Publishing 2006
^ Page 13, Callghan: British Prime-Ministers of the 20th Century, Harry Conroy, Haus Publishing 2006
^ Page 35, Callaghan: British Prime-Ministers of the 20th Century, Harry Conroy, Haus Publishing 2006
^ Page 36, Callaghan: British Prime-Ministers of the 20th Century, Harry Conroy, Haus Publishing 2006
^ Page 38, Callaghan: British Prime Ministers of the 20th Century, Harry Conroy, Haus Publishing 2006
^ Page 40, Callaghan: British Prime-Ministers of the 20th Century, Harry Conroy, Haus Publishing 2006
^ http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRcallaghanJ.htm
^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/26/newsid_3220000/3220635.stm
^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5149827-103684,00.html

References

Books:

Callaghan, James. Time and Chance. Collins, 1987.
Callaghan, James. Challenges and Opportunities for British Foreign Policy. Fabian Society, 1975.

Biographies:

Conroy, Harry. James Callaghan. Haus, 2006.
Derbyshire, Dennis. Politics in Britain: From Callaghan to Thatcher (Political Spotlights). Chambers, 1990.
Donoughue, Bernard. Prime Minister: Conduct of Policy Under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, 1974-79. Johnathan Cape, 1987.
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Morgan, Kenneth O. Callaghan: A Life. Oxford University Press, 1997.
Rosen, Greg. Dictionary of Labour Biography. Politicos Publishing, 2001.
Rosen, Greg. Old Labour to New. Politicos Publishing, 2005.

Political offices
Preceded by George Strauss	Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport 1947 – 1950	Succeeded by The Lord Lucas of Chilworth
Preceded by John Dugdale	Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty 1950 – 1951	Succeeded by Allan Noble
Preceded by Reginald Maudling	Chancellor of the Exchequer 1964 – 1967	Succeeded by Roy Jenkins
Preceded by Roy Jenkins	Home Secretary 1967 – 1970	Succeeded by Reginald Maudling
Preceded by Denis Healey	Shadow Foreign Secretary 1972 – 1974	Succeeded by Alec Douglas-Home
Preceded by Sir Alec Douglas-Home	Foreign Secretary 1974 – 1976	Succeeded by Anthony Crosland
Preceded by Harold Wilson	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1976 – 1979	Succeeded by Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by Margaret Thatcher	Leader of the Opposition 1979 – 1980	Succeeded by Michael Foot
Preceded by John Parker	Father of the House 1983 – 1987	Succeeded by Bernard Braine
Parliament of the United Kingdom (1801–present)
Preceded by Arthur Evans	Member of Parliament for Cardiff South 1945 – 1950	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Cardiff South East 1950 – 1983	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Cardiff South and Penarth 1983 – 1987	Succeeded by Alun Michael
Party political offices
Preceded by Unknown	Treasurer of the Labour Party 1967 – 1976	Succeeded by Norman Atkinson
Preceded by Harold Wilson	Leader of the British Labour Party 1976 – 1980	Succeeded by Michael Foot
Honorary titles
Preceded by Gerald R. Ford United States	Chairman of the G7 1977	Succeeded by Helmut Schmidt Germany
Preceded by Alec Douglas-Home	Oldest UK Prime Minister still living 9 October 1995 – 26 March 2005	Succeeded by Edward Heath