Sunday 18 December 2022

Former broadcaster and politician Wyn Thomas reviews The Forgotten Decade

This book serves as a reminder of events in the 80’s that need to be understood and recalled if the current situation in Wales, and the UK, is to be understood properly. 

I’m in the ninth decade of my life and some are recalled more easily because of events and individuals that gave that period a historical identity. The 1940’s were my first years, the era of the Second World War and the social revolution of the Attlee government,  Then the 50’s, the time when rations gave way to the Tory slogan saying “We never had it so good” and they were the era of ‘rock and roll’. This was followed by the ‘swinging sixties’, which for me was a time of trade union and political activity and while being one of the group invited to recommend the Welsh Labour party’s devolution policy I first met Gwynoro Jones, the co-author of the book ‘The Forgotten Decade’ and then Labour’s Research and Public Relations officer at Transport House, Cardiff. He immediately struck me as an intense, inspirational, determined and likeable young man. 


The 70’s started with a general election when, surprisingly, the Labour Leader, Harold Wilson, lost to the Tory Leader, Ted Heath. Not surprisingly I failed to be elected in the Montgomeryshire constituency. The disappointment was eased with the news from Carmarthen that Gwynoro, after a bitter battle, had beaten the President and idol of Plaid Cymru, Gwynfor Evans. Mr Evans had himself caused a political shock in a by-election in Carmarthen immediately after the 1966 General Election, when Labour had won a sweeping victory, when he won the seat to become Plaid Cymru’s first elected Member of Parliament. I was persuaded not to pursue a career in the House of Commons, but to maintain my interest in current affairs by becoming a journalist in broadcasting. The 70’s was a decade offering much to discuss from the failures of Heath, the miners strike, blackouts, strikes leading to the ‘winter of discontent’ and the beginnings of the Thatcher era – all discussed in the book

Then we get to the 1980’s, a decade described in this book by Gwynoro and his writing partner Alun Gibbard as ‘The Forgotten Decade’. At first glance this is a very surprising title for a period which saw the Falklands war, marriage of Prince Charles to Diana Spencer, the miner’s strike and the fall of the Berlin wall, establishing the Welsh language television channel, S4C. But it will mostly be remembered as the decade that launched Thatcherism, when Margaret Thatcher became the first female prime minister, a forceful, idealistic, free-marketeer and dedicated anti trade unionist. She took on the NUM and won a year long strike. It was ten years when Wales faced changes that were as great as the start of the industrial revolution which brought the heavy industries of coal, iron, and slate with new populations inhabiting new towns and villages. Pits, iron works that established those 200 years ago.  Come to think of it, perhaps Gwynoro and Alun were perhaps correct in their choice of title, with all that upheaval who would want to remember such a decade.

This book serves as a reminder of events in the 80’s that need to be understood and recalled if the current situation in Wales, and the UK, is to be understood properly.

There are libraries that could be filled with books about events and people from the 1980’s, but this one is different. It is not an objective history account of ten important years as recalled by one person, Gwynoro Jones. His experience as a researcher has given him the advantage of collecting an archive of papers, journals, notes and press cuttings that give access to minutiae of records of this decade. His much respected co-writer the BBC journalist and author, Alun Gibbard, will also have access to archive material that adds to the historical accuracy of the book.

Gwynoro retained his Carmarthen seat by 3 votes, after five recounts, in the February General Election of 1974 before losing to Gwynfor Evans in the other General Election of that year; it was the end of his parliamentary career, but not of his political ambitions.

During his parliamentary career he was Parliamentary Secretary to Roy Jenkins the Home Secretary. His relationship with Jenkins continued after the 1974 loss of power when Roy Jenkins was in Brussels as President of the European Commission.

Jenkins and Gwynoro had become disillusioned with the leftward direction of the Labour Party and they discussed how a new third force in British politics could be established. By 1981 Gwynoro helped to establish the SDP, the Social Democratic Party with other former prominent Labour figure figures, Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, Dr David Owen and Bill Rogers, ‘The Gang of Four’.

They supported electoral reform, European integration and a decentralised state. They would also have gained the wrath of many in the Labour Party by rejecting the possibility of trade unions being too influential. These policies would be attractive to members and supporters of the Liberal Party and developing a policy of co-operation between the two parties could often become vexed and eventually to see the end of the SDP as an independent political party.

The story of establishing and the demise of the SDP in Wales and the UK through Gwynoro’s eyes and experience dominate this book, perhaps in too much detail at times, give us a detailed history of this important period through the eyes of one of Wales’ most prominent, influential and easily recognised political commentators. Thanks to his vast archive of notes, cuttings, minutes of many, many meetings, broadcasts, and clear recollections we are given a chronological and lively journey through the 1980’s which is very revealing about important events, the personalities involved and the internecine fights that led to the establishing and the ending of the SDP. Newsprint photographs of newspaper cuttings and events litter the book, but sadly the quality of reproduction spoils some of them.

Two matters that run through the SDP story in the book is the emphasis on how the SDP in Wales kept the aspiration of devolution and an Elected Assembly for Wales at the top of their agenda – when the labour party and Plaid Cymru ignored the topic after the drubbing in the 1979 Referendum. The other was the determination of the party’s Welsh members to secure a clear, separate voice from the party’s London base. Often it led to direct conflict between Gwynoro and David Owen.

Gwynoro will describe himself as a “Welsh radical” rather than a socialist, but his regard for devolution and a form of independence for Wales, his social conscience and regard for his fellow beings make him into a person, as this book shows, a person that would have added a great deal to the benefit of Wales should he have been able to align his ‘radicalism’ with a political party that has influence and power.

Those familiar with Gwynoro will be aware of his strong convictions and readiness to share them. In the 19th century he would have been a reforming, non-conformist preacher performing sermons that would get his congregations shouting “clywch, clywch” and “diolch iddo”. The SDP enjoyed his oratory skills and in this book we can all enjoy the ‘hwyl’ that he brings to his own history.