Chapter 56 Section 8 The Fall of the Government

But Banku's ghost is now back to harass the Labor government.Labor advocated devolution, primarily as a means of gaining the support of Scottish and Welsh nationalists in order to come to power.Now, when Jim Callahan hits rock bottom, they come back to haunt him and tease him. At the beginning of 1977, the Scottish and Welsh bills were not passed. Afterwards, the Labor Party government proposed the Scottish bill and the Welsh bill aimed at delegating power, which stipulated that polls should be held in the above two places before implementation.Due to different opinions from the Labor Party's backbenchers, several amendments were passed, including an important requirement that at least 40% of voters who are eligible to vote in each locality support the relevant legislation before it can be implemented.I'm not publicly encouraging people to vote "no" in the polls, but I hope that happens. On March 1, 1979, the vote in Scotland barely reached a majority in terms of the actual number of people who voted, but it was far from 40% of those who were eligible to vote.Those who voted in Wales voted against it by a large majority.There is a momentary moaning about decentralization: I am not weeping about it.

From this point on, it seems difficult for the government to remain in power, although it is not yet certain.But under what circumstances the general election will be held is difficult to predict.The Prime Minister is desperately delaying the discussion on devolution, instead of directly repealing the devolution law.But his potential allies are preparing to walk away from him.The Scottish Party no longer has any reason to keep Labor in power, and it wants an early no-confidence vote.The Liberals want an early election despite its weak position in the polls.This is mainly to avoid the embarrassment of the upcoming trial of its former leader Jeremy Thorpe.He was charged with attempted murder and was later acquitted.It is conceded that Welsh nationalists may be persuaded to have a more socialist character than Scottish nationalists.

That said, Northern Ireland's MPs -- including 10 Ulster Gael MPs, one Social Democratic Liberal MP, and one Independent Republican MP -- appear to be decisive.Gerry Fetter, a Social Democrat Liberal, has alienated the government as it tries to curry favor with the Gael Party in Northern Ireland by giving them more seats.Frank Maguire is an independent republican whose attitudes are utterly unpredictable.A Gael majority in Northern Ireland had been prepared to back the current government in power until legislation to increase Northern Ireland's seats passed through parliament: but that was done on March 15.Many people in the public are now talking about whether the Northern Ireland Gaeling Party supports either of the two major political parties to be in power, the price is to lay a natural gas pipeline to connect the mainland with Northern Ireland, and to strengthen the power of the local government in Northern Ireland .Alley Neave is in charge of the discussions with the PUP on our behalf; he has established a personal connection with the PUP.

Many of our backbenchers wanted an early vote of no confidence, but initially the shadow cabinet didn't fire.One reason is that we need the backing of Labor MPs who are opposed to devolution to get the repeal of the devolution law through Parliament with certainty.We don't trust the government very much on this issue.And, unlike on previous occasions, when it was only possible to bring down the Government by a vote in the House of Commons, now we are very reluctant to introduce a vote of no confidence unless we are sure of victory.In times of trouble, it is strengthened if the government wins. When we considered this issue in Shadow Cabinet on 21 March, we decided that we would not table a vote of no confidence unless the SNP, the Liberals and, if possible, the Welsh Nationalists expressed their strong support.However, as far as I am concerned, there is no problem with making deals that lead to governance.

On Thursday, March 22, the Prime Minister made a final attempt to stall the question of devolution and win the SNP over.He issued a statement in the parliament, proposing that the issue of decentralization can continue to be discussed, and that night he made a prime minister's radio speech.He never had a real chance of winning, and when the Scottish Nationalists and the Liberals appeared to be about to show their support for our motion of no confidence, although the Welsh Nationalists hadn't, I agreed to the motion, which ended at 7 p.m. We moved a motion of no confidence before that point.Conservative stewards are now pulling out all the stops to convince the minority party to heed their hesitating MPs to vote for us when the time comes.Of course, it is also important to ensure that all Conservative MPs are present to vote.Luckily, no one got seriously ill." Even though one MP's car overturned on the road and another's wife died the day before, he insisted on coming to vote for us.

Ironically, the most difficult thing that night was the strike of Westminster catering workers.Not even the deadly threats of wardens can stop Conservative MPs from sneaking out to their clubs or the Savoy Hotel for a bite to eat.Willie Whitelaw and I ate in the Warden's office with Humphrey Atkins and his colleagues, Spencer Le Marchant and Tony Berry from Fortnum Two big boxes of food came.But I can't whet my appetite.The opening speeches of the debate are over, and I feel that in terms of oratorical technique, no one has won, which is about as I expected.Sitting at our impromptu dinner table, Willie, Humphrey and I knew the results would be so close that it would be hard to call winners or losers, and this vote was a close one.Maybe they really thought that, maybe they didn't want to lift my spirits up so that I wouldn't get hit when a small minority failed.My impression is that they think the government can get away with it this time.Deep down in my heart; I thought so too.

We then return to the Chamber for concluding remarks.Michael Foote's speech on behalf of the Government was one of the outstanding speeches of a talented orator in the House of Representatives.But it takes more than words to convince uncertain MPs; the outcome depends entirely on their decisions. We started to walk out of the conference hall and into the corridor amidst the yelling and confusion.After voting, I went back to my seat and sat next to Willie, Francis and Humphrey.Waiting to learn our fate.Humphrey tried to get me to know the result of the vote sooner.He had John Stradling Thomas, one of the senior wardens, walk quickly down our corridor and stand at the exit at the other end of the corridor.For some reason Conservative MPs always move through the corridors faster than Labor MPs, even when they are not in the minority.As soon as we walk down the corridor, John Stradling gets our vote count information, while he is listening to the counting of votes in another (government) corridor.As soon as they're done counting, he'll know whether we've won or lost.If we don't win, he'll come back and stand next to the speaker's chair.If we win, he'll put up a finger so Humphrey can break the news to me.This secret form of communication was only revealed to me later.All I saw was John Stradling Thomas coming back, and then Humphrey leaned over and told me in a stage whisper, "We've won!" The numbers announced confirmed the news. "311 votes in favor, 310 votes against." In this way, I finally got my chance, my only chance, and I must seize this chance with both hands.