Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Labour MP for Blackburn and Cabinet minister; introduced breathalyzer, motorway speed limit, equal pay for women, and Humber Bridge.
On the island
Eight records
Gladys Ripley with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Malcolm Sargent
It goes back to my childhood as a schoolgirl in Bradford. And we weren't a terribly musical family, but my father every now and then want to sing it you know, he ought to teach us something about music, and the Halley Orchestra used to come. And I remember him taking us to Hear Handel's Massa, and I was so taken with the contralto singing He Shall Feed His Flock.
On the Sunny Side of the Street
I remember we used to have uh political skits at the end of the term. I remember as an officer of the club, I think it was secretary and treasurer or something like that. And I always had to take part in these political skits. And one of the one of the pieces of music I would like to take with me to remind me of that was uh the sunny side of the street. We used to parody it, you see. We had I remember jigging up and down on the platform singing, Life won't half be sweet on the government side of the street.
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
This I must take with me to my desert island, because it embodies all my years long love of dancing. It's Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers dancing cheek to cheek.
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 'Eroica'
London Classical Players, conducted by Roger Norrington
When I was very close to Anaram Vevan and Jennie Lee, his wife, I remember once calling round to their flat, and there was Nye sitting in his own this this sort of left wing rebellious man he was Welsh, and of course he was music mad. and he was sitting listening to Beethoven's Heroica Symphony. And I want to I take that with me to remind me of those Bevenite years in which we all fought for fundamental changes in our society.
I Have a DreamFavourite
Ah well, this will remind me of the those great battles against injustice and for progress. I'd love to take with me the Martin Luther King speech, I Have a Dream.
This is something that reminds me of of the sixties, when the Beatles burst upon us. uh with the Mersey sound. I I I just absolutely fell for it because, uh, of course I'd always know represented the North West of England all my life, and I thought they broke down some of the pomposity and conventionality which I hate in life.
Well, I I should take with me an Italian Socialist song. You see, as I say, I've always been a European. I mean, I years before we went into the European Community, I was tra in touch with European Socialist parties through the National Executive of the Labour Party. and one of the songs we often sing at our rallies is the um Avanti Popolo.
London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by André Previn
My last one i i is a very seductive piece that I was introduced to by my niece's husband. who is a great musical expert. And I went to stay with them every New Year. One of the rituals was, that after a snack lunch they would put me on the settee. I could see the sunset through the window, with a glass of Madeira in my hand. and colin will put on for me. Vaughan Williams, Symphony No. five.
In conversation
Presenter asks
5:27Were you always determined to go into politics, Barbara? I mean, how early did you make up your mind?
Well, I think I breathed it in. You know, almost from birth some of my earliest memories go back to Pontefract, which of course was in a mining area, and I remember the miners' lockout of the nineteen twenties. … My father was a civil servant, so he wasn't allowed overtly to take part in. … my mother organized a feeding kitchen in our tiny little house for all the minors' children. She said, I'm not going to have The miners are forced back to work by the starvation of their children. And and that was the sort of and I was very young then, you see.
Presenter asks
7:15Did you then decide quite early on that you wanted to go to Oxford, or was that your father pushing you?
I was pushed one exam to another, first school certificate and matriculation and then HAAA certificate, then Oxford entrance, then HAAR certificate to win scholarships. And I said, Oh, I want a year I did win my scholarships and I said, But oh, my head's bursting, I want a year off to work in a factory. Oh, no, we can't hold it up. So, um there was this great pressure.
Presenter asks
19:08Were you aware of breaking the conventional female mold [by holding high offices like Transport]? I mean was that part of what you set out to do?
The keepsakes
The book
William Morris
He embodied what for me is true, that socialism is about building beauty.
The luxury
Because you see, uh as you know, I've I've I've been a a considerable diarist in my time, and so I want to write my last diarist on the desert island, which will of course also include a lot of reminiscing about my past.
Well yes I think I did. Not as a gesture but instinctively. … I never wanted a woman's job. I I wanted a job at the heart of all the problems of the world and of society, and I was lucky in the Prime Minister Harold Wilson because he had one great characteristic which distinguished him from anybody other Prime Minister I've known, certainly from the present one. He really believed In the abilities of women and the potentialities of women, nothing gave him greater pleasure. than to put a woman in a job that she hadn't done before.
Presenter asks
21:08Did you ever, perhaps, occasionally dream of one day being Prime Minister?
No. Sounds awfully arrogant this, but I think women's grape failing is lack. of arrogance if because I think we don't cast ourselves high enough. Um we we're mentally conditioned to assuming that we'll always be at the best, number two. in the hierarchy. Never number one. So I never thought of myself. A, I was delighted to be an MP. That had been the height of my ambition. And then to be a minister, cabinet minister four times as well. That was beyond my wildest dreams.
Presenter asks
23:01Did you ever find out what [Harold Wilson] was up to [when he resigned in 1976]?
I never quite understood it. He told me. that he was really he he was really a historian at heart. More than a politician, and he wanted he'd done enough politics ever since he sixty four when he became leader of the party. Um, and he wanted to write. Quite it. But I do believe one thing. I think if he hadn't resigned in'seventy six, we would never have lost the seventy nine election, because he was far too flexible an operator ever to have got himself tied up in the winter of discontent, the rigidity of the prices and incomes policy. which his successor tried to carry through and which led to those dreadful winter strikes.
Presenter asks
26:42Why, then, Barbara Castle, after all those years of being such a fervent anti-marketeer, did you decide to become a Euro MP?
Oh, yes, yes, so lots of my actions during my life have been suspect. I'd voted against direct elections in the House of Commons, but I'd lost. Now, you see, the one law of politics, as far as I'm concerned, is you fight for something you believe, and if you lose and the situation is thereby changed, you don't sit sulking in the sidelines.
“If you are critical of an institution, it's far better to study it from inside than from outside.”
“I hope I'm mellowed in the sense that um some of the sharp corners have been rubbed off, but I hope I never become depassioned, if there's such a word. I hope I will always feel.”
“I think women's grape failing is lack. of arrogance if because I think we don't cast ourselves high enough. Um we we're mentally conditioned to assuming that we'll always be at the best, number two. in the hierarchy. Never number one.”
“Now, you see, the one law of politics, as far as I'm concerned, is you fight for something you believe, and if you lose and the situation is thereby changed, you don't sit sulking in the sidelines.”