Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer who engineered fundamental changes in the UK tax system over six years and resigned suddenly.
On the island
Eight records
Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581Favourite
Benny Goodman, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch
If I really want to play something, to switch off to something to comfort the music is the greatest comfort. It has to be Mozart.
my mother's aunt, my great aunt, was the pianist Myra Hess.
brings back memories of 1951, the end of that dreary period of Labour government and austerity immediately after the war, when right at the end, in 1951, they had this extraordinary festival of Britain, which Noel Coward in this song sends up.
Final duet from Der Rosenkavalier
Régine Crespin, Helen Donath, Vienna Philharmonic, Sir Georg Solti
I've come to love opera greatly... I would like to hear a little bit from Richard Strauss's Rosenkavalier, that wonderful duet right at the end with those sublimely beautiful descending chords.
Nimrod (from Enigma Variations)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin
the famous and beautiful Nimrod variation
Trout Quintet (Piano Quintet in A major, D.667)
Alban Berg Quartet, Elisabeth Leonskaja
if you want someone who wrote more tunes per square inch than any other composer, then I think it's Schubert.
when I married my wife Therese... she introduced me to a whole lot of a whole new kind of popular music... it's really because of her and for her that I'd like to have a hear a record of Dorry Previn singing Yada Yadda.
Seven Variations on 'God Save the King'
I've always been interested in and considered very important patriotism in political life and in public life... I've chosen a slightly unusual version of that, one of Beethoven's variations on God Save the King.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:39How far does that solitariness run through your life? Are you a mixer socially?
I used to be extremely social. When I was an undergraduate at Oxford I think I spent more time uh going to parties than anything else. But that was a phase in my life which really came to an end, and I felt that I outgrowed a bit and uh I now find that sort of thing less productive use of time than uh being with my wife and children, or listening to music, or other things of a slightly more solitary nature, but I'm not a complete loner.
Presenter asks
4:58Why do you think you care so little about what others think of you?
Generally speaking, I don't. I obviously care a great deal about my wife's views, and there may be one or two other people whose views I particularly respect but on the whole I think I care less about other people's opinions than most people do. I don't know. I was made that way and I've become that way and I've trained myself to be that way.
Presenter asks
9:24Why did you give up maths at Oxford?
Well, the scholarship was in mathematics and uh I'd been a a specialist in mathematics. But I never felt that I was good enough to go to the very top and I certainly didn't want to be a professional mathematician for the rest of my life. I didn't know what I did want to be, but I didn't think I wanted to be that. And so I decided straight away, having got the scholarship, perhaps before I was found out, to switch to something else. And I switched to philosophy, politics and economics, largely because the basis of Oxford philosophy certainly at that time was very much logic. And the connection between logic and mathematics is the most intimate one, and so I made that switch.
The keepsakes
The book
John Donne
I would choose the poems of John Donne. Because I think the love poems of John Donne are the finest love poems in the English language.
The luxury
I will have a solar powered radio set. To receive some of the music of the many, many records which another piece of music which I failed to include among my eight.
Presenter asks
17:58Were your ideas often accepted when you worked closely with the Prime Minister?
Oh, yes, sometimes. I think that, uh, I am perhaps responsible for the existence of the public expenditure white paper. It would have happened, I suppose, anyway. But at that until that time our public expenditure plans for the years ahead had never been published. And I said, unless we publish the plans for the years ahead and show exactly how uh they can be paid for, nobody will believe us. And that was the origin of the first published public expenditure white paper. And there were no doubt other things which I had a small input in. But I was a very, very minor figure who just fortunately happened to be at the center of things and it was a mixture of the of my admiration for Alec Home. And the I think catching the political bug in that way, that maybe we decide uh that maybe uh something that I'd never ever thought of before, never thought of at Oxford or any previous time, maybe I would want to go into politics on my own account.
Presenter asks
23:53Was it a huge sadness that your time as Chancellor ended in resignation?
Yes, it was the most difficult decision, and the most hateful decision. I've uh ever had to take in my life. But uh events had taken a course where I believed that there was nothing else that I could sensibly or honourably do.
Presenter asks
31:04What would you most like to be remembered for?
No, and I hope I won't be remembered for wobbling the Thatcher government. I hope I will be remembered for what I was able to do during my time as Chancellor. I think there are three things which I would mention two of them I think which are beyond dispute, one which is highly controversial and any time will tell. Uh the two things are the tax reform of the whole range of the tax system, personal taxation, income tax, and not least independent taxation for married women. So there's a whole lot of other tax reforms. That's one thing. Second thing is the transformation of the public finances. The move from year after year of budget deficit to a budget surplus. And the third thing is to say which is controversial is, I believe, the transformation of the British economy. I believe it is infinitely stronger now, fundamentally, than it's been for a very, very long time.
“I think I care less about other people's opinions than most people do.”
“I was made that way and I've become that way and I've trained myself to be that way.”
“If you are not prepared to take any risks at all, then in life you will never achieve anything.”
“It was the most difficult decision, and the most hateful decision I've ever had to take in my life.”
“I believe the British economy is infinitely stronger now, fundamentally, than it's been for a very, very long time.”