Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Politician who at 41 became the youngest Cabinet member, later Home Secretary, resigned over Westland, then a European Commissioner.
On the island
Eight records
giving me courage to try and escape, or something like that, and I'd certainly need a lot of courage to attempt that.
England win the Ashes at the Oval, 1953 (commentary)
I love hearing it because it was such an exciting moment.
When I was a lad (from HMS Pinafore)
I think it's a wonderful political satire. It's got a catchy tune and it's an affectionate satire.
Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true mindsFavourite
because it's a a very beautiful sonnet and I hope that it is apt for her to read, for me to listen to.
Eternal Father, Strong to Save
Royal Naval College Chapel Choir
eternal father strong to save with that remembrance of the Whitby and the Cliff and the Abbey and the swirling mist.
Dio che nell'alma infondere (from Don Carlos)
Carlo Bergonzi and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
I think this is a rather unusual duet, sort of friendship duet, uh and it's uh wonderful music.
Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 (third movement)
Mstislav Rostropovich, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa
it's got a wonderfully sort of lilting slavonic melody, but also because I've seen a lot of the Czechs in the last few months and they are pushing hard to rejoin the European family of nations
Finale from Die Entführung aus dem Serail
English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
it's a sort of reconciliation theme. Everybody sort of having uh had their problems it comes together in reconciliation.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:59Do you think you have given the wrong impression of yourself publicly?
Well, that's what people say, and it's always very difficult to know what impression you do give. I just amused at the idea of not being arrogant, but seeming arrogant. It's usually the other way round that people try. … It is, yes. And uh people say that I look better at the flesh than on the television, but what could you do about it?
Presenter asks
2:03Does it matter less now that you're in Europe, more independent and not at the mercy of the press baying for your resignation?
I suppose it matters less in the sort of day to day terms, but not in the longer term, because the job that I'm doing at the moment is one where there's a high profile in Britain and and all over the continent. So um and it's not just a question of the policies. People are affected all over the continent and beyond by what sort of person you are. So if you give the impression of being an arrogant sod, that can't help in doing the job, even though it may not mean that some backbencher instantly the next day says you should resign. So it does matter, but in a slightly different time scale.
Presenter asks
6:29The keepsakes
The book
The Collected Works of Chaucer (Robinson edition)
Geoffrey Chaucer
because Chaucer is humorous, contains a tremendous sort of variety of life and profound as well. And it's just a bit difficult as well. So you can get sort of footnotes to look at and vocabulary to look up and so on. So, you know, you get your teeth into it as well.
The luxury
A collection of large-scale Ordnance Survey maps of England
I thought a collection of the large scale ordnance survey maps of as much of of England as you'll allow me to take, where I can plan walks when I escape from the desert island.
But you must have asked yourself why [Mrs. Thatcher] didn't honour that promise [to bring you back into the cabinet]. You did sit on the back benches waiting for the recall, didn't you?
Well, it was doing other things as well. I'm not a great one for pining. … Well, it's anybody's guess what what not long means. Uh I think that uh she probably was reluctant to stir up all the controversies uh arising from Westland. I think it was that more than anything else that made her feel that uh uh she had to try and find the equivalent rather than the literal letters of that
Presenter asks
14:38At what point had you formed your political ambition? Why wasn't becoming a top flight QC going to be enough for you?
Well, um, I uh was interested in politics when I was at Cambridge. You heard we were all involved together in it, and I all and so from the word go I thought um I would like to do politics.
Presenter asks
19:21Can we talk about the controversy over Real Lives, the BBC programme that included a member of the Provisional Sinn Féin advocating violence? You as Home Secretary went public in your demand for those remarks to be cut.
Well, it wasn't a demand, nor, if I may say so, was it the most important episode in my career as Home Secretary, as compared with handling problems of law and order more generally and handling things like the the Brighton bombing and the Libyan siege. These are things that I really stick in my mind. But I just felt that I was entitled to express the view as somebody responsible for the handling of terrorism that people who actually advocate murder should not be given a platform to do so. But it was up to the BBC, as I made quite clear, to decide whether or not to accept that advice. I wasn't seeking to exert any coercion, but I think I was fully entitled to express the view that that was something that should not happen. And of course, since then, as you know, what I said and did paled into insignificance with compared with what my successors have said and done about that subject.
Presenter asks
29:44Do you want to be President of the Commission?
Well, if I was asked to do it, I'd be delighted to do it. But again, I've no idea. But with all the jobs I've done, I've been asked to do things that I wasn't expecting. So it's no use sitting and thinking all the time, is somebody going to ask me to do this, that or the other? The only sensible thing to do is to do the job that I am doing at the moment and then see what happens.
“I just amused at the idea of not being arrogant, but seeming arrogant.”
“I think it can be damaging for the country if people seriously think that uh uh intellectual ability is something that people have to conceal and to be ashamed of.”
“I think if you have a hinterland you are stronger, stronger to do what you really want to do, as well as uh better able to cope if things go badly, as they always do in politics.”
“I can't think of many things I'd less like than being on a desert island all by myself. I'm quite gregarious and uh wouldn't be very good at sort of doing what's necessary to keep alive on a desert island.”
“I've got to take the wife, haven't I? I can't leave it down. No, no question.”