James Callaghan interview | Labour Party | Prime Minister | This Week | 1978 

Callaghan's last line "You never reach the promised land. You can march towards it" appears in many books of quotations - nice to hear the original.

Back when newsmen asked important questions putting the PM on the spot without the trashy 'gotcha' style journalism we so often have now

Fantastic interview. Very respectful journalists and Mr. Callaghan giving straight answers.

Sitting here watching this (I was seven years old when this was recorded) lamenting that we'll never again see a current prime minister directly interviewed and debated, in a calm, polite, respectful and intellectual manner ever again. It's gone.

Im not a Labour man but really liked Callaghan....he was a down to earth practical man that did the very best he could in particularly difficult time for the Labour Party and the UK in general.

A true statesman compared to the ridiculous Eton schoolboy we now have.

Few topics fascinate me more than British politics. Good interview!

History is already getting a bit of clarity on Callaghan after some decades unjust vilification. He was the last old school honest politician (whether he's right or wrong on policy). His nuanced approach, relating to the public as if they're bothering to understand the complexities of governance, was proven naive and unworkable. No politician winning power has made this mistake. The electorate gets what it deserves I suppose. Hopefully the fantasy doesn't end in a boiling planet or a nuclear winter or a global authoritarianism based on China.

Good interview. It is not a myth that the politicians of this era were a good deal more direct than their modern day counterparts. Can we have more footage of Harold Wilson? The interview on the EEC referendum is brilliant - you must have more in the archives.

If only he called an election in autumn of 1978, what might have been.

I liked Callaghan. Straight man no sleaze with big Jim

A very underrated Prime Minister and as far as I know the only parliamentarian to hold the four great offices of state, Prime Minister, Chancellor, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary.

I would love to see how Margaret Thatcher, John Major, David Cameron and Theresa May would have coped with a 400% increase in the price of crude oil in the space of 2 years and the catastrophic consequences that would cause for the economy. The chances are they would have seen an even higher rate of inflation, trade union activity and economic meltdown than Callaghan was facing.

Imagine today's PM facing not one but three journalists at the same time? Boris would fold like a bad deck of cards.

The days when Britain made things, before we burnt the house down and became a service sector, running errands for the rest of the world.

Callaghan was standing on the edge of a precipice: his fabled pay policy which set a limit of 5% collapsed just a few months later when Ford workers went on strike and the company revised its offer to 17% which provided the catalyst for every other union to drive coach and horses through the government's recommended guidelines leading to the Winter of Discontent and sealing the fate of socialism in this country forever. Even Callaghan himself admitted that the country had had a basin-full and predicted Mrs. Thatcher's victory in the following general election. "The future is Mrs.Thatcher " he is said to have remarked.

If Callaghan had called an election in the autumn of 1978 Labour would probably have won with an increased majority. His dithering (like Brown in 2007) led to the Tories winning in 1979.

The current mps never give proper answers ,are in the job only for money not to help,and are snakes

FRIENDLY and respectful without the nastiness of Paxman or the sneering and loathing of the present bunch of rabid presenters wanting to subject their VICTIM to abuse. A much better way of discussion that sadly we have lost.

Could you imagine politicians being this straight and honest now?

Had 'In Place of Strife' been implemented in 69/70, history *might* have been very different

Clear from this interview why he didn’t call an election in ‘78. By hoping that inflation would stay in single figures and industry would accept 5% pay deal, labour could have won an election the following year.

I remember when I was - what - no more than 7 years old - my grandmother (in industrial Wales (pre-Thatcher)) - actually chucking her mug of tea at the TV screen when Jim Callaghan was speaking. I wonder if this was the interview that triggered her ballistic response. Little could she predict, however- or anyone else for that matter - the tornado of total economic destruction in her home town (a place I loved as a child - and now live in as a middle-aged adult) that was to come in 1980. The town is still in decline, 40 years on, which is a bloody travesty. This one and dozens of others across the UK. There had to have been a better solution back then, surely, that brought everyone along instead of abandoning entire sections of the population and destroying entire communities. 40 years later, the answer is still, apparently, "no". People must always suffer in Britain today, so that Britain can pretend somehow to be "prosperous". If the Labour party had a braincell to share in its organisation, it would be campaigning on that one thing: rebuilding communities destroyed by Tory governments. But the PLP is as bad as the Tories were back then - and are actually a lot worse. People know this.

following this broadcast Labour took a 6.1% lead over the Tories in the NOP poll (48.5% to 42.4%)

Whilst in retrospect Callaghan's belief the trade unions would hold the line on wage restraint looks naive he still comes across well here. Confident and knowledgeable but not arrogant. Had the unions gone along with the 5% recommended wage rise, what would a 1979 election result without the Winter of Discontent have been ?

I didn't like Callaghan and Healey at the time. But they look like geniuses compared to what followed.

Peter Jenkins' questioning actually quite prophetic given what happened after 1979. But you can't help but admire Jim Callaghan's straight-talking bluffness. Not sure a Labour politician would say today: "We need more police, we need teachers, we need more social workers... but the centre of the kind of society we want to be lies in the family."

Given what happened at the subsequent election, with all the historic consequences, Callaghan's last utterance is almost touching.

6:04 - "Prime Minister, there are 1.5 million unemployed" that's ironic, given it rose to over three million only three years later under Thatcher.

Callaghan was an impressive figure (in contrast to the clown that is Johnson). Its a shame he didn't call a general election in October 1978 for he would probably have won.

Britain was in a terrible mess at the time of this interview. Horrendous inflation & the winter of discontent around the corner.

This was almost a half century ago. Time marches on, baby. under 30K views 3 year video. This recording is a gold standard on how to discuss and debate. Instead we have the kardasians or bill maher and joe rogan. lowbrow stuff today.

That is Fred Emery, who narrated that brillant BBC documentary about watergate, it is on youtube, if anyone wants to watch it.

Back in 1978, in order to reduce inflation, we needed to scrap the idea of an "Annual Pay Round". Back then, Unions would push for wage increases (often way beyond the productivity / output of the workers) every year. Had Jim Callaghan managed to do this, the infamous "Winter of Discontent" might never have happened. Without the "Winter of Discontent" there would have been no Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Jim and his predecessor Harold were the last great ppl to be leaders

If only Sunny Jim called an election in 1978 then maybe we could have avoided 11 and a half dreadful years of Thatcher.

When Thatcher came to power we had 3 Million unemployed, the Falklands islands saved her.

Always loved listening to his speeches especially at the party conference. Astute politician.

More stuff like this, Thames TV.

James Callaghan was doomed by fate he had a minority government with MPs with big egos and trade unions behaving appallingly the combination of those factors lead to 18 years of the Tories. For sometime people thought Callaghan would be the last labour prime minister

Callaghan was so relaxed, he even had it in him to be wry and sardonic. Despite the circumstances!

Barbara Castle was right about Sunny Jim I’m Afraid ;)

I think he lost his way when he sung that church song!

People are sometimes unhappy, not because of slow economic growth, but because of spiritual unease, lack of fulfilment.

I like Jim. He was constrained by fate, a party full of big egos, criminally corrupt unions that had been infiltrated by Soviet fifth columnists. Given a few breaks he could have turned it all around. But I guess we’ll never know.

What's going on? Why did nobody ask him if women can have penises?

A great statesman, even if you disagree with his policies.

Why doesn’t Boris Johnson in 2021 ever agree to do ad lib one to one interviews like this?

Best PM we ever had

These talking points are so familiar in 2024!

James Callahan was a scandal-free honorable character. Sadly he had no clue how to solve economic problems in a "post coal high tech" world. Some impressions from the Callahan years: Power stations often burned coal without procucing electricity only to keep the heavily subsidized coal mines busy. British Rail operated every locomotive with two drivers instead of one only to keep the transport unions happy with their seven hour work day.

No disrespect to the man, but think about all that wasted labour, no pun intended, on incomes policy. Powell was mocked endlessly but how right was he that ultimately why is it that Wilson or Heath or anyone should be allowed to decide what "maximizes" my standard of living? What the hell do they know about what I want and how much of it I want.

i REMEMBEER BACK IN THE DAY INFLACTION WAS AS IGH AS A BACKWARD COUNTRY BUT UNEMPLOYMENT AND WAGES WERE NOT BAD AS COMPARED TO usa & cANADA,ONLY IF INDUSTRIAL STRENGHT WOULD HAVE STAYED STEAD FAST WHAT A PITY

I would have called a snap general election for late September 1978, it would have been a perfect time, weather wise for voters it would have been the last time before winter. Shame Callaghan did not have the balls to call it then.

Tax cuts have never been shown to boost productivity.

Page 57 Another gift from Britain, the Bicentennial Bell, had arrived in Philadelphia before the Queen's visit.

Great leader - but the worst of times 🙁

He looks like he was the child of LBJ and Mr. Bean

Even being right wing, you can't help but like jc

Sonny Jim

I don't understand why Britain doesn't have a fixed election date. It's so undemocratic to not have a fixed election date.

God almighty. 18%+ Inflation...and beer and sandwiches in Downing Street. People who don't understand Thatcher have no idea what came before....

Callaghan was a failure. That's all I have to say about this Labour PM. No wonder the name is very seldom mentioned after he left politics. The nightmare caised by the extreme radical and socialist influenced unions is at least now the thing of the past.

Worst prime minister we ever had.

Hubris.

Crap

I never knew what a traitor this man was, as I was very young at the time. Thanks to Enoch Powell in his many speeches exposing him. My Dad always told/taught me to listen to the great man Mr Powell and we are both working class East End of London now Ex because he ( Enoch) was ignored

Callaghan was not a nice man. Nasty to others and short tempered.

I think he lost his way when he sung that church song!