Spectacular U-turn
Michael Vestey
"Today on Radio Four on Monday was / fortunate in having the meatiest domestic news item fall into its lap from the evening before: the briefing that the Prime Minister would, after all, hold a referendum on the new EU constitution which would, if implemented, effectively govern us from abroad. This was quite a spectacular U-turn by any standards and was hinted at when Tony Blair appeared on Today last Saturday. On Monday, the programme rose to the occasion with the Tory leader Michael Howard on crisp and clear form, though more Eurofanatics than Eurosceptics appeared in the parts of the programme I heard.
Peter Kellner of the YouGov polling organisation said that, if a referendum were held now. 53 per cent would vote against the constitution with 16 per cent in favour; one in three doesn't know. Those against believed that if the constitution was approved Britain would lose its powers over taxation, defence, criminal justice and foreign policy. He cited the 1975 referendum under Harold Wilson as an example of how a sceptical electorate can be won round, though he admitted that it would be more difficult now. Then, the three major parties were in favour of staying in what was misleadingly called the Common Market, and so were most of the media. Now the parties and newspapers are divided. In fact, as I recall, most ministers and front-benchers lied to the British people about the nature of the Common Market, and the Heath government had earlier paid for a secret campaign of propaganda and manipulation to swing public opinion and MPs, as a Document programme on Radio Four revealed a few years ago.
Now it's different. Voters are more sceptical, if not cynical, about what they're told by politicians. The funniest moment, unintentionally, in Today came when Sir Menzies Campbell, the LibDem spokesman on foreign affairs, told Sarah Montague — now happily restored as a
presenter after maternity leave — 'I have in mind the dream team leading the yes campaign, of Tony Blair, Kenneth Clarke and Charles Kennedy.' Yes, please. Only ardent Blairites still believe anything their leader says; by his actions and statements Kenneth Clarke seems to hate the nation state and the Westminster Parliament so much that he would happily sign up to anything proposed as long as it meant we didn't have a say in the matter, or indeed in our future governance. Kennedy can barely lead his own party let alone influence voters in a referendum campaign.
Tuesday this week was the 80th birthday of the actor Leslie Phillips, who is clearly now something of a venerable institution. In Oh I say! Leslie Phillips at 80 on Radio Four on that day, he spoke amusingly of his long career which began at the age of ten when his father, the breadwinner, died. He became a child actor and was soon earning enough to keep his family in the East End of London. He didn't feel at the time that he was a good actor, but his main asset then was his treble singing voice and today, as we know, his voice remains an important part of his personality, not just as the lounge-lizard smoothie of comedy but in his less well-known classical roles.
ln the 1950s, after a spell in Hollywood, he decided to return to London where he was cast in the Cany On and Doctor films. A clip from one of these was played, and despite the obviousness of the doublesentendres they still brought a smile to my face. Trying to avoid being typecast, he moved to radio and appeared in The Navy Lark as a 'lovable idiot', hence the catchphrase 'Left hand down a bit,' instructions he gave on the bridge before the ship collided with another. 'Inside,' he said, 'I'm not really a comedian.' Although this is a familiar complaint from masters of comedy, he really wanted more serious, classical roles, which he did get, particularly at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He lamented the missed opportunity to star with Brigitte Bardot in a film, but the project was cancelled because the script was so awful: 'I know, it makes me quite sick to think that I didn't do it.' I can imagine how he feels.
As he grew older, the romantic roles naturally faded away and he was given more character-acting roles, including in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun, and The Cheny Orchard at the Haymarket Theatre. Comedy was never far away, though. He formed a friendship and association with the playwright Peter Tinniswood, who died last year of cancer, and appeared in his Radio Four play Tales From the Backbench, about an MP Sir Plyrnpton Makepeace. He decided not to lie about his age, recalling an Evening Standard listing which began, `Today's birthdays . . Hitler, Napoleon III and Leslie Phillips.' Wisely, he doesn't know what the word retirement means, which indicates that he could be with us, I'm glad to say, for some time to come.
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