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“... never had it so good.’ 7. Edward Heath gave his word to ‘cut rising prices at a stroke’. 8. Shirley Williams joined Arthur Scargill on a mass picket at Grunwicks. 9. James Callaghan said: ‘Crisis? What crisis?’ 10. An experienced cabinet minister said in an interview: ‘I’m not against giving up sovereignty in principle, but not to this ...”

“... a formidable role on both sides of the debate, Castle and Judith Hart for the socialist antis, Shirley Williams and Betty Boothroyd for the more social democratic Marketeers. In an era of rocketing inflation, the cost of food offered the antis their best hope of victory. But, contrary to today’s Eurosceptic myth that sovereignty played no part in ...”

“... suffered the personal humiliation of being shouted down at a Labour Party Conference in May 1980. Shirley Williams said that a centre party would have no roots and no principles. As for me, the voyage out of the Labour Party was a lonely, painful affair not finally accomplished until a fortnight before the Limehouse Declaration of January 1981. Through ...”

“... when the SDP is shown to be in alliance with the Liberals, and not in competition with them. Shirley Williams felt quite justified, during the Bradshaw-type SDP Conference, in telling some of her Liberal allies quite sharply that it was up to the Social Democrats whom they accepted as members. To a certain degree this is true, but clearly if the ...”

“... how far the extreme Left would like to go. Since then, the cameras have zoomed in unrelentingly on Shirley Williams and the Council for Social Democracy. When the mass media wake up to an issue, they seldom give it a rest. Is it too late for them to wake up to Europe, and dispel the public ignorance which all demagogues ...”

“... justifiably exasperated by Arab unreliability, non-arrival when and as promised and needed (their Shirley Williams qualities), as well as their candid venality. Lawrence could see the good and waited for it. With the fall of Aqaba and thereafter he would argue, playing down essential support from the Regular Army, that his Arabs had delivered. Such ...”

“... of time. Of Tony Crosland: ‘For him informality is a sort of substitute for radicalism.’ Of Shirley Williams: ‘the most reactionary politician I know’. Of Neil Kinnock: ‘not a substantial person. He is a media figure really.’ The central fascination of these Diaries is the gradual transformation of the bright young dynamic dinner-partying ...”

“... which she held the premiereship. In this, of course, he shares responsibility with Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers. But there can be very little doubt that the existence of the SDP was the major factor in sustaining Thatcherism in defiance of the fact that the Tories were unable to achieve more than a fraction of the popular vote in ...”

“... concerned and under a generally acceptable leader is not a task to be accomplished overnight. As Shirley Williams reminded us at Blackpool, it may have taken God only seven days to make the world, but he didn’t have to consider other people’s ideas as to how it should be done; nor did he have to raise a lot of money, as must any new party. In the ...”

“... there was a lot of talk about ‘talking the language of the new politics’, and I think I heard Shirley Williams refer to the ‘nodes of the new society’. Ian Bradley sees this new society as a post-social democratic society. For him, liberalism is a mystical cult of the individual. Everything that suits his argument, or rather quasi-religious ...”

“... packing up each night as for the hols Is hard to see, unless they’re taking pains To prove that Shirley Williams can catch trains. More serious than polls for the Alliance, Roy’s Statutory Incomes Policy Is greeted with a vote of non-compliance, Thus demonstrating that the SDP Is not just for a gang of famous giants But ordinary folk like you and ...”

“... But she does not have that extra dimension, obvious for example in people like Barbara Castle or Shirley Williams as ministers, of being a warm personality in an essentially male environment.’ Certainly a personality does come across in these pages. Our PM clearly has both mental and physical courage (witness her visit to Armagh) and she lacks that ...”

“... anguished cries come to their lips unbidden. The Crosby by-election, shriek the polls, Must go to Shirley Williams by a cable. Should that occur the toiling Fleet Street trolls Will find her shapelier than Betty Grable, While making sure a solemn tocsin tolls To tell Roy Jenkins he is not Clark Gable. About the top spot there’ll be much palaver As some ...”

“... though he is and no doubt wishes to be, is not quite the centre either. Is there hope in Mrs Shirley Williams? I should not have thought so, given the extreme ambiguity of her actions and opinions, in the matter of education as in some others. However, you never know when you may need a friend or who that friend may be, and Dr Rae speaks of her ...”

“... in any wing of the party, would have held that view. She shows herself to be very jealous of Shirley Williams, and in particular of Shirley’s success with the media, by whom she always felt herself battered. One can understand her resentment of the fact that of the two nicest people in Cabinet, one was the other ...”