I had a shock on Friday morning. Walking past Knightsbridge barracks I noticed two white vans by the entrance. There were three uniformed soldiers on the pavement and after I had passed I thought of going back to make sure they had checked the vans. Maybe I was over-reacting so I did nothing. At the Hyde Park Hotel I passed a mounted detachment of the Household Cavalry returning to barracks from ceremonial duties, in time for lunch.
We passed, going in opposite directions, by the memorial to the four soldiers and seven horses in the Blues and Royals murdered by an IRA bomb in 1982. I rather wished I had said something about those vans. As I approached Hyde Park Corner I heard the first explosion. I spun round, fearing the worst. Before the second explosion I had a “light dawns on Marblehead” moment: National Anthem before the 7.00 news on the Today programme, Queen’s 91st birthday, 41 gun royal salute by the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery in Hyde Park at noon.
An hour later (why not also at noon?) the Honourable Artillery Company upstaged the RHA, firing a 62 gun salute at the Tower of London. The extra 21 deafening rounds are the City of London’s birthday present to Her Majesty.
This is not a digression. In 1977 the economy in the UK was a shambles. Denis Healey had to negotiate an IMF loan. Britain was the poor man of Europe. However, life goes on and Princess Anne’s first child, Peter, was born. Gun salutes would normally have been fired in Hyde Park and at the Tower but this was 1977. The London fire service was on strike (virtually everyone was in the 1970s) and the army were covering for them using antiquated Green Goddesses. No time for ceremonial duties. So the HAC got attention normally given to the RHA and that evening I was prominent on the news firing the gun closest to the cameras at the Tower.
Some things don’t change, even after forty years. I overdid it at lunch and was reluctant to go back to my office. I called in to say that I had to clean the guns in the afternoon but was doubtful if that fib would be believed. The next morning some of the directors said how pleased they had been to see me on the TV news. The luck of the Irish, I suppose.
Meanwhile, as we contemplate the Labour opposition today, how did Labour Chancellor, Denis Healey, present the humiliation of crawling to the IMF for funding at the Labour Party conference in 1976?
This is what Labour supporters are singing as they contemplate the General Election.