Drum Magazine Issue 3 | Page 68

6 6 Drum: IN FOCUS “We have a moral compass missing. What’s happened to the extended family, the sense of community and the value of honesty?” and see it as a rewarding experience rather than something that is actually a burden. I say it has all been a privilege.” For the man who joined his recently widowed mother in moving to the UK in the 50s from Cheapside in Jamaica’s Manchester district, his rise to the very top of the ‘establishment’ was not one plotted with one eye on the here and now and one on future positions of power. “The last thing you can do in the business I was in – the trade union business is to plot your career aspirations on a napkin. You hear all those people who say ‘my career was planned. Six A-levels, Oxford, the Civil Service, Parliament then run the world after that. Mine was not like that.” In fact Sir Bill described his first position without the help of rose-tinted spectacles. “I was a humble shop steward in an engineering plant who experienced his first industrial dispute in the 60s. I would describe myself as the gopher. Whenever my peers wanted anything I would ‘go for’ it – the tea, the files, the bacon sandwiches down the café.” Whilst he tells this tale of the man who would later be knighted by the Q ueen in 2003, a year after he was awarded the Order of Jamaica for his services to the trade union movement, Sir Bill’s signature chuckle fills the room. Here stands a man who has never shied away from speaking his mind – whatever the occasion. Today Sir Bill is in bullish mood. Michael Howard, leader of Conservative Party has been doing the media rounds explaining his party’s position on immigration and asylum issues. An unimpressed Sir Bill does not seek to hide his irritation with the reaction of the other parties. “The Labour Party’s response on the issue of Mr Howard’s proposal has been quite pathetic. All that they have managed to say is that it cannot be afforded, that Michael Howard has not said how he is going to pay for these measures. When you start arguing social and moral issues purely on the basis of costs that tells me that you are politically and ideologically bankrupt.” As Sir Bill cites different international treaties that will be broken should the Tory policy succeed and his disgust that human suffering can be quantified The Beatles embodied new hope for the 6 0s and a naive belief that ‘ all you need is love’. They represented the birth of cool youth culture and the influence of pop music in Britain. 50s Commonwealth citizens arriving in Britain to work at the invitation of the British Government. Many had defended Britain in the Second World War. Sir Bill Morris: Decades Of My Life 6 0s 7 0s Rising unemployment in the ‘ Winter of Discontent’ saw a number of major trade unions go on strike and helped to bring down the Labour government in 197 9.