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.