Editing Winter of Discontent (section)

==Media response by Callaghan and Thatcher==

==="Crisis? What crisis?"===

While Britain was dealing with the strike and the aftermath of the storm, Callaghan was in the [[Caribbean]], attending a [[Guadeloupe Conference|summit in Guadeloupe]] with U.S. President [[Jimmy Carter]], German chancellor [[Helmut Schmidt]] and French president [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]] discussing [[Iranian Revolution|the growing crisis in Iran]] and the proposed [[SALT II]] arms control treaty with the [[Soviet Union]]. He also spent a few days afterwards on holiday in [[Barbados]], where he was photographed by the ''[[Daily Mail]]'' wearing a bathing suit and swimming in the sun. The newspaper used the images at the end of a lengthy [[Editorial|leader]] lamenting the state of affairs in Britain.<ref name="Lopez 97—98">{{harvp|López|2014|pagse=97—98}}</ref>

On 10 January, as the temperature climbed above freezing in southern and low-lying areas of Britain for the first time since the storm,<ref name="The British and their weather" /> Callaghan returned. Having been tipped off that the press were present, his press secretary Tom McCaffrey advised him to say nothing and return immediately to work, but his political adviser [[Tom McNally]] thought that the image of Callaghan returning and declaring his intent to take control of the situation would be reassuring. Callaghan therefore decided to give a press conference at [[Heathrow Airport]]. To McNally's dismay Callaghan was jocular and referred to having had a swim in the Caribbean during the summit. On his first questions he was asked about the situation in Britain; he responded by angrily suggesting the press had exaggerated matters{{efn|Callaghan was correct in the case of at least one newspaper. Two decades later, ''[[Daily Express]]'' editor [[Derek Jameson]] admitted that, having decided Callaghan and Labour had to go, he and his staff (and by implication some of the other tabloids) deliberately overstated the extent of the strike and the disruption it caused.<ref name="harvp|López|2014|page=107">{{harvp|López|2014|page=107}}</ref>}} and perhaps did not truly love their country. McNally was chagrined; this was not how he had expected things to go.<ref name="Lopez 97—98" />

Callaghan was then asked (by a reporter from the ''[[Evening Standard]]''), "What is your general approach, in view of the mounting chaos in the country at the moment?" and replied:

{{Blockquote|Well, that's a judgment that you are making. I promise you that if you look at it from outside, and perhaps you're taking rather a parochial view at the moment, I don't think that other people in the world would share the view that there is mounting chaos.<ref name="Lopez 97—98" />}}

The next day's edition of ''[[The Sun (United Kingdom)|The Sun]]'' headlined its story "Crisis? What crisis?" with a subheading "Rail, lorry, jobs chaos – and Jim blames Press", condemning Callaghan as being "out of touch" with British society.<ref name=bbc>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/background/pastelec/ge79.shtml |work=BBC News |title=History of the Winter of Discontent |year=1997<!-- unfortunately nothing more specific is available --> |access-date=9 August 2022}}</ref> The phrase "Crisis? What crisis?" had entered public consciousness in the 1973 film ''[[The Day of the Jackal (film)|The Day of the Jackal]]'' and had been further popularized by [[Supertramp]]'s 1975 [[Crisis? What Crisis?|album of the same name]].<ref name="Melhuish">{{Cite book|last=Melhuish|first=Martin|title=The Supertramp Book|place=Toronto, Canada|publisher=Omnibus Press|year=1986|isbn=0-9691272-2-7|pages=84–93}}</ref>

While he had never used those exact words, Callaghan's speechwriter Roger Carroll agreed they were an effective paraphrase. "He asked for it, I'm afraid, and he got it."<ref name="Lopez 97—98" /> Callaghan would be closely associated with the phrase for the rest of his life.<ref name="Misery Monday" />

===Conservative response===

Thatcher, the [[Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom)|Leader of the Opposition]], had been calling for the government to declare a [[state of emergency]] to deal with the strike during the first week of January. She also called for the immediate enactment of reforms that "Stepping Stones", and before it ''In Place of Strife'' had proposed: a ban on [[secondary picketing]] of third-party businesses not targeted directly by a strike, ending [[closed shop]] contracts under which employers can only hire those already members of a union, requiring votes by [[secret ballot]] before strikes and in the elections of union officials, and securing no-strike agreements with public-sector unions that provided vital public services, such as fire, health care and utilities.<ref name="Martin 99–100">{{harvp|Martin|2009|pages=99–100}}</ref>

A week later, as the cold returned and Britons had begun filing claims for unemployment benefit by the thousands, Thatcher addressed the situation in a [[party political broadcast]]. From a small [[sitting room]] she spoke, she said, not as a politician but as a Briton. "Tonight I don't propose to use the time to make party political points", she told viewers. "I do not think you would want me to do so. The crisis that our country faces is too serious for that."<ref name="Thatcher Party Political Broadcast">{{cite web|last=Thatcher|first=Margaret|author-link=Margaret Thatcher|title=Conservative Party Political Broadcast (Winter of Discontent)|url=https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/103926|publisher=Margaret Thatcher Foundation|date=17 January 1979|access-date=23 April 2020}}</ref>

The disruptions caused by the strikes had led Thatcher to "wonder what has happened to our sense of common nationhood and even of common humanity". She traced those to the unions' broad abilities to picket and strike, allowing almost any of them to "strangle the country". Most unionists, she allowed, did not support such extreme tactics.<ref name="Thatcher Party Political Broadcast" />

===Labour response===

In its own party broadcast on 24 January, Labour ignored the situation entirely. Instead, a [[Manchester City Council|Manchester city councillor]] argued for increasing [[council housing]] in his city. Party members privately expressed great disappointment with Callaghan and his Cabinet for both failing to seize a crucial opportunity to win over the public and continuing to downplay the severity of the crisis. "How do you think that we the Party workers are going to go out and seek support from the public if this is the best you people can do at [[Transport House]]?" wrote one.<ref>{{harvp|Martin|2009|pages=150–151}}</ref>