Editing Winter of Discontent (section)

==="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" />