Editing James Callaghan (section)

===Winter of Discontent===
{{Main|Winter of Discontent}}
[[File:Carter guadeloupe cropped.png|thumb|Callaghan (right) with [[Helmut Schmidt]], [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]] in [[Guadeloupe]], 1979]]
Callaghan's method of dealing with the long-term economic difficulties involved [[Social Contract (Britain)|wage restraint]], which had been operating for four years with reasonable success. He gambled that a fifth year would further improve the economy and allow him to be re-elected in 1979, and so he attempted to hold pay rises to 5% or less. The trade unions rejected continued wage restraint and in a wave of widespread strikes over the winter of 1978–79 (known as the [[Winter of Discontent]]) secured higher pay. The industrial unrest made his government unpopular, and Callaghan's response to one interview question only made it worse. Returning to the United Kingdom from the [[Guadeloupe Conference]] in January 1979, Callaghan was asked, "What is your general approach, in view of the mounting chaos in the country at the moment?" Callaghan replied, "Well, that's a judgement 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." This reply was reported in ''[[The Sun (United Kingdom)|The Sun]]'' under the headline "Crisis? What Crisis?".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/921524.stm |title=Crisis? What crisis? |work=BBC News |date=12 September 2000 |access-date=29 May 2019 |archive-date=6 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180106231711/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/921524.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> Callaghan also later admitted in regard to the Winter of Discontent that he had "let the country down".<ref>Peter Hennessy (2001), ''The Prime Minister'', p. 377.</ref>