Description
Jennie Lee's OU staff club lecture on the early history of The Open University.
Subtitle Number Time In Time Out Subtitle Text
100:00:00,00000:00:01,000Open Forum 2 1975 FOU2662D
200:00:01,00000:00:03,000(Jennie Lee) We always start, it's a kind of hallowed beginning…
300:00:04,00000:00:10,000..about a speech made by the Leader of the Opposition then, Mr Harold Wilson…
400:00:11,00000:00:19,000..on September 8th 1963 in Glasgow. He wasn't so ingenuous…
500:00:20,00000:00:25,000..as to think when he made that speech that he was inventing the mass media.
600:00:26,00000:00:28,000A great deal of educational work had been done at all levels…
700:00:29,00000:00:33,000..at all the lower levels for infancy, for the younger years, adult education
800:00:34,00000:00:38,000..and the rest of it and done in very many parts of the world.
900:00:39,00000:00:44,000But in 1963 we were leading up to the 1964 General Election and…
1000:00:45,00000:00:50,000..he was very much at that time in love with the concept of the…
1100:00:51,00000:00:55,000..technical revolution, that we were all going to become richer and happier…
1200:00:56,00000:01:03,000..and life made easier for us by a more intelligent use of modern techniques.
1300:01:04,00000:01:11,000And in that mood he visited Moscow and Chicago, and there…
1400:01:12,00000:01:17,000..he was inspired by the concept of using the mass media...
1500:01:18,00000:01:21,000..radio, television, films, the cassettes coming on and all the rest of it...
1600:01:22,00000:01:30,000..in order to make available to an immensely wide public the higher levels…
1700:01:31,00000:01:38,000..of education. No compromise, no academic compromise on the university stage.
1800:01:39,00000:01:45,000Now you may wonder why, as he cared so much for this project…
1900:01:46,00000:01:50,000..that a Junior Minister - because Minister of State sounds very grand...
2000:01:51,00000:01:54,000..but a Minister of State in a Ministry of Education and Science is...
2100:01:55,00000:02:00,000..a Junior Minister - why I was asked to carry through this project...
2200:02:01,00000:02:06,000..particularly as I was already a cuckoo in the nest in the DES not welcomed at all…
2300:02:07,00000:02:11,000..because they felt they had enough children before I arrived (laughter)...
2400:02:12,00000:02:16,000..and I was not doing any straight-forward work of an under-secretary…
2500:02:17,00000:02:21,000..I was totally, as you know, engaged in beginning to promote the arts.
2600:02:22,00000:02:27,000And I was able to survive only because I negotiated my money directly…
2700:02:28,00000:02:32,000..with the Treasury and I dealt only with the Prime Minister.
2800:02:33,00000:02:39,000Now, I mention that because it was a lead-in to what followed.
2900:02:40,00000:02:48,000Now when Harold Wilson made his speech in '63 then formed his government in '64…
3000:02:49,00000:02:54,000..he was very keen to promote this concept of an Open University.
3100:02:55,00000:03:01,000But he found that he could get no response at all from either the senior officials…
3200:03:02,00000:03:06,000..or ministers in the Department of Education and Science.
3300:03:07,00000:03:11,000He found he couldn't get a kind look from either the senior officials or...
3400:03:12,00000:03:17,000..the ministers in the Treasury. He found that among his Cabinet colleagues...
3500:03:18,00000:03:24,000..that he himself had appointed, that there was either total indifference…
3600:03:25,00000:03:32,000..or a rather supercilious hostility. And the curious thing about this hostility…
3700:03:33,00000:03:37,000..was that it did not follow the normal left right divisions inside the...
3800:03:38,00000:03:43,000..Labour Party. Dick Crossman on the left, was just as unimpressed…
3900:03:44,00000:03:49,000..to put it gently, as Roy Jenkins and Tony Crosland on the right.
4000:03:50,00000:03:54,000So here was your poor Prime Minister anxious to go ahead
4100:03:55,00000:04:02,000..with a scheme which he deeply believed in but how could he set about it?
4200:04:03,00000:04:08,000So I was a kind of last resort. So he comes to me and he says...
4300:04:09,00000:04:14,000.."For God's sake get this thing going!" and I said "Right, Harold…
4400:04:15,00000:04:20,000..but on the same terms as we worked together in promoting the arts.
4500:04:21,00000:04:25,000That I deal only with you and I negotiate directly...
4600:04:26,00000:04:28,000..for the money with the Treasury and you help!" (laughter)
4700:04:31,00000:04:35,000And, fair's fair, both in The Open University and before that…
4800:04:36,00000:04:38,000..on the arts side, he never let me down.
4900:04:39,00000:04:41,000But I'm only showing you the difficulties, there's no such thing you know,
5000:04:42,00000:04:44,000..as a Prime Minister being able simply to press a button...