ABSTRACT
The distinction between the start of the war of movement and the end of the war of position was never as sharp as Jenkins suggests. The process of politics ‘gives meaning to life, and meaning is a major part of life. Political processes are as much concerned with managing interpretations and creating visions as they are with clarifying decisions, but the distinction is easily overdrawn. Barbara Castle’s diary entries throughout the marathon sessions certainly suggest that she too was prey to this growth of group consciousness and groupthink in the Cabinet. Indeed read as a whole over the period of the Wilson government of 1964-70, they arguably present us with a consummate case of a hitherto predominantly egalitarian individual moving, unevenly but steadily toward hierarchy in response to a mutually-reinforcing combination of increasing responsibility and experience.
