Wednesday 14 March 1945 Spent most of the day at the HofC – nothing of much interest – lunched with James Stuart and one or two others. It surprises me to find how many of our younger leaders appear to be convinced that we shall win the election – a reduced majority very likely – but defeat no. They base their confidence very largely on Winston's popularity and also on the futility of the opposition – I much doubt whether Winston will retain his popularity very many months after the war, and futile though the opposition may be, it does, I think, represent the futility of the electorate – so many people fail to appreciate how much they would dislike Socialism – it sounds all right and only experentia docet. But of course I don't pretend to know the feeling of the public outside the Northern Area where the Labour Party is so strong.

When Headlam resumed keeping a diary at the start of 1947, the Labour government was facing a serious crisis due to the combination of an unusually severe winter and a shortage of coal, resulting from low productivity in the recently-nationalised mines.

Wednesday 1 January 1947 I gave up keeping a diary in the autumn of ‘45 and I don't quite know why I am starting one again this year. I doubt very much whether I shall succeed in keeping it going – or whether, indeed, there is any real point in doing so. However, I find my old diaries rather interesting reading – interesting to me that is to say – and so one might as well try and continue the series for one's few remaining years – they can only make the funeral pyre of my life's records a wee bit bigger. … I have neither the energy nor the inclination to publish my life's history, or to advertize my views about men and things – after all, what have I done worthy of note? and of what value are my opinions?

Friday 3 January Things do look too gloomy for words both in this country and all the world over. The Terrorists in Palestine are at it again – and one wonders what the Government can do to repress them? Surely they will come to some kind of decision on policy before long? As things are now, no one has the least idea of what our policy in Palestine is … One sign of the times is that synagogues in London are being set on fire – in any other country there would be a pogrom of Jews if Jewish terrorists were allowed to behave to people as they are behaving to our troops and police and officials in Palestine today.

Sunday 27 July The Sunday papers are full of the approaching crisis and the Sunday Times and Observer are beginning to drop hints about a National Government. My own view is that there ought to be a national coalition of some kind which would drop Socialism like a hot potato and get back to common sense. But such a coalition in the present Parliament would be madness - with such a large Socialist majority it could not be a success and would hamstring us.

Saturday 3 January 1948 The news today is that (1) Winston is better (he has been laid up with a cold at Marrakesh for some days and as Lord Moran and Mrs. Winston are going there I should imagine that he must have been worse than was made out) and (2) there is one less in the Cabinet – Lord Listowel whose job as Secretary of State for Burma has come to an end is now made Minister of State for the Colonies without a seat in the Cabinet. I am told that he is a half-wit – but I don't even know him by sight and expect that a great many other people are in a similar position – Socialist peers are fairly inconspicuous persons. Several hotels have been searched for black market food – one dislikes black marketing and no doubt it is all wrong (as human nature generally is) but one dislikes still more the continual spying and police methods which now go on – shall we ever get back to ‘normality’ I wonder?

Wednesday 7 January I had a word with Tony Lambton … He certainly is doing his share of work nowadays and ought to make a fine leader for the Conservatives of Durham county in a few years' time. He is coming on by leaps and bounds – but I fear that he won't beat the dirty Doctor and will still be minus a seat in the next Parliament – sooner or later I suppose he will have to emulate Anthony Eden's example and find one outside his own county.

Saturday 1 January 1949 I have started another diary – though I doubt very much whether I shall have the energy to go on with it for any length of time – one's life nowadays is no longer of much interest and one no longer has much joie de vivre – all that one has lived for appears to be passing away and the ‘brave new world’ is singularly unattractive to those of us lived fifty years ago. One's only hope is that this new generation will ‘grow up’ in course of time, and realize that the things we stood for in the past were the things which matter in life – the things for which it is worth living…

Sunday 26 June The papers today are full of the financial difficulties — the drain on our gold reserves and the proposed convertibility of sterling — I don't profess to understand the intricacies of finance, but clearly our main trouble is that we cannot sell our goods cheap enough.

Monday 27 June Today in the House we began the Committee stage of the Finance Bill — it will go on again tomorrow. Cripps is not giving way on a single point. He assumes rather an irritating, superior attitude in the House which is rubbing our people the wrong way. There is general gloom about our financial position and the Socialists are fussed about the industrial unrest in the docks and on the railway — I suppose they will solve the railway problem by giving the extra pay.

Thursday 2 March 1950 Went to the House … and took my seat. The place very full: everyone rushing about and congratulating everyone else – the Comrades more subdued than they were in 1945! The only persons I saw ‘in the know’ were Harold Macmillan and James Stuart – but neither of them had anything to tell me which I did not already know or surmise. Neither Attlee and Co. nor our people want another election until the autumn at the earliest, and so every attempt will be made to avoid a political crisis – until we see the King's Speech, however, it is not safe to prophesy what may or may not happen – I expect that this will be a very tepid document.