"Four years ago -- in the middle of the Labour Party's leadership election," Roy Hattersley recalled in 1987, "the Sunday Times asked the candidates in that election to give their opinion of party leaders. I described Jim Callaghan in language which was meant to keep just on the respectable side of idolatry. 'Three quarters a great Prime Minister -- very brave, very tough, very clever; but not quite ideological enough for my taste.' The next day, I received a handwritten note from the great man himself. Could I, it asked, help him to solve a constitutional dilemma? He had intended to support my candidature, but could he cast three-quarters of a vote? If not, he might have to reconsider his position."
Sources
Roy Hattersly, The Independent, Apr. 13, 1987
