Barbara Castle: Transport Minister
After two years as international development secretary, Barbara Castle took transport — an unloved government brief — and used it to vindicate Labour’s purpose in power.
When Barbara Castle, a non-driver, was appointed Labour’s transport secretary by Harold Wilson in late 1965, she was subjected to a predictable barrage of male media questioning about her fitness for the job. One in particular, a Poundshop Jeremy Clarkson before his time, disparaged her plans to test motorists for their alcohol consumption on the […]