Authors: Gyles Brandreth
Breaking the Code (56 page)
I saw the PM tonight. He looked quite chipper. The progress on Northern Ireland gives him a real (and justified) sense of achievement. Heseltine chairing all those Cabinet committees frees so much time. He was relatively sanguine about the shrinking majority: ‘Perhaps it will concentrate the minds of some of our loose cannons.’ Then he laughed, ‘On second thoughts, perhaps it’ll just encourage them.’ He is extraordinarily normal, easy, rational. He has been Prime Minister for five years. It may have hardened, but it hasn’t spoilt him. Old hands say that after five years Mrs T. was well on the way to lift-off. He asked how I was enjoying the Whips’ Office. He patted my arm: ‘There’s nothing like it. A year as a whip and you’ll learn more about how government works than in five years as a departmental minister.’
Last night: the whips’ Christmas party at No. 12. Quite jolly. Aphra said, ‘Actually, dad, quite strange.’ And it was an odd mix, from the lordly (the Heseltines) to the lowly (assorted secretaries, drivers, Doris, et al), wrinklies (the Wakehams, the Onslows), teenagers, toddlers. Greg had persuaded Ray Alan to provide a cabaret with Lord Charles (which made Greg and me laugh, even if it left others bemused) and Tim Wood appeared as a mildly gauche Father Christmas. A lot of pre-planning went into ensuring that the business of the House couldn’t possibly disturb the revelry – one year it did, necessitating David Lightbown’s appearance in the division lobbies in a Santa suit.
This morning, breakfast at Claridges with Stephen and the gang. This afternoon, tea with David Ashby. The poor man has lost his case against the
Sunday Times.
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I am ashamed to say that in the Tea Room over the past four weeks we have followed it in all its unhappy detail: the tears, the tantrums, the marriage from hell, the wife who routinely called him a poofter, the evidence of his impotence (which he called), the extraordinary elephantine device that he wore to ease his snoring (which he produced and put on in court), it was ludicrous and pathetic – and riveting. He endured the humiliation convinced he would win. He said that his wife, having given evidence against him, tried to console him after the hearing. He pushed her away. He said he’d broken down and wept when the verdict came in. Now he’s wearing a sort of fixed beatific smile. Bravely he asked a question in the Chamber just now and was touched by the nice reception he got. He is certainly odd, but there is something about him that is endearing.
At seven o’clock the potential for high drama. There is a series of EU documents relating to fishing quotas and regulations that somehow the House is obliged to ‘take note of’ before Tony Baldry
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turns up at the EU Fisheries Council on Thursday. Sceptics and colleagues with fishing interests in their constituencies object because the council wants to further restrict the catches of the British fleet. The manic Euro-enthusiasts (Dykes, Heath) are equally unhappy because they believe we’re not embracing the European ideal with sufficient enthusiasm. I don’t understand a word of it, but I do know we’re hauling in the lame and the halt and those who thought they might have been getting away for an early Christmas – and Baldry has £12 million by way of sweeteners (‘restored grants to harbours’) ready to throw in the way of recalcitrant colleagues. Even so, it’s going to be touch and go.
A personal disaster. I am angry and upset, but I have no time to do more than record what happened as I was due downstairs in Dining Room B ten minutes ago to address a frigging dinner for John Watts.
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We won the first vote by a margin of eight. We came
to the main vote, the ‘take note’ motion – and we lost it by two. Cash and Carttiss
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voted against us and we had eleven abstentions – including one of mine, Peter Thurnham. I was 100 per cent convinced all mine were sound – I’d checked with Winterton, I’d checked with Barry Porter, they were ‘unhappy’ but with us. I’d said to the Deputy, ‘You can count on my lot.’
In the first division, Thurnham came up to me with his Eeyore face and said, ‘I’m not at all happy, not at all happy.’
‘But you’re doing the right thing,’ I said glibly. ‘Keep it up.’
He went back to his place in the Chamber and when the second vote came, he just sat there. As the doors were about to shut, the Deputy barked at me, ‘Where’s Thurnham?’
I said, ‘I don’t know. Hasn’t he voted?’
It was too late to fetch him. The door slammed shut. That was that. Immediately the vote was announced, I ran up to him. He wouldn’t look at me. I crouched down and pushed my face into his: ‘How
could
you do this to me, Peter. How could you?’ I was distraught.
‘I told you I wasn’t happy,’ he said, still not looking at me. ‘You didn’t listen.’
At least we lost by a margin of two. If it had just been one, I’d have been suicidal. Greg was so decent about it. ‘Welcome to the Whips’ Office. When it’s going well, it’s fun. And when it goes wrong, it’s hell. The lesson is “Don’t trust Thurnham.”’ Then he chortled, shoulders heaving, ‘Don’t trust
anybody
!’
The Christmas recess starts here. Eighteen days of freedom. I want to finish the novel (I need to finish the novel), so it’s the desk every day 9.00 to 6.00 but treats (movies and meals) in the evening – starting with Jo and Stevie and
In the Bleak Midwinter.
The Queen has written to Charles and Diana telling them to stop squabbling and get divorced. She cleared the letter with the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and told the PM about it on Tuesday.
Emma Nicholson has defected to the Lib Dems. We had no idea this was coming. She did not feature on the list of the Unstable. We know that she’s self-serving, self-regarding,
regularly misses the point not only because she’s hard of hearing but also because she’s not as bright as she thinks she is. None of this can we use to rubbish her. We
can
say – and Heseltine is going to – that twice in recent months she went to see him pleading for promotion. She’s a disappointed lady whose talents have been rudely overlooked. So what’s our majority now? Three, two? And who’s next? Thurnham? Happy New Year.
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Daniel Finkelstein, later executive editor of
The Times
and Baron Finkelstein of Pinner since 2013.
453
GB’s daughter Saethryd was a friend of Will, the son of Robert Skidelsky, Lord Skidelsky since 1991, author and academic, chairman of the Social Market Foundation since 1991.
454
Journalist, author of
The Anatomy of Britain
, first published 1962.
455
Successor to Sarah Hogg as Head of the Prime Minister’s No. 10 Policy Unit 1995–7; formerly of McKinsey & Co.; since 1997 Lord Blackwell of Woodcote.
456
James Molyneaux, Ulster Unionist MP for Antrim South 1970–83, Lagan Valley 1983–97; Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party 1979–95; later Baron Molyneux of Killead.
457
David Trimble, Ulster Unionist MP for Upper Bann 1990–2005; Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party 1995–2005; First Minister of Northern Ireland 1998–2002; later Baron Trimble of Lisnagarvey.
458
John D. Taylor, MEP for Northern Ireland 1979–89; Ulster Unionist MP for Strangford 1983–2001; later Baron Kilclooney of Armagh.
459
MP for Sussex Mid 1974–97; later Baron Renton of Mount Harry.
460
Secretary-General of the Arts Council 1994–7.
461
MP for East Renfrewshire 1979–83, Eastwood 1983–97; Under-Secretary of State for Scotland 1981–6, 1992–5.
462
MP for Kincardine & Deeside 1992–7. Both George Kynoch and Raymond Robertson were elected for the first time in 1992.
463
MP for Bexhill & Battle since 1983; Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office 1992–4, at the DTI 1994–5.
464
Newton Gingrich, the Republican from Georgia and Speaker of the House of Representatives, credited with the success of the electorally popular ‘Contract with America’. Gingrich made extensive use of polling and focus group discussion in developing policy.
465
1913–2010; Labour MP for Devonport 1945–55, Ebbw Vale 1960–83, Blaenau Gwent 1983–92; Leader of the Labour Party 1980–83.
466
Director of the Royal National Theatre 1988–97.
467
Governor of the Bank of England 1993–2003.
468
MP for Poole 1979–97; he succeeded Graham Bright as the Prime Minister’s PPS 1994–7.
469
Historian, fellow of Merton College, Oxford, since 1962; official biographer of Sir Winston Churchill since 1968; knighted 1995.
470
Novelist; deputy chairman of the Conservative Party 1994–5; later Baron Dobbs of Wylye.
471
David Lidington, MP for Aylesbury since 1992.
472
Chris Smith was the shadow Heritage Secretary; Tom Pendry, Labour MP for Stalybridge & Hyde 1970–2001, his junior.
473
Theatre owner and producer.
474
GB first met the actress Diana Quick at university when she was President of the Oxford University Dramatic Society.
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Actor.
476
Twice-married Hughes resigned as Parliamentary Secretary at the Office of Public Service and Science on 4 March 1995 in anticipation of the
News of the World
’s report of his extra-marital relationship with his House of Commons secretary, Janet Oates. The paper carried the story under the headline: ‘Minister Got His Oates Morning Noon and Night’.
477
MP for Bury St Edmunds 1992–7, Suffolk West 1997–2010; later Baron Risby of Haverhill.
478
Reporter and presenter with Yorkshire Television since 1968; host of
Countdown
on Channel 4 since 1982.
479
Film producer; knighted in 1995; Lord Puttnam since 1997.
480
Restaurateur, caterer; chairman of the Royal Society of Arts 1995–7.
481
Director of the Conservative Research Department 1990–95; MP for South Cambridgeshire since 1997.
482
Former special adviser; Head of Sir Edward Heath’s private office from 1996.
483
MP for Dorset West 1974–97; MEP for Wessex 1979–84.
484
The actor, knighted in 1991, had met with John Major to discuss gay rights issues and received a sympathetic hearing.
485
MP for Northampton South 1974–97.
486
Italian director of opera, theatre, film; a member of the Italian Senate.
487
Chairman of the Arts Council Lottery Board until 1996; Lord Chadlington since 1996; younger brother of John Gummer.
488
Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors 1986–96; Baron Hussey of North Bradley from 1996.
489
The Department of National Heritage official in charge of film policy.
490
Patrick Thompson, MP for Norwich North 1983–97.
491
MP for Swindon 1983–97; chairman of the Conservative Tourism Committee 1992–7.
492
Conservative activist, former chairman of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations; member of the English Tourist Board 1986–96; Baron Feldman of Frognal since 1995.
493
Jonathan Hill’s successor as Political Secretary to the Prime Minister 1995–7.
494
From the Judge Institute of Management Studies at Cambridge University.
495
MP for Weston-super Mare 1969–97
496
Lord Wilson of Rievaulx had died aged seventy-nine; Labour MP for Ormskirk 1945–50, Huyton 1950–83; Prime Minister 1964–70, 1974–6.
497
8 March. Grade was born in 1943, GB in 1948. Other Westminster 8 March birthdays included: Douglas Hurd 1930, the Prime Minister’s PPS John Ward 1925, the Speaker’s Secretary Nicolas Bevan 1942. Michael Grade received a CBE in 1998 and became Baron Grade of Yarmouth in 2011.
498
Labour MP for Nottingham North since 1987.
499
An MP calls out ‘I spy strangers’ as a procedural device for forcing a division.
500
Andrew Mackinlay, Labour MP for Thurrock 1992–2010.
501
Nigel Spearing, Labour MP for Acton 1970–74, Newham South 1974–97.
502
Ian Lang, Secretary of State for Scotland; MP for Galloway 1979–83, Galloway and Upper Nithsdale 1983–97.
503
MP for the Isle of Wight 1987–97.
504
MP for Hertfordshire North 1992–7, North East Hertfordshire since 1997.
505
Television producer, creator of the
Teletubbies
, former colleague of GB.
506
Advertising and public relations entrepreneur; adviser to Mrs Thatcher as Prime Minister; knighted 1990; Baron Bell of Belgravia since 1998.
507
MP for Vale of Glamorgan 1992–7.
508
Assistant Private Secretary in the Secretary of State’s office at the Department of National Heritage.
509
See Alan Clark’s
Diaries
, 17 November 1990.
510
Gerry Malone had been Minister of State under Virginia Bottomley since 1994; he remained at the department until 1997.
511
Baroness Cumberlege since 1990; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health 1992–7.
512
Alastair Goodlad had been Minister of State at the Foreign Office 1992–95; he had three spells in the Whips’ Office: as an Assistant Whip and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury 1981–84, as Comptroller of Her Majesty’s Household and then Treasurer of HM Household and Deputy Chief Whip 1989–92, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury and Chief Whip 1995–7.
513
MP for Derby North 1983–97, East Yorkshire since 2001; in the Whips’ Office 1989–96, 2012–13; Deputy Chief Whip 1993–6.
514
Sir George Young, 6th Baronet; MP for Ealing Acton 1974–97, Hampshire North West since 1997; he had succeeded Stephen Dorrell as Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1994–5.
515
Cheryl Gillan, MP for Chesham & Amersham since 1992, became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Education and Employment 1995–7; later Secretary of State for Wales 2010–12.
516
Stuart Begbie, a Chester City councillor and chairman of the Chester Conservative Association.
517
Norma Major had published a biography of Joan Sutherland and was writing a history of Chequers.
518
The novel,
Who is
Nick Saint
?, was published in October 1996.
519
When GB was appearing on television in the ’80s, Clifford Warren, a clergyman from Gwent, sent him a postcard that read: ‘Beginning. The word “begin” is full of energy. The best way to get something done is to
begin
. It’s truly amazing what tasks we can accomplish if only we begin. You’re never finished if you forever keep beginning.’
520
Now GB’s whip; in the Whips’ Office 1993–7.
521
MP for Leominster 1974–2001; he left the Conservative Party in November 1997 and became a Labour peer in 2001 as Baron Temple-Morris of Llandaff and Leominster.
522
1930–2012; MP for Wycombe 1978–2001; chairman of the Positive European Group.
523
He found one. From 1997 to 2005 he was MP for Surrey Heath, one of the Conservatives’ safest seats. He was deselected as the Surrey Heath Association’s candidate in 2004 following a postal ballot of members. His difficulties began soon after he left his wife for a Conservative county councillor in 1999 when a first attempt to deselect him was successfully defused.
524
The Home Secretary dismissed the Director General of the Prison Service in the light of General Sir John Learmont’s report into escapes from Parkhurst Prison in January 1995. The Home Secretary drew a distinction between ‘policy matters’ for which he had ultimate responsibility and ‘operational matters’ which were the responsibility of the Prison Service.
525
Stephen Dorrell had been Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health 1990–92.
526
Tom Sackville was PUSS at the department 1992–5.
527
The Chamber of the House of Commons and much of the Palace of Westminster were destroyed by fire in 1834. Charles Barry (1795–1860) won the competition to design the new Houses of Parliament and Barry employed Augustus Welby Pugin (1812–52) to make detailed drawings for the restored Palace and to design and model much of the interior decoration.
528
Spencer Compton, Marquis of Hartington, later 8th Duke of Cavendish, 1833–1908.
529
Private Secretary to the Chief Whip 1979–2000.
530
Derek Enright, Labour MP for Hemsworth, died on 31 October 1995.
531
MP for Bury South 1983–97.
532
Nicolson, 1886–1968, MP for West Leicester 1935–45, never achieved office.
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1930–2000; MP for Rochester & Chatham 1959–64, Aldershot 1970–97.
534
MP for Derbyshire West 1986–2010, Derbyshire Dales since 2010; PUSS at Transport, Employment and DTI 1989–94; in the Whips’ Office from 1995; Chief Whip 2010–12.
535
MP for Lanbaurgh 1992–7; Baron Bates of Lanbaurgh since 2008.
536
MP for Stroud 1987–97; later Nigel Farage’s predecessor as Leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party 2002–6.
537
MP for Plymouth Sutton 1992–7, Devon South West since 1997.
538
Shana Hole, Special Adviser to the Chief Whip.
539
MP for Basingstoke 1964–83, Hampshire North West 1983–97; father of Andrew Mitchell MP.
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1930–2002; Labour MP for Middlesborough West 1962–70, Motherwell & Wishaw 1970–83, Motherwell South 1983–97.
541
Liam Fox was a GP before entering Parliament.
542
In January 1994 the
Sunday Times
alleged that Ashby had left his wife because of ‘a friendship with another man’. Ashby admitted sharing a bed with a man in a French hotel while on holiday, but denied any impropriety. The paper later alleged Ashby had shared another bed with a man on holiday in Goa. This was untrue and the
Sunday Times
apologised for the Goa story, but refused to withdraw the allegation that Ashby was a hypocrite and a liar because in his election address he claimed to be ‘a man of integrity who believes in traditional moral values’ while his private life suggested otherwise.
543
Minister of State at Agriculture 1995–7; MP for Banbury since 1983.
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Minister of State at Department of Transport 1994–97; MP for Slough 1983–97.
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Michael Cartiss, MP for Great Yarmouth 1983–97.