A View From The Foothills

by Chris Mullin

  Friday, 8 September

  The evening bulletins are leading with The Man’s latest crusade – to persuade comprehensive schools to do more for brighter pupils. As with all previous education initiatives this one has been instantly denounced by teachers who say that, anyway, they are already doing most of what he is calling for. My goodness, how the teachers loathe us. Why can’t we just leave them alone for a year or two? We are pouring billions into education and generating huge ill-will. Pray that we don’t repeat the trick in the health service.

  Monday, 11 September

  A crisis brewing over fuel prices. Farmers and lorry drivers are blockading oil refineries, which has triggered a bout of panic buying. Queues at every petrol station and some have run dry. Are we catching the French disease? The Echo rang to ask my opinion and I said I had no sympathy whatever with the blockaders. The farmers, forsooth, are the most heavily subsidised people in the country. What’s more, they can buy red diesel for a few pence a litre. Where do they imagine their subsidies come from, if not taxes? As for the lorry drivers, they are trying to pretend that recent increases in fuel prices are the fault of the government whereas they are almost entirely the result of increases in the world price of oil – from 10 dollars a barrel to over 30. To be sure, fuel is more heavily taxed here than on the Continent; overall however our taxes are far lower – and unlike France we have no road tolls.

  Wednesday, 13 September

  More to this than meets the eye. It’s becoming clear that the main problem appears to be, not blockades, but a strike by tanker drivers in which the oil companies are conniving. The police are advising that access to the refineries is clear and yet very few tankers are emerging.

  Oil company bosses were summoned to Downing Street yesterday and given a bollocking, but they still appear to be sitting on their hands. They cite intimidation as the reason for dragging their heels, but incidents of intimidation appear to be few and far between. When pressed to provide examples, the best one spokesman could offer was ‘Someone threw a traffic cone at one of our tankers on Friday.’ A long talk with Richard Mottram, who has been involved in dealing with the crisis. He says that both ministers and officials were slow off the mark and that the machinery for coping with a crisis of this sort is very rusty. ‘We had been lulled into complacency by the long period of calm since the miners’ strike.’ He added that part of the problem is that the oil companies mainly employ non-union drivers with the result that no one has much influence over them. JP, Joe Irvin and Gus Macdonald had been on to the unions who had been doing what they could to get the drivers moving, but their influence is limited.

  According to Richard, ‘there is no Plan B’. Talk of bringing in the army is bluff. There are only about 200 qualified tanker drivers in the military. Not enough was being done to apprise people of the consequences. We should be facilitating midwives, ambulance drivers and so on to get on the media and describe the havoc the blockade is causing. (A boy of 12 has been killed while dodging round cars queuing for petrol. His parents had made a very forthright statement laying the blame squarely on the blockade, but it has not been picked up. If these were striking miners, the story would have been all over the media by now.) There is a danger that millions of farm animals will start to die if fuel and food doesn’t get through in a few days. Officials wanted to run with this, but Downing Street had vetoed it – at least for the time being. Two thousand petrol stations have been designated to provide supplies for emergency workers.

  Richard was very critical of the police. There have been virtually no arrests. No trucks have been impounded. ‘They keep advising us that no offences have been committed, but if you or I drove at five miles an hour down the A1, we’d get lifted pretty quickly. We are getting reports that the tankers delivering petrol are being followed.

  Surely they could stop that?’ This afternoon the police have stopped a convoy of trucks who were proposing to blockade central London, so they can do it when they want to.

  Even the Mirror has turned on us. ‘EMPTY’, says the front page of today’s edition over mugshots of The Man, JP and Gordon superimposed on petrol pumps. A caption underneath reads: ‘These three men run the country. Today, the country will run dry. None of them quite knows how to get it going again … but they all agree it’s not their fault.’ Very damaging. Will we ever recover?

  ‘Am I the only one to see similarities between the current petrol crisis and the power workers’ strike in the film of Chris Mullin’s book A Very British Coup?’ writes A. J. Vaughan of Rochford, Essex, in a letter in this morning’s Guardian.

  Thursday, 14 September

  To Preston for Audrey Wise’s funeral. At Euston I ran into Ken Livingstone and we had a coffee together. How does he like his new job? ‘I love it. Something to do at last instead of all that hanging around.’

  Assembly members, he said, were frustrated because the system devised by New Labour (with a no doubt tame candidate in mind) gave them no power. ‘I can do what I like,’ he chuckled. ‘All they have to look forward to is a review of their pay by the Top Salaries Review Board.’ I asked about his plans for congestion charges. Ken was, as ever, relaxed. ‘They don’t come in for another three years. And when they do, they’ll be accompanied by large cuts in bus and tube fares.’

  Audrey had a good send-off. One little-known fact: she was 68, not 65, having shaved three years off her age in order to improve her chances of selection at Coventry and never adding them back on.

  Home by ten o’clock.

  Friday, 15 September

  Spent most of the day sunk in deep gloom. The media is full of vox pops with people saying they’ll never vote Labour again. Some, of course, never voted Labour in the first place, but that’s not the point. After years of creeping and crawling to Middle England, they’ve abandoned us at the first whiff of grapeshot. Come the election the Tories will run broadcasts of petrol queues and old clips of rubbish piling up in the streets in 1979 and say that this is what happens when you have a Labour government. How can we possibly counter that? This morning’s Sun comes with an ultimatum: You have 60 days to deliver, or else.

  Today came a call from Radio 4’s Sunday morning breakfast show, Broadcasting House. My instinct was to do it. I rang Chris in the private office and asked if he could get clearance. To my surprise the answer came back, ‘Yes.’ There then followed a 30-page briefing from the Cabinet Office, most of it irrelevant. One amusing line, however: ‘Don’t use the word “crisis”.’

  Saturday, 16 September

  Sunderland

  Awoke to Gordon Brown on Today doing his Iron Chancellor act in response to the petrol tankers’ blockade of the past week. He made all the right points but his style, involving constant, wooden repetition of the same on-message phrases, sends out bad vibes. In the afternoon I took the children to the beach and when I got back there were messages on the answerphone bidding me ring the BBC and the Cabinet Office. Sure enough, my many superiors have decided that I am far too lowly to undertake a national radio interview. Without consulting me, someone’s minion has taken it upon himself to tell the BBC that Gus Macdonald will be doing the interview instead. This has led to a blazing row, of which I was blissfully unaware. In vain did the producer protest that she didn’t want Gus, or anyone else parroting the government line. She wants me. It’s either me or no one. Another triumph for the masters of spin. After a couple of fruitless calls to the special unit in the Cabinet Office which has been set up to handle the crisis that is not a crisis, I finally received a call from Alastair Campbell. As so often when you get to the top, I found him entirely relaxed about my doing the interview. ‘You may be able to say some things that other ministers can’t,’ he said. He was scathing about the hacks and what he called ‘the complete suspension of any serious analysis’. I asked why ministers had been so reluctant to come out fighting. He said, ‘Because we were slow off the mark, we were on the back foot all week.’ He added cheerfully, ‘I have to curb my natural instinc
t to lay into the media. I think they are complete scum.’

  Sunday, 17 September

  Sure enough the Murdoch press is this morning running opinion polls showing that, for the first time in eight years, the Tories are moving into the lead. Hardly surprising, given the pounding we’ve had in the last five days.

  Knowing that my many superiors would be listening, I prepared carefully for the Radio 4 interview. The other guests were Tariq Ali, Bruce Kent and Boris Johnson. I was taken aback to find that Tariq and Bruce made common cause with Johnson and the blockaders and laid into me as the nearest representative of the government to hand. I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised about Tariq, who is, after all, a Trot, but I expected better of Bruce. Deeply depressing. If he can’t see what’s going on, what hope is there?

  Monday, 18 September Penned the following note to Bruce Kent:

  Dear Bruce, I was sorry to see that you have thrown in your lot with the blockaders. Be under no illusion, if they are allowed to win, what we will end up with is not a more left-wing government, but a Tory one. For heaven’s sake, wake up.

  Spent the morning with Nick Raynsford touring some of the tougher areas of Sunderland. Part of my campaign to persuade him to cut off the flow of housing benefit to rogue landlords. We visited Pennywell, Pallion and Hendon and met aggrieved citizens whose lives have been blighted by anti-social neighbours and villainous landlords. Finally we ended up at the Civic Centre for a conference with the movers and shakers. Nick was good. He promised licensing for landlords with three or more properties and was sympathetic to demands for an end to direct payment of housing benefit to rogue landlords. Whether any of it will come in time to save Hendon remains to be seen.

  Thursday, 21 September

  Barbara Castle, La Pensionoria as Polly Toynbee calls her, was on the radio this morning demanding the restoration of the link between pensions and earnings. As ever, she was brilliant, but goodness knows what it would cost. And the poorest would be far worse off if we had to divide our largesse by 11 million pensioners. Not that there’s been a peep out of the poorest pensioners. Somewhere in Sunderland there are several thousand who are £10 or £11 a week better off as a result of Gordon’s minimum income guarantee, but I have yet to meet even one who will admit to receiving it, let alone defend it.

  Saturday, 23 September Sunderland

  A reply from Bruce Kent:

  Really, Chris, the question you ought to be asking yourself is this: How have you and yours managed to alienate so many thousands of traditional Labour supporters so quickly … like me? … The landmarks on my road to alienation are clear enough: student grants, Livingstone, pensions, arms sales, nuclear weapons and perhaps worst of all Kosovo.

  He concludes, ‘Sorry old chum. I do not forget the many good causes you have pursued and the many people in trouble you have helped. But at the moment our roads do not converge.’

  Monday, 25 September

  To Brighton for the conference. Too late to hear Gordon Brown’s speech. He had flown back especially from an IMF meeting in Prague (shades of Denis Healey circa 1976?*) and returned there immediately.

  By all accounts he was well received (unlike Healey). He promised all sorts of goodies for pensioners, except the one thing they are all demanding – restoration of the link with earnings – but the details were obscure. As always with Gordon, you can’t help feeling there’s a catch which will only come to light the morning after. The problem with our policy on pensions is that it takes about 15 minutes to explain, whereas it takes a few seconds to shout, ‘Restore the link.’

  Tuesday, 26 September

  To the conference centre for The Man’s speech. Seldom has a leader’s speech been more eagerly awaited. We are in a deep hole. Will he dig us deeper or lift us out? I sat in the rear of the side galley, beyond the reach of roving TV cameras, to avoid being implicated in the sycophancy that is de rigueur on these occasions. As it turns out he was brilliant. On pensions and the Dome he began with a note of humility: ‘I get the message,’ he said to loud applause (although he claimed that this was only with hindsight, overlooking the fact that many of us had been attempting to smuggle messages to him from the outset). Then some stuff about strong leadership – ‘The test of leadership is not how eloquently you say yes, it is how you explain why you are saying no.’ He rang all the right bells: no surrender to the blockaders, full employment, a second term more radical than the first, a bit of fun at Hague’s expense, but not too much. Some naff stuff about the price of a pair of trainers, but no more nonsense about room for everyone inside the big tent. The bit that went down best seemed to have been inserted at the last moment (it wasn’t in the official text). ‘I am by instinct a unifier. I prefer compromise, but I have an irreducible core …’ By the end, shirt damp with sweat, he was our hero again, although of course the real test is how it plays outside. Early indications are favourable, but it will take more than a good speech to dig us out.

  Friday, 29 September

  Sunderland

  A letter from John Pilger enclosing a cheque, in response to my request for sponsorship to help the family of Le Qua, the Vietnamese man who has lost both arms. He upbraids me for failing to speak out about British involvement in ‘containing’ Iraq and the recent bombing of Serbia. He goes on, ‘I saw the same in Vietnam, Chris – there is no difference, be assured. I’d very much like to hear from you and learn that your apparent silence has been broken. I know you won’t send me one of Cook’s or Hain’s standard letters.’

  Oh dear, first Bruce Kent, now John Pilger. On Serbia, I don’t have a problem. We cannot allow the return of ethnic cleansing in Europe. Any doubts I had were clarified by the slaughter at Srebrenica. As for Iraq, Pilger may well be right, though whether a word from me would make any difference is another matter. There is also the tricky question of what would happen to the Kurds and the Shia if we took the pressure off Saddam.

  Monday, 9 October

  To the Hilton hotel in Blackpool to address yet another conference of housing professionals. Another of Nick Raynsford’s hand-me-downs. Eight hours of travel, involving four trains, two taxis and a tube. The speech was 19 pages long. The text was faxed up last week. All I had to do was read it out. I couldn’t bring myself even to glance at it until I was on the train. We had nothing new to announce and I departed with indecent haste (only two questions, both planted). I very much doubt I have made anyone happier. Why do we do it?

  Wednesday, 18 October

  To Manchester to address the annual conference of the Airport Operators’ Association. Just one short paragraph of the speech is my own, but it is a significant one: a warning not to get too hung up on the prospect of indefinite growth. ‘Predict and Provide did not work for roads. It has not worked for housing. And it will not work for airports.’ I notice these words are beginning to find their way into most official pronouncements on the future of aviation. Perhaps, after all, I may leave a tiny footprint.

  Thursday, 19 October

  Another little homily from Chris, my Private Secretary, on my refusal to read most of the weighty documents marked ‘To See’ which cross my desk. The immediate cause was a tome on producer responsibility addressed to Michael Meacher on which Chris thinks I ought to comment. I pointed out (a) that my opinion was not being sought and (b) that I have never had the slightest involvement with the issue and that my opinion is, therefore, of no value. ‘Other ministers would have read the document,’ said Chris. To which I responded that I have better things to do with my time. I added that it is not laziness, but a realistic assessment of my situation. I have a clear strategy. Only to intervene when I might make a difference – and that is not often. In the meantime I sit tight and pray for rescue.

  Friday, 20 October Sunderland

  With Ngoc to see Billy Elliot at the Boldon multiplex. It was shot mostly in Seaham and Easington against the background of the miners’ strike. There must be hundreds of little Billy Elliots round here. Underclass children who, if the
y had had the same chances as my Sarah and Emma, might have been stars. Towards the end there is a scene where one of the little posh boys he meets when he goes for an audition at the Royal Ballet asks where he comes from. ‘County Durham,’ replies Billy. ‘Durham,’ says the posh boy. ‘Isn’t there a grand cathedral up there?’ ‘Dunno,’ says Billy. I look at all the shiny, optimistic little faces waiting with their parents in the playground at Grangetown school for the doors to open. And then I look at their parents and I can see at a glance who will prosper and who is doomed. It is so sad.

  Monday, 23 October

  To London for the election of the Speaker. Voting was mainly along tribal lines, with most of our side supporting Michael Martin from the outset and most of the Tories falling in behind George Young. The Tories were upset because, by convention, it should have been their turn. Also, there is unease on our side as to whether Michael is up to it. ‘The word from the clerks is that he isn’t,’ according to Donald Anderson. I should have voted for George, but faced with a choice between an Etonian baronet and a lad from the slums of Glasgow, my heart overruled my head. The outcome, of course, is that we have yet another Scotsman ruling England.

  Wednesday, 25 October

  A pep talk from The Man at this evening’s meeting of the parliamentary party. We are no longer in awe of him as we used to be. The magic is fading. There are times when I think that he has become just another inadequate politician like the rest of us. Yet it was an impressive performance. With beautiful clarity he set out the dividing line between us and the Tories, on the economy, public services and Europe. By the end one was left realising that there is still no one else to match him.

  Monday, 30 October

  Awoke to reports of wind, rain, floods. Bognor Regis has been hit by a tornado. Drove to Durham only to be told there were no trains running south of York so I returned to Sunderland, spent the day in the office and flew down from Newcastle in the evening. Even the plane was two hours late. The transport infrastructure is breaking down and there is talk of hospitals being unable to cope. Also, the hauliers are said to be plotting another bout of mayhem.