by Chris Mullin
Monday, 18 February
To the House to see Alistair Darling announce that he is proposing to nationalise Northern Rock. George Osborne made a fool of himself using words like ‘catastrophic’, ‘disaster’, ‘back to the seventies’ etc. The Tories and their media friends seem to think they scent Alistair’s blood, but I don’t see it myself. The Financial Times, which can usually be relied upon to talk sense at times like this, said, ‘Anyone who suggests that the Labour government has gone back to 1970s socialism deserves ridicule. It has made a sensible, hard-headed, non-ideological choice.’ The only criticism is that Alistair took too long about it.
Tuesday, 19 February
The Bill to nationalise Northern Rock went through all stages in a single sitting, finishing at midnight. The government had a comfortable majority thanks to the support of the Lib Dems. George Osborne, conscious perhaps that yesterday’s rabble-rousing hadn’t caught the mood of the hour, made a sober contribution. He seems to have wiped that facetious perma-smile off his face. Perhaps someone has told him.
Wednesday, 20 February
To an upper committee room to hear representatives of the Institute of Directors, the British Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses spell out their objections to Andrew Miller’s bill, which seeks to provide some minimal protection for agency workers. The usual tosh about the need for flexibility and the likely loss of jobs were they to start treating people decently. Had fun inquiring if, by any chance, the organisations they represented had been opposed to the national minimum wage and for approximately the same reasons. After a bit of wriggling, they all agreed that this was so. The pinstripe from the Institute of Directors was particularly brazen, arguing that no one would ever know how many jobs had been lost as a result. I pointed out that unemployment in Sunderland was lower than it had been for 30 years. Came away with a spring in my step. In these days of big tent politics it is good to get the occasional glimpse of the class enemy.
Saturday, 23 February–Wednesday, 27 February
Five days laid low by a chest infection. For the first couple of nights I could only sleep sitting up. Ngoc has looked after me splendidly, holding my hand, feeding me soup and broth. By Wednesday, with the help of antibiotics, I felt well enough to creep round to the office and do a bit of paperwork, but I still don’t feel right.
Monday, 3 March
Ninth day of the Lisbon Treaty. A tiny band of zealots – Bill Cash, David Heathcoat-Amory, John Redwood etc. – boring everybody stupid. Jim Murphy, at the Dispatch Box, calmly batting back every new piece of nonsense. I can’t recall having received a letter from a single constituent on the subject.
Tuesday, 4 March
Lunch with Keith Hill, who remarked on the ‘joylessness’ of Gordon’s style of government. His sources in Number 10, like mine, talk of perpetual grumpiness driven by lack of sleep, a tendency to micro-manage, a failure to make even the simplest of decisions until the last minute. Later, in the Tea Room, Hilary Armstrong said that The Man used to complain that ‘Gordon depresses everyone’.
Kelvin Hopkins remarked cruelly, ‘We have replaced a psychotic with a neurotic.’
Wednesday, 5 March
To Claridge’s, in the company of half a dozen colleagues, to meet the Vietnamese prime minister. Our delegation was led by the lacklustre Ben Chapman, who might easily have been mistaken for a Politburo member in a one-party state. The prime minister by comparison, despite a lifetime inside the Stalin system, seemed bright, relaxed and energetic.
This evening the final votes on the Lisbon Treaty. The call for a referendum was comfortably disposed of, despite a small uprising on our side. To general satisfaction on both sides, the Lib Dems got themselves in a terrible mess. Several of their front bench spokesmen have lost their posts for defying their leader’s instruction to abstain.
Monday, 10 March
Alistair Darling addressed this evening’s meeting of the parliamentary party, in advance of Wednesday’s budget. Cool and calm as usual, despite the storms raging around him. No one yet knows, he said, the full extent of the fall-out from America but, with one of the most resilient economies in the world, we were better placed than most. Jeff Ennis from Barnsley said we had to get a message to the white working class that we were on their side, because many of them were giving up on us. Barry Sheerman said the situation may be worse than we think, with banks not lending to each other and our manufacturing industry heading east.
Mark Kent, our ambassador in Hanoi, and his wife came in for dinner.
Tuesday, 11 March
Awoke to the news that the former Attorney General, Peter Goldsmith – normally such a sensible fellow – is proposing that our youth be required to swear an oath of loyalty to the Queen. Lord, spare us.
A leisurely lunch in the Adjournment with Bruce Grocott, now free of office for the first time in years. He shares the general doubts about the calibre of some of the new Cabinet. ‘Name the stars,’ he said.
‘Miliband,’ I offered.
‘You’ll be hard put to think of another.’
One of the problems, says Bruce, is that Gordon’s acolytes are still chasing around after him, instead of running their departments.
Wednesday, 12 March
Alistair’s first Budget. The mood was downbeat. Everyone complaining how dull it was, but maybe that’s just what we need, instead of gimmicks and fatuous initiatives. The word ‘stability’ featured many times. To a large extent Alistair was boxed in by decisions already announced in Gordon’s last Budget. Is it sensible to proceed with the tuppence cut in the basic rate, given that income tax is the fairest way to raise money and that the sums forgone are very large? This is ground that, once surrendered, can never be recovered, except perhaps by a Tory chancellor. And it means Alistair and his successors are forever condemned to search for stealthier, less acceptable ways of raising money.
Sunday, 16 March
Peter Camm and I cleared three weeks’ worth of litter from the street. Two black bags full, plus a couple of smaller bags of recyclables. As we were delving into the undergrowth a posse of teenage mothers and their offspring came by, giggling. One inquired, ‘Are you’se on community service?’
Monday, 17 March
Mounting fury in the ranks at the news we are about to be compelled to publish the last three years’ worth of expenses claims, which will provide a huge new bout of sport for the tabloids. At the party meeting this evening Jane Kennedy described how, on a visit to a school in her constituency last week, she had been harangued by a woman complaining about the £10,000 we are all supposed to be allowed to spend on fitting out our kitchens. A fantasy born of this so-called John Lewis List maintained by the Finance Department, the existence of which none of us were aware of until the other day. ‘We’re going to have years of this,’ said Jane. ‘Can’t anything be done?’
‘We don’t have a toenail to stand on,’ replied Chief Whip Geoff Hoon. The Information Tribunal ruled against us comprehensively, even to the extent of allowing publication of our addresses. ‘An atavistic atmosphere is developing,’ remarked Harriet Harman. ‘We’ve got to stand up and stop appeasing.’ The trouble is no one knows how. In truth we have brought much of this on ourselves by voting for ever higher allowances. I pointed it out at the time, but no one wanted to know. There was bound to be a backlash sooner or later.
Tuesday, 18 March
A poll in today’s Guardian gives the Tories their biggest lead in 25 years. It’s the latest of several pointing in a similar direction. What’s more, Boris Johnson seems to be on course to become Mayor of London. Have we reached the point of no return? It can’t be far off.
A call from Ron Sandler, the banker in charge of Northern Rock, to say that he expects to lose about a third of the company’s 6,000 jobs, but that the Sunderland office is likely to survive. Later, several of us were invited to a meeting with Alistair Darling, who said that Sandler had found Northern Rock to be in better shape than he exp
ected, owing to a strong mortgage book.
This evening, to an upper committee room the hear Ed Balls talk about his ‘Children’s Plan’. We were handed a ‘toolkit’ containing several glossy brochures, a DVD and a jargon-crammed PowerPoint presentation. Much lofty talk of ‘making Britain the best country in the world for children to grow up in’ and endless references to consultations, parents’ panels, expert groups, delivery agreements, outcomes frameworks etc. Quite what it all means is unclear and nothing said during the meeting made me any the wiser. I pointed out, not for the first time, that early-years care in Hendon – one of our previous initiatives – was on the point of collapse because the funding was drying up and Ed promised to pay us a visit, but I am not holding my breath. I do begin to wonder whether we haven’t lost our way in this myriad of educational initiatives and whether the time has come to let someone else have a go.
Thursday, 27 March
A one-liner. The place deserted. No lights on the message board, messengers hanging around with nothing to do. A handful of Members in the chamber. In an otherwise empty library I came across John Reid, exuding pessimism about our prospects. ‘Our position is irrecoverable,’ he said, ‘unless the Tories do something stupid.’
‘Maybe,’ I said, ‘our historic mission is over and we are faced with a long period of Tory rule, until another party breaks through.’
‘That’s what we were becoming – a different party. One that recognised that much of the working class has become middle class. The danger is that, in Opposition, we will revert to being the party of the marginalised. You can’t win power on that basis.’ To my pleasant surprise he didn’t blame it all on Gordon. ‘Tony left behind a party that was unsustainable,’ he said. ‘Maybe you and I should devote the rest of our lives to trying to educate the party.’
‘Either that or growing vegetables – and right now I’m on the vegetable side of the equation.’
Later, in the chamber, a brief debate about the Standards and Privileges Committee’s recommendation, in the wake of the Derek Conway debacle, that we should register the employment of relatives. It went through nem con. I made a short speech saying that this was only a first step and that we have only ourselves to blame for the low esteem in which we find ourselves, a proposition which none of the handful of Members present disputed, but which no doubt some colleagues will find upsetting.
Monday, 31 March
A whiff of panic in the air. Gordon addressed the parliamentary party, unveiling a fatuous new slogan (‘We must own the future’) which he repeated about 20 times. He was assailed with complaints from all sides. Lindsay Hoyle said people might vote Green, but they weren’t willing to pay for it, the implication being that we should dump all this Green nonsense and get back to good old pork barrel politics. Helen Jones said, ‘We are politicians, not managers. Harold Wilson built the Humber Bridge to win a by-election. That’s fine by me.’ Several people complained about post office closures. Eric Martlew was applauded when he said it had been a mistake to do away with the 10 per cent tax band and Gordon was actually heckled when he tried to argue that no one was worse off.
Tuesday, 1 April
Second reading of the new counter-terrorism Bill, which, among other things, seeks to extend pre-trial detention from 28 to 42 days. Jacqui Smith spoke well, but she was under siege from all sides. She will be hard put to get it through, given that she faces the almost insurmountable problem that the Director of Public Prosecutions has said he doesn’t want the powers she is determined to thrust upon him.
In the evening, dinner with a friend from my Foreign Office days. He says the spooks are frustrated at not being allowed to talk to Hamas, who did, after all, win the freest election in the Arab world for 20 years. He added that time is rapidly running out for a two-state solution in the Middle East.
Wednesday, 2 April
Eric Martlew recounts that Gordon invited him in to discuss his complaint about the abolition of the 10 per cent tax band. At the end he said, ‘If you can think of a way out of it, let me know.’
To which Eric replied, ‘If I do, you’d better make me Chancellor,’ eliciting (he said) a half-smile.
Friday, 4 April
A call from my whip, Alan Campbell, to inquire whether I will be taking part in the smouldering rebellion over the abolition of the ten pence tax rate. I won’t, as it happens, but this looks like doing us serious damage. As usual the trail leads back to Gordon. He announced it in last year’s Budget in order to finance a two pence cut in the basic rate, which no one was seriously demanding. It was all about posing as a tax cutter in order to win a cheap round of applause. Another piece of short-term gimmickry that’s come back to haunt us.
Saturday, 12 April–Sunday, 13 April
Bamburgh
With the girls to Northumberland for a couple of nights’ B&B with Charles and Barbara. On day one we visited the Grace Darling Museum, strolled along the beach, despite an icy wind from the north, and walked the ramparts in Berwick. Most of Sunday was spent at Paxton.
Monday, 14 April
The girls went riding on the beach at Seahouses. We spent the hour before sunset on Ross beach, the best in Northumberland – the only people on five miles of golden sands with a castle at each end.
Tuesday, 15 April
Home to a great pile of drudgery. ‘METHADONE CITY,’ screams the front page of tonight’s Echo. No wonder Sunderland has an image problem.
Wednesday, 16 April
Hardly a day passes without my contemplating retirement. The sad truth is there is no longer any serious role for me in Parliament. So far as the government is concerned I am entirely outside the loop and increasingly it looks as though it won’t be long before the entire government is relegated to the Tea Room. If I am to make an announcement, it would need to be in the next couple of months. Before we start distributing leaflets in the new wards saying I’m the candidate.
Thursday, 17 April
Gordon is on a visit to Washington, which our media – the BBC is among the worst – have been trying from the outset to portray as a failure on the grounds that it has been overshadowed by the visit of the Pope. Actually, it seems to have been rather successful. He’s addressed the United Nations, met all three presidential candidates, dined with the President and been generally well received. One naff moment. I caught a clip of an interview in which Gordon remarked how much he enjoyed watching American television. ‘Thank you for your contribution to our culture,’ he ended. Ugh. Why does he do it? To be loved, I guess.
Friday, 18 April
To the Stadium of Light for the annual dinner. Our best ever, 170 guests at £30 a time. David Miliband was star attraction. All day I was on tenterhooks, fearing that (as is the way with top people) he might cry off at the last moment. Already we had been told he would only be staying for the soup. Sure enough, as I was changing into my suit, the telephone rang. ‘This is the Number 10 switchboard. I have the Foreign Secretary for you.’
‘Where are you?,’ I practically shouted at him.
He seemed taken aback. ‘In sunny South Shields, where else?’
Anyway, it had the effect of making him turn up earlier. He had two Special Branch men in tow, one of them, Toby, who was part of the team that came with me to Somaliland three years ago. David worked the tables and made a fluent, thoughtful, if rather bland speech which was generally well received and departed in a convoy headed by a police motorcyclist. All told, a big success. There may be life in our old penny farthing machine after all.
Monday, 21 April
To a packed meeting of the parliamentary party to hear Gordon attempt to talk his way out of the growing furore over the abolition of the ten pence tax band. Until now he’s been in denial, insisting there are few if any losers, but now there are signs that the penny has dropped, prompted by the prospect of a potentially ruinous uprising over Frank Field’s amendment to the Finance Bill, which is down to be voted on next week. Much talk of ‘listening’ and ‘unde
rstanding’, vague promises of a review with a view to – eventually – compensating those who have lost out. Over and over he used the phrase, ‘We get it.’ But that’s the point, does he?
From the floor a mix of pleas for ultra-loyalty and unrepentant scepticism. It’s not as though this is the first time. We’ve been round this course several times before – the cut in benefit for single mothers, the 75 pence pension increase. Always the trail leads back to Gordon. Gerald Kaufman demanding loyalty, launching an intemperate attack on Frank Field (‘I’m sick and tired of colleagues who have been in office rediscovering their social consciences as soon as their bottoms hit the backbenches’). That apart, however, the mood was comradely, if sombre. Frank called for ‘a clear indication by Monday’ of what the government was going to do to repair the damage. The difficulty is that there is no easy way out. Identifying and compensating the losers is technically complex and there is no money left in the kitty – it has been spent on tax cuts for the middle classes.
Earlier, Frank told me that when he first raised the issue privately, a year ago, Gordon had clenched his fists and screamed, ‘There are no losers.’ So we have travelled quite a long way.