Behind Diplomatic Lines
Page 22
22 MARCH 1990
I went to Northwood for a PUSs’ briefing and lunch at Admiralty House with Ben Bathurst. Peter Gregson, who was there, had a word with me about Nicholas Ridley’s visit to Poland and the Soviet Union. Ridley had complained to Gregson about bad briefing for the Soviet leg, and had also complained to his private secretary about David Logan, who had allegedly spoken ‘disloyally to Mrs Ridley about German reunification’. When I tackled William Waldegrave about this, he said that Ridley had described the embassy in Moscow as ‘a bunch of trendy lefties’, and would be writing to William. I told William that I would like to give the embassy the chance to present their side of the story, if only because one of my colleagues had very nearly had his career ruined by unfounded accusations of disloyalty reported back to the Prime Minister. Ridley also claimed that the embassy had shown no interest in export promotion, with senior staff saying that they did not regard it as their business.
23 MARCH 1990
I gave lunch to Peter Preston of The Guardian. Interestingly, he by no means excluded the possibility of Margaret Thatcher going on to win the next election, though there must be increasing pressure for someone else to take over. He thought that Douglas Hurd would be a possible ‘stop-gap’ until John Major or Chris Patten was ready to succeed. I pointed out that Douglas’s age meant that he could be stopping gaps for at least fifteen years.
Charles Powell claims that morale in No. 10 is surprisingly high, but Rifkind’s resignation (which was a damn close thing yesterday) would have been disastrous for the government.
26 MARCH 1990
A tense weekend in Lithuania, with Soviet generals and troops appearing in Vilnius, and speculation that, in spite of Shevardnadze’s assurances to Baker in Namibia, the Russians might use force.
Douglas Hurd told me privately that he is worried that the Prime Minister might go back on the Hong Kong Nationality Package, given the current political pressures on her. Percy Cradock does not think this is remotely likely.
Lithuania looks very bad. The Prime Minister had an hour’s conversation with Gorbachev today, by which she was not at all reassured. He was very careful not to give cast-iron assurances about the use of force.
29–31 MARCH 1990
I attended a Königswinter Conference at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge this weekend. The dinner was addressed by the Prime Minister and Helmut Kohl – separated on the high table by the chairman, Oliver Wright (apparently on Margaret Thatcher’s insistence). Robert Rhodes James, who came up to me halfway through dinner, told me that the PM was being treated disgracefully and that no one was speaking to her. He later made it clear that what was really fussing him was that Kohl and the PM had literally not exchanged a word during dinner.
The PM’s speech was much criticised a) for over-emphasising the military aspects of the Anglo-German relationship and (in spite of FCO advice to the contrary) including a reference to keeping nuclear weapons on German soil; and b) because there was no single reference to the European Community. I was sitting opposite Michael Heseltine, who had given a presentation at the afternoon session, widely described as a ‘leadership bid’. He had said to me this afternoon: ‘You must be careful not to be seen smiling at me,’ and ended dinner rather embarrassingly suggesting that he and I should lunch together some time (see also p. 32 above) – which would certainly confirm all the PM’s suspicions about the FCO.
3 APRIL 1990
News came through this afternoon that the Russians were expelling Rod Lyne for having contacted Mrs Gordievsky (even though the embassy had been careful to keep the MFA informed). Charles Powell talked to his contact in the Soviet embassy last night, who expressed horror and disbelief at the way ‘they’ were behaving. Douglas Hurd sent a personal message to Shevardnadze this morning, in the hope that he can get the decision reversed. I suggested to Douglas that he should also invoke the help of Jim Baker, whom Shevardnadze is visiting tomorrow.
5 APRIL 1990
Shevardnadze agreed today to postpone Rod Lyne’s departure until after Douglas Hurd’s visit next week. Peter Carrington gossiped with me (after a meeting of the Order of St Michael and St George in my office) about things Margaret Thatcher had said to him about Germany. I told him of her remark to Havel about Munich, saying that she could never bring herself to visit ‘that place’, at which Peter commented that she had very little understanding of history: ‘After all, it is not as though she fought in the war.’ He gave me the impression that he thinks she should go, but admitted that it would be difficult for her to do so under current pressure. I told him (rather indiscreetly) about a recent letter to the PM from Patrick Jenkin (about giving up the chairmanship of UK/Japan 2000), in which he had said: ‘I always think it is better to go before you are pushed.’
6 APRIL 1990
Charles Powell called this afternoon, claiming that the PM was in a defiant and confident mood, and feeling that her Cabinet were for once pulling together. When I asked whether Denis was upset about the opinion polls (which today record the lowest public support for any Prime Minister since polls began), Charles replied: ‘No; merely angry.’
Some signs of give today from the Russians about Rod Lyne’s expulsion. The embassy here seem to think it possible that Rod might be allowed to stay on for six months.
9 APRIL 1990
I lunched at the Financial Times with Richard Lambert and others, who told me that Helmut Kohl (who had visited the FT after his bilateral talks with the PM last month) had given some fairly disobliging imitations of Margaret Thatcher, and that Helmut Schmidt, on another occasion, had been vitriolic about her.
22 APRIL 1990
[After returning from an Easter break] I talked today to Tim Renton (as Chief Whip) about the government’s troubles. He thinks that Norman Tebbit has done himself more damage than the Conservative Party by his performance over the Hong Kong bill. He compared his own job to a man running a nuclear power station, hoping meltdown would not happen before the summer. He also hinted strongly that there would be some sort of reshuffle in the summer, but that FCO ministers would not be affected. I spoke warmly about Tim Sainsbury, saying that I thought he was under-promoted.
24 APRIL 1990
I lunched with Michael Palliser at Midland Montagu, who had taken a bet with Malcolm Rutherford of the Financial Times that Margaret Thatcher would not resign this year. Malcolm (like others) thinks she will go before the autumn. I now think it more likely that she will go next spring, if at all, before the election. But I told Michael Palliser that I thought it would ultimately depend as much on Denis Thatcher as on the PM herself. [As it happened, none of us was right, since she eventually went in November. But Malcolm Rutherford (who died in December 1999) received considerable tributes in his obituaries for good political judgement, including an early piece of talent-spotting over Ronald Reagan.]
30 APRIL 1990
Tim Lankester told me today that Lynda Chalker had returned from Douglas Hurd’s aid policy meeting last week, and had been very angry at the way in which she had been interrupted and ignored by Douglas (who does indeed have a habit of simply talking through people). The trouble is that both Lynda and William Waldegrave are in a highly sensitive state – the first because she missed having a Cabinet post and knows that she will almost certainly lose her narrow majority at Wallasey in the next election; the second because he sees colleagues (and friends) like Chris Patten getting Cabinet ranks ahead of him, in spite of his own (justified) view of his intellectual abilities (as a Fellow of All Souls).
1 MAY 1990
A British Council board meeting, at which Tim Raison came out with an emotional outburst against Iraq and Iran, arguing that the British Council should not operate in either. I argued strongly against this, pointing out that neither diplomatic nor cultural presence represented support for, or endorsement of, the regimes. A strange line for Tim Raison to take, as an ex-Minister of Overseas Development, who has given aid in the past to quite a lot of undesirable regimes!
Douglas Hurd has decided that we should look again at our relations with Syria. Ministers have deliberately made some mollifying comments on both Iran and Syria in the past week or two (which the Swedes have brought to the attention of the Iranians). But the Rushdie problem still persists, and there is also a risk that the Lockerbie investigation will reveal Syrian complicity.
2 MAY 1990
Douglas Hurd held a meeting to discuss Iran and Syria, and has agreed in principle that we might relax our conditions for resuming relations with Iran (i.e. against either the release of Cooper, or the release of a hostage, but not insisting on both, as at present); and that we should reconsider the idea of an emissary to Damascus – perhaps Donald Maitland, who volunteered himself to me at the Japanese MECAS (Middle East Centre for Arab Studies) party last week.
3 MAY 1990
I went to Lord Maclean’s memorial service, at which Archbishop Runcie gave an excellent and witty address, including a charming story about Chips Maclean at a Boy Scout rally, where a diminutive cub had presented a bouquet to the Queen, and was obviously very proud of himself. Maclean, as Chief Scout, later went up to the boy quietly and asked for his autograph!
4 MAY 1990
Geoffrey Holland (Department of Employment) called on me today to explore some ideas for seconding civil servants from his department to employment ministries in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary – an imaginative idea, but an extraordinary illustration of differing levels of resources in large departments. He appeared to have no difficulty in finding either money or people (including something like thirty Polish speakers).
7–18 MAY 1990: VISITS TO BAHRAIN, BOMBAY, PUNE, NEW DELHI AND SEOUL
22 MAY 1990
Having stayed at home yesterday with a heavy cold, I returned to my old office (Downing Street, W16) for the first time in three years today. My cold meant that Virginia and I cut the Saudi–British dinner last night, to which Douglas Hurd had been lured to speak, against the promise that Prince Faisal bin Fahd would also be there. Needless to say, he wasn’t.
Geoffrey Adams told me on my return that when Douglas Hurd had informed his ministers privately about David Gillmore’s appointment as PUS, he had said that he had deliberately tried to choose a PUS who was as like me as possible!
23 MAY 1990
A ministerial meeting this morning, at which William Waldegrave gave an interesting account of his visit to Paris, where French ministers and officials seemed totally preoccupied with problems of immigration and ‘national unity’ – as opposed to political cooperation within the European Community. William commented that the French seem to be able to introduce legislation (e.g. to take away voting rights from immigrants) of a sort which no extreme right-wing government in the United Kingdom could get away with.
I gave ministers a brief account of my visits to Bahrain, India and Korea, explaining the growing burden of visa work, and the need to amend the present appeal system. Douglas Hurd (who always opposed this as Home Secretary) seems to be more sympathetic now.
24 MAY 1990
I spent much of the day at Chatham House, chairing the FCO side of a joint seminar on German reunification. Douglas Hurd joined for lunch, and gave a very impressive discourse on the ‘2+4’ talks – apparently his evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday was brilliant.
30 MAY 1990
I attended perm secs for the first time in over a month, and found I was about the only person with anything to say. I therefore spoke for twenty minutes on world affairs, including Germany; arms control; the Middle East; and Kashmir. When answering questions, I was again struck by the extraordinary hunger of my home civil service colleagues for news about the outside world. Ken Stowe once told me that I should never underestimate the extent to which even very senior officials at home are starved of reliable information.
31 MAY 1990
I revealed to Virginia today that Douglas Hurd has decided to interview Simon McDonald as his speech-writer, which will mean that Olivia and Simon have to return from Bonn in September. I think that Simon may also be horrified at the thought of working in the office while I am still PUS. I have studiously kept out of the discussion, though Geoffrey Adams has kept me informed.
1 JUNE 1990
Peter Carrington telephoned me early this morning, saying that John Julius Norwich claimed to have been told, either by Stephen Egerton or by the Italian Foreign Minister, De Michelis, that HMG had struck a deal with the Italians to support Venice for EXPO 2000 in exchange for EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) being sited in London. I told Peter that there was no truth in the story. But it is an odd affair, since Douglas Hurd did tell Stephen Egerton that he thought we should try to get Italian support for one of our siting claims, and I have a nasty suspicion that De Michelis himself may have been left with the impression that we would support Venice.
4 JUNE 1990
Peter Middleton called to tell me privately of an extraordinary meeting between the Prime Minister and a Treasury team last week, ostensibly to discuss EMS, but ranging over the PM’s Germanophobia and Japan. She is obviously searching around for ways of deflecting closer political union in the community, and is accusing everyone of not producing bright ideas. But her loathing of the Germans and the Commission is such that she apparently started to refer to the Commission as being in Bonn. When corrected, she said: ‘No. I meant Bonn. After all, the Germans are going to take it all over.’
5 JUNE 1990
A very unfair article in The Times today by Vernon Bogdanor, claiming that the FCO not only failed to forecast events in Eastern Europe (who didn’t?), but also failed to make any contact with the opposition in advance. William Waldegrave has agreed to sign (and Simon Jenkins to print) a good article, which should appear in The Times this week. There have in fact been some very striking cases of British embassies receiving tributes from the new leaders in Eastern Europe for their past contacts.
6 JUNE 1990
The German secondee in the office, just starting his second year in East European Department, called on me today. When I asked whether the two German Foreign Services were yet starting to amalgamate, he pointed out that there are real problems of security: ‘We have now discovered that every member of the GDR Foreign Service was 150 per cent Stasi.’
11 JUNE 1990
My morning meeting was largely taken up with discussion of the Prime Minister’s visit to the Soviet Union, where she seems to have found Gorbachev in a slightly battered, but still confident, mood. His failure to accompany her to Kiev probably helped to make it an extraordinarily triumphant tour for her, both in Kiev and in Armenia, where she visited the school presented by HMG after the earthquake.
13 JUNE 1990
Peter Gregson talked to me today about Nicholas Ridley’s views on export promotion, in advance of Ridley’s meeting with Douglas Hurd tomorrow. Ridley seems to have come off his earlier idea of giving all export promotion to the DTI. Luckily, Peter had been in charge (at the London end) of the Saudi–British economic cooperation office in Riyadh in the 1970s, and is convinced that export promotion is better left to diplomats and embassies.
Our presentation to the City in the Midland Bank Theatre this evening went well, under Pat Limerick’s chairmanship, with good questions afterwards (mainly on the Knowhow Fund). Then to the Doyen’s dinner for the Ramphals, at which Douglas Hurd gave a good speech (not yet drafted by Simon McDonald!).
14 JUNE 1990
An early bilateral with Douglas Hurd, discussing the BBC’s offer to do films on the service, in spite of my warning that only one of the six or so films made during my career had been any good (and some a disaster), and strong written advice from Brian Mower. Douglas is very keen to give it a try.
Douglas is cross with the Speaker, Jack Weatherill, who scampered through FCO Questions yesterday in order to reach Teresa Gorman’s question on the refurbished FCO staircase and its cost. There are some more snide press articles about it today, and I
shall certainly be questioned by the Public Accounts Committee next week. I discovered today that one reason for the refurbishment was that a large chunk of the Foreign Secretary’s office ceiling fell down; I have asked the department to collect similar information about disrepair.
18 JUNE 1990
I spent much of today preparing for the Public Accounts Committee hearing on FCO manpower. The hearing turned out to be much the worst I have had so far, with questions hopping from subject to subject. Dale Campbell-Savours cross-questioned me aggressively on boarding school allowances, on which I was underprepared. The chairman, Robert Sheldon, came partly to my rescue by pointing out that they were not directly connected to manpower; but both Campbell-Savours and Ian Gow (on consular work) were extremely aggressive. After two and a half hours, I felt like a damp rag.