Behind Diplomatic Lines

by Patrick R. H. Wright

  A flurry today over press leaks. The Financial Times carries a report on ERM which reads very much like an FCO leak, if only because it referred to Douglas Hurd’s breakfast meetings with John Major (about which very few people know). Robin Butler rang me this evening to ask for clues (having been charged by the PM to do so). I told Robin that Douglas had been very angry about the story, and that I found it impossible to believe that he could have been the source. While denying that I was making any accusations, I asked Robin if he had spoken to Peter Middleton (whom John Kerr described to me last week as the leakiest man in Whitehall). It will no doubt remain a mystery (as most leaks do). But it will not have helped either Douglas Hurd’s or John Major’s relations with No. 10, nor will an exceedingly unhelpful minute from Robin Butler (revealed to us in strict confidence by Charles Powell) saying that the internal evidence suggests an FCO leak. I rang Robin the next day to say that I had heard that the journalist concerned (Peter Stephens) had told someone in the Treasury that it was a ‘political source’ in the Treasury itself.

  21 JUNE 1990

  The Foreign Secretary’s diplomatic banquet this evening in the Durbar Court. An excellent, and fairly audible, speech by Douglas Hurd. Virginia and I had the David Harrises at our table. Diana Harris had been at school, as Virginia was, at St Margaret’s, Exeter. David is Geoffrey Howe’s PPS, and such a popular MP for St Ives that I was offered a free pint of beer in a pub in North Cornwall when I admitted that I knew him.

  The Sunday Express this weekend produced a story that Geoffrey Howe is to be sacked, and sent to Pretoria. The latter part is most unlikely to be true, though Robin Butler told me this week that he would not be surprised if Geoffrey was dropped at the next reshuffle; the Prime Minister is probably starting to leak hints to the press.

  29 JUNE 1990

  Len Appleyard reported this evening that the Prime Minister has agreed to hold a pre-NATO summit teach-in next week, at which she herself suggested that two or three officials from the MOD and FCO should attend. Charles Powell has rapidly reversed this, and is now resisting everyone. As Len put it, the meeting is now to be an ‘expert-free zone’. I am very keen that at least John Goulden should attend, since the PM hardly knows him.

  Knowledge of FCO senior officials makes it all the more outrageous that she virtually offers jobs to those few individuals she knows. John Coles told me today that she had asked him what he was going to do next. When he said that the office was thinking of bringing him back to be a Deputy Under-Secretary, she replied that this would be ‘very dull’ – as if she has the faintest idea what a DUS does! She then asked him if he would like South Africa. John was a bit thrown by this, saying that he had never given that any thought. The PM had asked him to ‘let her know’. I told John that this would considerably throw out our game plan, and pointed out gently that ambassadorial postings (though not, I suspect, high commissioners) are for the Foreign Secretary to recommend to the Queen, and not for the Prime Minister to decide.

  There was apparently a discussion about overseas accommodation on the aircraft returning from Dublin this week, with the PM stating firmly that ambassadors and high commissioners should have the grandest and best houses possible ‘so long as they are fighters’. Douglas Hurd replied that it looks as though they will all have to live in bungalows – not apparently implying (as I first feared) that they are not all fighters, but a helpful comment on our lack of resources.

  3 JULY 1990

  I gave lunch to Bethuel Kiplagat, whose visit here has coincided with a lot of ministerial concern about Kenya. At Douglas Hurd’s office meeting this afternoon, William Waldegrave made the fair point that we should not allow our very close relations with Moi to lead us to criticise him more than other, much less satisfactory, African governments. It is ironic that Kenya should be the first candidate for our new aid policy, as announced in Douglas Hurd’s speech to the Overseas Development Institute in June, i.e. making aid conditional on political pluralism and economic reform.

  In one of the best Freudian misprints of the year, Charles Powell circulated a speaking note for the Prime Minister to use at the NATO summit, referring to the success of the NATO Alliance in resisting ‘a hostile and destructive Community ideology’.

  4 JULY 1990

  A meeting this evening to discuss the BBC’s renewed proposal for a film of the FCO. I was amused to discover from the file that in 1988 I had advised in favour of accepting the proposal, and Geoffrey Howe had turned it down; the situation this year is reversed.

  5 JULY 1990

  I had an early meeting to prepare for Douglas Hurd’s meeting later this month on FCO resources. It is not clear what Douglas wants; he is probably aiming for a fairly radical look at what the service does, and whether our levels of manpower and resources are right. There is always a danger that ministers will discount the value of any work they don’t see themselves (cf. the PM’s comments on DUSs, above). But I would welcome quite a radical review at this moment, when resources are so heavily stretched.

  6 JULY 1990

  A late bilateral with Douglas Hurd, at which he gossiped about ministerial changes. He does not think the Prime Minister will ditch Geoffrey Howe; but he had had some difficulty persuading Geoffrey not to throw in the towel. The Chief Whip had asked Douglas if he could do with one less minister; Douglas has firmly said no. When Douglas commented approvingly on Brabazon’s latest account of his visits to Brunei and other places, Stephen Wall and I told him it had virtually all been written by his private secretary, Robert Court.

  Douglas complained about his programme, which he described as out of control; but he surprisingly denied that he was getting too much paper. I think the office really has succeeded in reducing both paper and long hours in the past two years; but there are still some notable exceptions.

  11 JULY 1990

  Virginia and I went to the US ballet, as guests of Trevor and Susan Chinn. Jim Prior was there, and talked to me about the Prime Minister’s treatment of Geoffrey Howe, and indeed all her original Cabinet colleagues, including himself.

  I recall an occasion when I was ambassador in Damascus and called on Peter Carrington while I was home on leave. After a twenty-minute talk, Peter accompanied me to the corridor (with his usual, impeccable manners), and there was Jim Prior, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, waiting to see him. Peter introduced me as ‘our man in Damascus’, to which Jim replied: ‘God, that must be a bloody awful job.’ I said: ‘Actually, it’s a perfect job. Everyone assumes it must be bloody awful; but I enjoy it very much.’ Jim replied: ‘I wish I could say the same about my job.’

  12 JULY 1990

  An astonishing article in this week’s Spectator: an interview by Dominic Lawson with Nicholas Ridley, containing very insulting comments on the Germans and the European Commission, comparing the latter with Hitler. Ridley himself is in Budapest today, but issued a statement expressing regret, and withdrawing his remarks unreservedly (rather than the usual excuse that he had been quoted out of context). Tim Yeo said at my morning meeting that the party was outraged, and thought Ridley would have to go. Happily, the Prime Minister dissociated herself from his remarks at Question Time, and is said to be ‘livid’ after TV produced earlier shots of her claiming to be ‘a great Nicholas Ridley fan’.

  13 JULY 1990

  I held a meeting to discuss Tom King’s ‘Options for Change’, and to prepare advice for Douglas Hurd before ministers meet next Wednesday to consider the proposed cuts in the armed forces. I mentioned this briefly to Douglas yesterday, who seemed very reluctant to press for a delay in an announcement until the autumn (as we would much prefer, both to give MOD time to work out the implications, but also to allow for proper consultations with our allies). Since it is in fact a major Defence Review, ministers ought really to have a proper discussion on the major strategic and foreign policy implications, preferably in a Cabinet committee, before going any further.

  The Ridley affair rumbled on today, with Ridley issu
ing a brief retraction, allegedly before No. 10 had pressed him to do so.

  14 JULY 1990

  Nicholas Ridley finally resigned this afternoon, after a long dither, and statements by his friends saying that he would only leave if the Prime Minister thought it would be helpful. It remains to be seen how damaging it will be, but it has certainly left the impression (in spite of her statement on Thursday) that the PM half shares Ridley’s views on Germany and the Commission. [This impression will have been strengthened by the full publication of Charles Powell’s record of her recent Chequers seminar on Germany, at which German national characteristics were explicitly and insultingly listed in the next day’s Independent on Sunday – though Douglas Hurd did very well with a long and penetrating interview by David Dimbleby on 15 July.]

  16 JULY 1990

  Television tonight used the Independent leak to do a twenty-minute feature on Charles Powell (addressed in a message today from Scowcroft as Sir Charles Powell).

  Douglas Hurd has been at a Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels today, and is widely assumed to have been picking up the pieces. The past few days must have been a great boost to him politically, with The Guardian (no doubt trying to stir up trouble) describing him as real prime ministerial material.

  I received a message last week from Fatie Darwish in Damascus (initially conveyed in a virtually illegible postcard and later confirmed in a telephone call to Virginia) conveying a message from Mustafa Tlass, the Syrian Defence Minister, to me about Terry Waite, claiming that Princess Diana (with whom Tlass claims a mutual interest in roses, and to whom Tlass told me, during my farewell call in 1981, that he wished to dedicate his book of poetry) was the only person who could free him (though without explaining how).

  The Iraqis today freed Mrs Parish (the nurse arrested with Bazoft), apparently at the request of Kenneth Kaunda. Sad for Ian Richter, who remains in jail.

  17 JULY 1990

  The Prime Minister sent congratulatory messages this morning to Kohl and Gorbachev, following their agreement in Moscow that a United Germany should be allowed to choose their own alliances. Charles Powell, who called this afternoon, told me that the atmosphere between Margaret Thatcher and Kohl at the European Council in Dublin had been very bad, and that it was a lost cause to try to get her to telephone him about the Ridley affair. It has been left to Douglas Hurd to try to pick up the pieces at the Foreign Affairs Council and the ‘2+4’ talks later this week. Kohl made some excellent remarks about ‘this silly affair’, which the PM was able to use at Questions today.

  Charles Powell thinks that Neil Kinnock made a serious error in going abroad this week, since he could have caused the government real problems in Parliament – e.g. by putting down a PNQ on the Ridley affair yesterday.

  18 JULY 1990

  Joe Haines published an article in the Daily Mirror today, claiming that Charles Powell had been seen clapping enthusiastically at the PM’s speech to Conservatives Abroad in Houston last week, contrasting it with my apolitical approach during my time in No. 10. The article ended with a suggestion that I should speak to Charles about it. I rang Robin Butler, who agreed that if anyone said anything, he should, and he undertook to speak to Andrew Turnbull. I later received a complaining letter from Charles, asking whether I would speak to Joe Haines. I replied that I doubted whether that would be wise.

  I held a meeting this afternoon to discuss how to reply to a letter from the law officers, asking for a damage assessment on the leak of Charles Powell’s record of the Chequers seminar on Germany. This poses an awkward dilemma; it undoubtedly has caused some damage (and Charles Powell’s letter covering the original record explicitly said that a leak would ‘damage the interests of the United Kingdom’); whereas Douglas Hurd has said publicly in Brussels that it has not – and even (rather oddly) that it is not a government document! I discussed it with Douglas, who agreed that the compromise wording which we had worked out at my meeting was probably the best we could do.

  I think it is inconceivable, given what ministers have said publicly, that the Independent on Sunday could be prosecuted. There is also the intriguing possibility that Der Spiegel actually published it first; could it have been Nicholas Ridley himself who leaked it? He (or one of his allies) is about the only person who could possibly have thought he might benefit from it.

  20 JULY 1990

  Stephen Wall called this morning, having been asked by Douglas Hurd to tell me in confidence that there is likely to be a reshuffle on 23 July. William Waldegrave stays, as does Lynda Chalker at the ODA. Poor William will probably be back in deep gloom, realising that, disasters apart, he has no hope of a Cabinet post this side of the election. Frances Maude (just off to Hong Kong and China for the first European Community ministerial visit since Tiananmen Square) is to go to the Treasury to take the place of Peter Lilley, who succeeded Nicholas Ridley at the DTI last week. All Mrs Thatcher’s original Cabinet colleagues in 1979, other than Geoffrey Howe, have now left.

  Ivon Brabazon and Tim Sainsbury go, but apparently – in Tim’s case – on promotion (which he well deserves, having been an effective and imaginative minister). In their place, we get Mark Lennox-Boyd (ex-PPS to the Prime Minister); Tristan Garel-Jones (ex-whip) and Malcolm Caithness, an ex-Home Office minister, who is said to be quite an effective minister. We shall see. It is a bit awkward to have six ministers coming and going while Douglas Hurd is in Czechoslovakia. Although he has worked out with Stephen Wall a distribution of portfolios, he may decide to wait until he has discussed it with them before finalising the distribution. He has, I think, already discussed it with Waldegrave.

  21 JULY 1990

  After two days entertaining my Japanese opposite number, Takakazu Kuriyama, at Merton, I took him to see St John’s, which the young Prince Aya has just left. As we passed the Martyrs’ Memorial, I commented that, in those days, we burnt Ridleys at the stake!

  23 JULY 1990

  The reshuffle was completed today. There were pictures on television this weekend of Gerald Kaufman leaving for Damascus, which reminded me of how little I would have relished working for him (though this unfairly underestimates his extraordinary courage, as a Jewish MP, in constant criticism of successive Israeli governments).

  I was asked to call at 11 a.m. on Ivon Brabazon, who is indeed leaving, but returning to Transport. He is miserable about it, though the PM apparently reminded him of the need to look cheerful. I thanked him for the interest (excessive, in some people’s views) he had taken in administration and the service.

  Lord Caithness telephoned later to ask for my advice on when he should start; I advised him to wait until the announcements had been made this evening. Tristan Garel-Jones, the new Francis Maude (though he will also take Latin America – being a fluent Spanish speaker – instead of Hong Kong), similarly rang me later.

  I called on Tim Sainsbury, who leaves to take Lord Trefgarne’s place as Minister for Trade – a good promotion, and helpful for the FCO. He is due to leave for Colombia, Bolivia and Peru on Thursday. Douglas Hurd has asked that Tim and Garel-Jones sort out between them which of them should do it.

  24 JULY 1990

  I called successively this morning on Lord Caithness, Tristan Garel-Jones and Mark Lennox-Boyd. I think it is a pity we did not get Gloria Hooper – but that might have overdone the pro-European wets. As it is, the press are making a great deal of the change in European balance, with Francis Maude’s departure.

  I told Lord Caithness that his top priority should be Hong Kong/China, with Cambodia second priority. David Wilson later telephoned me from Hong Kong, a bit worried that Hong Kong will be dealt with in the Lords, though I pointed out that this would mean that Douglas Hurd would deal personally with much of the Commons work instead.

  On my way to call on Tristan Garel-Jones, I met him coming down the staircase to call on me – astonished to discover that nowadays PUSs call on junior ministers, not vice-versa. He is full of enthusiasm for his new job. Apparently, he and his wife speak not
hing but Spanish at home, and is all for ringing all his Spanish and Latin American friends today. I discovered that, by a happy coincidence, he had inherited a Hispanophone private secretary in Nicola Brewer.

  Garel-Jones suggested, rather sensibly, that he should telephone Bossano in Gibraltar (in English), in view of his own, pro-Spanish reputation. He did so later, and it was clearly appreciated. He also told me that he had invited both Julian Amery and Denis Healey round for a chat.

  Mark Lennox-Boyd is tall and languid, speaks Arabic and Persian (I decided not to greet him with Ahlan wa Sahlan), and apparently accompanied Freya Stark as a boy on one of her expeditions.

  25 JULY 1990

  Douglas Hurd held a long meeting on resources, which turned out to be more of a briefing for the three new ministers. Tristan Garel-Jones had a word with me afterwards, obviously astonished by the pressure on FCO resources; I gave him my favourite comparison between the relative size and cost of the service and Wandsworth Borough Council). [By 2015, I think an even more telling comparison is that, even before further cuts in public expenditure, the total FCO budget is only double what we give Ethiopia in aid each year. He has asked if he can ‘come and see’ me about once a week; not surprisingly, he is feeling a bit new and uncertain.]

  Douglas Hurd held his party this evening for ex-foreign secretaries and their private secretaries in his refurbished office. Sadly, the Howes turned up too late for what should be quite an amusing group photograph in the main staircase, But there were the Carringtons; the Owens; the Pyms; the Callaghans; John Major and Susan Crosland; plus a host of private secretaries. Virginia and I were in fact the only unqualified guests, apart from a few recent and new junior ministers.