15 MARCH 1991
I called on Malcolm Caithness for a general talk. He thinks it is almost certain that there will be a June election, though he admits that he feels more out of touch with politics in his present job than ever before; this no doubt reflects Mark Lennox-Boyd’s criticism of diplomats for being ‘unpolitical’. I told Malcolm that I hoped he would use his experience as an ex-Treasury Paymaster General to advise us on tactics for the PESC round, adding the comment that I rather doubted whether it was top of Douglas Hurd’s interests.
Percy Cradock told me today that he thought John Major’s reaction to Rodric Braithwaite during his recent visit to Moscow had been ‘a bit tepid’. It is possible that the Prime Minister was a bit put off by Rodric’s cleverness; but he can hardly have failed to be impressed by his Russian contacts. Rodric has told Rod Lyne privately that he had given Chernyaev, Gorbachev’s private secretary, an apposite piece of Pushkin about the difficulties of reform, and that Gorbachev now quotes it in every speech.
18 MARCH 1991
Charles Powell called on me for the last time today. He told me that the Prime Minister is exhausted after Bermuda, and is finding the going pretty tough – unlike Margaret Thatcher, he needs at least seven hours of sleep, and Norma is obviously restless about him accepting engagements at the weekend.
Eric Hetherington, a partner at Price Waterhouse, called this afternoon to seal their agreement to reduce their contract by £40,000 in light of the PAC’s criticism. I think this should do the trick, though the office’s performance over the whole accounts saga has been most unimpressive.
20 MARCH 1991
A two-hour session this afternoon with the Foreign Affairs Committee. As I told the chairman, David Howell, after the meeting, it was an astonishing contrast in atmosphere with the Public Accounts Committee two weeks ago. Luckily, the clerk, Robert Wilson, had given me a very precise indication of the questioning, and a rehearsal had certainly paid off. David Howell made a nice little speech at the end, wishing me well in my retirement.
21 MARCH 1991: VISIT TO BONN
The visit included two hours of talks with German Permanent Under-Secretary Dieter Kastrup, mainly on the Gulf and the Soviet Union. Kastrup seemed much more at ease than Sudhoff had, though he tended to rely on his briefs rather more than his predecessor had done. He congratulated me on running ‘the best diplomatic service in the world’ – no doubt in part a tribute to the qualities of his previous opposite numbers, John Fretwell and John Weston.
26 MARCH 1991
I met Margaret Thatcher today at David Craig’s farewell party in the MOD – almost a parody of herself, attacking me with starry eyes, and accusing the Foreign Office of being ‘wobbly’ about everything, including EMU and the Gulf War. She said she had heard that the FCO were trying to stop the fighting ‘because people were getting killed’. She claimed that the SAS should be going in to finish off Saddam Hussein, and was appalled that we had ‘allowed’ the Republican Guard to survive. I fought back hard, and she obviously enjoyed the exchange.
8 APRIL 1991
I returned to the office from an Easter break, with the plight of the Kurds uppermost in the news. John Weston has put forward some ideas for an initiative on the Kurds by the Prime Minister at the European Council this afternoon, and I attended a meeting chaired by Douglas Hogg to put flesh on these ideas, which include a plan to create a safe haven in Iraq for the thousands of Kurdish refugees shivering on the Turkish and Iranian borders.
John Coles told me today of his call last week on Margaret Thatcher, hoping for a friendly, nostalgic chat. But he found her sitting angrily at her desk, exactly as if she were still Prime Minister, and flicking through the latest Security Council Resolution on Iraq. She spoke very bitterly about John Major, saying he had betrayed nearly all her principles, and had been so angry about Norman Lamont’s Budget she had walked out. She had tried to talk to John Major, to complain about the absence of any reference to Saddam Hussein’s war crimes in the Security Council Resolution, but after eight hours had still only managed to talk to Stephen Wall. She tried again, in John Coles’s presence, but having failed, slammed down the telephone. She said she had deliberately refrained from criticising John Major to the press, but she had now had enough.
9 APRIL 1991
Stephen Wall called this afternoon, his first call since succeeding Charles Powell as John Major’s private secretary. I congratulated him on the significant improvement in tone and substance of his correspondence. FCO officials are now again being invited to attend the Prime Minister’s meetings; and Tim Simmons tells me that Stephen is actually prepared to talk to him, and telephones him.
Stephen told me that John Major sadly does not have totally happy memories of his time at the FCO, and is clearly suspicious that some of the stories about him have emerged from FCO officials.
I told Stephen that Mrs Thatcher is obviously steamed up about the governorship of Hong Kong. I wondered whether she had stimulated a letter in the Telegraph today, proposing her as governor? There is also a suggestion running that she might head a consortium to get contracts in Kuwait. John Coles thinks that her energy is going to cause us major problems.
10 APRIL 1991
Douglas Hurd gave a brief account to his ministerial meeting this morning of his visit to Hong Kong. He claims that he does not regret going there, even though he has failed to bring off an agreement on the airport, or on other problems. He is deeply worried about the ability of the Hong Kong government to cope with the problems of the next six years. On the other hand, he is much impressed by Guangdong (formerly Canton), which is virtually a free-market economy run from Hong Kong, and an encouraging example of what a Hong Kong special administrative region could be like.
11–13 APRIL 1991
An interesting Sunningdale, at which we went over the conclusions of the last spring Sunningdale. They held up quite well, though the situation in the Soviet Union is much worse than we forecast then. Rodric Braithwaitehas described the crisis this week as ‘deepening, widening and accelerating’.
The first afternoon included an extraordinary paper and presentation by David Plastow on relations between government and business. He seems to have been slightly unhinged by the Vickers Tank affair – full of uncomplimentary remarks about civil servants and the supposed ‘lack of respect’ between business and government. Very odd.
16 APRIL 1991
I gave lunch today to Dick Woolcott, the Australian PUS. He has more problems than I with political appointments, though he says that there are fewer than usual at present. Most unusually, there is a career High Commissioner, Dick Smith, at present in London, who apparently has been given a written assurance by Gareth Evans, the Australian Foreign Minister, that he will not be ousted by a politician during the time of the present government, and that if he does have to move out at any point, he will be given a ‘comparable’ post. But there is still a tendency in Australia to use the Foreign Service as a dumping ground for failed politicians. Woolcott has succeeded, with the help of Gareth Evans, in resisting a political appointment to Washington. When he had suggested moving a political incumbent from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Hawke had protested that the man was incompetent!
I met John Drew, the European Commission’s representative in London, at a reception this evening, who told me a good story about a meeting between Jacques Delors, John Major and Mrs Thatcher. At one point, Thatcher had fixed Delors with her basilisk stare, and said: ‘Mr Delors, I am watching you very carefully,’ to which Delors had replied: ‘Don’t watch me, Mrs Thatcher; it’s this young Prime Minister of yours you need to watch!’
Percy Cradock told me this afternoon that Mrs Thatcher still rings him up and summons him to Eaton Square exactly as if she was still Prime Minister. When I asked Douglas Hurd last week if we should consider running her for New York, he gave me an emphatic ‘No!’
18 APRIL 1991
Peter Middleton’s appointment as deputy chairman of Barclays,
and Terry Burns’s appointment to succeed him, were announced today. In writing to congratulate Terry, I said (rather ambiguously) that I hoped that David Gillmore would enjoy as good a relationship with him as I had with Peter. I remember, though I did not say this to Terry, that when I had replied to a letter from Peter Middleton about the Pergau Dam project, saying: ‘I am sorry you felt it necessary to write as you did,’ Peter had replied: ‘I am sorry you felt sorry!’
Following on from David Plastow’s behaviour at Sunningdale (see above), I dined at the Whitehall Dining Club this evening, where David Plastow chaired a discussion on ‘Reasoning with the Unreasonable’ – a further Plastow swipe at Whitehall. I intervened briefly to say that I was paid to deal almost exclusively with that most unreasonable category of people, namely foreigners, and that I just wanted to remind the industrialists present that, although David Plastow included government in his list of the unreasonable, they had, in the diplomatic service, an organisation geared to reason, on their behalf, with the unreasonable. This drew some amused applause.
19 APRIL 1991
Stephen Wall told me today that John Major is very upset by a silly mistake he made in the House yesterday when he challenged Neil Kinnock to say why he had been absent from a debate the night before, and Kinnock had floored him by saying, rather modestly and wittily, that he had been staying with the Queen at Windsor Castle, but hadn’t wanted to drop names! The PM had commented to Stephen that he hadn’t made a mistake like that for twelve years.
Patrick Fairweather gave me an amusing account of Lynda Chalker’s briefing methods before the Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the Kurds this week. She writes everything out in long hand and, as Patrick describes it, snatches any piece of paper when asked a question, irrespective of its relevance to the answer. When Patrick slipped her notes, she simply read them out in full. The FAC were very kind to her, though Bowen Wells did, at one point, say: ‘Some committees might not have regarded the last reply as totally adequate.’
Len Appleyard gave a pen picture today of John Major’s handling of Cabinet. A very different style from Margaret Thatcher, though Tom King hasn’t changed his tendency to mirror the Prime Minister’s views. Douglas Hurd towers above his colleagues, and obviously enjoys an excellent relationship with John Major. When I was asked whether Douglas had really not minded losing the leadership election, I said I was absolutely confident that he hadn’t – comparing him, anonymously, with those ambassadors who genuinely prefer not to be PUSs.
23 APRIL 1991
Our last attendance at a state banquet this evening in St George’s Hall at Windsor, for Lech Wałęsa. After dinner, I had quite a long talk with John Major, who asked if it would be ‘a terrible bore’ for us to go to lunch at Chequers on Sunday! He claimed to be feeling guilty for not having adequately thanked me for my letter on his appointment as Prime Minister, or for my help during his time as Foreign Secretary. He denied that he had loathed his time at the FCO, saying that this was a silly rumour spread by ‘one politician’. He talked quite angrily about Margaret Thatcher, saying that most of the press attacks on his ‘dithering’ came directly, or indirectly, from her; he really thought she had become unbalanced. Her most recent accusation (over the council tax) was that he had treated Cabinet like a tyrant – as he said, a pretty ripe accusation from her! He admitted to me that Cabinet discussion had been pretty tough, and that he had nearly lost five members of it. I asked him if he was doing too much on foreign affairs, and he said he probably was: ‘Foreign affairs don’t win elections.’ He admitted that he was far too sensitive to criticism; I urged him to follow the example of Clement Attlee, who famously ignored the media (see p. 101, above). The Majors are clearly finding domestic life difficult, and their son is obviously thrown by their official duties. Both were very friendly towards both of us – John describing Virginia as ‘the wife of my favourite mandarin’.
I also had a brief word with the Kinnocks, whose son is still keen on joining the diplomatic service, and doing a year off in Madrid.
24 APRIL 1991
Douglas Hogg had a word with me this morning about Dominic Asquith, who was provoked last week into being very rude to Robin Maxwell-Hyslop over a visa case. Douglas told me that (as I knew) Maxwell-Hyslop is quite the rudest and most intolerant Member in the House, and urged that it should not be held against Dominic. I assured Douglas that I had had experience of Maxwell-Hyslop myself.
25 APRIL 1991
Lord Caithness’s private secretary sent me a draft minute which Caithness wants to send to the Foreign Secretary, virtually proposing a new Central Policy Review Staff-type review of FCO functions. When I called on Caithness this afternoon, I argued that a review of this sort would cause considerable alarm and dismay in the office, who have not only just completed a top management round, and preparations for the PESC round, but have also been heavily scrutinised in the past few years into most aspects of our work. I have at least persuaded him not to copy his minute to under-secretaries other than myself. I have also warned Richard Gozney what is afoot.
At my bilateral with Douglas Hurd today, he gave me an account of his call on Margaret Thatcher yesterday, taking her (as he put it) telegrams like flowers. No complaints against the FCO, but she is obviously unhappy and angry.
26 APRIL 1991
I got a nice letter this morning from former British ambassador to Poland Kenneth James, thanking me for getting him invited to the Polish lunch at No. 10. When he greeted John Major, Kenneth said: ‘Do you know that the only person I ever saw kissing your predecessor’s hand was a Communist Polish Foreign Minister?’ To which John Major replied: ‘More than I ever did.’
29 APRIL 1991
Tristan Garel-Jones told me today that it was one of our strengths that officials could block things ministers wanted to do, whereas in Spain even a Prime Minister could not be told by his officials how to behave.
I attended an aid strategy meeting this afternoon, with a familiar argument about aid to India, on which several ministers think we give the Indians far too much for no thanks.
30 APRIL 1991
Douglas Hurd held a meeting this afternoon to look at the hostage situation, and the chances of getting the Iranians (who we increasingly think are the only people with the real levers to get them released) to move. There are at last some signs of hope; but there have been too many false dawns before. On the other hand, the Iranians seem to be anxious to exchange ambassadors, and to improve their image in the European Community, so we should have some leverage over them.
I lunched with the Government Hospitality Fund Wine Committee at Lancaster House, chaired by Bill Harding and with two vintners present, to choose wines for future Foreign Office entertainments. We tasted some superb wines, including a 1970 Beychevelle and a 1955 Latour, both described by the experts as ‘spectacular’. I staggered back to the office, after a lunch of four different wines, port and brandy (a 1906 Hine), for a meeting of the top management board.
1 MAY 1991
Robin Butler showed me the invitation list for Charles Powell’s farewell dinner at No. 10 – an astonishing catalogue of senior Conservatives, including the McAlpines, the Keswicks, Carol Thatcher (but not Mark or Margaret), and so on. The only public servant included is Andrew Turnbull.
2 MAY 1991
There was a semi-humorous editorial in The Times today called ‘Why, Minister?’, pointing out that Douglas Hurd has been abroad for one day in four this year, and asking whether this is worthwhile – attributing the Foreign Secretary’s travels to anachronistic FCO delusions of grandeur. I think he probably is travelling too much, and recall that the ministerial visits committee had queried whether a further visit to the Middle East at this stage was necessary.
3 MAY 1991
Percy Cradock is worried about signs of divergence between John Major and Douglas Hurd over resuming talks with the Chinese on Hong Kong airport. The PM’s approach is much more forthcoming, presumably reflecting Percy’s advice.
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4 MAY 1991
I caught an RAF flight to Glasgow to attend the remembrance and thanksgiving service for the Gulf War in Glasgow Cathedral. I travelled on a bus from Chelsea with Michael Howard (Employment), John Gummer (Agriculture) and Patrick Mayhew (Attorney General). The last of these gave us a hilarious account of a meeting at which he had sat next to a Turk, whose intervention was greeted by total silence, and who started to walk out in protest. Mayhew had tried to explain to him by gestures that the silence was due to interpretation, which was still going on; but the Turk misunderstood his gestures and thought Mayhew had deliberately insulted him. As the Turk reached the door, the interpretation finished, and the whole room burst into applause, which the Turk also interpreted as an insult!
The Cathedral service was superb and very moving.
7 MAY 1991
David Owen talked to me about his autobiography, which Susan Watt is publishing. I told him that he ought to send the manuscript to Robin Butler for clearance. He said, rather nervously, that there wasn’t much that should worry us ‘except possibly a few references to MI6’. He also told me that there had indeed been discussions with the government about giving jobs to himself and his two SDP colleagues; but that his own conditions (that they would remain in the SDP, and that the Tories would not contest their seats) were likely to be too much for the government to swallow. He thinks he will probably leave Parliament at the next election, and look for a job.
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