Well this is a fascinating book. And fascinating for all the wrong reasons. Probably the wrong book to read at the beginning of a New Year when one is trying to be optimstic!
I have been interested in politics since I was a teenager and I well remember what triggered this interest. I was watching a programme called World in Action and the then PM Harold Macmillan was being interviewed. In those days, early sixties, interviewers were obsequious, no Emily Maitliss or Kussenberg here. The programme was only half an hour and I watched in total fascination as the Prime Minister managed to not answer a single question put to him. He tied the interviewer up in knots and managed to avoid giving a straight answer to anything.
Over the years as I followed the governments of Macmillan, Wilson, Callaghan, Heath, Thatcher and right up to the present incumbents I formed the opinion that all politicians were a bunch of oleaginous, devious, back stabbing shits. Forgive my language. Friends and family have often challenged me on this saying there are good Members of Parliament around and I said that I am sure there were but, unfortunately, all we saw were those had decided to climb the greasy pole and in order to do that they had to exhibit all the characteristics that I have just mentioned. Backbenchers who may toil away for their constituents receive no publicity at all and, therefore, I have always conceded this point that there are those who work hard.
The author of this book, Michael Cockerell has been a BBC political reporter and documentary maker for fifty years and the roll call of those he has interviewed and filmed is an impressive one. This book is an easy, gossipy read and I am not belittling it by describing it as such. Many political books can be dry and boring and this one certainly is not. Of course, it helps that I am probably of the same age as those he writes about and I remember well having lived through all the ups and downs of the governments discussed.
Sadly, this book just reinforces my opinion regarding those in Westminster. The intrigues, the feuds, the lies and disinformation fed to the public is mind boggling. Those of us who are following the current Covid enquiry know full well that it continues. Time after time I have yelled at the tv or argued with friends how we are being lied to and I am always amazed at how gullible many people are.
The book is full of fascinating quotes. Willlie Whitelaw, right hand man to Maggie and Deputy Prime Minister, was a charming “big bear of a man with a booming voice who could move with surprising guile”. He said “I’ve always believed n politics that you have a little in reserve if you can appear slightly less intelligent all the time than you may be….If they think poor old thing you can perhaps get a great deal past them”
This was an attitude that Boris Johnston turned into an art form.
This book is packed with such insights, some of which are quite vicious.
Denis Healey on David Owen: “he was a very self centred person. He was good looking, he was intelligent, he had immense charm and all those presents were given to him by the Good Fairy and then the Bad Fairy came along and tapped him on the shoulder and said, but you’ll still be a shit”
Priceless.
The chapter on the Whips is, in my view, the worst of all because it exposes the nasty, vicious tactics to keep members in line. Files were kept on everything, extra marital affairs, financial problems etc etc all of which could be used to persuade somebody to vote a certain way. Remember Francis Urqhart in the tv series House of Cards? Totally fascinating and charming and deeply evil. That book was written by an ex parliamentarian and pretty sure that he knew what he was writing about. Really vile.
Cockerell is not an author who wishes to show everybody in a bad light it is difficult to try and talk about anybody featured in this book in a positive way. The one person who comes out of this as honest, sometimes brutally so, is Mrs Thatcher. You do not have to admire all her politics to admit that she stood for something. Out of all the characters in this book she stands out as having some integrity. I say this plainly and with no bias as there were times when she was our PM when I totally disagreed with her but I never doubted her self belief. Of course, in the end, she was brought down by the Men in Grey Suits about whom the less said the better.
A witty informative book which I enjoyed reading, it is also rather dispiriting to see the reality of those who purport to lead this country. As I said at the start, devious, back stabbing shits most of them.
The book stops at Boris and Covifd. Wonder what he makes of the present incumbent of No.10. I would love to know….
