Behind Diplomatic Lines_Relations with Ministers Read online

  An interesting article in The Economist this week on Margaret Thatcher, claiming – depressingly, but probably correctly – that her greatest contempt is reserved for the Foreign Office, and that she had been influenced by the fact that she had had to fight to win the budget row with the European Community. I discussed this with Michael Franklin (who had played a major part in the negotiations), and he claimed that allegations of lack of FCO support were totally unfair, and that the office had backed up the PM superbly.

  9 JUNE 1987

  I gave lunch to Michael Checkland, the new director-general of the BBC, who thought that the BBC had weathered the election period without too much controversy (although Denis Healey lashed out at a BBC interviewer this morning, calling her ‘a shit’ for raising Edna’s treatment on a discussion about the national health). Nigel Lawson yesterday accused Roy Hattersley of telling lies; tempers are getting increasingly frayed as the election approaches.

  11 JUNE 1987

  Election day. Charles Powell called briefly to confirm that Geoffrey Howe will stay on as Foreign Secretary. He could not give much of a forecast otherwise, though he hinted that Cecil Parkinson will definitely return to the government, and that John Patten is a likely Minister of State for the FCO (an interesting mis-forecast, since Patten is said to be a close friend of Charles).

  I asked about Lynda Chalker (since her retention, though welcome, would involve some minor reshuffling of private secretaries). Charles said that the Prime Minister likes her, and in any case wanted to keep women ministers at that level. It was, of course, a great sadness for Lynda that she never reached Cabinet rank, and for Janet Young that she was demoted from Cabinet rank to be a Minister of State again.

  On news department’s advice, I telephoned George Thomson at the IBA this evening to point out that any lampooning of Ayatollah Khomeini by Spitting Image in their live election show at 10 p.m. could make an already difficult and dangerous situation in Iran explosive. He reacted well, and telephoned later to say that they had intended to include something on Iran, but had dropped it.

  12 JUNE 1987

  Geoffrey Howe appeared in the office this afternoon for a long and difficult meeting on how to respond to the latest Iranian expulsions. The sad conclusion was for a total pull-out, but not to be described as a break of relations. It is a sad comment that, having never before broken relations, except on declaration of war, we have now broken off five times since 1960 – with Argentina, Uganda, Libya, Syria and now Iran. And only in the case of Uganda did we leave no one behind.

  15 JUNE 1987

  The new FCO ministerial team emerged today, with David Mellor from the Home Office succeeding Tim Renton, and Lord Glenarthur succeeding Janet Young from the Scottish Office.

  Malcolm Rifkind told me this evening that Simon Glenarthur is very nice and easy to work with (Eton and the Hussars). Mellor on the other hand is rather different (Conservative Member for Putney). Lynda Chalker, who was made a privy counsellor in Saturday’s honours list, becomes no. 2, and I spent most of today working on possible combinations of ministerial duties.

  I called on Lynda Chalker this evening, and discussed her role as the ministerial member of my no. 1 board – the only case, I believe, in all Whitehall where a minister sits as a member of an official committee. [Many years after my retirement, the PUSs’ board included a non-executive director.]

  16 JUNE 1987

  I called on Lord Glenarthur and David Mellor this morning. Both seemed rather daunted by their respective empire, but were friendly and ready to listen to advice on their initial briefing. Both also seemed to like their first look at their private secretaries, so at least we shall not have to switch them. I also called on Tim Eggar, to welcome him back in his new office (the first of the ministers’ to be refurbished, having given up the former Home Secretary’s office for Geoffrey Howe to move into this autumn). Tim is pleased at getting Latin America, and seemed genuinely surprised to be back in the FCO, though presumably disappointed by his non-promotion.

  17 JUNE 1987

  I arrived in the office to discover that the Prime Minister had refused to agree to last night’s proposal to accept a variation of the Iranian compromise on staffing, and had insisted on going ahead with a mutual withdrawal. Geoffrey Howe had argued for an hour, but unsuccessfully. I immediately rang Charles Powell to see if there was any chance of changing the PM’s mind, but it was already too late, and instructions had gone to Tehran. The Iranians reacted to our second démarche today by begging that there should be no publicity, since a senior meeting was to be held this afternoon.

  This morning’s meeting of PUSs produced some interesting reactions to the new ministerial team. Richard Lloyd-Jones (Welsh Office) said that he had to be told three times of Peter Walker’s appointment as Welsh Secretary before he would believe it. In a discussion on why the Tories did so badly in Scotland, Clive Whitmore quoted George Younger as saying that there were three crimes in Scotland: 1) to be English; 2) to be a woman; and 3) to be bossy; and Margaret Thatcher had committed all three. The last two crimes listed by Clive Whitmore ring oddly, given the later ascendancy of Nicola Sturgeon.] Kerr Fraser, Permanent Under-Secretary at the Scottish Office, denied that her sex was relevant, and thought it was her condescension rather than her bossiness that put off the Scots. But Andrew Neil of the Sunday Times, to whom I gave lunch today, also thought it was personal dislike of Thatcher in Scotland that had done it.

  The Foreign Secretary’s diplomatic banquet this evening. We sat with the Danes, the Russians, the Nigerians and the David Orrs. I also managed to introduce a lot of ambassadors to Simon Glenarthur and to the new Chief Secretary, John Major.

  18 JUNE 1987

  Geoffrey Howe had a letter today from Simon Jenkins about diplomatic service reform; some fearful nonsense, which we shall have to deal with carefully, since Geoffrey and Simon are close friends. But interesting that Geoffrey should have invited him to send it.

  19 JUNE 1987

  Both the Americans and our community partners are putting heavy pressure on us to renew high-level contact with Syria, given some quite clear indications that Abu Nidal’s offices in Damascus really have been closed. The next step is to exchange assessments with the Americans, but Charles Powell tells me that the PM is not adamantly opposed to a gradual relaxation. It will be a nice change to resume relations for once, rather than break them off. But it always tends to be a more difficult process.

  Charles confirms that David Mellor is very much a favoured high-flier, who might have got a Cabinet job this time round; the Prime Minister, on the other hand, does not know Simon Glenarthur at all.

  26 JUNE 1987

  I lunched with Robert Andrew (Northern Ireland Office) who is worried that the government will now start to make concessions to the unionists, and hoped that Geoffrey Howe would keep up his breakfast meetings with Tom King, who may need a restraining hand. He speculated on the reason for John Stanley’s transfer from Defence to the Northern Ireland Office, wondering whether he was being groomed to be Secretary of State. (Charles Powell told me that it was he who had suggested the move!)

  29 JUNE 1987

  I was told today of an incident at a recent European Council meeting when Geoffrey Howe had put forward a proposal and sought views round the table, getting unanimous approval, until it reached Margaret Thatcher (sitting next to him), who rejected it out of hand!

  2 JULY 1987

  Virginia Bottomley attended my morning meeting today and spoke (very well) about Parliament this week, including the Prime Minister’s statement on the European Council, South Africa etc. She commented that the new intake of MPs seem even less aware of Foreign Affairs than usual – as did Robert Rhodes James, whom I saw at lunch.

  Geoffrey Howe held a drinks party at noon for staff returning from Tehran, including Christopher and Mette MacRae. Of the half dozen I asked, only one said that she would not want to go back. Most of the others would, with enthusiasm.

  The PM thi
s morning approved all the No. 10 board proposals, except for Charles Powell’s posting to Berne, whom she now says she cannot spare with Robert Armstrong leaving. It is not yet clear whether this definitely scuppers Berne, or whether it is Charles’s own doing; nor whether it is related to Cyril Townsend’s remark in the foreign affairs debate ‘that any fool can be ambassador to Switzerland’ – a remark unfortunately made in contrast to the high qualities needed for the ambassador to Syria!

  I attended the last session of the East/West heads of mission conference, addressed by David Mellor – very fluent and self-assured, but a bit embarrassing in his tendency to preach to experts (after two weeks’ experience in the office).

  3 JULY 1987

  On the following day, I met the Prime Minister, talking to Ken Stowe at the latter’s retirement party, and she referred interestingly to Townsend’s remarks, having told me that Berne was not nearly good enough for Charles, and asking whether Madrid would be available for him in two years’ time. I replied that Berne was a good job for Charles, with plenty of commercial content; that Charles is not a Spanish speaker; that I hoped that she was not going to let some daft remarks by Cyril Townsend influence her; and that, while I hesitated to make this point to her, another year and a half would put a heavy strain on both Charles and Carla. The PM glared at me, and after answering most of my points, started on about the Europeans and their wet performance at the European Council. She was otherwise perfectly amiable towards me, but made it quite clear that Charles must have any job he wanted.

  Charles Powell told me this evening that the PM is prepared to consider gradual moves to resume relations with Iran, but not yet with Syria, by whom she feels personally offended to a much greater extent.

  Problems are beginning to emerge between ministers. Apparently, Lynda Chalker chaired her first meeting as Geoffrey Howe’s deputy, and crossed swords with David Mellor, who told her, apparently very rudely, that he did not need her advice on how to answer parliamentary questions. She is said to have omitted to consult him about the No. 10 board, and is consulting Tim Renton instead – quite sensible in practice, but not very tactful!

  7 JULY 1987

  I lunch with Tony Fanshawe at Brooks’s. He agrees with me that there is likely to be a reshuffle in about a year, and thinks that Cecil Parkinson is then likely to get the Foreign Office. He thinks that Parkinson would do it well.

  9 JULY 1987

  An early meeting with Geoffrey Howe and all other FCO ministers on export work. David Mellor put on a strong performance, arguing that diplomatic service officers should be judged and rewarded by the Trade figures in their posts – a suggestion that would have ludicrous implications, and which would have made me a millionaire in Riyadh, as against the permanent representative to NATO, who would presumably have lost his job!

  I had both Virginia Bottomley and John Houston to my morning meeting this morning for the first time. Virginia is excellent, and gave a very clear account of what is going on in Parliament. Indeed, her subsequent performances at my morning meetings were so frank that I had to remind under-secretaries that not a word she said was to be repeated outside.

  13 JULY 1987

  Lynda Chalker asked to see me this morning, mainly to discuss Charles Powell and her worries about relations with No. 10, and to ask if there was anything she could do to help. I doubt if she can; even though the policy advisers at No. 10 are worried about the degree of Charles’s influence over the Prime Minister. Lynda also told me that the PM had been heard to refer publicly to Geoffrey Howe as ‘that old bumbler’. The Daily Telegraph produced an article today claiming that the Prime Minister had decided to run Europe herself, and to take it away from the FCO. (The writer of this article, Norman Kirkham, was at my drinks party last week, but had said nothing that could conceivably account for this nonsense.)

  16 JULY 1987

  Moroccan state visit this week, at which King Hassan had apparently made a surprisingly good impression (though not on the press).

  King Hassan had opened his call on the Prime Minister by saying that he had heard so much about her, including from President Giscard, who had told him she was utterly impossible! George Younger told me that this reminded him of his constituency chairman, who had welcomed Ted Heath to his constituency, saying that everyone had told him what a difficult, impolite and boorish man he was, but how charming he had found him.

  King Simeon of Bulgaria told us at the Buckingham Palace dinner for the Moroccans that he had been invited to Buckingham Palace for lunch, but had fainted just as they were going in. The Queen had earlier asked him what his crest was, and he had said ‘Saxe-Coburg’ – i.e. the same as hers. He had come round lying flat on the floor, and opened his eyes to see the Saxe-Coburg crest on the ceiling. He thought he must have died and gone to heaven!

  22 JULY 1987

  A visit to the Royal Fine Arts Commission, at which John Wakeham talked very frankly to me about his difficulties in managing the House of Commons, given Neil Kinnock’s inexperience and unreadiness to take advice from his more experienced colleagues like Peter Shore and Roy Hattersley.

  29 JULY 1987

  I paid a pre-leave call on David Mellor, who claimed that Douglas Hurd had told him, on leaving the Home Office, that he would find life a holiday in the FCO, with lots of agreeable travel, and that he had been surprised to discover how hard everyone, including himself, had to work. He is already making a useful contribution to policy, and Geoffrey Howe appears to trust him (though he is worried about his discretion). On a later occasion, when Douglas Hurd was Foreign Secretary, I made some sort of apology for the amount of paper we were giving him, to which he replied, rather squashingly, that it was nothing compared with the boxes he’d had to deal with as Home Secretary.

  30 JULY 1987

  I paid a pre-leave call on Simon Glenarthur. He is anxious to involve himself helpfully, but, like Lynda Chalker, he is nervous at the prospect of being in charge for half of August.

  31 AUGUST 1987

  A quiet and undisturbed August, during which David Mellor took charge in Geoffrey Howe’s absence, achieving maximum media exposure, including profiles in three of the heavy Sundays in two weeks. His ministerial colleagues must be livid with envy. I found that Geoffrey Howe himself had been put out by this, and was openly looking, on his return, for TV spots for himself.

  August has also seen David Owen’s apparent eclipse as a politician, following his humiliating defeat in the SDP for his preference against a merger with the Liberals. He looked sad and old on television last night.

  2 SEPTEMBER 1987

  I told Robert Armstrong today about the John Newhouse profile of Margaret Thatcher in the New Yorker, in which Newhouse says that the one organisation for which the PM reserves her greatest contempt is the diplomatic service. After I had moved to my new offices in Downing Street (east) to allow for the refurbishment of Downing Street (west), Percy Cradock tried to call on me in my old office. Finding it laid waste, he told me he had assumed that Margaret Thatcher had finally achieved her aims!

  7 SEPTEMBER 1987

  This morning I attended Chris Patten’s fortnightly meeting with his under-secretaries at the ODA – quite interesting, but useful symbolically as a step towards improving relations between the two wings. Chris is obviously taking a much closer grip on the department than Tim Raison ever did. But relations between the diplomatic and aid wings are difficult, and I am holding a meeting later this week to consider what else should be done.

  8 SEPTEMBER 1987

  I lunched with Michael Partridge (DHSS), who gave me some background on David Mellor from his Home Office days. Michael agreed that Mellor is bright and very ambitious, though too ready to reach firm conclusions on inadequate evidence.

  Michael’s responsibilities (with seventy-two under-secretaries) sound formidable, but he seems to work a much gentler week than I do, with virtually no boxes to take home.

  11 SEPTEMBER 1987

  I lunched today with
Rupert Pennant-Rea and others at The Economist, and told them my story about Ian Winchester, who was the desk officer for the Buraimi Dispute, and therefore responsible for the red, green, yellow and blue lines on the map demarcating the oasis between Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. It was only later that he was discovered to be colour-blind!

  18 SEPTEMBER 1987

  A long bilateral with Geoffrey Howe today, during which he aired his worries about not being sufficiently involved in domestic policy, partly because of the Prime Minister’s attitude to Cabinet committees. Her response to a recent proposal that OD should meet to discuss the Gulf War was typical – i.e. that it was better discussed among small groups of ministers and officials, as it was in the summer. She does not like those Cabinet committees which she does not chair herself. I undertook to have a word with Robin Butler about the Cabinet committee system.

  Although Geoffrey complained to me that his colleagues, e.g. Douglas Hurd, did not speak up in front of the Prime Minister, he is certainly at fault himself.

  Charles Powell discussed with me today the Prime Minister’s reaction to the FCO bid for improved conditions of service, on which she has helpfully weighed in with the Chancellor of the Exchequer in support, though with a typical sideswipe at FCO ‘extravagancies’, with a rather obscure reference to the ballroom in the Washington residence. I commented that I thought that ballrooms in residences were exactly what Margaret Thatcher liked? Charles thought it must be a reference to a double redecoration within a few years.