Behind Diplomatic Lines_Relations with Ministers Page 9

  12 JANUARY 1988

  There is continuing press speculation that Geoffrey will go to the Lords this autumn. Douglas Hurd is today’s favourite to succeed as Foreign Secretary, though Nigel Lawson is thought by some to be very keen to be Foreign Secretary.

  13 JANUARY 1988

  A very full day, starting with a discussion with Lord Glenarthur on how to produce the necessary cuts in our personnel vote this year. He enraged Mark Russell (who already feels that ministers are far too involved and interfering in management and the administration of the service) by saying that he would want to consult not only the Secretary of State but also his fellow junior ministers.

  14 JANUARY 1988

  Permanent secretaries’ dinner at Brooks’s this evening, to say goodbye to Robert Armstrong. He told a good story about his appointment as private secretary to Heath at No. 10, allegedly because his predecessor, who had worked for Wilson in his first administration, had prepared beer and sandwiches for Heath and Carrington after a long session in the Cabinet Room. He had announced ‘grub up’ while Heath and Carrington were discussing whether they should slope off to Lockett’s for dinner.

  15 JANUARY 1988

  Geoffrey Howe told me today that the PM was fed up with David Mellor’s performance, and has asked him to tell Mellor to keep quiet (though No. 10 has behaved scrupulously over the affair, declining either to endorse or to repudiate him). Charles Powell tells me that Mellor’s promotion chances have taken a very sharp step backwards.

  18 JANUARY 1988

  David Gore-Booth produced a gem on Margaret Thatcher’s attitude towards Europe. In reply to a question from the Foreign Press Association as to whether, after nine years as Prime Minister, she felt more or less European, she said: ‘I feel exactly as I have always felt – totally British and ready to do a tremendous amount in this world.’

  27 JANUARY 1988

  The Foreign Affairs Committee called on Geoffrey Howe today for a general talk. They were then shown the Communications Centre and FOLIOS (the new system for sending enciphered telegrams, which was later shown not to work), before a meeting with Lynda Chalker in the India Office Council Chamber. Quite a helpful session, though Michael Jopling [ex-Minister of Agriculture who was later to serve, and to succeed me, on my European Sub-Committee in the Lords] revealed some hang-ups on the service. When he asked why we sent ‘low-grade diplomats’, rather than politicians, to important posts like Los Angeles and San Francisco, I denied that they were low-grade; but accepted that there might well be an argument for sending politicians there if they were prepared to spend their own money in maintaining the right ‘style’. But the session went well, and Virginia Bottomley told me later that she had heard one of them describing me as ‘a good egg’!

  I later accompanied Geoffrey to the House of Commons for a formal FAC session on arms control and the Gulf. Very tame stuff and Geoffrey had no problems, though I had to prompt him occasionally on the Gulf.

  [A later diary entry was written in February 1999, just after the FAC – now under Donald Anderson – had published its damning report on the Sierra Leone arms affair. They have lashed out at John Kerr, claiming that he has ‘failed in his duty to ministers’ – about as damning a comment as one can level at an official. John Kerr and the service have been staunchly defended by Tony Blair and Robin Cook – though unkind gossip says that they only did so having been threatened with revelations about the extent to which ministers had been kept informed at an early stage. John Kerr told me that his own, very visible, embarrassment at hearings before the FAC was due to his attempts to tell the truth, and to save ministerial reputations. But the service has been badly damaged – Donald Anderson has talked about the famous Rolls-Royce having turned out to be an old banger after all.]

  There is a very damaging piece in The Independent today, revealing differences between No. 10 and the FCO on Europe. Both No. 10 and Geoffrey Howe are rightly furious, and there will be a witch-hunt, if not a formal leak inquiry, to discover who has been talking to Peter Jenkins.

  An extraordinary letter today from Charles Powell about briefing for a visit by President Ortega of Nicaragua (which has since been cancelled). The letter says in effect that only the Americans know about Nicaragua, and that the PM would want to be briefed by them. David Gillmore is steaming!

  29 JANUARY 1988

  I saw Geoffrey Howe this morning to discuss the Peter Jenkins piece in The Independent, and agreed with him that I should send a personal telegram to Brian Fall in Washington. [Brian later replied, admitting that it was, indeed, he, and apologising for his naiveté in not realising that Jenkins would look for an opportunity to exploit the gap between the FCO and No. 10. Peter Jenkins later claimed to Paul Lever that his source had been No. 10 – perhaps to protect Brian Fall? When I saw Robin Butler today, he told me he had found it strange that No. 10 had not complained about the story – deep waters!]

  I received a call from Lieutenant General Vernon Walters, the US permanent representative to the UN, who told me a story, which he attributed to himself, that Cuba is the largest country in the world: capital in Cuba; government in Moscow; army in Africa; and population in Florida. [Much later, I repeated this in a letter to The Times, in view of the resumption of full diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba in 2015.]

  1 FEBRUARY 1988

  Geoffrey Howe had a bad day today in Brussels. We seem, as usual, to have become isolated, and the Prime Minister’s recent meeting with Mitterrand and Chirac was very bad-tempered, with the PM at one point telling Chirac not to threaten her.

  5 FEBRUARY 1988

  I went to Chevening today for Geoffrey Howe’s lunch for Dick Murphy – the latter had just seen King Hussein in Paris this morning, and was going on to Damascus and elsewhere to pursue the new Reagan ‘initiative’ on the Middle East. David Miers and I questioned Dick Murphy so negatively that Geoffrey asked me later to telephone the ambassador, Charlie Price, to thank him for Dick Murphy’s visit, and to welcome American readiness to contemplate a new move (which we have been urging on them for months). Charlie barely concealed his own scepticism, and one of Dick’s (Jewish) aides made it quite clear that there was no question of Shultz putting any real pressure on Shamir.

  John Stanley telephoned me today from home – presumably in a characteristic attempt to bypass his own private office – about a potential FCO recruit for Northern Ireland. After I had told him that the job description provided by Robert Andrew did not fit the official concerned, Stanley virtually said we should ignore anything told to us by officials; he was dealing with this subject. I told Geoffrey Howe later that John Stanley should be a significant contributor to close cooperation between the FCO and the NIO!

  The Prime Minister has now cancelled three successive bilaterals with Geoffrey Howe; a string of subjects for discussion are being held up as a result. I wonder if she is deliberately trying to put Geoffrey down – the press is full of stories of enhanced status for Douglas Hurd, Cecil Parkinson and John Moore.

  23 FEBRUARY 1988

  A long meeting with Tim Eggar about MPs’ correspondence on immigration, which he wants Migration and Visa Department to deal with, rather than his own office. I am worried, perhaps unnecessarily, that this goes against the principle of ministerial responsibility, though it apparently follows a Home Office precedent.

  I also had a private talk with Lynda Chalker, who is in a depressed mood, having asked Geoffrey Howe about her chances of getting into the Cabinet, and getting what she described as ‘her worst school report ever’. Although she is upset by press rumours that she is going to the commission in Brussels, she left me with the impression that she would in fact like to go there, if she doesn’t get a Cabinet job. She also thinks that Geoffrey is likely to be moved on later this year, though Len Appleyard told me that Geoffrey is determined to stay.

  24 FEBRUARY 1988

  There was a public row today about which department was dealing with Waldheim’s war crimes files. An article in
The Times carries quotes from two press officers (FCO and MOD) revealing an unseemly squabble, which has enraged Geoffrey Howe. The Prime Minister has ruled that the MOD is in charge; but the whole subject has also been a fair muddle, with the (probably false) impression given that important and damaging files have been destroyed.

  Christopher Mallaby today hosted a DUSs lunch in the Cabinet Office, at which we had a general discussion about the PM’s attitude to Cabinet committees. OD (the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee) hardly ever meets nowadays – a potentially dangerous situation, as the Franks Committee on the Falklands pointed out [and as I was later to remind the House of Lords in my speech on Iraq on 7 September 2004].

  2 MARCH 1988

  I attended a meeting held by Lynda Chalker and Chris Patten to look at policy towards Ethiopia and Sudan – quite interesting, but once again I got the impression that it was largely staged to boost Lynda’s image as the senior FCO minister.

  Robert Alston (Muscat) told me today that David Mellor really has achieved a very good relationship with Yusuf bin Alawi of Oman; as Robert pointed out, this is just as well given the speed with which we change ministers of state!

  4 MARCH 1988

  An article in The Independent by Nicholas Budgen MP, arguing that Foreign Office officials ‘can hardly be expected to understand the man in the Wolverhampton pub’. David Wright later wrote a strong minute (which I would dearly love to send to The Independent) pointing out that he was born in Wolverhampton, and went to Wolverhampton Grammar School. He thinks he understands people in Wolverhampton pubs better than an ex-Guards and Corpus Christi MP! (Echoes of George Brown, who was staggered to learn that Geoffrey Arthur had been educated at Swadlincote Grammar School, in his own constituency.)

  8 MARCH 1988

  I discussed with Geoffrey Howe a foreign policy meeting yesterday at Chatham House, on which he was pretty sceptical, agreeing that the experiment might be repeated ‘every three permanent under-secretaries’. I suggested that we might settle for ‘every three foreign secretaries, or whichever is the less’. [Ironically, if this timing had been followed, we would have been due for the next Foreign Office Day at Chatham House by the time I became chairman of Chatham House in 1995.]

  21 MARCH 1988

  Geoffrey Howe is very cross with Simon Glenarthur, who wants to spend eight days in Outer Mongolia. He is never happy about other ministers travelling; but he has put his foot down on this occasion.

  22 MARCH 1988

  David Mellor asked to see me this afternoon to question me about Yehuda Avner’s remarks at his recent lunch with me (claiming that he had been working hard to undo the damage of television coverage of the West Bank, and that Jewish opinion is still very solidly behind Shamir). David also asked me about the BBC project to make a film on the diplomatic service, making it clear that he would like to play a major role. He claims, probably rightly, to have played a prominent part in getting the BBC film on Customs and Excise going.

  23 MARCH 1988

  A long meeting to consider our approach to the public expenditure round. Geoffrey Howe is in a difficult position, having today again been asked to chair the Star Chamber in succession to Willie Whitelaw. I am very nervous that, if he does, he will not be prepared (or able) to press for any extra bid for the diplomatic service or the ODA, let alone the Intelligence Services, if the Treasury have their way and make him defend their budgets with the Chief Secretary. [I later expressed my worries to Geoffrey, who reacted badly, and is obviously attracted by the idea on political grounds.]

  Poor David Gillmore is in a state, having discovered that his valedictory despatch from Kuala Lumpur, which contained some very frank and unflattering remarks on Mahathir, has fallen into the latter’s hands. There will have to be another leak inquiry.

  28 MARCH 1988

  I reported to my morning meeting, and later to Geoffrey Howe, on the Wilton Park seminar which I attended over the weekend involving FCO, Treasury, DTI, ECGD, MAFF (Agriculture, Fisheries and Food) and others. Peter Middleton was surprisingly flexible, possibly because he had come straight from a meeting with the Prime Minister on the exchange rate. Her last words to Peter, on leaving for Wilton Park, were: ‘Don’t listen to anything the FCO says.’ He agreed with me that Margaret Thatcher has no idea how to cooperate with people, whether officials or foreigners – quite a comment from the Treasury!

  30 MARCH 1988

  Both John Caines and Geoffrey Howe are aghast at discovering today that Colin Chandler and George Younger have concluded a Tornado deal with Malaysia, involving an apparent promise of £200 million in aid for Malaysia – with not one word of prior consultation. It is outrageous behaviour, and will lead to a major row. [It did; and resulted in a very rare Permanent Secretary’s minute to the Public Accounts Committee by John Caines’s successor, Tim Lancaster.] Poor Geoffrey will have to sort it out before he visits Kuala Lumpur next week.

  7 APRIL 1988

  I went to Cambridge today for a Königswinter Conference, at which four groups were introduced by their chairmen. A member of one of the other groups told me that when Paddy Ashdown, the ex-Liberal Social Democrat MP, was asked to introduce himself, he called himself a Liberal by mistake, and then corrected himself, saying: ‘I can never remember what my party is called nowadays.’

  11 APRIL 1988

  I held a briefing meeting for this week’s appearance before the Foreign Affairs Committee, for which we have less idea than usual of the sort of questions they are going to ask. [In fact, I later received good warnings by the clerk, Robert Wilson; but many years later, in 1999, there was a row about the leaking of FAC reports in draft to Robin Cook, which are said to have improperly alerted him – exactly what the clerk did for me.]

  20 APRIL 1988

  With the release of both hijackers and hostages in Algiers, both Lynda Chalker and David Mellor were asked to appear on radio and television – the former outraged because the latter rang up to offer her advice. She later asked to see me, in a low state of morale, and worried both about relationships between junior ministers, and about Geoffrey Howe’s attitude to herself. She is still very hurt by his response to her question about her own future (when he immediately started to praise David Mellor, and then went to sleep!).

  But Lynda is also cross because Geoffrey won’t let her travel while he is away. She also thinks he may be preparing to give up this autumn, and told me that he is deeply unhappy with several of his colleagues and their policies – particularly Nicholas Ridley and the poll tax. She is scared that Cecil Parkinson may be appointed Foreign Secretary (on the face of it, not unlikely if Geoffrey goes, since he will no doubt have reminded the Prime Minister that he was promised the job during the Falklands War).

  A crucial meeting on our PESC [Public Expenditure Survey Committee] bid with Geoffrey Howe and all his ministers (minus Simon Glenarthur, who is in India). The other ministers intervened helpfully, though some of them got their heads bitten off for their pains.

  21 APRIL 1988

  This evening to the Albert Hall for the fortieth anniversary gala of Israel’s independence, which I had accepted largely to correct the Mail on Sunday’s impression of anti-Zionists in the FCO. Some difficult moments (e.g. a reading which referred to the Jews returning to ‘Empty Zion’); but otherwise a rather jolly evening of songs and readings. And the Chief Rabbi, Jacobovitz, thanked me warmly for my gesture in attending.

  25 APRIL 1988

  There was aggro over the weekend on Ireland, on which the Prime Minister has responded angrily to Geoffrey Howe’s emollient speech, and with fury at Charles Haughey’s speeches in the United States. [On the former, Percy Cradock later warned me about the Prime Minister’s displeasure, and at Geoffrey’s failure to consult her in advance. I did not tell him that this was entirely deliberate, and that Geoffrey had rejected advice that No. 10 should be alerted beforehand. The press was later predictably full of stories about a Thatcher/Howe rift.]

  29 APRIL 1988

&nbs
p; I went to Chevening for our annual meeting with the Ministry of Defence. I told Geoffrey Howe and George Younger about the Prime Minister’s interview in the Daily Mail this morning (which neither had seen), in which she talks of the need to return to the manners of the 1930s, ‘when there was gentleness and courtesy’. Geoffrey told me he had seen her yesterday, just after she had given the interview, and thought she was exceptionally mild!

  3 MAY 1988

  I lunched with Ray Seitz for Bob Gates – a very interesting lunchtime discussion, mainly about Soviet foreign policy and chemical weapons. David Mellor spoke frankly and well about the dangers of the President of the United States remaining unable, or unwilling, to pressure the Israelis.

  6 MAY 1988

  Much of today was spent on the forthcoming Gibraltar SAS/IRA inquest. A ministerial meeting yesterday revealed strong dissatisfaction at the failure of officials to ask the right questions, let alone provide the right answers. David Mellor was charged with the task of discussing with me the possible formation of a special task force. After discussing this with Mellor and Geoffrey Howe, I called on Robin Butler, John Weston and others this evening, and agreed a) that John Weston’s official group should meet very regularly in the period up to late June (when the inquest will be held); and b) that Duncan Slater (on leave this week) will be put virtually full time in charge of the affair for the FCO.