The Burden of Power: Countdown to Iraq - The Alastair Campbell Diaries (114 page)

I told TB I still wanted to leave and why not now? Said he was really against it, it was the last thing he needed, and at the moment there would be meltdown in Parliament and that we should wait until Commons was not sitting. I said but I’ve only got two weeks left. Political strategy meeting with TB, GB, JP etc. PG presented the latest poll, which was bad. TB felt we had to get up delivery, get an acceptance of progress made. But he was tired and unfocused and GB’s response was pretty brutal. He said we had no strategy
to deal with the right-wing press, no clear plan for the election, no decision on election dividing lines. TB then asked him to circulate the strategy paper he had sent to TB, which he said he agreed with. GB said he wouldn’t circulate it until he had the raw polling – to which he always had access anyway if he wanted it. It was one of those meetings in which whatever TB said, GB then said something slightly different. JP pitched in with a warning about putting too much new policy out there. It meandered on for about half an hour but got nowhere.

The BBC story was going away because they were refusing to take on the source idea. There was a big conspiracy at work really. The biggest thing needed was the source out. We agreed that we should not do it ourselves, so didn’t, but later in the day the
FT
,
Guardian
, and after a while Mike Evans [defence corrrespondent of
The Times
] got the name. It was going to be difficult to keep it going and of course the politicians really wanted out of it. The story was moving away and as the source row grew, I felt I’d lost. Brendan Foster [former Olympic runner] came to see me, and he said TB was still the best there was. He said he would be amazed if I ever left the job until TB went because there couldn’t be a better job and in many ways he was right.

TB went to the PLP and everyone said he did well. Then PMQs. I wanted him to turn the heat on the BBC but he wasn’t really up for it and IDS and he ended up with some pretty vicious exchanges about WMD. Strategy meeting. Stan [Greenberg] went through the polling detail and though we were still ahead, it was a gloomy picture. Peter M, Philip and I put forward our tired responses and it all felt a bit jaded. TB felt WMD/Iraq was hurting him personally very badly and of course it was. Re GB, he said there was no point pretending that we would ever get back to being one big happy family, so we had to work around him as best we can.

By the time I got home, I felt really tired. Heat, pressure and stress, the problem of knowing when to leave, it was all pretty grim really. TB was not really engaging with me re my departure. Andy Marr led the news, massively ramped across all channels, with a story about senior sources saying we were unlikely ever to find WMD. It transpired the source was Jack Straw. JS apologised to me later saying he thought he was just chatting for background, not that Marr was going to do a big story. It was an outrage the way the BBC was now using its reporters and outlets to promote its line on the issue.

Marr WMD story still going big. [Robin] Cook on
Today
, John Major at 8.10. TB said the BBC coverage was actually a scandal. It was like dealing with the
Mail
on this, not the BBC. It was like Orwell’s
Nineteen Eighty-Four
and all that. I got Ben Bradshaw on to TV re the WMD story saying this was a BBC diversionary tactic re the source. The FAC met and agreed publicly to call Dr Kelly [to the committee] and privately they were writing to Gilligan, so this was still moving in an uncertain direction. Geoff Hoon got a letter of apology from Sambrook about the claim they’d put the allegations to us.

Political Cabinet at 3. TB did an OK introduction but once Philip’s polling was done they had what Douglas [Alexander] called ‘a meeting of government by anecdote’ designed to promote views we already knew they had. Alistair Darling on the Libs, Andrew Smith on local campaigning methods, Pat H on targets, DB wanting more ASBOs, Charles Clarke on green issues, Hain on the need at least to think about tax. Not a good discussion. JR was the only one who really said anything worth taking on board. GH also spoke quite well, echoing John in the line that we needed to keep on with reform as a way of holding the middle ground but do it according to our values. GB was not as impressive as usual, started well with his line about working back from the election, then seemed to run out of steam a bit. JP was very passionate, defended TB saying that he alone must not take the blame for Iraq, because it was a decision we all took and we all had to stand by it.

TB spoke better summing up and he was very open about the conundrum – that we needed reform to make change but the individual changes could always be unpopular till they got through and made an impact. It was a tired Cabinet and a tired meeting and we were going to have to raise our game. TB looked tired. Both JP and GB had big bags under their eyes. There was no real drive or energy in there. TB felt the coming fight would be a very traditional left/right one. Asylum, immigration, Europe, tax and spend. We have to get to acceptance of a minimum basis of delivery. But we have to show we have the only viable long-term strategy for the future. We must not concede the intellectual and political dominance we have in the political debate. But the values must be clearer. On the issue of trust, WMD – lack of – is obviously a problem. But trust is best addressed by reconnecting with people on the issues they really feel strongly about – crime, antisocial behaviour, health, education. It is through the values that we get the dividing lines and through detailed policy that we highlight them.

Charles C agreed with the analysis, but said the party as a family feels ill at ease with us and we have to make the party feel more involved. Alistair Darling was on his usual worry re the Libs, said he would relish a traditional left/right fight but we needed to be clear about how to handle the Lib Dems within that. In Scotland tactical voting was now common. We must not underestimate the Lib Dem threat in some areas. The argument has to be that they are not risk-free. Jack S felt the position was more difficult than PG’s polling suggested. He felt we were kidding ourselves if we thought trust was just policy-based. We are delivering a huge amount of what we promised, but a lot of people don’t like us. Part of the problem was that too often we defined ourselves against the party. We alienated our own people. We sometimes win the vote without being clear about winning the argument. He said he was all in favour of being at our best when at our boldest, but there was no point picking fights for the sake of it. Jack was being pretty tricksy at the moment and TB was very deliberately raising his eyebrows and making sure people clocked his reaction. Andrew Smith said people on the [social housing] estates felt we were pursuing Middle England at their expense. Pat H said values not management were the key. It goes deeper than the language we use. All people hear is targets, efficiency, all fine but limited. They need to hear values. Talking about users of public services like they were customers was also alienating. There were too many confusing initiatives, too many targets, not enough willingness to listen and engage. GH was clearly worried about the general drift. He said it would be a disaster if we in any way abandoned the middle ground. Both the traditional working class and the middle classes are better off and ‘I’m worried that if we listen too closely to party and unions, we get pushed to making a false choice.’ TB nodding.

Bruce [Grocott] said the party was not so much rebellious as moribund and he felt that was worrying. Peter Hain – music to my ears – said we had to generate a bigger debate about the future of politics and the dire impact of the modern media. Hilary A was cogent and intelligent as ever. She said to TB ‘You warned the PLP that division was the death of all previous Labour governments. But you have to realise they feel the only way they get listened to is by being difficult, including voting against the government.’ She was worried it was becoming habit-forming. She said to be fair TB spent a lot of time every week talking to backbenchers and he is the busiest of all of them. Yet a lot of ministers just don’t bother.

There was a coffee break and TB was not terribly happy at the general tone and tenor, felt they were all conceding too much and
also in some cases coming up with the wrong answers. JR spoke first, and said though TB ‘took the trust issue on your own shoulders’ it was about all of us and they had to do more as a group to address it. He spoke well, if for too long, about the need for themes rather than policy initiatives to drive our politics. He felt the strategic audit should force us to agree the overall priorities, and we should not just be fighting our own departmental corners. He also said we should not get too despondent. We were six years into government with a massive poll lead. We had made mistakes but we were basically seen as competent and delivering. Nor should we be amazed at the forces ranged against us – the right-wing media hate us because we’re in power. The ultra left hate us because we’re moderate and sensible. Sacked ministers have their own grievances. We have to build the alliances to defeat them in argument.

GB agreed, said it was an amazing success story that we had stayed dominant for six years. We know how we did it and we have to carry on with the same rigour and discipline. He felt the Tories were following a Bush strategy – try to shut down debate on the traditional right-wing issues. Try to get people to forget the Tory past. Try to get the economy taken for granted. They want to spread disillusion in public services and then move to tax cuts and privatisation. He felt we had to work back from the next election, agree the themes and dividing lines and then plan back. He felt on the economy it should be stability and enterprise. We need a strong public services dividing line. Another on the nature of progressive change. Families. The state of Britain and national identity.

JP did his usual speaking up for TB. Through some of the contributions TB had been drumming his fingers. JP seemed pretty irritated too, maybe not because of the content but the lack of balls being shown by a fair few of them. He said TB had ‘done a very noble thing’ in accepting responsibility for the trust issue. But it was not just his problem. Trust was the responsibility of the whole Cabinet. He felt Iraq would, long term, be seen to be the right thing to do. 300,000 people in mass graves – never let people forget it. He said in the PLP we had nearly fifty people there permanently trying to poison fifty more, plus they could always call on the Lords, lots of our own people included, to damage us. We had ex-ministers feeding it all the time. We have to fight back harder, get into the kind of mode we’re in for elections. It was good rousing stuff and lifted the mood.

TB said he had listened carefully. He said that being in government did not fit easily with the party’s culture, which prefers to campaign than to govern. We have done a lot but we are not the government
of the party’s dreams. No government ever will be. But they need to know if we divide, if we go back to the ways of the past, we will be out again. Also if we lose the capacity for renewal, we will go out. New Labour is not a finite thing. It means a Labour Party constantly renewing to meet the challenges of a world of change. He said ’97 to ’01 was all about establishing credibility to govern. We did some terrific things – but a national minimum wage does not transform the country. We did the basics well. But in a second term we are challenged more. The country and the party want more. But in meeting the party’s demands we must not yield up the middle ground because that is where the country is. It is not just about what Middle England wants, but the challenges of today are best met in the middle ground. There are some policy solutions that neither party nor government will like. But we have to do what we think is right for the long term.

He said the unspoken message from some – and he was looking at GB – was to go easy on reform because it would anger people. GB said ‘I’m not saying that,’ but TB ploughed on – ‘There is no division in my mind between the need to reform and staying true to our values. It is not inconsistent. We are being true to our values in making the reforms needed to improve life for the people we represent.’ He said he wanted people to think over the summer about how that applied to their departments. Think long term. We could avoid a bit of political pain by opting out of difficult policy decisions. But it would be a mistake for the long term. I was left thinking he was the only one there who could speak like that. JP had warmed it up well but the bulk of the contributions had been either tired or timid and distinctly lacking in leadership.

Douglas [Alexander] was good on the new politics. If he didn’t look so boyish, he would make so much more of an impact because he talked a lot of sense. But listening to them, I did feel that a lot of our problems about lack of strategic capacity were caused by the fact that for a while now I had not been fully engaged. Also on policy, as Bruce G pointed out, most of the good things we had done were from the first term. Dan Bartlett called me later from Air Force One, said his sense was we were winning.

Still a lot of focus on Iraq and intelligence and whether it was poor, or wrong. Fiona and I went to the unveiling by [Nelson] Mandela [former President of South Africa] of a blue plaque at [South African politician] Joe Slovo’s old house in Lime Street in Camden. The Milibands were there and I had a nice chat with Ed about how much
he enjoyed his time out in America. I shared a car with him to the office and he agreed there was very little direction and strategy.

To the Ritz where I was having lunch with Clinton, with Peter M and Philip. Mary McCartney [photographer] was taking some pictures. BC had had just two hours’ sleep after getting in from Greece. He was dressed in golf-type clothes. He was a lot thinner than the last time I had seen him. Doug Band [Clinton aide] had organised lunch, which seemed to be a succession of different meals, and Clinton was eating a lot of them. First a plate of eggs, then bacon, then hamburgers. First we talked about Bush. We talked a bit about the US scene. I asked why he never stayed in embassies when he travelled. He said Bush had some mean people round him. ‘I could, but I’m not sure about the welcome.’ He said he was not much for having things named after him but there had been a Clinton Fellowship for Israeli and Palestinian students and at first the Bush administration changed the name and then they took away the money. ‘These are ruthless people you are dealing with.’ On Marc Rich [indicted in 1983 for illegal oil deals with Iran and tax evasion] and the controversial pardon [by Clinton on his last day in office], he said that Cheney’s chief of staff [Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby] had testified for the guy. ‘You have to understand that what they care about is power. They control the press, they control the agenda and they hoard power ruthlessly.’ They were changing the law to allow the White House to be more secretive. He said the view in DC was Bush had put all his [Texas] governor papers into his father’s presidential library because that meant they couldn’t be got at.