A View From The Foothills

by Chris Mullin

  Friday, 7 September

  Sunderland

  I devoted my column in tonight’s Echo to the subject of asylum; I was surprised to discover (upon inquiry) that we have 1,400 asylum seekers living here rather than the 300 I had supposed. But … they are doing us no harm. They occupy housing that would otherwise be empty or derelict, all the costs are paid for by central government and they are a darn sight more law-abiding than many of those who abuse them.

  Even so, with numbers nationally growing at 5,000 a month, we have a serious problem and there’s no point in denying it.

  Tuesday, 11 September

  An unbelievable catastrophe. At about four this afternoon, while I was sitting at my computer, Michael White of the Guardian rang. ‘Have you seen what’s happened?’ My first thought was that The Man had been heckled to a standstill at the TUC, which he was due to address this afternoon. ‘No,’ he said, ‘much, much worse; worse than the Cuban missile crisis. Turn on your TV.’

  I turned on to see live pictures of smoke and flames bellowing from the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center. Madmen had hijacked passenger planes and flown them directly into the skyscrapers where thousands of people were at work. A third plane had crashed into the Pentagon and reports were coming in of a fourth and even a fifth hijacked plane the whereabouts of which were unknown. The White House and the State Department had been evacuated; all flights across America grounded.

  As the afternoon wore on the full scale of the catastrophe became apparent: the dead number thousands, perhaps tens of thousands.

  Unreal. Like something from a Hollywood movie. Except that this is on a scale that even Hollywood has never envisaged. Reality intruded only gradually. Live interviews with hysterical, dust-covered people who had escaped the inferno; a glimpse of desperate people, a hundred floors up waving a curtain to attract attention. Then reports, and later pictures, of people jumping rather than waiting to be burned alive. Finally, before our eyes, the twin towers imploded in a massive heap of steel and concrete, fire and smoke, taking with them to eternity thousands of unseen people, including firemen who had gone inside to help with the rescue operation. A day we will remember for the rest of our lives. Who knows what horrors lie ahead?

  Wednesday, 12 September

  Awoke to a feeling that it was all a bad dream. But no, the fires in New York and Washington are still burning. Television footage of the second hijacked plane being flown at full speed into the World Trade building is being shown repeatedly. As the day wore on people came forward with amateur footage recording the impact from every conceivable angle. Now someone has produced a clip of the first plane hitting the tower and that, too, is being shown repeatedly. Eeerily, there are reports that people trapped in the ruins, who stand almost no chance of rescue, are calling on their mobiles for help. The dead are still alive. Death in America is a very public affair. Not like the countless thousands who disappear unnoticed in Third World catastrophes.

  Page after page of today’s papers are devoted to pictures with the barest minimum of caption material. Even the broadsheets are running single shots over an entire page. The most sickening show people in mid-air, leaping to their deaths from over a hundred storeys up.

  Inevitably the calls for revenge are starting. Bush is talking war.

  So are many of his people. War to most Americans means bombing. They’ve plenty of experience at dishing it out, but rarely – until now – have they been on the receiving end and they are deeply, deeply traumatised. Not merely at the carnage, but at the sudden realisation that even the very citadels of American power, hitherto invincible, are no longer safe from attack. What use is Star Wars now, when a handful of terrorists armed, apparently, with nothing more than knives can strike at the heart of America? And who to bomb? No one knows who the enemy are, although the finger is pointing at Osama bin Laden, believed to be holed up in Afghanistan. Can he be extracted without levelling Afghanistan, which is, in any case, already a huge cemetery? And if we do level Afghanistan or for that matter Iraq or wherever else the perpetrators are thought to lurk, do we not risk creating a new generation of suicide bombers who will come back to haunt us? Might we not be sucked into an endless cycle of atrocity and reprisal which will eventually consume us all?

  And what of us? Already The Man, in public at least, is writing blank cheques placing us four square behind whatever degree of retribution that George Bush sees fit to organise. Anyone suggesting caution, let alone that we should raise our eyes to the big picture, will not be popular. Yet it has to be done. Parliament is to be recalled on Friday. No doubt we shall have to sit through a good deal of impotent huffing and puffing, but I shall go down anyway on the off-chance that there is an opportunity to speak.

  Thursday, 13 September

  To London on the 18.47. David Miliband was on the train. He is in a similar situation to the one I was in when I was first selected – enemies occupy every office in his constituency party, although in his case it is nothing personal. He says The Man – who was once in a similar situation in Sedgefield – advised him ‘to go around smiling at everyone and get other people to shoot them’. Advice which The Man seems to have applied throughout his career.

  The Man has, says David, extraordinary energy and equanimity. His self-confidence is total. He does not need praise to bolster his ego and neither is he good at dispensing it. He takes more interest in Parliament and the parliamentary party than most people realise and is a good talent spotter. David believes he will fight a third election, but not a fourth.

  Friday, 14 September

  Up early for a spot on the Today programme, saying that we shouldn’t give the Americans a blank cheque. I trod cautiously. It seems indecent, appearing to criticise while bodies are still being dug out of the ruins, but it has to be done. Helpfully, Henry Kissinger was interviewed just before me saying that Americans do not always think through the consequences of their actions. Also an aid worker, who has just come out of Kabul, was interviewed and said that five million Afghans are facing starvation this winter. I just quoted these two and, hopefully, managed to avoid going over the top. Bruce Grocott, who I ran into later, said he thought I’d got it about right.

  The Man’s statement was thoughtful and balanced. He pledged unswerving support for the Americans, but talked of the need for hard evidence and never losing sight of our values.

  Saturday, 15 September

  Sunderland

  Martin Woollacott rang. We discussed the crisis. Martin said, ‘It’s a lesson to the Americans that it is not a good idea to have a cardboard cutout as president. You just can’t get away with it. It’s not a question of whether he’s a conservative or not. You must have someone of substance because you never know when they will be needed.’ What would he do? ‘Nothing, until there is evidence that Osama bin Laden was responsible, and nothing against the Afghan government unless it’s proven they are involved. Then you’d have to send in special ops troops to find him. Missiles won’t work. Maybe nothing will.’

  Wednesday, 19 September

  Tonight’s Echo carries a page of hate-filled letters about asylum seekers, triggered by my attempt two weeks ago to inject some sense of proportion into the debate. One claimed that the government has admitted that more than a million illegal immigrants are hiding in Britain. The government has admitted nothing of the sort. This particular falsehood is a straight replay of the Sun front page ten days ago. Much of the hate is aimed at me. One woman wrote, ‘We won’t forget this when the election comes.’ A man who has been to my office for help wrote, ‘I’ve had a bellyful of you people.’ The editor told me that he has not received a single letter in my favour. Feeling very down.

  Friday, 21 September

  The tom toms are beating louder in Washington. Bush has made a speech to Congress which had them cheering in the aisles. Suddenly his ratings are soaring. Needless to say we are going along with everything. The Man, who was in the gallery at Congress when Bush made his speech, was re
warded with a standing ovation. All week he has been rushing hither and thither, delivering messages for Washington. I pray that he knows what he’s doing. Hopefully, if we have any influence at all, we are using it to moderate the psychopathic tendencies never far below the surface in any US administration. All the signs are they are preparing for a massive attack on Afghanistan. There are also troop movements in the Gulf, which suggests they may have other targets in mind, but no one seems sure. Removing the Taliban would be no bad thing if it could be done quickly and cleanly, but then what? Are we going to leave the wretched Afghans to the mercy of the warlords?

  Monday, 24 September

  To Downing Street with the members of the relevant select committees to hear The Man outline his war aims. We assembled upstairs in the Pillared Drawing Room, seated on four rows of maroon ballroom chairs. Liz Symons and Adam Ingram were the only ministers in attendance. Alastair Campbell, Anji Hunter and Robert Hill were arranged along a sofa at the back. As we went in I was asked to stay behind afterwards, as The Man wanted a quiet word.

  ‘With me and who else?’

  ‘Just you.’

  The Man, as ever in shirtsleeves, was relaxed, informal, occasionally humorous. He remained seated by the fireplace, sipping coffee. He spoke of ‘scores’ – he used the word repeatedly – of terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. The evidence against Osama bin Laden was clear, although they were still working out how much could be said publicly. All the major European nations and most Middle East countries were on board for action providing it was carefully targeted. ‘If the net goes wider, there could be difficulties.’ He foresaw three phases: (a) action against OBL and the Taliban, (b) a longer-term strategy – perhaps through the UN – aimed at closing down the finance networks, and (c) changes to our own extradition and asylum laws making it easier to flush out suspected terrorists. ‘The attacks have brought home to us,’ he said, ‘that these people have the capability of striking again. If we don’t act, we send a clear signal.’ The discussion afterwards was random, disjointed and inadequate. Bruce George asked if we were taking civil emergency planning seriously and was assured that we were. There was a brief moment of hilarity when Donald Anderson asked a question about the panic buying of gas-masks which, he said, had been suggested to him by a Welsh journalist. Whereupon his mobile started ringing. ‘Probably the journalist ringing to see if you’ve asked the question,’ said The Man. (No doubt he was thinking, as I was, ‘Is this the best the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee can manage?’) Alan Beith warned against allowing the Home Office to take advantage of the crisis by dusting down measures such as ID cards that had languished on their shelves for years. A couple of Tories, Michael Mates was one, praised The Man for his handling of events so far. When my turn came I asked, ‘Is it our intention to overthrow the Taliban and, if so, what thought have we given to what will come after?’ I added that on no account must the wretched people of Afghanistan be left to the mercy of the warlords in the so-called Northern Alliance. Instead we should be looking for a UN mandate, as in Cambodia or East Timor, to govern the country until normality could be restored. ‘The removal of the Taliban is not among our stated aims,’ replied The Man, ‘but if they get in the way they will be overthrown. As for the Northern Alliance, we want to make sure that they are a broad alliance.’

  ‘A UN mandate?’

  ‘We haven’t really given enough thought to it.’ He added something about having talked to Kofi Annan last night, but it was clear that no serious thought has been given to what comes after the Taliban. At the moment they are clearly intending to depend on the squabbling warlords. One set of barbarians will replace another.

  Someone asked about Iraq. There have been reports that the psychopathic wing of the US government is itching to take out Saddam.

  ‘It is important that we proceed by way of evidence. We know Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, but we want to be sure that any action we take now is not dislocated.’ He added mysteriously, ‘I don’t want to say more at this stage.’ I take that to mean that a second front, against Iraq, is being considered although no one has so far produced any evidence of Iraqi involvement.

  Afterwards, while awaiting The Man, I chatted to Anji Hunter, who was with him on last week’s whirlwind visit to Washington. She claims the Americans are listening to Tony. ‘He’s been around for five years. He knows all the main players.’ She added, ‘Thank goodness for Colin Powell.’

  Then a quiet chat with The Man. I repeated the point about not relying on the warlords. Also, I mentioned Israel. Tony said both he and Bush had sent a strong message to Sharon, but that Arafat was also to blame for the shambles in the Middle East. ‘When I met him in Washington last year he claimed there was no difference between Barak and Sharon. I said, “Don’t you believe it.”’

  I asked about reports that the World Food Programme had stopped distributing in Afghanistan and he said he thought they were untrue. Finally, I asked why he’d sought me out today and he said, ‘You’re important as far as the parliamentary party is concerned.’ It would be nice to think so but I doubt it. I’ve been keeping my head well down of late, but at last I can see things that need to be said – inside and outside the tent – about the coming famine in Afghanistan and what kind of regime comes afterwards. Whatever happens I must avoid becoming co-opted into defending the indefensible. There is a tightrope to be walked between retaining the ear of The Man and retaining my self-respect and credibility with the world outside.

  A proposition instantly put to the test when I stepped outside the front door and found myself giving in to an impromptu press conference, bits of which went out on all bulletins. Later, I winced as I heard myself saying only that I was ‘fairly confident’ that The Man was a moderating influence on George Bush, but several people who heard it said that it sounded okay. Most comment was about the fact that I was wearing a green cagoule and no tie, in anticipation of my walk across the Lake District which starts tomorrow.

  Several of today’s papers carry a picture of about twenty Westernised Arab youngsters, boys and girls, in front of a pink Cadillac. Everyone looks happy and relaxed. Ringed, in the middle row, is a thin young man in a green skinny-rib jumper and flared purple trousers. He is happy, too. This is Osama bin Laden and some of his many brothers and sisters, on holiday in Sweden, 30 years ago. In those far-off days, before the earth changed places with the sky. Before everything went so terribly, terribly wrong.

  At five I went back to Downing Street for the parliamentary committee. We assembled around the Cabinet table: Ann Clwyd, Helen Jackson, Andrew Mackinlay, Gordon Prentice, Doug Hoyle and myself on our side. The Man, JP, Hilary Armstrong, Robin Cook on the other. Jean in the chair. The Man, a little wearier than when we last saw him, but still in good spirits. From time to time a nerve twitched in the lefthand side of his face. He listened carefully to each of our points, making notes and responding to each one. There was some light-hearted banter about whether Robin Cook’s beard is long enough to meet with Taliban approval (the consensus was that it is not). Overall, however, the mood was sombre. The Man said, ‘There is no doubt that these guys will try something else. They now know that they have carried out a spectacular coup. If they could have done something worse, they would have.’

  I repeated some of the points I made this morning, adding, ‘Don’t row out too far on ID cards. As far as dealing with terrorists is concerned they are useless. They might be some use in coping with illegal immigrants, but the downside is that only people with different colour skins will be stopped and that will raise a whole new set of problems. Also, they will cost several billion and on reflection you might consider there are better uses for the money.’

  The Man replied that it was damaging to good community relations to have an asylum system that was being abused.

  On recalling Parliament we went round the table. Ann Clwyd, Andrew Mackinlay and Gordon Prentice were strongly in favour.

  Robin said there was n
o problem recalling as early as Friday and that it might be a good idea if we wanted to avoid flak.

  Whatever anyone says about The Man he does give a good impression of listening. But how much difference any of us – he included – make, who knows? My feeling is that he still has no very clear idea about what happens next. No doubt the Americans will let us know in due course. And whatever happens, the realpolitik is that we will have to go along with it.

  Overall, a good day. Two and a half hours in The Presence. Were I still Under-Secretary of Folding Deck Chairs, I wouldn’t be allowed within a mile of him.

  Tuesday, 2 October

  I have decided not to go to Brighton for the conference since it has been reduced to little more than a rally. Instead I stayed home and watched The Man’s speech on television. A minor masterpiece. His best ever. Sincere, idealistic, inspiring, wide-ranging – mercifully lacking in the usual, verbless New Labour claptrap. And when it was over there was none of the usual hanging around, prolonging the ovation. He left the stage, hand in hand with Cherie, looking serious and statesmanlike. No one else in British politics could rise to the occasion as he has. Even the cynics are temporarily silenced. ‘He’s lost that silly smirk,’ Pat, who runs my office, said afterwards. ‘It wasn’t doing him much good.’

  Wednesday, 3 October

  To London for the recall of Parliament. Among the mail a letter from someone called Sebastian who lives at an address in a posh part of Camberwell complaining about my appearance outside Number 10 last week in a green cagoule. ‘One just had to look away,’ he simpered. Get a life, Sebastian.

  The main leader in today’s Telegraph is headed ‘Blair’s finest hour’.

  Thursday, 4 October

  To Parliament for The Man’s statement. The place is swarming with armed policemen and huge, unsightly slabs of reinforced concrete have been hastily placed around New Palace Yard with a view to warding off suicide bombers. This time round, there were fewer warlike noises and more about helping the wretched Afghans. I have the impression that the ground is shifting. It is beginning to dawn on the powers-that-be that simply sitting in the Arabian Sea or Indian Ocean firing cruise missiles won’t work.