Behind Diplomatic Lines

by Patrick R. H. Wright

  21 JULY 1988

  I attended the opening of the arms control heads of mission conference, at which David Mellor made a particularly unfortunate reference to the ‘awful possibility’ of a Dukakis victory – in front of four academics invited to join the conference. I have also heard that Denis Thatcher is alleged to have been making disobliging comments about Dukakis to an American journalist.

  Humphrey Maud called before his departure for Nicosia, gloomy about Personnel Department’s proposals to change much of his staff soon after his arrival (which reminded me of Dick Beaumont’s response to Personnel Department’s invitation to him, for the third time in succession, to ask his head of chancery in Cairo (i.e. me) to keep ‘a careful eye’ on some junior member of staff: ‘May I remind you that my head of chancery, unlike Cerberus, has only two eyes.’)

  25 JULY 1988

  Geoffrey Howe called me down to tell me that David Mellor was about to be moved in a ministerial reshuffle, and would be replaced by William Waldegrave. I pointed out to Geoffrey that there would inevitably be speculation that Mellor had been kicked out for his pro-Arab views, particularly on the very day when the press are reporting that the Israelis had pulled five intelligence officers out of London. Perfect material for some Arab conspiracy theories! Geoffrey then spoke to Nigel Wicks, suggesting that the timing of the move might be reconsidered. He apparently reverted to this twice more, provoking an irritated call to me from Nigel this evening.

  But the move has gone ahead, and Waldegrave will appear in the office tomorrow. Mellor was contacted in a public telephone booth in Italy, but is evidently delighted by his new job in the Ministry of Health, which can at least be presented as promotion to be deputy to a new Secretary of State, Kenneth Clarke. I am fairly certain that the move is indeed related to Mellor’s pro-Arab attitude, and recall that Charles Powell told me on Friday that ‘Mellor really has gone too far this time’. A pity to move someone after one year, when he has established excellent contacts in the Arab world. But he has become a bit unbalanced about the Israelis, and shows it.

  26 JULY 1988

  I called on William Waldegrave, and found him rather bemused by his grand office and commenting, like all new ministers, that he was suffering from a slight hangover, having celebrated his appointment last night. He told me that his previous Secretary of State, Nicholas Ridley, had told him, as a fellow younger son of a peer, that he had found the FCO full of older sons (precise meaning obscure?). I told William that Nicholas Ridley had recently told me that he had not in fact enjoyed his time in the FCO – no doubt partly because of the Falklands debacle.

  Waldegrave seems very nice and intelligent, though I wonder if he quite realises what the pace of work is likely to be. He is hoping to start with a five-week holiday.

  I received a warm and appreciative letter from Virginia Bottomley – the third of Geoffrey Howe’s PPSs to get promotion in the reshuffle (the others being Kenneth Clarke and Richard Ryder). On the whole, the press have presented Mellor’s appointment as a promotion, though Hella Pick had a piece in The Guardian suggesting that he had been removed for his anti-Israeli views.

  29 JULY 1988

  At my farewell lunch for Rodric Braithwaite (to Moscow), Simon Jenkins of the Sunday Times talked to me about ministerial visits abroad, claiming (rather ludicrously) that the FCO misused their ministers, who should devote their attention to the House of Commons, and that only ministerial Lords should travel. I pointed out that this would severely reduce ministers’ credibility with their foreign contacts. Simon responded by saying that contact-making was for diplomats, not ministers – fairly ripe from a journalist who has claimed in the past that ministerial activity has virtually made the diplomatic service redundant!

  8 SEPTEMBER 1988

  Geoffrey Howe discussed with me the PM’s increasing tendency to keep work to herself and not to consult her colleagues. There has just been a ridiculous incident about a military paper on an Ireland commissioner from the Ministry of Defence, which No. 10 has commanded is not to be seen by anyone else. As Geoffrey commented, this is the way that bad mistakes happen.

  9 SEPTEMBER 1988

  We received today our six-month delivery of a haunch of venison – given to permanent secretaries and, I think, certain Cabinet ministers, on condition that we pay for the delivery charges.

  12 SEPTEMBER 1988

  I was telephoned by Tim Eggar about an incident today where a Cuban diplomat fired a gun in the street – following closely after a major row with the Vietnamese, whose gun-toting third secretary was expelled. Tim has decided that, on this occasion, the Cuban ambassador should be chucked out. The incident hit the headlines two days later. (When Geoffrey Howe returned from Africa eight days later, he was put out that Tim Eggar had not consulted him, even though he was technically in charge of the office during his absence, and had consulted No. 10 instead.)

  14 SEPTEMBER 1988

  An interesting side-light on Margaret Thatcher today from Rodric Braithwaite, who saw her yesterday before returning to Moscow. When he discussed dates for Gorbachev’s visit next spring, a reference was made to the PM’s tenth anniversary in May, at which she commented: ‘If I’m still around.’ Everyone was mystified, but she appeared to be serious – presumably from superstition about the risk of assassination. I remember that Nigel Wicks once told me privately that there were rumours (unexplained) that the PM did not think she would be at No. 10 beyond next spring (see p. 104, 13 June, above).

  19 SEPTEMBER 1988

  My morning meeting was largely taken up with a discussion about Tim Eggar’s campaign against diplomats’ use of guns, and non-payment of fines, which has got massive press coverage, but which threatens to turn into a declaration of war against the diplomatic corps. I have advised that we should cool it, particularly since further action against one embassy is going to be needed this week.

  20 SEPTEMBER 1988

  The PM spoke today in Bruges – the culmination of a lot of drafting and redrafting. John Kerr managed to achieve about 80 per cent of our proposed changes to Charles Powell’s draft (which had earlier been compared to The Jimmy Young Show!); but it is still a pretty harsh statement of the PM’s attitude to federalism in Europe, coloured by her strong personal resentment of Delors, whose appearance at the Trades Union Conference will have done nothing to assuage (although John Weston pointed out today that the PM had almost certainly not read his speech in full, since it contained several well-planted olive branches).

  21 SEPTEMBER 1988

  The PM’s Bruges speech is again widely covered in the press, most of it critical. Bruce Anderson in the Telegraph says it was clearly written by Charles Powell, and that No. 10 would not have asked the FCO to write it, since it is known how different their views are on Europe. But most commentators have pointed out that it is her style that is wrong. The PM herself is no doubt delighted by the storm she has caused, and by comparisons drawn with de Gaulle. A few days later, Charles Powell told me that the PM’s dinner with the Belgian Prime Minister over dinner in Brussels had been pretty rough, and that she had thoroughly enjoyed a good row over the future of Europe.

  22 SEPTEMBER 1988

  I summoned the Czech ambassador today to expel three of his staff for espionage – about the fourth expulsion of diplomats within a few weeks. Tim Eggar tomorrow summons a group of ambassadors to talk to them about fire-arms and parking fines. I asked today for proper guidance to be sent to posts, to reassure governments that we have not declared war on the diplomatic corps. (I later record that the diplomatic corps were very steamed up about Tim Eggar, and that the Cypriot doyen had asked to call on Geoffrey Howe about it.)

  The Japanese ambassador called this afternoon on instructions to hand over letters of ‘astonishment and aversion’ to the editors of The Sun and the Star at their outrageous editorials on Emperor Hirohito (who is dying). The Sun said that he should go to hell, and that many Britons would gladly dance on his grave. Apparently, the embassy telephoned
one of the papers, but got someone whose father had been on the Burma Railway, and who was extremely rude.

  4 OCTOBER 1988

  I reported today to William Waldegrave on David Mellor’s conversation with me last night about his Middle East contacts, having told me that he hoped that the FCO agreed that he should not let them drop. I encouraged him, but asked him to bear in mind William Waldegrave’s position, since the Arabs are all too prone to develop one point of contact and influence.

  6 OCTOBER 1988

  I lunched with John Blelloch, and had a useful talk on Northern Ireland. He had at first found Tom King quite difficult, though they have now got used to each other. He told me that John Stanley (who was sacked in the last reshuffle) had made a row because his mail in the House of Commons is not being scanned for security. He also insisted, while in Northern Ireland, on his private secretary travelling in a separate car. As his private secretary was a girl, John had assumed that Stanley did not want it thought he was too intimate with her. The real reason (revealed by John Stanley’s detectives) was that when they stopped at traffic lights, he always lay on the floor.

  7 OCTOBER 1988

  Chris Patten is writing Geoffrey Howe’s Foreign Affairs speech for Brighton. Geoffrey is not proposing to show it to the PM in advance.

  10 OCTOBER 1988

  I gave Lynda Chalker lunch today at Lockett’s (with the dreadful Alfred Sherman from No. 10 at the next table). Lynda is still very worried about her future, and was probing to see if I thought she was likely to reach the Cabinet in the next reshuffle. I have no idea, but rather doubt it.

  11 OCTOBER 1988

  A poisonous document surfaced today on British foreign policy, published by the ‘Committee for a Free Britain’ (an extreme right-wing organisation), illustrated by a photograph of Geoffrey Howe apparently giving a Marxist salute in Mozambique. I advised Geoffrey that there was no future in his suggestion of showing them despatches or submissions designed to correct their impressions of the office. There might be advantage in getting some of them round for a talk. But their document will have several ready ears at the Brighton conference this week.

  Quite an interesting discussion with DUSs this morning about developing relations with Taiwan, on which there is fairly consistent pressure from the business community. I had to turn down a suggestion this week from Ray Whitney that I, or another FCO official, should meet the Taiwanese Foreign Minister, who is here on a private visit.

  12 OCTOBER 1988

  John Boyd and I attended a meeting in Robin Butler’s office to prepare a brief for the three ministers (Geoffrey Howe, George Younger and Douglas Hurd) who will have to argue with the chief secretary on agency finances. Robin (himself an ex-Treasury official) is taking a splendidly robust anti-Treasury line, including advice to keep the front page of their brief well covered from peering Treasury officials.

  I got into trouble today through Catherine Pestell passing on to Tim Eggar a comment which Lynda Chalker had made to me about the British Council in Helsinki. Tim immediately complained that Lynda was interfering in his business, and Lynda was cross with me for having passed it on. They all squabble like children.

  13 OCTOBER 1988

  Whitehall dining club this evening, at which I sat between Jeremy Morse and John Baring, discussing Europe and the Prime Minister – a subject much in the news today, following Ted Heath’s intervention at the party conference in Brighton.

  30 OCTOBER 1988

  Jet-lagged and short of sleep from our visits to New Zealand and Australia, I received a haggard and nervous Simon McDonald in the drawing room this afternoon (while [my daughter] Olivia took Virginia off to the garden) and was asked, rather formally, if he could marry Olivia. Great news; they both seem blissfully happy.

  3 NOVEMBER 1988

  David Harris, the MP for St Ives and Geoffrey Howe’s new PPS (succeeding Virginia Bottomley), called on me this morning, and then attended my morning meeting. An ex-journalist who is still finding his way round the office, he made quite a useful contribution on events in the House of Commons this week (when the government was nearly defeated on eye tests).

  I briefly attended a counter-terrorism exercise, under Simon Glenarthur’s chairmanship, in the Cabinet Office briefing room – a joint exercise with Barbados, for which William Waldegrave has flown to the island. Rather inconveniently, a real (though minor) crisis occurred today with a coup in the Maldives, with a request to us, the Americans and the Indians to intervene. Archie Hamilton, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence, asked me this evening if we had a military commitment to the Maldives. I confirmed that we had not, and told him in confidence that we had recently discovered that we do have some sort of commitment to one other Commonwealth country, though we do not think that their government is aware of it!

  9 NOVEMBER 1988

  The results of the US presidential election came through during the night. The PM telephoned George Bush early this morning to congratulate him (no doubt greatly relieved that it is not Dukakis). James Baker was quickly appointed Secretary of State, and Geoffrey Howe sent him a comradely message as an ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer.

  10 NOVEMBER 1988

  Virginia and I went to the President of Senegal, Diouf’s, return banquet in the RAC’s very splendid dining room. I was told by Bill Heseltine that he was proposing to wear the boutonnière of the Ordre du Lion (which we had both been allowed to receive), so I did likewise. Bill was mocked for wearing it, so he removed it, as did Ken Scott. Paul Greening (the Master of the Household) had meanwhile seen mine and put his on, as did two others who had seen Ken Scott’s. A scene from a French farce?

  15 NOVEMBER 1988

  A bombshell today from Nicholas Ridley’s officials in the PSA, who revealed that Ridley was about to write to Sonny Ramphal confirming that he proposes to take off the top floor of Marlborough House, which would mean that it would be another five or six years before the Commonwealth Secretariat could reoccupy it. I held a meeting to arrange for a minute to be drafted for Geoffrey Howe to send to Ridley pointing out the snags. The PSA tend to be an unguided missile, and Ridley is particularly resistant to advice from the FCO, having had unhappy memories of his time as an FCO minister (Falklands and all that).

  21 NOVEMBER 1988

  William Waldegrave gave me lunch at Le Poule au Pot. He is very worried about The Times’s correspondence on the FCO, and the question of alternative foreign policy advice; he is convinced that Geoffrey Howe was mistaken to weigh in on Monday with his very robust letter. There were two very unhelpful letters today from Andrew Gilchrist and Louis Heren – both tending to confirm the impression that the FCO pursues its own policies regardless of ministerial direction. This really is rubbish, particularly with our present ministerial team.

  28 NOVEMBER 1988

  A large FCO and ODA ministerial and official meeting today to discuss the geographical distribution of aid. Geoffrey Howe passed me a note at the beginning of the meeting saying that he found the subject matter ‘ineffably tedious’. Basically, the problem is how far the ODA are prepared to use aid money for political, rather than developmental, purposes, though when I said this at the meeting, I was howled down by the ODA participants.

  5 DECEMBER 1988

  The press is still full of articles criticising the Prime Minister for her handling of the Belgians and the Irish over the Patrick Regan extradition case, including some surprising attacks in the Daily Mail, claiming that she is not making adequate use of Foreign Office advice. In fact, the Belgians have behaved outrageously, and fully deserve the public rebuke that the PM gave to Maartens at the European Council in Paris.

  I discussed with Peter Gregson (PUS at the Department of Energy) some complications over ministerial visits to Peking, with both Lord Young and Peter Morrison planning to visit simultaneously, when Alan Donald is away on leave.

  6 DECEMBER 1988

  Following a talk I had with Geoffrey Howe yesterday about human rights and Gorbachev
, Jim Callaghan told me today that a television interview that he had given a few weeks ago about Soviet prisoners of conscience had been followed by a heavy postbag from young people in this country, arguing that we should look at the beam in our own eye before talking about motes in others. I mentioned this to Geoffrey this evening.

  [A later entry, dated 31 August 1999, records a comment made by Valerie Strachan of Customs and Excise that one of the troubles of having such a young group of Cabinet ministers was that they tended to ignore the advice of their senior officials and permanent secretaries, on the grounds that anyone over fifty was over the top. Robert Cooper had also told me that he didn’t think that Robin Cook trusted any of his officials; but neither did any of Robin Cook’s officials trust him!]

  14 DECEMBER 1988

  I discussed with Geoffrey Howe Lord Young’s behaviour over BP and the Kuwait Investment Office, on which he has grossly failed to consult either the FCO or the Department of Energy in talking directly to the Kuwaitis. Geoffrey sounds thoroughly fed up with him, and commented that he is beginning to doubt the value of their private meetings, since ‘he seems to have no political instincts’.