e-help Seminar 28 Instant or more-or-less instant history
Toulouse 8-10 June 2006
The publication of
The Spin Doctor’s
Diary is September
of last year caused
a minor storm in
Whitehall. I was
told it had provoked
“apoplexy” in the
Cabinet Office and I
know that many
people in No.10
believe it should
never have been
published while Tony
Blair was still
Prime Minister.
The serialisation in The Mail on Sunday, not
surprisingly, fuelled the flames. Not least because they decided,
without informing me, to publish those parts of the Diary that I had
agreed to alter at the request of the Cabinet Office prior to
publication. Among the more controversial stories were that the Prime
Minister had “relished” first sending British troops into action in Iraq
back in 1999; that he had cursed the “fucking Welsh” over the first
Assembly elections and that he had apparently promised Rupert Murdoch
not to change policy towards Europe without speaking to him first.
The House of Commons Select Committee on Public Administration will
report shortly on the whole business of whether and if so when it is
acceptable for former civil servants to publish diaries. And the North
Wales Police are still investigating whether Tony Blair committed and
offence under the Public Order Act with his choice words about the
Welsh.
I will confine my remarks to the business of engaging in instant or
more-or-less instant history in the way that I have, although I’m happy
to answer questions on the Welsh or anything else.
One of the questions I asked the Select Committee to consider when I
gave evidence to them was ‘Who Writes History?’. Should rules designed
to protect legitimate rights to government confidentiality prevent
anybody other than ministers and Prime Ministers from setting out their
experiences shortly after leaving the corridors of power?
Because when I first submitted the manuscript of my diary to the Cabinet
Office the then Cabinet Secretary, Sir Andrew Turnbull, replied and not
only refused consent to publish but also said he found books like mine
“totally unacceptable”. I will try to explain why I believe he was wrong
to come to that snap judgement and why future writers in my position
deserve to be treated more fairly.
