From Mandelson to manure, the final volume of Chris Mullin’s diaries is an absorbing read, writes DAVID WHETSTONE
HINDSIGHT is a wonderful thing which is probably why diaries are so popular.
When Chris Mullin runs through a litany of global catastrophes – in his entry for December 31, 1994 – he also notes: “For the first time we have a Leader of the Labour Party who is younger than I am.
“Attractive, capable, well motivated, but it remains to be seen where he is taking us.”
We now know that young Tony Blair took them – Labour – into power for the first time since the 1970s, winning a successive elections.
You may say, yes, but who wants to be told something they know?
Good point. But Mullin, former MP for Sunderland South, was a talented journalist and author before taking up cudgels in the House of Commons and his observations are telling and often full of humour.
The small things as well as the big things get a mention, conveying the impression that this is not just an MP but a human being.
“Passed the day in the garden, spreading compost and horse manure,” is how one day in a politician’s life is recalled. “A pleasant stink pervades.”
Important issues follow on the heels of the domestic and mundane. Hence, Friday, 7 May, 1999: “A crisis at breakfast. Today is Red and White Day. Every child in the city is expected to go to school wearing the Sunderland strip or something resembling it. The only household in the city to be unaware of this is that of the MP.” Followed by, Saturday, 8 May, 1999: “Nato has bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing at least three people. The Chinese have gone ballistic. It is hard to imagine a worst disaster.”
The war in the Balkans, the banning of fox hunting, the extraordinary survival and influence of Peter Mandelson, media ownership and the relationship between Messrs Blair and Brown are strands in a necessarily fragmented narrative.
In the preface, benefiting himself from hindsight, Mullin sums up the significance of the 470 pages to come.
One thought that occurs to him having read through his diary entries – “before the shadow of Iraq fell across the New Labour project” – is how much Tony Blair got right, notably the decision (hugely controversial at the time) to re-write Clause IV of the Labour Party constitution, which relates to nationalisation.
Similarly, his determination to tackle the “huge” benefit culture which was “ironically, the new Government’s most enduring legacy from the Thatcher decade” and to reform public services, in particular education.
Mullin recalls addressing sixth formers at Harrow public school in 2001 and being amazed to find none of the teachers he dined with later had voted Tory at the last election.
Not every die-hard Labour supporter, notably those members who resigned after the Clause IV issue, would have been cheered by this but to Mullin it demonstrated the extent to which Tony Blair had altered the political landscape.
In retirement, Mullin says, his three volumes of diaries have generated a small industry. They formed the substance of a very funny play at Live Theatre earlier this year and have brought a flood of invitations. They also earned Chris Mullin a Journal Culture Award. They should be required reading for every aspirant politician.
A Walk-On Part by Chris Mullin (Profile Books, £25) will be launched at the Lit & Phil, Newcastle, on September 14 at 6pm. Tickets £4. Call 0191 232 0192.