The Spectator

Tuesday

The Spectator

We spend far too much on science

A brilliant topic on the Today programme – the scandal of the government science budget. A staggering £3.4bn of our money is spent on science – thus socialising what should be a completely liberalised form of human endeavour. This partly explains why so many scientists are on call to add to the chorus of global warming alarmism: this is where the research funds lie. All this diverts scientific attention from cutting-edge science which runs against the grain of government priorities. We have a world class Foreign Office, yet are closing down embassies because its £1.8bn budget is deemed excessive. Scandalously, a school teaching Farsi and Arabic to GCHQ staff was recently closed because of cuts.

Monday

The Spectator

If you’re looking for…

The Spectator’s thoughts on Boris running for Mayor see Mary Wakefield’s ten point plan and the magazine’s official endorsement. We also have comprehensive coverage of the Alastair Campbell diaries. Anthony Browne, head of the think tank Policy Exchange and the former chief political correspondent of The Times, flags up and explains the key passages below; Reading the Campbell Diaries Parts  I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X and XI. Our political editor Fraser Nelson previews the coming three-part BBC documentary on the diaries here and Toby Young explains why Campbell is, in reality, more like Adrian Mole than Nicolas Machiavelli. Everything else, continues below.

The Spectator

What matters in the Campbell diaries

If you can’t be bothered ploughing through the Campbell memoirs, BBC2 has done a superb job filleting it. I’ve just had a preview of the three-part documentary starting on Wednesday – complete with his bleeped-out expletives and thoughts on everything from homicide to suicide. Fittingly, it’s from the same production company that did Grumpy Old Men. He reads from his diary, while a narrator and news clips take up the rest of the story. There are lots of shots of Campbell jogging, writing on his desk and staring out the window as if mulling world domination. It’s certainly his side of the story, and doesn’t pretend to be a balanced history. Yet for those who consider Campbell a villain, there’s plenty ammo to make you say ‘Ha!

The Spectator

Boris for Mayor: A ten-step program

1) Do you remember in Peter Pan when poor Tinkerbell fades away because no-one believes in fairies, and how miraculously she perks up when the children begin to clap? Well, it’s the same with Boris.  I’m not saying that he responds to applause like fairy, just that the first step is faith. Exorcise your doubts right now: Believe in Boris! 2) Prepare a retort for the naysayers. Insecure and ambitious men will cry ‘buffoon!’ But Boris has done a good job as higher education minister, written serious books and made ancient history accessible. If he’s an idiot, what does that make the rest of us? 3) Then get online. There are hundreds of bloggers out there all tap-tapping away about Boris’s prospects. Log on. Join in. As we say round here.

The Spectator

Mo Mowlam, not as useful as she was popular

August 17th, 1998 on how useless Mo Mowlam was in drafting a statement after the Omagh bomb: “We then had the ludicrous situation of TB having to ask Mo for her fax number, and her shouting out ‘Anyone out there who knows the fax number?’ and then saying the officials had disappeared. It was the Mo manner that was fine when things didn’t matter, but deeply irritating when they did. She sounded more and more exasperated. ‘I’ll say whatever you want, Tony,’ she said, at which point he exploded at her… she then lost the plot completely… Mo was getting near hysterical. TB said to her if you went out and read that statement as you read it to us earlier, you will be dead. I mean dead, totally out of the water.

The Spectator

The Dodgy Dossier

Sunday 21st June 2003, on demands that he should resign over the “dodgy dossier” on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq: “I hadn’t slept well. I was avoiding answering the phone other than to the office because by now all the broadcasters and half the Sundays were trying to ask me if I was going. Now was probably not the right time. It would be seen as bad for TB and bad for me if I went under a cloud.” Anthony Browne, director of the think-tank Policy Exchange and prior to that the chief political correspondent of The Times, is plucking out the most interesting passages from the just published Alastair Campbell diaries for Coffee House.

The Spectator

No WMD

June 2nd 2003, on the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq: “TB was still in ‘it’s ridiculous’ mode and getting more and more irritated by what was essentially a media-driven thing. The main problem of course was that there were no WMD discoveries beyond the two labs, and no matter how much we said that there were other priorities now, the public were being told as a matter of fact that we had done wrong. We had Clare Short, Robin Cook and a lot of backbenchers on the rampage now. So it was difficult.” Anthony Browne, director of the think-tank Policy Exchange and prior to that the chief political correspondent of The Times, is plucking out the most interesting passages from the just published Alastair Campbell diaries for Coffee House.

The Spectator

Mandelson’s first resignation

December 19th 1998, on the news breaking that Peter Mandelson had borrowed money from Geoffrey Robinson to buy a house: “I had a long chat with Peter M, who claimed not to see what the problem was re the loan. He said what was wrong with a friend lending money to someone? I said it had the potential to be a big story…. He was adamant it would not be much of a story. I said it had the potential to be the worst thing to hit us yet.” December 23rd, 1998: “The papers were absolutely ghastly for Peter, massive coverage and relentlessly negative.” December 23rd 1998, on Mandelson after TB forced him to resign: “I felt desperately sad for Peter, who came back in looking wretched.

The Spectator

‘Two families with the same woman’

July 11th, 2002 on TB telling him that Cherie was pregnant: “He then walked over to the wall, leaned against it, laughed and said ‘There’s another complication I need to tell you about.’ He said: ‘I think Cherie is pregnant.’ He said they were both absolutely gobsmacked about the whole thing. But it did mean it was forcing him to think about the future. ‘I’ve effectively got two families with the same woman.’” Anthony Browne, director of the think-tank Policy Exchange and prior to that the chief political correspondent of The Times, is plucking out the most interesting passages from the just published Alastair Campbell diaries for Coffee House.

The Spectator

Downing Street wives

July 25th, 2003 On Cherie Blair firing Alastair Campbell’s wife Fiona Millar as her adviser, accusing her of briefing against her. ”I told TB about CB’s call and said that it was unforgivable that she spoke to Fiona like that after all she’d done for her. He said people were too fraught at the moment and Cherie was feeling under pressure. I said she needed to apologise, otherwise there would be badness between them that helped nobody. He said that the problem at the moment is that the public will begin to wonder whether we are governing the country. All they hear is all this stuff about personalities, process and the rest and they start to wonder if it’s all we do.

The Spectator

The Mandelson-Brown relationship

May 9th 1996, on Peter Mandelson’s row with Gordon Brown over political strategy: “They started talking very loudly at each other, just a few decibels short of shouting. TB, who for once was sitting in the chair by the TV…said for heaven’s sake keep this under control. Peter then stood up, said no, I won’t, I’m not taking this any of this crap any longer, and stormed out. TB just shook his head, while GB stared at his papers then started scribbling.” Comment: in case there were any doubters left in Britain, the diaries make crystal clear the appalling relationship between two of the godfathers of New Labour - Brown and Mandelson.

The Spectator

Campbell considered suicide

August 10th, 2003 on being told while on holiday in France that the Hutton Inquiry wanted to read his diaries: “I had received the request for my diary on Thursday and now, finally, this year’s was being flown out by Peter Howes [duty clerk]. As I left the house, and said goodbye to Fiona, I did actually wonder momentarily whether it would be the last time I saw her, whether what I discovered on reading my own diary would be so awful that I would want to top myself. It was only a passing thought, but it was there, and it came back several times as I drove down to Marseille. I knew I had done nothing wrong, but in this climate, things had gone beyond reason, it was like a drama or a novel, and nobody had control of events.

The Spectator

Reading the Campbell diaries, Part III

August 11th, 1994: on Blair telling him about his plans to ditch Clause 4, while trying to persuade Campbell to work as his press secretary: “By now, he had also let me know, and sworn me to secrecy, that he was minded to have a review of the constitution and scrap Clause 4. I have never felt any great ideological attachment to Clause 4 one way or the other. If it made people happy, fine, but it didn’t actually set out what the party was about today. It wasn’t the politics or the ideology that appealed. It was the boldness. People had talked about it for years. Here was a new leader telling me that he was thinking about doing it in his first conference speech as leader. Bold. I said I hope you do, because it’s bold. I will, he said.

The Spectator

Reading the Campbell diaries, Part II

January 24th, 2001 on Peter Mandelson’s second resignation, over the Hinduja passports-for-favours affair: “I went back up and TB looked absolutely wretched. Peter looked becalmed. TB said he had made clear to PM he had to go and that though he wasn’t sure, over time he would see why it had been necessary. TB seemed much more emotional about the whole thing than Peter….Peter was far less emotional than first time, much more matter of fact. I said he was a good thing, and he didn’t deserve this happening to him again.” Comment: Reports at the time insisted that it was Campbell who in effect forced Mandelson's on the spot resignation, and that they had a blazing row over it.

The Spectator

Reading the Campbell diaries

Anthony Browne, director of the think-tank Policy Exchange and prior to that the chief political correspondent of The Times, is plucking out the most interesting passages from the just published Alastair Campbell diaries for Coffee House. June 30th 2003 on going for BBC over Andrew Gilligan’s report that he sexed up the “dodgy dossier”: “I went up to see TB, who said he didn’t want it going beyond next week. He lacked the killer instinct. His rationale was that he didn’t want every single media organisation against him.  I said we had to get it absolutely proven that we were right and use that to force a rethink of the political/journalism culture.

The Spectator

Snuffing away

Marvellous to read James Delingpole on snuff in this week's issue and the very next day to go out to lunch and encounter two people both enthusiastically snuffling away. They managed to do so quite neatly, without sneezing volcanically into voluminous tobacco-stained handkerchiefs. One of them favoured a slightly mentholated mix, while the other's was mustier, with notes of sandalwood and cinnamon. Their supplies came in small tins like miniature jerry cans, which was a little disappointing - I had hoped for exquisite enamelled snuffboxes and more of a flourish about the sniffing. Still, it's early days.

The Spectator

More Mole than Machiavelli

Well, Alan Clark he aint. The publication today of Alastair Campbell's diaries looks set to be a colossal damp squib. I haven't read the 794-page book, but judging from the extracts he's posted on his website Campbell's observations are almost comically uninteresting. Here he is, for example, on meeting the Princess of Wales in 1995: "She's standing there absolutely, spellbindingly, drop-dead gorgeous, in a way that the millions of photos didn't quite get. "She said 'Hello', held out her hand and said she was really pleased to meet me, so I mumbled something back about being more pleased. "'It would make a very funny picture if there were any paparazzi in those trees,' she said.

Sunday

The Spectator

What happened at Live Earth

Read Matthew d’Ancona’s Live Earth reports: Live from Live Earth, Rocking for the Planet, Gore’s message is confusing, can Geri be clearer?, Let’s save this funny old world, Nan-archy in the UK, The Excellence of Tree Stock, Turning it up to 11 and Nobody does it better.

The Spectator

Obama’s challenge

Newsweek has a great cover story about Barack Obama that touches on one of the least-talked about, but most interesting issues surrounding his candidacy: the worry among some black leaders and voters that electing a black president could actually be bad for blacks. The argument goes that once an African-American has been elected president, society will be tempted to conclude that all the problems of racial justice have been solved and move away from things like affirmative action. Here’s Obama’s response to this question: “the impulse I think may be to write a story that says Barack Obama represents a quote-unquote post-racial politics. That term I reject because it implies that somehow my campaign represents an easy shortcut to racial reconciliation.