The Burden of Power: Countdown to Iraq - The Alastair Campbell Diaries (101 page)

There was no give at all. Putin’s face was tight and his eyes really piercing. His cheek muscles clenched whenever TB defended the US or the policy on Iraq. He said partnership was a two-way thing and the Americans care only about themselves. There had to be a role for both partners, not just one partner doing whatever they wanted. That was the central message, again and again and again. TB kept asking him – so what do you do, how do you resolve it? – and then would come another wave.

I kept thinking of Fiona when she was really angry with me, telling me it was all one way, all on my terms. I took her for granted and she’d had enough of it. This was someone who felt he deserved to be treated as an equal, and he wasn’t being treated as an equal and he was angry, and TB was the person who was going to cop the anger. At one point Putin said the whole post-September 11 response was designed to show off American greatness. They don’t care what anyone else thinks. TB was about to respond but he didn’t let him ‘Don’t answer – there is no answer. That is the truth Tony, and you have to know it. There are bad people in the administration and you know it.’

David said as we left ‘Fascinating, absolutely fascinating.’ I said that was the death of diplomacy. It certainly was, he said. There was no effort at all. TB was a bit subdued as we went to the plane. He said he thought ultimately Putin would do a deal on the UN but he felt Iraq was clearly going to have to be sorted as a coalition of the willing. He felt we should put together a plan that tried to meet the points the Russians were making, but if they were basically just going to bugger about we should say OK, we will have to do it on our own. TB had been taken at one point to see Putin’s private quarters and what he saw worried him. He said it was like something out of the Roman Empire, that it had been transformed. An Olympic-sized pool for his own use only. Stallions. Horses with butlers! I had felt too that Putin was far grander than before, much more up himself, a bit peevish.

I drove to the airport with TB and though we assumed the car was bugged, we had a pretty frank discussion. He was less shocked than David and I had been and said they had an argument different to ours and it was far better we have it out like that. But in the end they are wrong. You cannot just walk away from the US. It is a mistake. The reason they will go it alone on some things is because they can. He was blaming Chirac a bit for getting Putin more wound up. Chirac was even saying the US was a bigger threat than al-Qaeda. He was really keen to see TB fall flat on his face over this one. What was very clear was that it was going to be difficult to put things back together again. These were pretty deep fissures we had been witnessing. By the time we were flying home, TB was saying ‘what a day. He invites me out there. I go. He insults me publicly and privately. Then I come home. Bloody brilliant.’

He thought a lot of it was driven by Russia no longer being seen as a superpower and the anger that aroused. They were angry and humiliated and they needed to let out the anger. I said though that
Putin had a point – the truth is the Americans do tend to treat people like shit unless they agree with them and that their vision of democracy was stars-and-stripes-coloured. Everything was seen through their own prism. TB said that the answer was not to rival them, because they were now the only superpower, but to build a partnership, support them but in exchange for support be listened to and gain influence. Tony Bishop felt Putin had missed an opportunity to build bridges and he seemed genuinely disappointed that Putin behaved as he did. The press were as shocked as we were and had loved it.

TB said what it showed was real deep anger but the question was how was it to be channelled? How do we use it to get the world on a better footing? He could see some merit in Putin’s argument but he seemed to be saying the Americans were not entitled to use their power for their own ends. I said he wasn’t saying that, he was saying others had the right to be treated with respect. That their status as the only superpower – something Vlad never actually acknowledged, I noticed – gave them an added responsibility to think of others. I had sat in on so many TB meetings but this had been one of the most memorable. David M and [Sergei] Prikhodko [Putin’s foreign affairs adviser] both agreed afterwards they might as well not have been there because the normal diplomatic niceties were out of the window.

Grace’s birthday, stayed home to do her presents etc., then took her to school. It reminded me how rarely I had done so, whereas with the boys it had been pretty much an everyday occurrence, particularly Rory. The [Middle East peace process] road map was finally being published today but all a bit overshadowed by a suicide bombing [in Israel].
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Then it transpired it was carried out by two men with UK passports, which gave it an added difficult dimension here. TB apparently told the PMQs pre-meeting that he felt yesterday was not as bad as it came across on the media, but though the Russian media was not quite so bad, it was certainly not a diplomatic success story.

I went straight to the Commons where TB was doing the PLP. He said it was better than expected, also that it was more obvious than ever that the anti-foundation hospitals argument was being run out of the Treasury. Hilary A told me that John Healey [economic secretary
to the Treasury] had apparently told Jon Trickett [Labour MP] to vote against it. GB was using Healey, Ann Keen, Kevan Jones, Doug Henderson [Labour MPs close to Brown] and others to get up the argument that this was two-tier, divisive. I saw Peter M later and we agreed the time was coming when this had to be exposed for the operation it was, that it all depended on those who knew what was going on remaining silent, including the hacks who got fed this stuff the whole time.

PMQs was a score draw on public services. TB was strong on foundation hospitals but GB was lukewarm at the Treasury Select Committee which was going to spark another TB/GB rift round. Back for an Iraq communications meeting. We agreed to keep them going. I was worried though that ORHA lacked strategic message and capability. Emily [Hands, press officer] was back, and now Ben Wilson was out there and both were saying how hard it was to grip it. But I still felt there were very basic things we could be doing to communicate very basic messages, whatever the security nightmares. Rumsfeld made a visit to Baghdad and [US General Jay] Garner [director of ORHA] did a big chest-thumping number all about being proud to be American. All yuksville stuff for audiences outside the States. Margaret Tutwiler [US State Department] was in charge of the media side of things there and I fixed a call with her for tomorrow.

TB was heavily focused on Northern Ireland, where we were in a bad place again, heading towards cancellation of the elections, which we would do tomorrow. TB said he was determined to treat Sinn Fein politicians like any other. His big worry was that SF would not deliver on the final steps. The other big story was the
Times
exclusive on Special Branch transcripts of calls between McGuinness, Jonathan and Mo [Mowlam, former Northern Ireland Secretary], clearly genuine.

Peter M had been attacked in the
Sun
and wanted to do an article. He sent over a draft which said that both TB and GB had said we MUST join the euro and that it was a matter of when, not if. It took me twenty minutes to persuade him this was not the time, that the second line was an important strategic plank of the assessment, and he should wait. He finally, if reluctantly agreed. He was clearly fed up though. Another discussion about the Olympic bid. TB moved from very pro to neutral and back again. He feared a big hit on the whole Pride in Britain theme if we didn’t go for it. On the way out I bumped into Sarah Brown with a group of wives of Norwich City footballers. She introduced them to me as wives of Norwich United players.

Back running regularly, twice today, feeling a lot better after first reasonable chat with Fiona for ages. She had seen Jonathan yesterday to say she was leaving definitely in September, whatever I did. At my morning meeting, Ian Austin [Brown’s spokesman] reacted very defensively when I asked why GB didn’t simply say that he supports the policy on foundation hospitals. Ian protested that he did, and said people were briefing against GB. Both the
Sun
and
The Times
had leaders today attacking him for not being reformist enough, leaning to Old Labour, which was clearly Murdoch’s line.

We had a brief political meeting, with TB and the core political people, back to the argument why public service delivery isn’t happening at the rate we want, why no overall narrative, where is the sense that education is still the number one priority, where are the values driving what we are doing? We were also still miles apart on the euro. The Treasury sent over a draft structure for the statement, which was hopeless.

Cabinet was pretty dire, a fairly desultory run around the block on European elections, Northern Ireland, fairly lacklustre discussion about Iraq where Clare made even by her standards a ridiculous intervention, that seemed interminable, about a museum in Baghdad.
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JP was barely containable. TB then had a meeting with Milburn who was in a total rage re GB. ‘It’s fucking not on. He’s actually encouraging people to vote down a government bill [Health and Social Care Bill, containing plans to introduce foundation hospitals] that’s been agreed. He’s just sent over a long document with new queries and problems which in fact have already been answered. You wouldn’t tolerate it from anyone else but you have to realise this is an attack on you, Tony, and you can’t just stand there and take it, you have to do something.’ All TB could do was say he had spoken to GB who had assured him he would get in there and support the policy. Alan’s face betrayed the reality, that it was wishful thinking. Hilary A said it was becoming a settled view that GB was using this to damage Alan but it was also damaging TB.

Alan came round to see me afterwards and said if this kind of thing happened again, he would walk. I had the phone call with Margaret Tutwiler in Baghdad. She had a very broad, slightly weird accent and was prickly and defensive. I got the impression she didn’t
really understand why she had to speak to me. I tried a bit of charm and flattery, but all I really got back was a litany of difficulties, how the lack of communications and security made it all very difficult. The impression I got was of a pretty chaotic approach. I said I just wanted to help as much as I could because I feared there was a lack of positive strategic communication and the media would fill the vacuum. She said she thought the best thing would be if we could persuade the press to leave because everything was so chaotic! It was a pretty hopeless discussion.

We had Rumsfeld due in tomorrow. I agreed with his office that there should be no media. TB with Rumsfeld was the last thing we needed right now. We went out for dinner with the Kinnocks. On Iraq, it was very much Neil and I on one side, Glenys and Fiona on the other. Neil had a great line, said he thought we had the best possible outcome, that Saddam was both dead and alive. The only point he slightly lost it was when Glenys said we were following the Bush doctrine. He was pretty down on GB at the moment, said he had told him that the only thing that could stop him becoming leader was himself.

The local elections were better for the Tories than expected. BNP strong in Burnley [from three council seats to eight]. We did badly without it being a disaster.
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TB felt that for midterm, second term, it was OK. I ran in and at the morning meeting had to contend with Ian Austin’s anger at the coverage on foundation hospitals. Both the
Sun
and
The Times
ran stories that GB allies, with John Healey named, were orchestrating the opposition. The Treasury put out a denial and Healey called me later to say it wasn’t true. ‘You know me well enough to know I wouldn’t do that.’ He said he had been accused of stirring both Dobbo [Frank Dobson] and Doug Henderson but was adamant he had not spoken to them about it. TB, though he had asked us not to stir it, didn’t exactly complain about the coverage. It was interesting to note again that it was only when their antics risked being exposed that they occasionally started to pull back.

TB was seeing Rumsfeld at Chequers. But I emphasised to TB he needed to make clear to Rumsfeld how urgent it was that they got their act together at every level. I had been alarmed by the Tutwiler
call. She was very defensive. Dan [Bartlett] called me later, fresh from the spectacular impact of Bush landing on an aircraft carrier in a flight suit to deliver a victory speech, and said she [Tutwiler] had never really wanted to go there.

On foundation hospitals, I met with my team to plan the next few days, with Darren Murphy [Milburn’s special adviser] sure we would win the vote, Simon Stevens [health policy adviser] less confident. We hadn’t really got up the argument well about how this was helping to deliver Labour goals. TB had a pretty daunting workload at the moment, Iraq, UN, euro, NI, asylum, public services, European Convention, all of them really eating into his diary, with the GB business constantly in the background. Looking back at the week, I didn’t feel we had achieved much.

The
Times
magazine ran Peter Stothard’s piece [on TB at fifty] which was pretty fair. The other thing running was follow-up to the line in
Vanity Fair
of me saying ‘We don’t do God’ when I tried to shunt David Margolick to the back of the plane [
see March 16
]. Allied to Peter Stothard’s line that TB had wanted to say ‘God bless you’ at the end of his Iraq broadcast, there was a bit of a running theme in the media about me trying to stop him talking about God. TB seemed reasonably relaxed.

His current refrain was that the only radical policies were coming from the centre. Even the departments we felt were pretty good, like Health under Alan and Education under Charles, didn’t really drive forward change. The machine at the centre was trying to push forward all the time, and the bureaucracies in departments trying to push back. It was really frustrating him. He was disappointed that Charles and David Miliband had allowed the schools funding situation to deteriorate. Whilst he had been so focused on Iraq, others had taken their foot off the accelerator.