The Burden of Power: Countdown to Iraq - The Alastair Campbell Diaries (78 page)

At TB’s morning meeting he was seized about the whole issue, but also becoming increasingly worried about Iraq. The key question was what we did if and when the US went without the UN. There was a good response to the
Observer
piece [on AC’s marathon run] and lots of cheques coming in now. TB felt that GB had effectively declared war and now intended to let him take the rope and put him out when nobody expected it, which is why he emphasised again that nobody said a word. He was in a total rage about asylum, felt the Home
Office just didn’t get it. He was absolutely enraged by the fact that we kept pressing on this but it just didn’t happen. We had a women’s media reception, at which the women from the lobby were unbelievably aggressive towards TB, whereas the magazine editors were much more like human beings. Nice enough do, though. Then TB, CB, Fiona and I went off for dinner at DB’s government flat at Eaton Place. David had been on at us for ages about wanting to return some of the dinners we had given him, and he was very proud of the house, the way he kept it, the way he managed on his own, though obviously he had help in for dinner. It was a bit of an odd evening though. Cherie, with me at least, was in a very odd, chilly mood and I reckoned relations with her were pretty well beyond repair. She was probably just responding to the fact that earlier we had tried to tone down her speech [to King’s College Law School] for Thursday on children’s rights. TB had said that if we thought there was a problem, and it needed changing, just change it, but she was not really up for listening. David was on OK form, though rather overdoing the host bit, while TB was being more serious than he might normally be at a social event, really wanting David’s take on things. The conversation wasn’t really flowing.

On student finance, I said nobody would believe that parents paid nothing if upfront fees went, because parents would feel responsible for the debts of their children. Cherie, perhaps not clocking the irony post Bristol flats, said she didn’t believe that was the case. David seemed a bit ground down by the Home Office and by the crime and asylum agenda. He really never held back these days when complaining about the Civil Service, the lack of real grip and momentum, the difficulty in getting them to change their ways.

Five-mile run in, averaging 8.10 per mile. Up to see TB, really exercised about student finance now. He felt the exchange of [Cabinet committee] letters with GB had exposed the deep personal and political loathing coming from Gordon. GB was setting out a stack of objections in the policy, which he said was unfair and regressive and anti opportunity. He had spotted the way the
Mail
was going with it, £21,000 splash headline yesterday, and he was moving towards an argument that this was an attack on Middle England and therefore a political disaster. TB had a fair bit of time to prepare for his appearance at the [Commons select committee chairs] Liaison Committee. He kept coming back on the need to get together a proper political strategy on student finance. He wasn’t clear we had it. I felt it lay in a mix of tough choices plus
a dividing line on access. He feared the Middle England attack would really hurt, that there were just enough elements of the poll tax in this for it to be a disaster.
⁵

He went off to the Liaison Committee, where he tried to get up the message that Saddam was weakening, also did lots on counter-terrorism. I had an OK meeting of the Iraq strategy group. There had been a discovery of lots of al-Qaeda documents seized in Afghanistan. One of the SIS guys felt there was more in there about a potential al-Qaeda link with WMD. We also had a discussion about what if anything we could do to build a better image for Bush and in particular break down the European hostility towards him. There was no doubt that though he was different to the caricature, as the main message-carrier he really hurt us. The conference call was a bit all over the place. I was trying to get a proper discussion going about oil, whether in fact we take on the argument about it all being about oil by saying that in part it is, because of its importance to economic stability, but it just wasn’t the forum for a proper strategic discussion. We did however have a bit of proper discussion on Bush, where they needed to know the depth of the problem they had in Europe.

After TB came back, we had a long meeting on student finance, GB now trying to take out the proposal that they also be charged interest on the debt. TB was now demanding to see all the research from all the different systems round the world, also the comparisons between our richest and poorest universities. Then a meeting on the Olympics, where TB and I both made the point that we didn’t seem to have the firm basis on which to make a decision. TB wanted clear advice but people were blowing hot and cold not according to hard fact and analysis. Tessa had definitely moved towards yes, others had moved away. The worry I sensed was that we would say no simply because it was easier than saying yes, and then regret it.

Then over to Derry’s at the Lords to launch my appeal for marathon sponsorship. It was Derry’s idea to hold it there, and it paid off with a terrific turnout, including some big cheques at the end of it. Dickie Bird [former cricket umpire] was an absolute hoot and ended up going back on the train with Mum, talking loudly all the way back about how much he liked TB, me, the government, etc. David
Sainsbury [science minister and party benefactor], John Browne [businessman], David Frost, good turnout from News International and
Mirror
old and new. TB popped in and didn’t look all that comfortable being photographed with me, and I sensed he was a bit bemused about how big the whole thing was going, he probably found it a bit odd when he wasn’t the absolute centre of attention. Tessa, Peter M, Jackie Stewart [former racing driver], Trevor Beattie [advertising executive], Tony Ball [BSkyB chief executive] and his beautiful wife Gabriela. Did a little speech about John [Merritt], Lindsay and Hope.
⁶
Fiona and I found it a bit stressful but the kids were great, and we hoovered up not just cheques but some terrific auction items as well.

Cab in, but ran later, eight miles, after seeing Mel Cash, a physio who had been recommended, and who spends a lot of his time doing ballet dancers. Tuition fees and asylum were TB’s big concerns pre PMQs. For once, he had watched last night’s
Ten O’Clock News
, saw GWB saying he was sick and tired of the line, a clear message that he was losing patience with the UN, and they had pretty much decided it was going to happen and that was that. He felt there had definitely been a change in mood and it was pretty bad, and in addition the Franco-German forty years love-in today was more than symbolic, but also carried substance.
⁷
Stephen Wall had done an interesting note on it. TB read it, said what it means is that the French will get Schroeder into a basic anti-American camp, which is why Bush needs to do more to make it an international coalition.

Sally [Morgan] and I banged on at him again about the need to get them on a broader international route and even he, today, was saying how tough the situation was. He sensed that the inspectors would not necessarily come out with what was needed for absolute clarity, so we would have to face the prospect of going in without a UNSCR. Chirac was making it clearer than ever that he would be against war come what may, even with a smoking gun.

The anti-war mood was definitely growing and I raised it on the US conference call and pointed out the difficulty it was causing. It
led to a rare proper discussion. I said they were going through all the gears for their domestic audience, and saying what Bush said yesterday, that gave us problems over here. Tucker [Eskew, White House media affairs], [Richard] Boucher and [Anna] Perez [now spokeswoman for Condoleezza Rice] all asked, genuinely as opposed to in irritation, what we felt they should do. I said it was back to the big picture about the UN standing up for itself, him being the guy that went the UN route, but are we serious or not? David also spoke to Condi to say the politics had got a lot harder and they had to be more sympathetic to international issues, pressures, concerns.

Dan Bartlett called and we spent half an hour or so kicking it around. We faced the same danger we had had re Kosovo and Afghanistan, namely moral equivalence, this time between US and Iraq. Dan realised they had a problem and wanted to do something. I was very frank, but he took it well enough. Condi told David that Bush wanted to spend some of the dinner discussing communications. Sally said to TB if we didn’t take real care, this was the end of him. So far as the PLP was concerned, there had to be UN support, and they had to see real evidence. TB was pretty clear though that we couldn’t peel off from the US without very good reason.

The other problem today was [Robert] Mugabe [President of Zimbabwe]. Unbeknown to me, on Christmas Eve Jack Straw had got TB to agree we would try to do a deal with France re EU sanctions on Mugabe.
⁸
He would come to the France–Africa summit in exchange for France agreeing rollover sanctions so that he didn’t come to the EU Africa summit. I tried to get TB to look at it again, but he felt the other Europeans just didn’t care enough about it. At the PMQs meeting, he was back raging about Civil Service performance, particularly re asylum. He was pretty poor. He then stayed in for Charles’ statement on tuition fees, which he didn’t feel had sufficient political message. He didn’t feel we had set the expectations right. I worked on his speech for tomorrow and got Matthew Doyle [Labour Party press officer] out briefing the line that reform is the key. The message was becoming tired though. Godric came back from the afternoon lobby, having had a real hard time over Zimbabwe, because we had learned by then that TB and Jack having done a deal with the French on it, Clare [Short] and [Peter] Hain were both on record saying it was wrong.

Six-mile run with Hugh Jones. At Jonathan’s meeting, we agreed now was the time to motor on the big argument on student finance. Charles C was up for it, but stupidly pulled out of
Dimbleby
[ITV]. I was really annoyed at the Mugabe decision, it was realpolitik at its worst and I was amazed that Jack had signed up to the deal. Robin was now lobbying hard against. Jack was in the US seeing Powell. We persuaded TB he would get absolutely fucked over and why on earth were we helping out the French like this? TB said his recollection was that Chirac was going to ask Mugabe, otherwise the others would not come, and then get TB to veto it. TB said he was OK with that, but Anna Wechsberg’s [private secretary, foreign affairs] note on their chat didn’t say that. TB had scribbled on it and his note was misinterpreted as going hard for the deal. He wanted Jack now to unravel it.

At the political strategy meeting, Philip said we needed more simple messages. TB asked Douglas, John Reid and me to put together a strategy paper focused on outcomes, and also wanted us to get a grip of a crime and asylum communications strategy. The recent [focus] groups had been poor, disconnected, not delivering, trust a problem, crime and asylum really bad, only the economy really accepted as doing OK. Cabinet was pretty low-key, Iraq, most people treading water before tomorrow’s political Cabinet. Good stuff on the marathon front,
The Times
wanting a column on the build-up in exchange for cash for the fund, ten grand from Gavyn Davies [BBC chairman]. TB lunch with Bertie Ahern, cooked by Jamie Oliver [TV chef]. I was just trying to plough through paperwork as they talked over where we were with the IRA. They were still thinking it was possible for a big-bang solution to end the IRA.

I left early for Rory’s parents’ evening. He was doing well but apparently talks about Manchester United too much. Ken Clarke on
Question Time
came out against our [Iraq] policy and said we were the fifty-first state of America. I called TB to make sure he knew. He said there was no doubt we were going to go through a bad phase, be more unpopular, but we were doing the right thing and would come through it. At our best when at our boldest, etc.

Ran in, thirty minutes. Brief meeting with Douglas on the draft communications plan we had worked up on asylum. The
Today
programme had an Iraq story about chemical weapons which went OK, and we didn’t overdo it. Probably came from the CIA. One of those days when there was too much stress and pressure, too many
things to deal with. Cabinet was pretty poor in terms of the discussions. TB flat, GB a bit tired, Milburn and Reid probably the best contributions. JP strong re discipline but also saying we needed more Cabinet committee discussion on policy. Clare offside, the rest pretty average. Hysterical moment at the start. Someone in the previous meeting had broken the back of a chair. JP carried it round to where GB sat and said ‘Let’s see if he notices, and let’s see if he laughs.’ He didn’t want me to change it back, said leave it, and let’s see what happens. When GB came in, JP was watching to see how he reacted. He sat down, the broken piece fell away and again he showed himself pretty much incapable of laughter.

TB said we were strong on the surface but get beneath it and on the issues – Iraq, crime, asylum, public service delivery – we faced a lot of problems. He felt now was the time to be facing up to the tough decisions, not ducking them. The background, Iraq and tax rises coming in, would make it difficult, and we were in for a testing time. GB said they were the biggest tax rises ever under Labour, £12 billion, and we faced a number of important economic challenges. He warned fifteen per cent of the extra money would go on public sector pay. We just had to defend the tax rises for health. He felt taxes were now set at the right level, and we could campaign against the Tories on cuts. He said the main theme running up to the Budget is modern prosperity for all. He went into no detail, said it would go through an economic subcommittee. He felt we needed to decide department by department the key achievements of the government. And on the euro, he emphasised the comprehensive nature of the tests.