The ego has landed

As earlier readers will remember my bedtime reading has been the Alastair Campbell diaries. AC clearly displays all the feature of the Microtrend "Long Attention Span" -- abridged diaries of 750 pages, marathon runner,,, nine years working for TB. But as someone who has never managed a diary that said anything other than "French homework" "guides" "dog ill" (and as you can tell that is not exactly recent... so here are some random reflections on the world of No. 10 as told by AC..

First though the really amazing thing is that despite AC being appalled by Hutton's request for his diaries they are amazingly personal -- if I had been editing it I would have deleted much of the home life sections.. but the other thing I am amazed by is the sheer amount of time AC must have spent recording people telling him what a great job he was doing... insecure - probably; egomaniacal - absolutely. I don't for a minute deny that within his own terms AC was doing a good job - but does he really need to write it down when he is that busy... and leave it in? maybe there were more psychological flaws around in Downing Street than we thought.

the second is the bizarre Jane Austen style world our leaders seem to inhabit. Worrying about clothes - Tony seems to have had some terrible outfits. Worrying what other people think of them. Looking to friends for help and support. Calling each other. Writing to each other. Does anyone else have the time for all that. And how they all go on holiday together somewhere in the South of France... and these guys are all so emotional -- so much of the time.

the third is the bizarre friends he keeps -- apart from the obvious (and omnipresent) PM - Peter Mandelson to you and me and PG - Philip Gould - his big buddies are Alex Ferguson offering a lot of political advice (was Tony Blair managing Man Utd at the same time), Alan Clark and Nick Soames... and most recent mention Brendan Forster. But no business people. No civil servants. And I had never realised Carole Caplin was around for quite so long... and was so important to the Blairs.

the fourth is how important Bill Clinton is to him and how much BC stays involved even after he steps down as President - even though he is also surprisingly positive about Dubya. But there is a passage near the end as AC tires of life in Downing Street when BC exposits on political strategy to AC and PM and AC (compare and contrast) drops his jaw at the biggest political genius of recent times..

the fifth is not so surprising having been in No.10 -- just how much time foreign affairs - the Balkans, then Afghanistan and then Iraq and Northern Ireland take up -- but seems to have risen to new heights under TB - and is matched by the other phenomenon -- the PM (TB not PM) is clearly completely detached form anything to do with the economy. Off the radar. And climate change gets its first mention on p 632 -- on the plane to WSSD in Jo'burg in 2002.

the sixth though is how irrelevant the civil service is to the Blair operation - a few mention of a few No, 10 Private Secretaries; a couple of times when the Cabinet Secretary is wheeled in; John Scarlett and some spooks as Iraq hots up -- but otherwise the civil service may as well not exist. Any idea of the Cabinet Secretary as an important player is not part of this script.

the seventh - and not a surprise - is just how much he hates the media without acknowledging any role in having been part of the sort of media we have -- or of the way he and the other Labour spinners used it against the previous government. Interesting to see how maddening AC found Charlie Whelan to deal with.

interesting too to read his views on Cabinet Ministers -- in particular his complete loathing of Clare Short from the start; despair at Mo Mowlem but clear on why Margaret Beckett was always regarded as such a safe pair of hands. But the person who emerges really well from the whole thing is John Prescott who comes over as a really solid and sensible player keeping his head when everyone else is in swooning hysterics.

So despite the length a fascinating if overemoting view of government, When we get to the real thing with added TB-GB, please leave out all the self-praise; too much personal info -- because just as you had to read Nigel Lawson to understand 80s economic policy, the real AC diaries will be read long after any TB autobiography for what really was going on in government.

on an (AC type) personal note, another major milestone this morning -- first time I put a sock on my left foot. Sounds minor but inability to put my socks on was the outstanding barrier to independent living - but does not signify new improved bendiness but the purchase of a nifty device called a "Sockaid" at the disabled shop in Bognor - a Blue Peter style contraption of a piece of plastic and two strings -- strange but effective.