12th May 2003Chris Mullin, Labour MP for Sunderland South, writes in his diary:
To London on the 10.42. Just after Doncaster, the Scarborough MP, Lawrie Quinn, passed by and said he had heard on the radio that Clare Short had resigned. [That afternoon in the Commons] Clare rose as soon as Jack Straw had finished his statement on Iraq. She was seated a couple of rows back from the Speaker, between Tom Clarke and Dennis Turner, who, after the twists and turns of the last few weeks, are about her only friends in this place. I was standing a couple of yards away. Clare was heard, for the most part, in dead silence. Only when she broadened her attack, away from Iraq and on to The Man [Tony Blair] personally, was there a certain amount of mumbling and when she sat down there was no hear-hearing, not even from those who share her view on the handling of the war. She has alienated everybody. A sad end. Until two months ago, Clare was arguably one of our most successful ministers. It is down to her, and the battles she fought in the early days, that aid policy has been prised free of trade and foreign policy and no-one can take that away from her. If she'd gone, alongside Robin Cook (and with his dignity) she would have retained the respect of everybody and would probably have had a future running a UN agency or even the IMF or World Bank. As it is she has blown every bridge. (From A View From The Foothills by Chris Mullin; Profile, £20)
21st May, 1979Roy Jenkins, EC President, writes:
A noon meeting with Mrs Thatcher, the first time I had seen her since the election, and indeed, apart from perhaps three meetings with her as leader of the opposition, almost the only time that I had talked to her seriously. She was anxious to be pleasant, came downstairs to meet me, arriving very faintly flustered two seconds too late to be at the door. And then we had beaming photographs taken and moved to the upstairs study, where I had spent so much time with Wilson and even a certain amount of time with Callaghan. Rather to my surprise she began by offering me a drink, which Callaghan certainly wouldn't have done at noon, and I'm rather doubtful about Wilson too. I rather primly refused, saying it was a little early. She looked rather disappointed, so I made what I thought was a tactful recovery, saying. "Let's have one at 12.30. it will give us something to look forward to if the conversation goes badly." However it didn't go too badly at all. We started off with some general conversation about Chequers, her pattern of life, etc. Then she went into her rather simplistic European lecture, which I let run on for ten minutes or so when it slightly died away, and then after that she listened as well as talked and I should think I had 60 per cent of the remaining hour. She was fairly rigid on a number of things, notably fish, but was however very anxious to strike a constructive note on others; very determined to get something on the budget. (From European Diary 1977-1981 by Roy Jenkins; Collins, 1989)
25th May, 1971Cecil King, chairman of Mirror Group Newspapers 1951-68, writes:
Lunch for Rupert Murdoch to hear the Fleet Street news. The combined scale of the Sketch and Daily Mail, when they merged, was 2.4m copies. The new Mail now sells under 2m. The paper is generally condemned and no one thinks it has a future. The Sun is doing 2.4m, the Mirror about 4.25m, the Express 3.6m. The Express has kept its sale in Scotland but has been dropping elsewhere.? The Times is down from 450,000 to 320,000 and is now below the Guardian. Rupert did not think [William] Rees-Mogg [The Times's editor] knew what was going on among his staff: the paper just gets itself out. The Sunday Express is fully booked for ads and doing well. The Evening News should now be making money: the Standard is still losing. (From The Cecil King Diaries 1970-1974; Jonathan Cape, 1975)
To London on the 10.42. Just after Doncaster, the Scarborough MP, Lawrie Quinn, passed by and said he had heard on the radio that Clare Short had resigned. [That afternoon in the Commons] Clare rose as soon as Jack Straw had finished his statement on Iraq. She was seated a couple of rows back from the Speaker, between Tom Clarke and Dennis Turner, who, after the twists and turns of the last few weeks, are about her only friends in this place. I was standing a couple of yards away. Clare was heard, for the most part, in dead silence. Only when she broadened her attack, away from Iraq and on to The Man [Tony Blair] personally, was there a certain amount of mumbling and when she sat down there was no hear-hearing, not even from those who share her view on the handling of the war. She has alienated everybody. A sad end. Until two months ago, Clare was arguably one of our most successful ministers. It is down to her, and the battles she fought in the early days, that aid policy has been prised free of trade and foreign policy and no-one can take that away from her. If she'd gone, alongside Robin Cook (and with his dignity) she would have retained the respect of everybody and would probably have had a future running a UN agency or even the IMF or World Bank. As it is she has blown every bridge. (From A View From The Foothills by Chris Mullin; Profile, £20)
21st May, 1979Roy Jenkins, EC President, writes:
A noon meeting with Mrs Thatcher, the first time I had seen her since the election, and indeed, apart from perhaps three meetings with her as leader of the opposition, almost the only time that I had talked to her seriously. She was anxious to be pleasant, came downstairs to meet me, arriving very faintly flustered two seconds too late to be at the door. And then we had beaming photographs taken and moved to the upstairs study, where I had spent so much time with Wilson and even a certain amount of time with Callaghan. Rather to my surprise she began by offering me a drink, which Callaghan certainly wouldn't have done at noon, and I'm rather doubtful about Wilson too. I rather primly refused, saying it was a little early. She looked rather disappointed, so I made what I thought was a tactful recovery, saying. "Let's have one at 12.30. it will give us something to look forward to if the conversation goes badly." However it didn't go too badly at all. We started off with some general conversation about Chequers, her pattern of life, etc. Then she went into her rather simplistic European lecture, which I let run on for ten minutes or so when it slightly died away, and then after that she listened as well as talked and I should think I had 60 per cent of the remaining hour. She was fairly rigid on a number of things, notably fish, but was however very anxious to strike a constructive note on others; very determined to get something on the budget. (From European Diary 1977-1981 by Roy Jenkins; Collins, 1989)
25th May, 1971Cecil King, chairman of Mirror Group Newspapers 1951-68, writes:
Lunch for Rupert Murdoch to hear the Fleet Street news. The combined scale of the Sketch and Daily Mail, when they merged, was 2.4m copies. The new Mail now sells under 2m. The paper is generally condemned and no one thinks it has a future. The Sun is doing 2.4m, the Mirror about 4.25m, the Express 3.6m. The Express has kept its sale in Scotland but has been dropping elsewhere.? The Times is down from 450,000 to 320,000 and is now below the Guardian. Rupert did not think [William] Rees-Mogg [The Times's editor] knew what was going on among his staff: the paper just gets itself out. The Sunday Express is fully booked for ads and doing well. The Evening News should now be making money: the Standard is still losing. (From The Cecil King Diaries 1970-1974; Jonathan Cape, 1975)
