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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Same Old Same Old, 9 Jan 2009
Having read Bernard Donoughue's Downing Street Diary Volume One which covered the time he was in No.10 with the whiskey sodden and increasingly paranoid Harold Wilson I picked this second volume up with anticipation. I was disappointed.
At least with the antics of self important Marcia Williams, whose hold over Harold Wilson was never fully explained, the paralysis at the heart of government could be understood in its historical context in the first volume. The country was run by people out of their depth whose presence at the centre of government was an ego trip rather than a political cause. As Donoughe says bitterly of Harold Wilson "He sadly cannot resist a chance of getting into the news".
In the case of Jim Callaghan's time as Prime Minister there was something more interesting to talk about such as the Lib/Lab Pact which was on/off and a matter of political expediency rather than political conviction. As long as they kept the Tories out of office nothing else mattered. It sounds familiar.
Of course the Liberals had their problems, most notably Jeremy Thorpe who was allegedly nominating people for peerages at £60,000 a time on behalf of the Liberals and then pocketing the money for himself. The author himself whines that Walter Winterbottom didn't know "how much I did to get him his knighthood", moans that a civil servant who was identified as being hopeless received an award and mentions he put forward Robin Day's name, which shows that nothing has changed over thirty years - other than the names.
At the time the Thorpe affair was about to break Donoughue noted, "Scandals are the nastiest experiences in politics: scared politicians, hysterical and self-righteous civil servants and hypocritical lying journalists" This was before Harold Wilson admitted he was aware that his government had done nothing to stop sanctions busting by the oil companies in Rhodesia. I suspect Donoughe has the right adjectives to describe the politicians, journalists and civil servants but not necessarily in the right order.
The most disappointing feature of the book is how little genuine and relevant historical material is contained in a book which consists very largely of trivia. So Donoughue got two free tickets to watch an Alan Bennett play (irrelevant unless you want to know how the great and the good interact socially) but did we need to know that Rex Harrison's young girlfriend was sat in front of them coughing irritatingly throughout? It's not even worthy of gossip let alone history.
Neither is there much insight into the personalities involved. Observers then (and now) knew Tony Benn lacked credibility. After all it was Hugh Gaitskell who had described him as the "perpetual undergraduate" over a decade earlier. The Left wanted to present a solid front before accepting office under Callaghan until they realised the alternative was time on the back benches. Benn frequently threatened to raise opposition in the party but always backed down when it came to the crunch. Fame is still the spur.
Donoughue seems to relish being in the centre of things and, as such, rarely reflects on his own unimportance in the Policy Unit. Government is very much about who you know rather than what you know. The book is littered with references about dining with people he knew at Oxford or Harvard. What is clear from the book that most Ministers weren't up to standard. Not much change there then.
There was disdain for former Ministers (including - especially - Harold Wilson) and complaints of official leaks, often by the people who had done the leaking in the first place. However, too much attention is given to boring battles for status amongst those in power for whom the electorate seem to an inconvenience who only need be involved every five years or when bye-elections loom.
Public papers will be released in due course but I cannot see this volume adding as much to the knowledge of the period as Donoughue's earlier book. The number of occasions when Donoughue actually refers to policy disagreements in depth are too few and too far between. However, the themes of incompetence and advantage (Donoughue thought seeing foreign leaders was a waste of time as they didn't carry any votes in the UK) remain constant.
In summarising his time with Callaghan Donoughe opines. "Much was beyond our power and influence....Governments and Prime Minsters can achieve much less than their electors believe. Expectations are doomed to disappointment. Prospects for the future of our country do not encourage me. Not because it is a Conservative government in power. They will do the best and the policy differences will be at the margin."
Whether that is completely accurate is a moot point it hasn't stopped politicians claiming that they can change things, blaming other people when they can't and wrapping themselves up in the cocoon of the Westminster village. Same old, same old.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Good addition to the Wilson Years, 20 Oct 2009
This second installment of the Donoughue Diaries focuses on his continued position as head of the policy unit in No.10 following the resignation of Wilson and his replacement as Prime minister by James Callaghan it is a daily account of Donoughue's inpressions of the comings and goings at the centre of government.
The different styles of leadership, Wilson more gossipy, Callaghan more serious, comes through in the content and pace of this second volume, without the combustible Marcia Williams, the focus shifts away from the personalities of No. 10 and move to the precarious position of the Labour Government in the late 70s, at it attempts to remain in office and power.
Tracing the government's survival through the loss of its parliamentary majority, votes of confidence, the IMF crisis, pacts with the Liberals and the Ulster Unionists and on to the fateful decision of Callaghan not to call the election on October 1978 and then having to face the 'Winter of Discontent'.
Donouhue's contemporary account of each of these crisis' which come thick and fast acts as a useful guide both to historians and present day politicians.
Donoughue gradually resigns himself to the reality that he might be out of a job at any time.
If the reader can forget the eventual outcome of events, the diaries become an interesting commentary on a government fighting for survival and gradually sinking through its own ineptitude and 'events' coming against it.
It also gives an insight into the lost art of 'Cabinet Government' of which Callaghan was the last great master.
At time it gives a vivid account of the problems of Britain in the 1970s the struggles of getting to work through strikes and rubbish on the street acts a useful recent addition to an understanding of the period, to sit along side books such as Andy Beckett's 'When the lights went out'.
Diary writing and more specifically publishers and editors approach to diary writing clear have in recent times been influenced by the success of Alan Clark Diaries, Bernard Donoughue's two volumes are not exception. and while his writing style or indeed content is not of the weight of Clark, stories of dinner at the club, meeting old friend's from Oxford, do show traces of Clark's volumes. Sometimes this can give the feeling of name dropping, but nuggets such as Alan Bennett's view that David Frost is one of the most over rated people in Britain add a touch of the 'clark', add humour and breaking up the political narrative, without going too much into Donoughue's personal life.
Not a rip roaring read, and a firmer hand in the editing process would not have gone amiss.
One could also make the observation that Donoughue with Vol.1, Vol.2, 'the heat of the kitchen' and his book on Prime ministers had perhaps milked this cow for all it was worth.
But certainly this volume is of historical and academic significance. A more than useful addition to the understanding of the corridors of power and the frailties of those who occupy them.When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies
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by Bernard Donoughue
by Bernard Donoughue
by David Marquand
by Adam Boulton
