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The Hugo Young Papers: Thirty Years of British Politics - Off the Record
 
 
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The Hugo Young Papers: Thirty Years of British Politics - Off the Record (Hardcover)

by Hugo Young (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Product Description

Hugo Young was one of Britain’s leading journalists for over thirty years, first on the Sunday Times, where he was political editor and deputy editor, and then as the Guardian’s senior political commentator. On his death in 2003 he was called ‘the Pope of the liberal left’, but for the last decade or more of his life there was really no more admired and respected journalist in any position on the political spectrum. One of the secrets of Young’s success as a journalist was that he was exceptionally well informed. Politicians from every major party, senior civil servants, judges and public figures of all kinds talked to him off the record, discussions which then informed the judgements he made when he wrote. Most of his interlocutors were unaware that straight after their telephone conversation, meal or meeting with Young had finished, he meticulously wrote down exactly what had been said, together with his own immediate impressions of whoever he was talking to. By 2003, Young’s records from such conversations amounted to a million and a half words. From this extraordinary archive Ion Trewin, who knew Young since they were colleagues in the 1960s, has made a selection which presents a unique record of what many of the leading figures in British political and public life were thinking, frankly and without the distortions of hindsight, for more than three decades. The result is one of the most gripping and informative books about British politics published for many years. Young’s first interviewee, Douglas Hurd, later Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary, and one of his regulars for the whole of the period of this book, judged him thus: ‘His success was partly achieved by creating a conversation between two people roughly equal in status and knowledge. His own preconception sometimes appeared, as is natural in a conversation between equals, but never in a way which interrupted the even flow of discourse. He did not distort what he heard.’ The Hugo Young Papers shows Young’s central place in the nexus between politics and journalism in Britain and provides a historical document of the first rank.


About the Author

Hugo Young was for over three decades the deputy editor of the Sunday Times and political editor of the Guardian. Ion Trewin is the editor of the Alan Clark Diaries and is currently writing Alan Clark’s biography for publication in 2009. After a decade as literary editor of The Times, he became a publisher, retiring recently as editor-in-chief of a London publishing house.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Now They Tell Us, 24 May 2009
By Diacha (London) - See all my reviews
"The Hugo Young Papers" edited by Ion Trewin, is a massive addition to the published record of British politics of the past thirty years.

Hugo Young was primus inter pares among political columnists from 1969 to his death in 2003. He wrote first for the Sunday Times and, post Murdoch, the Guardian. During this period, he conducted regular background interviews with the leading politicians of the day. His access was granted not only because of his role on these newspapers, but on account of his personal credibility: in the words of Douglas Hurd, one of his regular interlocutors, these were "conversation(s) between two people roughly equal in status and knowledge...the conversation was a pleasure in itself." The interviews were off-the-record. Young's executors have honored this and sought permission from every living source to publish. Virtually none declined, though now that he is back in the cabinet, Peter Mandelson may wish that he had suppressed his 2000 comment that Ed Balls was "a poisonous influence" on Blair.

Young did not write notes during the meetings - one can imagine a servant in the Coffee Room of the Garrick discreetly reminding him of the rules had he tried, just as a waiter in Wilton's had to tut tut David Miliband as he began removing his jacket during a lunchtime interview in July 1999. The written records were therefore reconstructed in tranquility, sometimes several days after the meetings. By all accounts they are reliably accurate. Young wrote them in a sort of summary form in which he paraphrases what his interlocutor said, sometimes in the first person, sometimes in the third. Thus there is a certain similarity in voice across all the characters, though of course Alan Clark sounds quite different from Douglas Hurd, for example.

There are no bombshell revelations. The strength of the papers is in their reporting of what the leading players were thinking at the time and the way in which the multiple interviews on the same issue or personality triangulate so as to create a textured, three-dimensional picture. Several large themes occupy much of the collection: the leadership transitions of Heath and Wilson; the collapse of Old Labour; how humiliating it was for grown men to work for Mrs. Thatcher; the demise of John Major's government; the subsequent Tory leadership campaigns; the relationship between Blair and Brown; and the imminence (or not) of a referendum on the Euro.

As the years moved on, Young increasingly included his own assessments. Thus of William Hague, he observes that he is " a man who knows he should not be in the job;" of Michael Portillo "he behaves like someone who hasn't got the smallest idea how much I disagree with him;" and of Tony Blair : " his lack of bottom .... derives both from the thinness of his project and the lightness of his personality." Our own dear current Prime Minister does appear, "with his flow of three-point analyses and three-point plans," his "piles of paper, " and his conviction that we have nothing to learn from Europe while other countries "need to reform along the lines we have already taken." Many of Brown's colleagues express dislike or distrust of him, even if they respect him. Young's own conclusion is quite positive: "here is a serious man. With some patience. He has the sharpest mind, deeply engaged with this entire spectrum of issues."

If there is any moral to be drawn from this archive, it may be how much of politics is determined by, er politics. Also, it is striking how inaccurate many of the predictions made by informed people turned out to be: Chris Patten's that Thatcher was finished in 1986 (`into the tomb the Great Queen crashes"); virtually everyone's that the Conservatives could not win in 1992; Young's own that Livingstone would be leader of the party by the end of the century; Robin Cook's that Gordon Brown would never be.; and so on.

Following another interview with Miliband ("check" as "HY" often notes in the margin), Young observes that New Labour does not really respect the role of the press as the Fourth Estate. This collection shows how mistaken they are.

PS.
My hardback edition fell apart, too.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Marvellous but sobering, 11 Aug 2009
By Seamus Mcneill "booklover" (Belfast) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
A great read recording the thoughts of politicians and others without the benefit of hindsight. You can dip into it and still enjoy it hugely.

Many of the politicians whom Young interviewed showed an alarming lack of judgement. In the late 1970's Chris Patten, who is revealed as a rather superior and bitchy man, doubts Margaret Thatcher's ability to hold her own at summit meetings! Politicians from all parties greatly overestimated the importance of the SDP/Liberal Alliance always expecting them to do better at elections than they did.

Europhiles constantly complain that but for the ignorant electorate they could achieve their ambition of a united states of Europe. The head of the Diplomatic Service is very proud of his achievement at filling many of the main embassies with Europhile ambassadors.

After what he recalls being "struck with the unreflective frenzy" of Gordon Brown's "discourse" in an interview in 1993, Young makes a marvellous comment--"If opposition is meant to be a time for thinking, it is evident that the longer these people are in opposition the more they are driven to mimic the hyperactivity of the ministers they may never be."

Robin Cook's comment in 1996 that the pressure from more and more media outlets means that politicians say less and less -"The result is that one says things very badly and always with a need to avoid saying anything that commits." 13 years later thing have got worse.

Hugo Young at times reveals the arrogance of the journalistic profession. He complains that Gordon Brown kept him waiting for 30 minutes before an interview. Imagine the Chancellor of the Exchequer not realising that his business is less important than that of a columnist.


I cannot recommend this book highly enough
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5 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent content.Appalling book quality, 4 Feb 2009
By E. V. Thompson (Würzburg,Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I bought this book from you to give to a student of politics who wishes to be a journalist.Having sampled 100 + pages it was an excellent choice.The quality of the product,ie the manufactured book is a disgrace.I read the book from back to front - I can remember best the recent years.As I read each page it fell out of the book.
I now have loose pages from no.830 to 715,and before I have read it 707 is already loose.
Part of the joy of books is to store them on bookshelves.In this case the durability of the book was vital for a student for frequent reference to a source of political and journalistic experience.

I expect this book to be replaced without returning it since it is useless to anyone and before the end of February.I hope you can feel my anger!Product: Hugo Young Papers,published Allen Lane.
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