Cameron? He’s a spiv. Major? Grander than Mrs T. And Maggie herself? Socially insecure!
In the last part of our gloriously gossipy series, KENNETH ROSE takes an ink-tipped stiletto to the entire political class
newspaper diarist Kenneth rose kept many of his most sensational stories for his private journals — now published following his death in 2014. Over the past days, in our exclusive serialisation, they have provided a sparkling insight into members of the royal Family. Today, in our final extract, he reveals the waspish asides and barbed comments of key political figures . . .
March 23, 1982
NormaN St John-Stevas [Tory politician] would passionately like the Commons Speakership after George Thomas. I tell him how discreet he would have to be. He replies: ‘There are the weekends.’
June 9
John Grigg [historian] tells me that michael Foot [Labour leader] is now absolutely besotted with admiration for margaret Thatcher’s handling of the Falklands crisis and the assault on the argentine forces.
June 22
[HIGH commissioner to India] robert Wade-Gery tells me how mrs Thatcher continues to use senior people, especially those at the Foreign office, as doormats. I ask robert why they don’t stand up to her. He replies: ‘Because she’s a woman.’
October 12
NICo HeNderSoN [ambassador to the U.S.] was at the Pm’s dinner at No 10 last night for the Falklands operation. at the end of the meal, margaret Thatcher said: ‘Shall we join the ladies?’
March 12, 1983
WHeN the duke of devonshire joined the SdP, the Labour mP eric Varley said: ‘He will bring to the party that common touch which [SdP leader] roy Jenkins lacks.’
November 13
[Tory environment minister] William Waldegrave tells me of a meeting at No 10 on local government reform, at which mrs Thatcher, on being told that the whole of the Tory establishment would be against her, replied: ‘Good!’
June 11, 1985
I Hear that mrs Tebbit, wife of the Industry minister, still paralysed after the Brighton Grand Hotel bomb outrage, is being helped with her considerable medical expenses by both the Pm and the duke of Westminster.
August 17
JoHN KING [chairman of British airways] tells me: ‘The Prime minister relies too much on denis, who was never more than the director of a small company. So he read the balance sheet of rolls-royce, and without wider knowledge said that the company was bust. It wasn’t.’
November 19, 1986
[Tory mP] Julian amery tells me that when Ian Harvey had to resign as Under-Secretary at the Foreign office after being found with a Guardsman under the bushes in St James’s Park, Harold macmillan could scarcely understand his foolishness.
‘Why didn’t he put the Guardsman into his official car and drive him home?’
a Private Secretary said: ‘But Prime minister, Under-Secretaries do not have official cars.’
a few days later, there came an edict from No 10. In future, Under-Secretaries were to have official cars.
July 27, 1988
JULIaN amery tells me that during a well-contested election at Preston North in october 1964, he remembered that there was a French Carmelite nunnery in the constituency. So he called on the mother Superior, and so charmed her with French and flattery that she agreed to allow the nuns to vote.
‘Which way will they vote?’ he tactfully inquired. ‘There are 15 nuns,’ replied the mother Superior. ‘Fourteen of them are
Conservatives. The 15th will be doing penance that day.’
Julian scraped in by 14 votes — 20,566 to 20,552.
January 18, 1989
To THe royal Fine art Commission, where the Prime minister introduces a report on the state of London. I ask [mrs Thatcher] what restoration is taking place at marlborough House.
This provokes her into some splendidly indiscreet remarks about its tenants, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and indeed about the Commonwealth itself. She says: ‘Why should we spend all that money restoring the building for them?’
I suggest that marlborough House should become the home of the Prince of Wales. She likes the idea. She adds that it was she who suggested that the Prince should establish his offices in St James’s Palace to get him away from Kensington Palace: not good to live over the shop.
May 2
dINe with [Tory mP and diarist] alan Clark at the Beefsteak. He is most entertaining on the fear inspired by the Pm among her ministers. She conveys her disapproval in a minute to the minister’s Private Secretary.
The usual victim is [Foreign Secretary] Geoffrey Howe. This would not matter very much except that the rebuke is copied to the Private Secretaries of any other department that may have an interest in the matter. So all Whitehall knows.
December 27
[BBC chairman] dukie Hussey tells me that when mrs Thatcher visited Salzburg, she was taken to the much-praised production of mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte. at the end of the first act, she said how outraged she was by ‘this most immoral opera’.
April 22, 1991
THere has always been something socially insecure about mrs T. When [Tory political hostess] rosemary Wolff was staying with the Carringtons one weekend, the Thatchers came over from Chequers to dine.
The other women wore simple shirts and long skirts; mrs T. came dressed as for a State Banquet at the Palace. What a class-conscious nation we are.
rosemary also tells me that when Ted Heath visited grand houses, they treated him like an raF officer billeted on them during the war.
August 28
I Hear that when Charles de Gaulle was succeeded as President of France by Pompidou, he said: ‘It’s like being cuckolded by one’s chauffeur.’
May 30, 1992
I Hear that John major, despite professing to be the simple man, has a yearning for grandeur.
He has police outriders, which mrs Thatcher never had. and he is now to get a powerful official plane.
mrs Thatcher never minded what sort of plane she had; but if it went too fast, she would certainly see that it reduced its cruising speed in order to save petrol.
November 15, 1993
WILLIam WaLdeGraVe tells me that when he was Ted Heath’s Political Secretary, he would be rung up out of the blue by peppery colonels who would say [for instance]: ‘What we want as Prime minister is not an old queer like Heath, but a fine upstanding
gentleman like Jeremy Thorpe.’ At that very moment, William had on his desk the Home Office files on Jeremy’s private life.
June 21, 1995
[Former Foreign Secretary] Peter Carrington tells me the story of mrs Thatcher who, when she met Chairman mao, asked him out of politeness an initial question about what he thought of the world outlook. He spoke without interruption for 20 minutes. mrs T. then interrupted him with a rap of her ring on the table.
Chairman mao said: ‘I have not finished,’ and continued for another 20 minutes. In the midst of the second instalment Peter Carrington passed her a note: ‘Talking too much, as usual, margaret.’
November 7, 1996
TOny LAmbTOn [earl of Durham, former Tory mP] tells me the Pm offered James Goldsmith a peerage if he would abandon his referendum campaign before the next General election. ‘yes,’ he replied, ‘if it’s a dukedom.’
January 25, 1997
I WAS shocked to hear that not long after Jeremy Thorpe had been acquitted of an attempted murder conspiracy, he asked
[harold Wilson’s political secretary] Marcia Falkender at no 10 if she could arrange for him to receive a peerage.
March 24, 2000
JohnnIe nuTTInG tells me a story of Jonathan Aitken’s arrival in prison. he was interviewed by a psychologist, who asked him: ‘how big is your immediate family?’ ‘Five.’ ‘And how many people not of your family know you are in prison?’
‘oh, I suppose about 20 million.’ The psychologist put him down as a megalomaniac.
June 28
In oxFoRD, I meet the Vice-chancellor, colin Lucas, who seems shell-shocked still by the monstrously unfair attack on oxford’s supposed ‘elitism’ by the chancellor of the exchequer, Gordon Brown.
Lucas tells me that one of the senior Treasury team told him: ‘I don’t know why you take the chancellor so seriously. We never do.’
June 23, 2001
Lunch with [author] William Shawcross at café Flo. Someone told him that there is not a single monarchist in Blair’s cabinet. When William told this to John Major, John said that in his cabinet there was not a single republican.
August 6, 2002
Lunch with charles Moore at the Savoy. I do not envy his task of writing Mrs Thatcher’s life in three volumes. he tells me that Mrs T. suffers from a common delusion among the old, that she has no money. In fact, she earns millions from lecturing alone.
September 10, 2003
Lunch with Peter carrington at White’s. he had Margaret Thatcher to lunch at Bledlow recently. Although diminished in health, she said she would never have invaded Iraq. nor of course would Peter have done so.
Peter tells me a story about [French] President Giscard d’estaing when taken to see Blenheim. he said: ‘What a large house for such a small victory.’
September 11
A PoIGnAnT story of Margaret Thatcher, who, a few weeks after Denis’s death, braced herself to go through all his clothes and sent most of them to oxfam.
The next day, their son Mark arrived and said: ‘What happened to all the clothes I left here?’ Margaret had gone to the wrong room and thrown out his clothes.
March 10, 2006
John PRoFuMo died yesterday at the age of 91. how piquant that his downfall should have been caused by lying to the house of commons about his affair with christine Keeler. Who does not lie to the house of commons nowadays?
June 8
[hISToRIAn and life peer] hugh Thomas tells me that Black Rod, in the house of Lords, has a disconcerting habit of asking a new peer: ‘how much did you pay for it?’
There are three sorts of response: (a) outraged silence; (b) a nervous giggle, and (c) a bold, ironic ‘£200,000’.
April 7, 2009
Lunch with Peter carrington at White’s. he tells me of the worst row he ever had with Mrs Thatcher when he was Foreign Secretary.
In front of Robert Armstrong [the PM’s Principal Private Secretary] and Michael Palliser [her Special Adviser], she rebuked him for his policy on Israel, which she said was much resented by her Jewish constituents in Finchley.
Peter replied: ‘I thought it was the policy of the Government, not mine alone. But if you think that our policy should be based on whether or not it satisfies your Jewish constituents, you had better get yourself another foreign policy and another Foreign Secretary.’
And he went out, slamming the door. Later in the day, he passed the PM in a corridor, who said: ‘That didn’t go very well this morning.’
As Peter says to me: ‘That was as near as she ever got to an apology.’
March 7, 2010
PeTeR carrington was talking to Margaret Thatcher the other day and said: ‘I had no idea you were going to turn out as you did.’ She said: ‘nor did I.’
September 13, 2011
I AM deeply disturbed by the conduct of David cameron, the PM, who has declared a planning freefor-all in the construction industry, apparently in return for huge donations to the conservative Party. he is not a true Tory at heart but a spivvy etonian entrepreneur.
ExtractEd from Who Loses, Who Wins: the Journals Of Kenneth rose, Vol. II 1979-2014, edited by d.r. thorpe and published by Weidenfeld on November 14 at £30.© the Estate of Kenneth rose and d.r. thorpe 2019. to order a copy for £24 (offer valid until November 16, 2019; P&P free), visit mailshop.co. uk or call 01603 648155.