THE RISE OF POLITICAL LYING by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-02-23T16:00:00+00:00

Lying for Tony in Government

Tony Blair must have known about Alastair Campbell’s record as a journalist, and the withering assessment of his integrity from the High Court judge Sir Maurice Drake, when he appointed him Downing Street press secretary in 1997. But there is no record that the prime minister was at all disturbed by it, any more than Peter Mandelson’s well-earned reputation for dissimulation and falsity seems to have worried Tony Blair at this stage.

It is still not appreciated well enough, even by quite seasoned Whitehall observers, what a very sharp change in culture and approach Alastair Campbell represented. It is certainly the case that in opposition Labour spokespeople had been accustomed to use the phrase ‘Tory lie machine’ and other formulations. In reality, however, the integrity of Downing Street itself – as opposed to some individual ministers and Tory backbench MPs – never came under question.

This was in part because the post of press secretary was always given to a career civil servant of reasonably high calibre. This meant that there was a minimum of conflict of interest between the political and government machines. The civil servants had their long-term careers and reputations to consider. While they doubtless became personally attached to the politicians they served, they never owed a loyalty to the governing party. Like all civil servants, they were prepared to serve under a government of any colour.

There was never an issue surrounding the integrity of any of the press secretaries during the John Major years. Gus O’Donnell (1990–94) was widely liked and trusted by journalists. After his stint in Downing Street he returned to the Treasury, where he is now permanent secretary. Christopher Meyer (1994–6) was a career Foreign Office official who served as ambassador to Washington in the Blair government. Jonathan Haslam (1996–7) in due course left the civil service to find a job in the City of London. None of them were regarded as liars by those they dealt with.

Bernard Ingham, Margaret Thatcher’s press secretary from 1979 to 1990, was attacked for allowing himself to become too political. And it is certainly the case that Ingham stayed around for a dangerously long time, and became much closer to the prime minister than either of John Major’s three press secretaries. But no journalist ever successfully accused Ingham of acting in bad faith. Shortly after he stepped down in 1990 one political journalist, Anthony Bevins, attempted to accuse Ingham of manipulating the media. This produced an immediate response from other lobby journalists. Trevor Kavanagh of the Sun, in his formal capacity of chairman of the lobby, wrote a letter of protest, attesting that Ingham was ‘straight as a gun barrel’. Before writing this letter he consulted colleagues from other papers, including Alastair Campbell who was then political editor of the Daily Mirror. According to Kavanagh, Campbell ‘agreed without demur at all.’12 Campbell himself was different. He changed the nature of 10 Downing Street so that it became permissible to lie, deceive and cheat.

Under Campbell, the Downing Street machine continued to insist on its honesty and probity.

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