NOTES CHARLES MOORE Are you a hedger or a ditcher?
NOTES CHARLES MOORE Are you a hedger or a ditcher? The distinction was invented to describe the opposition to Asquith's threat to the House of Lords in 1911, and it applies today to Euroscepticism. It is not a coincidence that Lord Willoughby de Broke, one of the two Conservative peers who have just joined Ukip, is the grandson of the 19th Lord Willoughby de Broke, who was perhaps the greatest of the ditchers. The 19th baron wrote: 'There is nothing so wicked as a compromise about a principle.' For Willoughby de Broke 19 (as Americans might call him) the principle was the power of the hereditary peerage; for Willoughby de Broke 21 it is opposition to Britain's membership of the European Union. Unlike many Conservatives, I do not think the defectors to Ukip are evil or treacherous. Tories easily forget how often their leadership has promised something definite to Eurosceptics — the latest is David Cameron's pledge to withdraw from the European People's Party in the European Parliament — and then let the promise slide. But what ditchers too seldom think through, in their pride in sticking to their beliefs, is the actual effect of their actions. The other defecting peer, Lord Pearson, has pointed out that Ukip may be able to deny the Tories victory at the next election. I struggle to understand how this helps the cause. It is not like Samson bravely destroying himself in order to destroy his enemies: it is as if Samson had aimed the pillars of the temple neatly at his own head and let the majority of the Philistines (the Labour party) escape.
The retirement of Lord Browne as chief executive of BP illustrates the conundrum that famously besets people in important jobs — when to leave. Unfixed terms are a problem (as we see with Tony Blair), but so are fixed terms, because critics sense power draining away and foreclose. Lord Browne had a fixed term, based on age. Knowing his departure date, the institution naturally became itchy for him to go and ready to blame him for any failures. And so this extraordinarily successful businessman leaves on a rather unhappy note. How can this be avoided? I suggest that within days of taking an important job, the new occupant should decide when he or she intends to leave it. He should tell no one, except perhaps his spouse, but he should fix a specific date in his mind. Obviously he does not have to hold himself to the letter of his own decision, but the date will enable him to plan. Since no executive job can be well done by the same person for more than ten years, and since the rest of the world intuits this, the time available to do the job unimpeded is more like eight or nine years, if you are lucky. Lord Browne took up his post in 1995, so it would have been perfect if he had left of his own accord in 2003 or 2004. 'Saddest of all sad sounds: too late.'
There are certain phrases which real people, in real life, never use, but which politicians and the like do. One is to start a sentence with the words, 'In my judgment '. Another is to say, of one's opponent's views or behaviour, 'It beggars belief.'
There was great surprise last week that the Bank of England increased interest rates. But the surprise was itself surprising if one notes something about Mervyn King, the Governor. He deplores the way some central bankers give notice of their intentions before acting. He thinks that actions should speak louder than words, and that rumination is something for afterwards (a principle not always followed by the European Central Bank). So if you want to work out what he might do next, your best clue lies in the depth of his silence. When he is completely Trappist, you can bet something is about to happen.
In the course of writing Mrs Thatcher's biography, I have already interviewed several hundred people. None was more alarming than Lord Cockfield, the former Cabinet minister and European commissioner, who died last week. I went to see him in his Oxfordshire nursing home. Knowing that he had been ill, I asked after his health. 'Very poorly: I want to die.' I said I was sorry. 'Sit down,' he barked. I made for a chair. 'No, not there. THERE,' pointing to a very small stool. 'Well, now you're here, damn you. I'll tell you a couple of things.' Later the talk turned to his former housekeeper, who lived, he said, at the end of a Tube line. When I professed ignorance of the place (which he had not named) he shouted, 'Don't you know ANYTHING about London?' One of my biographical quests is for people whom Mrs Thatcher found frightening. They form a small category, but I suspect that Arthur Cockfield was one of them.
Meocon' is now a term of abuse. In antiSemitic circles, it means pro-Israeli Jew. In the British media, it seems to mean anyone who supports the war in Iraq. Thus Channel 4 News, billing its interview with John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the UN, described him as a neocon, to alert viewers to his unacceptability. But the neoconservatives are a specific ideological strand in America. They originated on the Left, and they believe, among other things, in a universalist foreign policy based on exporting Western democracy. John Bolton is not and has never been a neocon. He is a conservative tout court. In foreign policy terms, this means that he puts his country's strategic interest ahead of the advance of democracy (though he sees the two as related). This is a disagreement with the neocons which Mr Bolton expressed in his interview, but Jon Snow seemed not to notice.
As the BBC settles down to complain about the size of the increase for its indefensible licence fee, announced this week, I should like to complain about the Corporation's payments. Normally, if a broadcaster, magazine etc. rings up a journalist asking you to do some work, they tell you what they would pay for it. When the BBC rings, money is never mentioned. If you raise the subject, the BBC person recoils for a moment of silent disgust at your vulgarity and then says that he 'will have to ask'. The answer, if it comes at all, is usually breathtakingly small and strangely specific. Sums like £37 or £48.50 are favoured. Readers, no doubt, will not sympathise with a hack's moan, but to me the BBC's attitude is indicative of its monopoly mentality. Both customer and contributor are taken for a ride.
T try to keep calmly sceptical about global 1 warming, but twice this week, in midJanuary, I have been woken at night by a mosquito droning in my ear. On Sunday, we ate lunch in the garden.
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