HOW NEW LABOUR WAS MADE TO LOVE THE DOME

. . . which at first it opposed. Sion Simon tells the story. As usual, Mr Mandelson is at the centre of it

ON 2 MAY, the Greenwich Millennium Dome looked doomed. After all, it was a Tory idea. The Labour Opposition had committed itself to conducting a review.

The assumption when the review started was of a choice between scaling the plans down and scrapping them altogether. In January Mr Blair had been notably unwill- ing to give assurances about its future to the then deputy prime minister, Michael Heseltine. A few months before that the shadow heritage secretary, Dr Jack Cun- ningham, had been scathing about the plans, refusing to believe the cost would be much less than £1 billion, and agreeing with his junior, Lewis Moonie, that the whole thing was 'a crock of shit'.

There was no support for it in the new Cabinet, none on the Labour back benches, except for those with con- stituency interests, and pre- cious little in the country at large. The Sun was running a vigorous 'Dump the Dome' campaign, and even the Her- itage Secretary, Chris Smith, whose pride and joy it should have been, thought it a costly and inappropriate proposition.

Something pretty signifi- cant must have happened since the election to change all this. The significant happening was that the dome was saved by one of the three most powerful people in the new Britain, Peter Mandelson, acting on behalf of the other two, Tony Blair and John Prescott.

The body 'reviewing' the millennium project was the Home and Social sub-com- mittee of the Cabinet (HS). From prelimi- nary discussions it was clear that the dome had no more friends in HS than it did any- where else outside the Conservative party, though even in the early stages the strongest criticism tended to come from those furthest removed from the Labour leadership. The Health Secretary, Frank Dobson, reportedly described it as 'the biggest kite in history' (though it is not clear whether this was intended as a colourful image or an impenetrable piece of derogatory Yorkshire). The Welsh Sec- retary, Ron Davies, was equally critical though, unfortunately, no metaphors have reached us; and the Chief Secretary, Alis- tair Darling, made it clear that the Trea- sury was profoundly unimpressed. Of the big hitters, Mr Darling's boss, Gordon Brown, and his Foreign Office neighbour, Robin Cook, were quite clearly opposed to the project from the start.

And so it came to pass in early June that the hapless Heritage Secretary presented a paper to HS recommending various options for the project to go ahead, but much scaled down. As the meeting progressed, though, it began to dawn on all present that Mr Mandelson was suddenly expressing the quite strong view that it would be rash to shelve the dome without further thought. Could it be possible, they began to wonder, that the Minister without Portfolio had been told by the Prime Minister that he `wanted' the dome, and that HS was not to advise against it? In fact, just in case they did not get the hint, the Deputy Prime Min- ister, who chairs the committee, had also been tipped off by Mr Blair that the dome was to be a favoured project.

Neither Mr Prescott nor Mr Mandelson was particularly disposed towards the dome, but nor were they as strongly inclined against it as most of their col- leagues. So when it became clear that Mr Blair had powerful personal feelings about it, they were more than happy to oblige an unlikely duo smoothly but inexorably driving the project through.

It seems unlikely that the Chancellor was also made aware of Mr Blair's wishes. Or, if he was, it did not alter his own views. He was still perceived as being the project's most vigorous opponent. However, in the days preceding the key Cabinet meeting on 19 June, reports began to appear in the newspapers that not only was Mr Brown dead set against the dome, but Mr Prescott too. The reports — not true of Mr Prescott — were assumed to emanate from the Trea- sury's now notoriously proactive press office. Mr Prescott was suitably angry at being used as ballast for Mr Brown, and the Chancel- lor's isolation on this issue was complete.

The events of 19 June — the day the dome was officially 'saved' — form a classi- cally beautiful piece of New Labour chore- ography. It begins with a widely reported tableau from the former Mandelson aide Derek Draper's forthcoming book, which has now been absorbed into the 'Revised Standard Version' of what happened. The story has Mr Prescott waiting in a Downing Street corridor for his bilateral with Mr Blair, whose 8.30 meeting with his advisers is running over time. As they agonise over the dome, Mr Blair suddenly says, 'Hey, John's outside, let's get him in and see what he thinks.' Mr Prescott then presents such a brilliantly eloquent defence of the dome, concluding with, 'If we can't manage this we're not much of a government', that Mr Blair says, 'Right. That's that then.' And the case is closed.

Such stories are useful because they help one to understand how Dr George Carey feels about the Resurrection: it is a tale which contains profound truths, but which it would be simplistic to interpret too liter- ally. In the case of Mr Draper's little anec- dote, it also serves the dual purpose of perpetuating the fancy that Mr Blair had not made up his mind until the last moment, while deftly carving Mr Prescott's face onto the figure-head of HMS Millenni- um against the unlikely event that some- thing should go wrong.

On the real 19 June, Mr Blair and Mr Prescott were joined after their bilateral by the Chancellor and the Foreign Secretary for the usual Big Four Cabinet pre-meet- ing. Mr Brown and Mr Cook had realised by this time that the dome was going ahead, and it was agreed that the Chancel- for would speak in Cabinet of the 'five objectives', which would be announced after the project: an enduring legacy; a `window on the future'; educational and IT impact on the whole nation; 'added weight and drive' in management; and, of course, no call on public expenditure.

In the full Cabinet which followed, Mr Blair was 'unavoidably called away' for the part of the meeting which dealt with the dome, and Mr Prescott therefore took the chair. He made it clear that Mr Blair was determined to have an exhibition on a grand scale which would 'make a statement about the nation', and that he had already secured the support of his most senior col- leagues. A few respectfully dissenting nois- es were made by some of the project's early opponents, but there was no real stomach for a fight and the rechristened New Mil- lennium Experience Company (NMEC) was given the green light by its new sole shareholder, Peter Mandelson, who now assumed responsibility for the project. That very afternoon saw Tony and John, resplendent in their hard hats, on a 'com- pletely unscheduled impromptu visit' to the exhibition site in Greenwich.

From which auspicious beginnings the Millennium Experience has not looked back. Nor will it: this is a project with the personal prestige of Mr Blair, Mr Prescott and Mr Mandelson all firmly at stake, which cannot be allowed to be other than a complete success. A very large amount of money (£758 million, including commercial deals and gate receipts) has been allocated. Top people are queuing up to play their part: Mark McCormack to raise the spon- sorship; Sir Cameron Mackintosh to pro- duce the show (it is not yet clear who is going to write the script); Lord (Richard) Rogers to build the dome; Michael Grade, Ruth MacKenzie of Scottish Opera and Sir Alan Cockshaw of Amec Construction to beef up the management under the chair- manship of the Blair favourite Bob Ayling; Ayling's company, British Airways, along with other blue-chip corporates, to sponsor the bulk of the exhibition outside the 10,000-seat 'drum theatre' centrepiece. And of course Mr Mandelson to make sure that the now fully committed Cabinet plays its part. Opposition has completely melted away. No member of the government can remember ever having been against it, and any former reservations they might former- ly have had are in any case entirely satisfied by Mr Blair's excellent five-point test. Even the Conservatives refuse to say a single critical word about the project (Michael Heseltine is on Mr Mandelson's co-ordi- nating committee).

The adverse criticisms one hears of the project are that Greenwich is inaccessible and that it is wrong to spend so much money on something temporary for which there is no ostensible demand. In terms of access to the site, the worries are probably unnecessary. Car-free except for disabled badge-holders, it will be serviced by the new Jubilee line extension, a new river-bus service, and by 'Park and Ride'. London Transport says that Greenwich North sta- tion will easily cope with the 35,000 visitors expected on an average day.

Lack of permanence is a harder criticism to defend. The dome was explicitly designed as a temporary structure, and NMEC must wind itself up and sell off its assets by the middle of 2001. Its spokespeo- ple now claim, however, that there are many commercial and public bodies eager to take the site over. They also now say that the dome itself does not have to be particularly temporary, as it has a 20-year lifespan and would be relatively cheap to replace after that. On the other hand, Richard Branson — virtually the only pub- lic figure still openly critical — makes the point that this is not really good enough. `Of course it will look magnificent when it's up, but it was still not designed with the future in mind,' he said. He does not believe that the 'five provisos' will be met, and thinks Mr Blair has misjudged the mood of the country.

Branson is right that there is no great public desire for a millennium exhibition. Many people agree with him that 'the money should be spent on local celebra- tions, health and education'. But Mr Blair knows this as well as anyone. He is banking not on the mood which exists now, but on the one he believes can be created. He is gambling on the millennium as a rallying point for the nation to celebrate itself. By the millennium, New Labour will have been in office for three years, and no longer new: New Millennium, new New Labour.

The author was responsible for Labour's relations with the international media in its Millbank election headquarters. He is cur- rently writing a book on the philosophy of New Labour.