POLITICS
Mrs Thatcher, Mr Gorbachev and the people in between
FERD INAND MOU NT
Berlin hehe East German equivalent of News- night is presented by the sort of good- looking, alert man in his late 30s who presents this sort of programme every- where in the world, and probably on Mars too. The lead item tonight is about the 60th birthday of Comrade Harry Tisch, a veter- an fighter for socialism and member of the East German Politburo. He bears a faint resemblance to the late J. B. Priestley at that age. What appears to be Comrade Tisch's rather cramped sitting-room is in- vaded by the rest of the Politburo, not to mention the cameras, which are practically up Erich Honecker's nostrils as he delivers birthday greetings at some length, before clamping Comrade Tisch in a reptilian embrace for a full 50 seconds. Applause. Other comrades bring on a huge bouquet which fills the screen, temporarily blotting out the entire Politburo. More applause. Comrade responds, not without emotion, recalling his fight for socialism and empha- sising the leading role of the Socialist Unity Party. All this takes some time.
Back to studio. Now for Mrs Thatcher and Mr Gorbachev. But no, the next item is about a youth congress in Hungary, quickly followed by the next item, which is about preparations for a workers' congress in Berlin. Beefy chap in uniform (postman, possibly bus conductor) says how he hopes it will carry forward the fight for socialism and emphasise the leading role of the Socialist Unity Party. Now surely for the latest from the Kremlin. But the fourth item is about a party rally somewhere else. Sweaty men at long tables with beer bottles in front of them. Looks rather jollier. The fifth item is a brief clip of Mrs T with Mr G. If you were pouring yourself a drink, you would miss it.
One begins to get the feeling that the regime is not exactly anxious to encourage extravagant hopes of Mrs Thatcher's ex- cursion. In East Germany as in Czechoslo- vakia, there is considerable nervousness about what Mr Gorbachev is up to. One is reminded of the contrast at Hilaire Belloc's garden party between the rich who talked of their affairs in loud and strident voices and the people in between who looked underdone and harassed, and out of place and mean, and horribly embarrassed.
Nor are the nerves confined to the East. The 750th anniversary of Berlin, which falls this year, was intended as a dramatic opportunity for rapprochement. So far it has produced little but exasperation and embarrassment. The East Germans invited the cocky young mayor of West Berlin to their jamboree. Immediately, American, French and British diplomats claimed that Herr Diepgen was about to fall into the old trap of accepting that East Berlin is the capital of East Germany and not, as the Allies maintain, merely the Russian sector of the city. Contrariwise, if Honecker accepts the invitation to attend the West Berlin celebrations, he would be attending a ceremony addressed by Chancellor Kohl and so accepting West Berlin's links to West Germany, anathema to the Russians.
It is often said that Berliners of both sorts do not stop hoping for a reunited city. But it is the kind of hope which trails away into silence — 'who knows, perhaps one day. . — not the setting, out of practical possibilities. Seen from here, it is not entirely clear that either an agreement on Intermediate Nuclear Forces or far- reaching economic reforms in the USSR would help. The fewer missiles, the greater the need for the West to step up its conventional defences, perhaps by means of Mr Healey's famous slurry ditch. And genuine economic reform would entail the loosening of the Party's grip with who- knows-what consequences for the survival of the regime and its lifelong servants. No wonder Comrade Husak in Prague is awaiting Comrade Gorbachev's forthcom- ing visit with a heavy heart. After all, if he refuses to follow Moscow's example, there are plenty of •the other quislings of 1968 awaiting to take his place — Bilak, Strong- al, Indra. What a horrible bunch to have to go to birthday parties with.
How many millions of apparatchiks from the Baltic to the Adriatic must be hoping that glasnost does indeed mean only what the dictionary says it means — not 'open- ness' but 'publicity'. It is a measure of wishful thinking in the West that only Dr Noel Malcolm, in this magazine, should have pointed this' out. As far as I can see from this dictionary, perestroika also means something slightly less exciting, not so much 'restructuring' as 'rebuilding', which, of course, can mean building more or less the same thing again.
Mrs Thatcher's visit seems to have gone nicely from the re-election point of view. Nor, I fancy, will Mr Gorbachev be wholly .displeased with her visit. That she should have told Soviet viewers about the bril- liance of Moscow's anti-missile defences is, after all, as flattering to the Kremlin's foresight as the pictures of Mrs Thatcher with the Sakharov's are to its tolerance. She leaves Moscow having spoken her mind and also having left us with the impression of the USSR as an increasingly strong, open and dynamic society, eager for nuclear disarmament.
The modern shibboleth is that arms control is the indispensable preliminary for the reduction of tensions, but tensions have reduced over the past few years, while the arms race has continued at a rattling pace. There might well be some- thing to be said for not hurrying along the disarmament piocess, in order to allow more time for de facto practical, daily, commercial relationships to develop across the iron curtain. That sort of stability, falling far short of both one's best hopes and worst fears, is not to be sneezed at.
There is nothing at all to be said for Mr Kinnock's visit to Washington. He did not walk into a trap. He set the trap himself. I am sure that the Labour Party's account of the meeting with the President was much nearer the truth than the account given by the President's spokesman. But that is not the point. Even if Mr Reagan had not wished to help Mrs Thatcher, he could not afford to give either his own US supporters or the other European allies the impression that he was complaisant about any moves towards unilateral nuclear disarmament. Mr Kinnock was very, foolish to go. But then the logic of his decision to highlight Labour's defence policy escapes me.
By contrast, there is little mystery about Mr Gorbachev's motives. Economically if not yet militarily, the USSR is already in the relegation zone, giving way to West Germany as well as Japan. Indeed, Mr Gorbachev acknowledged this, also in- voluntarily, when he warned the West against the hope that 'our system is not working' and that 'any concession can now be got out of us if we are squeezed further'. The Russians urgently need relief from their soaring military expenditure — now consuming 15 to 17 per cent of their gross national product — to revive their civil economy. For once, it seems to be they who are in a hurry to strike a bargain. Is there any need for us to be rushed? After all, from Munich onwards, 'hustling for peace' has seldom turned out well.
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