A fly on the parliamentary wall
Andrew Roberts
PARLIAMENT AND POLITICS IN THE AGE OF BALDWIN AND MACDONALD: THE HEADLAM DIARIES 1923-35 edited by Stuart Ball The Historians' Press, £30, pp.365 The Right Honourable Cuthbert Head- lam, Tory MP for Barnard Castle from 1924 to 1935 and for Newcastle North from 1940 to 1951, was clearly an irascible fel- low. He seems to have been pretty bad- tempered almost throughout the 12 years covered by these diaries, which as a result make excellent reading. They are pitted with pessimism, cynicism and a disregard for his political colleagues. Here is Chips Channon with a stone in his shoe.
As an insight into what MPs really think, as opposed to what they tell their con- stituents, family or each other, it is invalu- able. Suspicious of panaceas, doubtful of politicians' judgment and impatient of ide- alism, Headlam was the ideal man to record the doleful inter-war period. Head- lam had won a DSO in 1918 as a lieu- tenant-colonel serving on the General Staff. He edited the Army Quarterly from 1920 and was adopted as prospective par- liamentary candidate for Barnard Castle in June 1924 when no one else put in for it. From a good start — he was the first of his intake to be given ministerial office — his career hit the sand and the highest rank he ever achieved was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport from Septem- ber 1932 to July 1934.
It is thus against a background of increasing political disappointment that these diaries were written. Others from the 1924 intake such as Duff Cooper and Oliv- er Stanley were overtaking and outshining him. He blamed his age but it is probably just as much his inability to make a mark as a speaker which accounted for his failure. Part of the perverse charm of these diaries derives from the very obscurity of their author; he really was a mere fly on the par- liamentary wall. Astonishingly few back- bench diaries survive from the National Government period and the Historians' Press has done a fine public service in bringing these to publication. One hopes that some of today's backbench Tories are keeping diaries and recording what they really feel about the party leadership, Maastricht and the various issues which have them trotting dutifully through the division lobbies.
Luckily for us, if Headlam could not think of something nasty to say about someone he did not say anything at all. His Tory choler embraces Baldwin and Mac- Donald (`very second-rate men whom chance has made our leaders'), his fellow MPs (`futile', 'puerile bore', 'absurd buf- foon', 'self-advertising ass', are some of the kinder judgments), the Whips Office, Neville Chamberlain Ca cold, fishy creature who puts your back up in five minutes'), the League of Nations, Anthony Eden and just about everyone else he came across. One colleague is described as 'refreshingly obtuse' which could also serve to sum up the diarist himself, whose low opinion of human nature and dislike of utopianism made him an instinctive Tory.
There are few pen portraits of leading figures, but plenty of ill-humoured estima- tions, such as that of Harold Macmillan: `the longer you know him, the less intimate you become with him and his sole interest in life appears to be himself. Like many great diarists he had the knack of being at the right place (such as Circe Londonder- ry's eve-of-session parties) at the right time. His bile extends happily to women such as Nancy Astor, who are described as `singularly ineffective', 'a dreadful little woman' and so on. The son of minor Coun- ty Durham gentry, Headlam had a double portion of chips on his shoulder about his better-heeled Tory colleagues. Even when he became a baronet in May 1935 he dis- missed it as 'public recognition of my polit- ical failure', and his promotion in Government was written off as 'a mean little job'. Although Headlam is no Chan- non, the editor Stuart Ball is well on his way to becoming Lord Blake's heir appar- ent as the historian of the Conservative Party. His introduction to these diaries stands as a scholarly historical essay in itself.
Having read the post 1935 diaries in the original, I can reveal that Headlam does not cheer up much during the second world war or thereafter. If anything political dis- appointment makes his tone yet more waspish, malicious and self-pitying. Gener- al readers as well as specialists can there- fore look forward to the next volume with the keenest anticipation.
Nice man, keeps himself to himself so he's probably a serial killer'
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