This article is from the January issue of Total Politics. To read other interviews from the 25 club feature, click here
What have the changes been from 1987 to now?
Prime minister’s question time is often simply used by people to raise constituency issues. In 1987, it was very robust because Thatcher was pretty robust, although Neil Kinnock always held back, because I think he was slightly inhibited by the notion of attacking a woman. That didn’t inhibit Mrs Thatcher – there was more substance and less of ‘Will my right honourable friend congratulate the rugby club, or the Women’s Institute?’…
And the volume of work. In the first Parliament I was in, at about two o’clock I’d think, ‘Oh, it’s a quiet day’ and go off and patrol the bookshops.
Nick Clegg said you’d been the victim of ageism. Do you agree?
That’s true, oh yeah. You only had to look at the cartoons. I was 65 when I was elected [as leader], in the circumstances following Charles Kennedy’s resignation. I could never really get out from under that. It wouldn’t have mattered if I’d stood on my head in Parliament Square reciting Shakespeare, it still wouldn’t have been good enough. What I think is now true – and I wasn’t the only example of this; John Major suffered to some extent in a different way – is that once a narrative is established in politics it is very difficult to break out of it. If you’re thought to be too old, there’s hardly a journalist who ever dares to writes, “In fact, he/she is not too old.” That’s the way it is. There’s a famous Guardian political editor called Ian Aiken, who said, “Politics is a rough old trade”, and it is. You have to expect that.
So what keeps you in politics?
I enjoy it. I’m fascinated by it. I’m busier than ever, on the foreign affairs committee, on the terrorism and security committee… I lead the British delegation at the Nato parliamentary assembly, attended by parliamentarians from all Nato countries. I’m heading up a commission in Scotland about home rule in advance of the referendum on independence, which we’ll have later in the Parliament. Nick Clegg’s just asked me to head up a commission, or inquiry, on extradition, which, as you probably know, is a controversial issue, with the big debate coming on Thursday. I’m a part-time student at the Royal College of Defence Studies, which has a headquarters not far away.
Did you experience ageism within the party?
I don’t want to make too much of this – I’m not bitter in any way, although I and my family found it bloody annoying at the time – but they fasten on something like that. If their doing so has an impact on the public’s perception, that inevitably has an impact on perception within the party. But I was very clear when I became leader that I was keen to get the party back on an even keel.
The problem with age is that it doesn’t get cured by the passage of time. I took the view, independently, to stand down. I didn’t tell my wife until I rang her up to say: “I’m resigning, I’m coming home.” To which she said: “But there’s nothing in the refrigerator.” Practical woman, my wife.
Was it worth the sacrifice for the party on tuition fees?
It caused a lot of pain. We have yet to see how this plays out. What I do accept is that although the fees have increased, the arrangements for paying them back are much more benevolent than the previous system. I don’t criticise anyone else, because we must all make our own independent judgements, but I took the view it was a commitment I’d given and one I couldn’t go back on.
Are you glad you didn’t have to make the decision to go into a coalition?
I get on well with Cameron and many people on the Conservative side, so there’s no personal antagonism. But emotionally I was, am and will always be a politician of the centre-left. Therefore, the prospect of an arrangement with the centre-right is one that has never been on my radar.
Are the history books going to treat this coalition kindly, regardless of whether it’s in the national interest?
It’s too early to say. A solid record of achievement… Of course, inevitably, some compromises. But the Conservatives have compromised. They’ve had to. By the time Ed Miliband produces a proper, full-blown policy statement, he’s going to have done some compromising, too. It’s in the nature of the game.
How long are you intending to carry on?
I shall take stock in the middle of the Parliament, but I genuinely have not made up my mind either way. I think I should take stock. I’m 70 this year.
Would you do it all again?
Yes, I think I would. I might have been a better athlete, spent more time in California. Trying to train as an Olympic sprinter in Scotland in the 1970s, with no indoor facilities, in the rain and the snow all through the winter, it wasn’t that easy.
Comments
Be the first to comment on this article!