Butler to host a
Gone with the Wind
lookalike competition and, second, wearing a fried egg on his head and inviting an adjoining snooker player to join him in a tribute to John Gielgud. Since then, unfortunately, he’s been selected as a Tory parliamentary candidate and so is now seen as a ridiculous figure of fun. To correct this impression for
Behind the Headlines,
he has gone to the trouble of wearing a grey suit, sober shirt, discreet tie and asking lots of questions about drugs and inheritance tax. But, behind
Behind the Headlines
, nobody seemed to care. Where most programmes tuck the wires down the back of the presenters’ jackets, here they extended from Brandreth’s and Banks’s ears before disappearing behind the chairs; Brandreth’s microphone was off initially, and, later, on when it shouldn’t have been; a floor manager crawled into view at one point.’ Quite funny really.
TUESDAY 17 DECEMBER 1991
At 10.30 this morning I joined a long queue that snaked its way from the front door of 32 Smith Square all the way through the building to a room right at the back where, for several hours, the poor Prime Minister stood in front of a blue screen waiting to have his photograph taken with each and every prospective candidate in turn. We shuffled forward at a snail’s pace, combing our hair and adjusting our ties in the mirror that awaited us at the final bend, and eventually reaching the small, stuffy room where the snaps were being taken. When we entered the room the PM looked weary, but he was equally effusive and engaging with each of us. We all stood in the same position; he held our hand rather limply in his; he offered the same goofy grin; the photographer gave it two shots and we all trusted that our leader’s eyes couldn’t be closed in both of them. Before we entered into the presence someone must have whispered our names to him because he got every first name spot on and when he realised the woman ahead of me had a child with her (who hadn’t come in to the room but hovered near the door) he chased out after the child and led it back into the room himself so it could be photographed too. It’s a funny way to lead a country.
TUESDAY 31 DECEMBER 1991
199 firms a day are collapsing. We’re behind in the polls. Our personal finances are pretty dire because I’ve spent a year walking the streets and treading water. But this is what I wanted to do and Michèle is supporting me without reproach. (Well, not quite without reproach: every time we’re on the motorway for more than four hours trekking between here and Chester she hisses, ‘You wouldn’t wait, would you? You had to have it; you wouldn’t see if something nearer London came up; you
had
to have it; you’d have walked over your dying granny to get it. I know you.’ She does.)
Anyway, the year’s done now. And there were good things too. Today Dirk Bogarde has a knighthood. And I have a brilliant wife and three good children and one fine cat and plenty of energy and ambition and
hope
. 1992, here we come!
64 Norman Lamont, MP for Kingston-upon-Thames 1972–97, had been John Major’s campaign manager in his bid for the leadership in November 1990 and became Chancellor of the Exchequer when Major became Prime Minister. Later Baron Lamont of Lerwick.
65 Ventriloquist Ray Alan’s dummy.
66 Throughout the diary GB quotes from newspapers, usually either the
Daily Telegraph
or, as here,
The Times
.
67 American singer and film actor.
68 Writer who had been President of the Oxford Union in 1919. Fifty years later GB had invited him to return to the Union.
69 Actor. GB wrote a biography to celebrate his eightieth birthday in 1984.
70 Clare Short, MP for Birmingham Ladywood since 1983; member of the opposition front bench social security team 1989–91.
71 1920–2007; Speaker of the House of Commons 1983–92; MP for Croydon North East 1964–92.
72 Derek Nimmo, 1930–99, actor, and his wife Pat, friends of GB.
73 Peter Morrison,
Gone with the Wind
lookalike competition and, second, wearing a fried egg on his head and inviting an adjoining snooker player to join him in a tribute to John Gielgud. Since then, unfortunately, he’s been selected as a Tory parliamentary candidate and so is now seen as a ridiculous figure of fun. To correct this impression for
Behind the Headlines,
he has gone to the trouble of wearing a grey suit, sober shirt, discreet tie and asking lots of questions about drugs and inheritance tax. But, behind
Behind the Headlines
, nobody seemed to care. Where most programmes tuck the wires down the back of the presenters’ jackets, here they extended from Brandreth’s and Banks’s ears before disappearing behind the chairs; Brandreth’s microphone was off initially, and, later, on when it shouldn’t have been; a floor manager crawled into view at one point.’ Quite funny really.
TUESDAY 17 DECEMBER 1991
At 10.30 this morning I joined a long queue that snaked its way from the front door of 32 Smith Square all the way through the building to a room right at the back where, for several hours, the poor Prime Minister stood in front of a blue screen waiting to have his photograph taken with each and every prospective candidate in turn. We shuffled forward at a snail’s pace, combing our hair and adjusting our ties in the mirror that awaited us at the final bend, and eventually reaching the small, stuffy room where the snaps were being taken. When we entered the room the PM looked weary, but he was equally effusive and engaging with each of us. We all stood in the same position; he held our hand rather limply in his; he offered the same goofy grin; the photographer gave it two shots and we all trusted that our leader’s eyes couldn’t be closed in both of them. Before we entered into the presence someone must have whispered our names to him because he got every first name spot on and when he realised the woman ahead of me had a child with her (who hadn’t come in to the room but hovered near the door) he chased out after the child and led it back into the room himself so it could be photographed too. It’s a funny way to lead a country.
TUESDAY 31 DECEMBER 1991
199 firms a day are collapsing. We’re behind in the polls. Our personal finances are pretty dire because I’ve spent a year walking the streets and treading water. But this is what I wanted to do and Michèle is supporting me without reproach. (Well, not quite without reproach: every time we’re on the motorway for more than four hours trekking between here and Chester she hisses, ‘You wouldn’t wait, would you? You had to have it; you wouldn’t see if something nearer London came up; you
had
to have it; you’d have walked over your dying granny to get it. I know you.’ She does.)
Anyway, the year’s done now. And there were good things too. Today Dirk Bogarde has a knighthood. And I have a brilliant wife and three good children and one fine cat and plenty of energy and ambition and
hope
. 1992, here we come!
64 Norman Lamont, MP for Kingston-upon-Thames 1972–97, had been John Major’s campaign manager in his bid for the leadership in November 1990 and became Chancellor of the Exchequer when Major became Prime Minister. Later Baron Lamont of Lerwick.
65 Ventriloquist Ray Alan’s dummy.
66 Throughout the diary GB quotes from newspapers, usually either the
Daily Telegraph
or, as here,
The Times
.
67 American singer and film actor.
68 Writer who had been President of the Oxford Union in 1919. Fifty years later GB had invited him to return to the Union.
69 Actor. GB wrote a biography to celebrate his eightieth birthday in 1984.
70 Clare Short, MP for Birmingham Ladywood since 1983; member of the opposition front bench social security team 1989–91.
71 1920–2007; Speaker of the House of Commons 1983–92; MP for Croydon North East 1964–92.
72 Derek Nimmo, 1930–99, actor, and his wife Pat, friends of GB.
73 Peter Morrison,
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