for half an hour, giving the impression that he was always about to say something of importance, but never did so.
Avion taxi to Northolt at about 7.00. I gave David Owen, who was deputizing for Crosland, a lift back. In the midst of more agreeable bits of intelligence he told me that he thought I would have difficulty with Callaghan about the presence of the Commission at the Summit. East Hendred at 9.20. The strangeness of being back after a fairly long and traumatic period was not as great as I would have expected. It all seemed rather normal.
MONDAY, 31 JANUARY.
London.
Ladbroke Square 24 at 10.30. Harold Evans of the
Sunday Times
came. On the way out it became clear that he was in a great state of tension and pressure. The
Sunday Times
didnât seem to be doing very well, the top management regime was more difficult since Roy Thomsonâs death and there was obviously a tendency to blameEvans for the troubles. They had also become rather frightened of the competition from the new
Observer.
To Lancaster House at 3.00 for my first Political Cooperation meeting. 25 I had been told that it was much more intimate than the Council of Ministers and so I suppose in a relative sense it was: in other words there were only about one hundred people in the room as opposed to the two hundred-plus that one has for a Council of Ministers. Nonetheless the table was large enough and the crowd was great enough for it to be a fairly formal session. It was well conducted by Crosland and we almost galloped through the business, dealing, rather superficially, with about six items between 3.15 and 6.15. The main dispute was as to whether we should issue a statement on the Middle East. The American Government, though not at an enormously high level, were firmly against our publishing a statement at all. With Genscherâs 26 rather skilful help they got their way.
After the meeting I took Garret Fitzgerald with Crispin for a drink at Brooksâs. This proved a well-spent half hour, for in the course of it we evolved a successful idea for lancing the Irish grievance that they had lost their one Director-General by creating a new one for fish.
We then returned to Lancaster House for the dinner and post-dinner discussions. This was devoted to a substantial discussion about the admission of Portugal. I opened saying that we recognized the political imperative but that we were determined that the real economic difficulty should not be glossed over, as it had been with Greece.
The discussion afterwards was inconclusive and interesting mainly from the personality point of view. Genscher was good and weighty, though perhaps not tremendously constructive; Thorn 27 and Fitzgerald described rather good circles in the sky but it was not clear what they amounted to; Guiringaud 28 was half difficult though personally agreeable, and intervened rather skilfully at the end to make sure that the conclusion did not go any further than he wanted; Forlani 29 was opaque; Van Elslande 30 talked too much and made a lot of jokes in rather bad French, but didnât get anywhere. Crosland, who had been very good in the afternoon, I thought jollied them along slightly too much as though they were members of the Grimsby Labour Party General Management Committee, but maybe that is what they like. However, he seemed in perfectly good control.
THURSDAY, 3 FEBRUARY.
Brussels.
Dinner at a very good fish restaurant enlivened, if that is the word, on the way out by sensing a slight feeling of embarrassment amongst the staff, which was indeed well founded, as we saw on the ground floorâwe had been eating on the first floorâthe upturned soles of a Japanese who seemed at least unconscious and possibly dead. When we got outside an ambulance drew up and a stretcher was rushed in. We asked Ron Argent, our inimitable driver, whether he knew what was happening. He said: âOh, yes, certainly, oyster poisoning. Quite often happens, but the restaurant is
Avion taxi to Northolt at about 7.00. I gave David Owen, who was deputizing for Crosland, a lift back. In the midst of more agreeable bits of intelligence he told me that he thought I would have difficulty with Callaghan about the presence of the Commission at the Summit. East Hendred at 9.20. The strangeness of being back after a fairly long and traumatic period was not as great as I would have expected. It all seemed rather normal.
MONDAY, 31 JANUARY.
London.
Ladbroke Square 24 at 10.30. Harold Evans of the
Sunday Times
came. On the way out it became clear that he was in a great state of tension and pressure. The
Sunday Times
didnât seem to be doing very well, the top management regime was more difficult since Roy Thomsonâs death and there was obviously a tendency to blameEvans for the troubles. They had also become rather frightened of the competition from the new
Observer.
To Lancaster House at 3.00 for my first Political Cooperation meeting. 25 I had been told that it was much more intimate than the Council of Ministers and so I suppose in a relative sense it was: in other words there were only about one hundred people in the room as opposed to the two hundred-plus that one has for a Council of Ministers. Nonetheless the table was large enough and the crowd was great enough for it to be a fairly formal session. It was well conducted by Crosland and we almost galloped through the business, dealing, rather superficially, with about six items between 3.15 and 6.15. The main dispute was as to whether we should issue a statement on the Middle East. The American Government, though not at an enormously high level, were firmly against our publishing a statement at all. With Genscherâs 26 rather skilful help they got their way.
After the meeting I took Garret Fitzgerald with Crispin for a drink at Brooksâs. This proved a well-spent half hour, for in the course of it we evolved a successful idea for lancing the Irish grievance that they had lost their one Director-General by creating a new one for fish.
We then returned to Lancaster House for the dinner and post-dinner discussions. This was devoted to a substantial discussion about the admission of Portugal. I opened saying that we recognized the political imperative but that we were determined that the real economic difficulty should not be glossed over, as it had been with Greece.
The discussion afterwards was inconclusive and interesting mainly from the personality point of view. Genscher was good and weighty, though perhaps not tremendously constructive; Thorn 27 and Fitzgerald described rather good circles in the sky but it was not clear what they amounted to; Guiringaud 28 was half difficult though personally agreeable, and intervened rather skilfully at the end to make sure that the conclusion did not go any further than he wanted; Forlani 29 was opaque; Van Elslande 30 talked too much and made a lot of jokes in rather bad French, but didnât get anywhere. Crosland, who had been very good in the afternoon, I thought jollied them along slightly too much as though they were members of the Grimsby Labour Party General Management Committee, but maybe that is what they like. However, he seemed in perfectly good control.
THURSDAY, 3 FEBRUARY.
Brussels.
Dinner at a very good fish restaurant enlivened, if that is the word, on the way out by sensing a slight feeling of embarrassment amongst the staff, which was indeed well founded, as we saw on the ground floorâwe had been eating on the first floorâthe upturned soles of a Japanese who seemed at least unconscious and possibly dead. When we got outside an ambulance drew up and a stretcher was rushed in. We asked Ron Argent, our inimitable driver, whether he knew what was happening. He said: âOh, yes, certainly, oyster poisoning. Quite often happens, but the restaurant is
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