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Marr regales audience on a “momentous day” |
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Thursday, 28 June 2007 |
Journalist and broadcaster Andrew Marr was the guest speaker at a launch party ‘do’ to celebrate law firm Cobbetts’ new regional office last night. Guests were well entertained as the evening sun shone brightly on Brown’s first day in command…
Marr began by saying he’d noticed when Cobbetts’ partner Robert Turnbull had mentioned in his introduction of Marr that both he and the firm shared three key attributes with each other, there had been a certain frisson in the audience as people hurriedly looked round “for other people with big ears, as if they expected to see an anorexic elephant in their midst…”
Check out the Number 10 web site when you get home later he advised the audience. You’ll see a picture of the Cabinet with “to be confirmed” captions against everyone except Brown. He also accurately predicted the departure of Hewitt and Beckett.
He recounted a personal version of a (‘week in politics is a long time’) story about the outgoing PM.
Several years back, when John Smith was leader of the Labour Party, he and his family were holidaying in Scotland when unexpectedly they met the Blairs who were also holidaying in the area, one rainy dismal afternoon. They knew of each other more in passing he said but it was his wife who really knew them best as she’d been at Oxford with Blair and was surprised by his choice of career as she recalled he had been singularly uninterested in politics.
Blair was bemoaning his lot recounted Marr. He felt Labour was unelectable under Smith and he was envious of his brother who had just taken ‘silk’ and was coining it in and on reflection he felt he had perhaps made a poor decision to enter politics. But just a few months later Smith was dead and he rest, said Marr, was now history.
Brown, he felt, would prove a more interesting and tougher challenge for Cameron particularly as Brown is by nature a conservative (small c) and the country could look forward to the first real scrap between Leaders for many years. He pointed out that one of Brown’s closest friends is Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail.
Bruntwood chairman Michael Oglesby asked Marr if he felt Cameron had the depth required to win and if the Tories were elect-able? Marr replied he and many others did find Cameron hard to fathom but there was no doubting his intelligence.
“Like Blair he’s usually several sentences ahead of me when I’m interviewing him.” Cameron had taken the Tories further towards the centre and when pushed he said he thought Cameron would edge it at the next election.
He foresaw future problems in Scotland where Alex Salmond is a "very clever politician". The potential scenario at the next election of a Tory majority in England controlled by a coalition of Scottish Labour and Lib Dem factions could lead to a serious constitutional crisis.
Asked which politician he admired most, he reflected and replied possibly Ken Clarke.
He liked Clarke’s frankness and instinctive reflex to speak his mind and “he doesn’t suck up to people.” Thatcher he said was a Titanic of a politician and Healy was seriously under-rated – and not just for his humour.
MC for the evening, Michael Taylor, editor of Insider magazine, asked Marr what he felt the Metropolitan view was of Manchester today. “A success story. The Labour Party conference did the city a world of good. The city looked confident and everything worked really well. And unlike Blackpool, people actually seemed to welcome the conference."Something to add? Then leave a comment below or email us now.
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