Posts Tagged ‘Francis Beckett’

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Light relief – and some free stuff

Friday, April 8th, 2011

A little light relief on a Friday afternoon. It’s been a bit of a Prime Ministers Who Never Were day on the Biteback blog today – but who can resist?

Two weeks ago we put your imaginations to the test and asked you to come up with scenarios of Prime Ministers who never were off your own bat.

Here are a couple of things you came up with:

20 October, 2003: Tony Blair’s heart attack caused chaos. Caretaker PM Prescott declared both he and Chancellor Brown unsuitable for highest office. On 1 November, Labour MPs chose Jack Straw as Leader. Brown left Parliament and became USA banking regulator.

Straw’s first act was to withdraw UK forces from Iraq, declaring from his famous Blackburn Market soapbox, “six months is long enough”. His 2003 Queen’s Speech created a pure Finance Ministry and moved Treasury policymaking into the new “First Lord’s Office” at No. 10.

Promising to exit Afghanistan, Straw easily won the 2004 General Election. After victory in 2005’s Euro-entry referendum, Straw and Finance Minister David Miliband re-designed and strengthened the currency system. Their reforms protected the EU from 2008’s American Banking Crash which forced President Gore from office. Straw became UN Secretary General at the 2009 General Election. Incoming PM David Miliband called him our greatest Leader since Churchill.

And if Prime Minister Straw wasn’t enough to whet your appetite, what about Prime Minister Davis? Interesting…

The media’s infatuation with David Cameron’s 2005 Conservative Party conference speech helped prevent the favourite, David Davis, from winning the leadership. Had the speeches of the two been portrayed a little differently, Davis may well have won.

In opposition, Davis benefits from his popular stances on Europe and civil liberties. With UKIP soft-pedaling in many seats, the Tories win 307 seats in the 2010 general election. Owing to his refusal to countenance any possibility of voting reform, the Tories form a minority government. As prime minister, Davis’ doubts over climate change provide ample opportunity for ridicule and, struggling to get much done, he calls another election. Labour’s slogan – ‘The Tories haven’t changed’ – is hugely effective, but Labour themselves still haven’t recovered their popularity. The Lib Dems break the 100-seat barrier, and, wooed by a referendum on proportional representation and the prospect of Vince Cable becoming Chancellor, form a ‘progressive coalition’ with Labour.

I will be contacting the winners of our PMs Who Never Were competiton shortly – congrats! A copy of Francis Beckett’s latest book is on its way to you!

Prime Ministers Who Never Were is available now, priced £14.99

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Biteback love at LBC

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

Biteback MD and author Iain Dale was out of London last night hosting An Audience With Ann Widdecombe, so Mehdi Hasan, senior editor of the New Statesman (who just happens to be within spitting distance of becoming a fully-fledged Biteback author) took the reins of Iain’s Book Club on LBC. And on the show last night was Francis Beckett – the seasoned Biteback author of What did the Baby Boomers ever do for us? and The Prime Ministers Who Never Were. There was so much Biteback love in the room that Big Cheese’s assistant was quite overcome with emotion. He’s only just recovering now really, thanks to the help of some Rolos.

The joy of the LBC Book Club is that guests have a full 30 minutes to discuss their book. So last night, Mehdi had plenty of time to quiz Francis on The Prime Ministers Who Never Were and the two of them covered everything from the merits of a Marxist deterministic historicism to the utility of the millennium dome (which Francis insists on referring to as ‘that shed’).

The first part of Francis’s slot was reserved for an in-depth consideration of the purpose of this kind of historical writing: how does allowing authors to let their counterfactual imagination to run wild – sometimes even leading them into spectacularly fanciful, albeit amusing, territory – benefit the reader, especially when the book is written as if portraying the truth? Is this parlour game merely a bit of fun?

And after a break for the news and weather, Mehdi challenged Francis on some of the individuals who, in The Prime Ministers Who Never Were at least, made it through the door of No. 10 as Prime Minsiters – did Tebbit really have the ambition for the top job? Was Foot, who led the Labour Party to a humiliating defeat in the 1983 general election really close to the title? Could J. R. Clynes really have prevented the Second World War by having the foresight to curtail somewhat the extent of the Treaty of Versailles’s attack on Germany? And would a John Smith premiership really have resulted in a ten-year-long rule by Ken Livingstone in a socialist utopia?

With so many questions to consider, you’d best get your hands on a copy of The Prime Ministers Who Never Were, available here priced £14.99

Mehdi’s interview with Francis can be heard as a podcast here.

Iain’s latest books are also available now: Talking Politics: political conversations with Iain Dale priced £14.99 and Margaret Thatcher: In her own words priced £12.99

*** Biteback will be at the London Book Fair from 11 – 13 April at Earls Court, London. Come and say hi to us at stand J205!***

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eBook excitement!

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

This afternoon has been pretty darn exciting for the Biteback team. Not only did we have a stationary delivery (woop!), but we also caught a clip of Michael Smith, author of Six: A History of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service and one of Biteback’s commissioning editors talking about Libya on Sky News, all whilst watching the Spooks team film a fight scene outside our office window. Phew!

And then, when it looks like the day just can’t get any better, comes the real cherry on the cake of excitement: Francis Beckett’s The Prime Ministers Who Never Were is now officially available in eBook format and can be downloaded for just £9.20, from here. And this morning, Biteback’s biggest fan – Mark Pack from Lib Dem Voice – even posted a rather complimentary review of this collection of political counterfactuals.

Our eminently well-read and knowledgeable reviewer says, and he should know, that ‘serious counter-factuals by experts in a field are rather rare’, but that thanks to this publication’s ‘heavyweight list of contributors’, combined with ‘strikingly original’ ideas, The Prime Ministers Who Never Were is an authoritative examination of the sizeable impact of tiny twists of fate on our Prime Ministerial lineage. For this reason, Mark says, Francis Beckett’s most recent book is a ‘welcome publication’.

The Prime Ministers Who Never Were is available here, priced £14.99, or here as an eBook, priced £9.20. The lovely Mark Pack’s review can be read in full here.

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Happy 80th birthday Lord Tebbit! Have a bicycle

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

I was going to make this post about how kind the Independent have been to us recently, Matt Chorley’s feature on How to be in Opposition, John Rentoul’s blog about Prime Minister’s Who Never Were, and then yesterday this cropped up, another review of Francis Beckett’s book by Sean O’Grady.

The marketing and publicity team look positively glory stricken. And as far as I know, all this is not the result of an affair! Mind you, that would be a bit cheap – wouldn’t it?

Yesterday was also Lord Tebbit’s birthday. We at Biteback concur with Edward Leigh MP’s view put forward in the Chamber that a “bicycle draped in the Union flag” should be erected in his honour. Hence the tribute title to this blog, it’s late, I know, but still it’s the thought that counts. And it comes also as thanks for the wonderful things Lord Tebbit had to say for the cover of our book The Prime Ministers Who Never Were:

“It has long been said that the largest political club is that of the past ‘future Prime Ministers’, to which Francis Beckett has nominated fourteen of us in this book. He reminds us that the course of the ship of state is neither pre-ordained nor decided solely by the Captain, but by the sea, the wind and those who set the sails. We who might have once taken command may feel we would have headed for a different destination, steering a new course with a differrent crew, but the wind and the weather, or even the passengers, might have dicated events.

We know what really happened, but that was scarcely more likely than what might have been, and these speculations are perhaps more than just fun. They give us food for thought.”

Food for thought, says Lord T; tantalising says Sean O’Grady:

“…the idea of Norman Tebbitt succeeding Thatcher in 1989, beating the IRA and walking away from Europe is capable of sending a shiver down the spine, even at this distance of time and reality. Tantalising indeed.”

If you need food for thought and tantalisation in your life, we have it in such droves here that we are literally, (and I mean literally – I get in trouble from the Senior Editor here for saying literally and not literally meaning it… wait, what?) giving it away. Email me with just 100-150 words on who would be your Prime Minister who never was. Be as creative as you like. And email me your ideas at katy.scholes[at]bitebackpublishing.com – there are still copies up for grabs!

Or if you simply can’t get your creative juices flowing, buy your copy now for £12.99.

Incidentally, Jonathan Isaby – whose blog on ConHome alerted us to Lord Tebbit’s birthday – is a contributor to another of our upcoming books, So You Want to be a Political Journalist, I know what you’re thinking, we must know everyone! You’re not wrong.

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Free books, free books, whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when they throw ‘em at you

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

The Prime Ministers Who Never Were: A collection of counterfactuals is published today. In honour of this, we generous folk at Biteback have decided to give copies of it away. Copies of The PMs Who Never Were are up for grabs.

To classify as a Prime Minister who never was the candidates must have been close to the top job, and indeed, could have attained it had things turned out just a little different.

We have an ardent Enoch lover in the office who goes by the name of Grant Tucker. In all honesty, things would have had to be quite a lot different for it to happen but nonetheless he’s come up with an elaborate series of circumstances that could have taken place and brought about a government headed by Enoch Powell. He even has a chapter heading: “Opportunity Enochs”. Gold star.

So that’s what I’m looking for, just 100-150 words on who would be your Prime Minister who never was, you could mention how it would have come about, what would have been different under their leadership, or what would have happened to other key figures at the time as a result. Be as creative as you like. And email me your ideas at katy.scholes[at]bitebackpublishing.com

I’ll announce the winners next week (so you won’t have to wait too long for your copy if you win).

Fear not, Grant can’t apply – besides, I reckon he’s already nicked one.

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Let your political counterfactual imagination run wild!

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

If you’d tuned in to the BBC’s Daily Politics show this lunchtime you would have been instructed by Anita Anand and Andrew Neil to ‘let your counterfactual imagination run wild!’ and steel yourself for a journey to a political fantasy world.

Francis Beckett, contributor and editor of The Prime Ministers Who Never Were, appeared on today’s show to discuss his latest book and the interview started with a nostalgic saunter down memory lane with a video clip showing the smiling Tebbits, Kinnocks, Clynes’ and Butlers of bygone years, while John Lennon’s Imagine played fittingly in the background.

When asked who his favourite almost-Prime-Minister would be, Francis plumped for J.R. Clynes, who came within a whisker of defeating Ramsay Macdonald for the Labour leadership in 1922, but not before first considering the cases of John Smith, Dennis Healey and Norman Tebbit, all of whom came very close. Had Clynes become PM, Beckett explained, Labour would most probably have won the 1925 General Election, and we wouldn’t have had to wait until 1945 to see a reforming Labour government with an overall majority. In The Prime Ministers Who Never Were Phil Woolas, who penned the chapter on Clynes, even goes so far as to envisage him scrapping the Versailles Treaty and averting the First World War altogether. Just imagine…

This book of political counterfactuals is not merely a collection of dissatisfied wishful thinkers irritated that their favourite political figures were, for whatever reason, denied what was rightfully theirs, with ensuing adverse affect for the country in general. As Beckett explained, it’s a much tighter work than that: to be admitted to the club of almost-Prime-Ministers, there had to have been a moment where the position was definitely within reach – for this reason, Guest of the Day Mark Serwotka’s suggestion of Tony Benn doesn’t quite qualify.

And according to the expert, who came the closest to seizing the title? Francis reckons Rab Butler, who had two shots at the position – once in 1957 and again in 1963. But why not make up your own mind on the subject: The Prime Ministers Who Never Were is available from the 24th March, priced £14.99

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Has Gordon Brown lost his mojo?

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

These days Gordon Brown’s Westminster presence appears to be limited to the submission of a couple of written questions to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions about the number of people in the Fife local authority area currently in receipt of housing benefit. Yawn.

No wonder, then, that he’s longingly eyeing up the position of managing director of the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, although – the Daily Mail reports – his chances of jetting off to Capitol Hill are looking rather slim.

Never mind, Gordon. Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath may not quite compare to the glamourous US of A, but at least you can curl up on the sofa with a cuppa and a copy of several great books. All about you.

For, it seems, ‘tis the season for reminiscing about Brown’s turbulent period as PM, with Sarah Brown’s Behind the Black Door hitting the shelves last week. This Saturday, Francis Beckett reviewed in The Guardian Anthony Seldon and Guy Lodge’s book – published by yours truly – Brown At 10, writing that ‘anyone seriously interested in modern British political history will want to have it around for reference’. In this rigorous and authoritative account, Seldon and Lodge ‘record in compelling and grisly detail’ examples of Brown’s hubris and downfall. Okay Gordon, perhaps you’d be better off sticking to the missus’ book, but for the rest of you out there: what are you waiting for? Brown At 10 is available here, priced just £20. Bargain.

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Francis Beckett: David Chaytor and the real swindlers

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

Last month ex-Labour MP David Chaytor was sentenced to eighteen months in prison for false expenses claims. Author and journalist, Francis Beckett has something to say about it…

Whatever they say of him now, I still like David Chaytor, former HMP and now residing at Her Majesty’s pleasure. I did not recognise the old, ill, white-haired, haunted man whose gaunt, terrified face stared out of last week’s papers. I have happy memories of a tall, erect, dapper, kind and occasionally rather amusing man, and of an intelligent and able politician, who knew, understood and cared about the environment and education; a politician of some integrity, held back by his independence of mind – if he’d been more willing to toe the Blair line, he’d have been in government.

I’m sure his lawyer was right to describe him as a broken man. I saw the start of the decay. It began fast – probably at that dreadful moment in New York when he took a telephone call that effectively told him he’d been found out. I met him a few weeks later. The ease and the poise had gone completely. Every syllable shrieked tension and a growing sense of doom. His judgement, always rather steady, had deserted him – I think he really thought it was all a Tory plot to harm Labour in the run-up to the election. He knew he was finished, though.

I emailed to tell him I was sorry he was ceasing to be an MP, and he could be proud of some of the things he’d done. I meant it.

David cheated the public purse of £18,000. It was very wrong, and he’ll pay dearly for it. But his sentence is over the top, a kneejerk response to public indignation and media sanctimoniousness. It’s the same as for a financier, reported yesterday, who cheated shareholders of hundreds of thousands of pounds. You think it’s more serious if it’s a backbench MP? But an important city financier has far more power than a backbench MP.

It’s not Chaytor’s crime which has created our desperate financial plight. His crime, and that of other MPs, is being used cynically to distract attention from the real swindlers – the men in banking and finance whose greed has made us all poor.

I suspect one of the many things he’ll torture himself about for the rest of his life is what a small sum of money he destroyed himself for. Bankers, financiers, Tony Blair, none of them would cross the road for £18,000. The people who ruined the country, and the man who arranged for some of its young men to die in an illegal and unwinnable war, will enjoy all their lives the fruits of their greed.

David Chaytor, I think, may never enjoy anything anymore. I know I am not the only old chum who declined to talk about him that night, and I am sure we did so partly to protect the causes for which we campaigned alongside him. Maybe he deserved his fate. But there are many people who deserve it far more, and who won’t suffer it. If he fancies a pint when he comes out, the first round’s on me.

Francis Beckett’s books, How to Create a Successful School and What Did the Baby Boomers Every Do For Us? are available here and here, priced £14.99 and £12.99, respectively.

His forthcoming book, The Prime Ministers Who Never Were, will be published in hardback on 10 March, priced £14.99.

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Little Platoons: Francis Beckett on political theatre

Monday, February 7th, 2011

Author and journalist, Francis Beckett reviews the new political play, Little Platoons, which had the panel on Front Row talking last week.

Former Labour education Secretary Estelle Morris, often a voice of reason, got it completely wrong last Tuesday on Front Row, when she was sniffy about the new political play, Little Platoons. We’ve forgotten what radical political theatre is supposed to be like, and Steve Waters’ play Little Platoons has arrived at the Bush Theatre to remind us.

First, it’s bang up to date, getting to grips with the idea that most clearly sums up the new government’s philosophy – free schools.

Second, it takes on the arguments. This is a writer who knows education debates, and who knows how heart-rending they are when your own children are involved. No cheating: no making the likeable characters take the view we wish the audience to adopt – in fact, the heart of the argument against free schools is expressed by one of the least likeable characters – and even he’s a late convert to it. Morris was seduced by her far right fellow panellists into agreeing that Waters tilted the playing field, but he didn’t.

Third, it’s a play first and a statement second. Too much of what passes for radical political theatre now, including work by big names like David Hare and David Edgar, are statements first and plays second. I don’t wish to go to the theatre to hear a political lecture, even when I agree with the politics. There’s not one character in Little Platoons who is a cardboard cutout, created to express a viewpoint for the author. Every character is multi-layered, every character develops as the story progresses.

There are no simple, straightforward answers. The characters are parents, grappling with a problem that all parents face. A mother says to her husband: “What you fear about Mandela [the local comprehensive] is that the kids are all just a little too brown for you.” And he denies it indignantly, but then, on the other hand, “just how many white middle class kids are there in there? Who’s going to be Sam’s buddies, his peers? Realistically?”

Here’s how the idealistic comprehensive school teacher is converted to selection when it comes to free schools: “If we don’t filter these applications in some way, we’ll have a world of woe coming through that door.”

It takes on the issues, it knows there are no easy answers, but it also knows where it stands. So when, finally, it comes out and says it, there’s no sense of being preached at, just relief that someone is saying the simple thing that needs to be said:

“I want Sam to muddle his way through Mandela and for us to make that work for him. I want us to get off our knees, I want to fight for what we fought for, our parents fought for, I want to defend every benefit and every year at school and every free place at uni and every bit of social housing and every park and public holiday…”

Hurrah.

Francis Beckett’s latest book, The Prime Ministers Who Never Were is available from 10 March.

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Student Demonstrations and the Baby Boomers

Monday, December 13th, 2010

Over the weekend Biteback’s very own Francis Beckett – author of What Did the Baby Boomers Ever Do For Us? – had a little something to say about the student protests. Take it away Francis…

Today I’m sending copies of my Baby Boomers book to two old friends, both of whom I heard on Radio 4 this morning saying things about today’s student demonstrations which I’d never have heard from them when we were all young.

Former New Statesman editor Peter Wilby defended tuition fees, and Ivor Gaber, Professor of Journalism at City University, who once occupied Warwick University and discovered the appalling truth about what corporate influence can do to a university, now feels obliged to defend it.

What they both seemed not to grasp was how much worse and less egalitarian a society we have created for our children than the one we grew up in.

I’m not sure whether Peter would have gone to Sussex University all those years ago if he’d had to tie a mountain of debt round his neck. I’m sure I wouldn’t have gone to Keele. Like most people who have never had much money, I’m terrified of debt. It’s only the rich who take debt in their stride.

And I’m not sure Ivor would have occupied at Warwick University if he’d been paying tuition fees – let alone the fabulous sums you now have to pay to get an MA in Journalism at City University. He, and I, and Peter would probably have had our heads in our books, protecting our investment.

Which makes it all the more remarkable that today’s students, who do have to amass a mountain of debt, are prepared to take the time and the risk involved in running occupations, and painting slogans, and painting Prince Charles’s car. (I’m not impressed by the manufactured outrage over this. When I was the NUS press officer in the seventies, I heard the same manufactured outrage when the queen visited Sitling University and some students failed to behave wirh what newspapers considered to be the prioper respect.)

No, I stick to what I wrote in the book:

“The baby boomers used up the economic good times, when there was work for everyone. We used up the educational good times, when free education extended to universities, and we, unlike our children, did not have to amass a mountain of debt in order to go to university. We used up the time when education was seen as a good in itself, rather than the acquisition of the skills required to swell someone else’s profits; as I write, the government’s higher education department has just been abolished, and its responsibilities placed under the department dealing with business and industry, a pretty good indication of what ministers now think education is for.”

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