Since the publicity ball for The Prime Ministers Who Never Were started rolling a few weeks ago, the biteback bloggers have been kept busy updating you all on the latest media mentions. From highly complimentary reviews of the book in The Independent, The Guardian, Lib Dem Voice and ConservativeHome, to appearances by the editor and contributor to the book, Francis Beckett, on the BBC’s Daily Politics show, the BBC's Book Talk and on LBC radio, publicity for The Prime Ministers Who Never Were is ubiquitous, and rightly so.
The latest plug for this excellent book comes in the form of an article in today’s Guardian penned by Francis Beckett himself, in which he answers the question ‘What if John Smith had lived?’. For Beckett, who authored the chapter on John Smith in the volume, the consequences of a stronger Smith ticker would have been huge. After recovering from his heart attack in 1994, Beckett imagines, Smith goes on to secure a 99-seat majority in the 1997 general election. Smith is undeterred by the attacks of his baby boomer minions, whose frustration at Smith’s refusal to sever ties with the trade unions as vehemently as figures such as Blair and Brown would like is manifested in vicious scheming and sniping.
Over the course of Smith’s leadership, there’s no millennium dome, no war in Iraq, Brown is ‘the most reluctant foreign secretary in British history’, and Robin Cook triumphantly leads Britain into the Euro. Oh, and the ‘third way’ is a cuddly invention of none other than Michael Portillo who, in Beckett’s mind, manages to cling on to his Enfield seat and become Tory leader, only to go all soft in the head and make a violent swing to the left. In this parallel political universe anything, it seems, is possible.
Francis Beckett’s Guardian article is available here. And The Prime Ministers Who Never Were is available here, priced £14.99