The Ashdown Diaries: Volume 1:1988-1997: v. 1 - Softcover

9780140297751: The Ashdown Diaries: Volume 1:1988-1997: v. 1
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In 1988 when Paddy Ashdown became leader of the Social and Liberal Democratic Party, he began to keep a diary. The party was virtually bankrupt, morale almost extinguished. By May 2 1997, the Liberal Democrats under his leadership had been brought to their strongest postion in two generations, and were on brink of reshaping the centre ground of British politics. The revival of his party is as major theme in a book that draws the reader day by day into the immediate political past, from the intense pressures of the 1992 election to Europe's failure in the Balkans, from the cease-fire in Northern Ireland to John Major's fianl, crushing nemesis.

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Review:
Alec Guinness, David Attenborough, Quentin Crisp, John Simpson--many fascinating autobiographies have been read by their authors, but the ex-leader of the Lib Dems has produced a dog. Yet the facts of his story are interesting. He inherited a divided and bankrupt party which agreed--after marathon debates--to assume a new and forgettable name; he attempted to end the confusion about what they stood for, without success; he laid secret plans with Tony Blair to form a coalition designed to send the Tories to perdition; he repeatedly visited the Balkans to try to repair the damage left by meddling and fainthearted Western governments. His tale ends in 1997 with Blair pulling out of the secret compact, and with himself standing down as party leader. Part Two is promised soon.

The trouble with these diaries--and with his reading, which, alas, suits them perfectly--is that they are trudgingly, achingly dull. The blurb describes him as "charismatic", but of that quality these cassettes give no sign. Very occasionally he produces a nice turn of phrase--as when he speaks of the Tories "murdering Caesar" in ditching Mrs T--but for the most part his account has as much colour as a police report. He may have invaded Blair's inner circle, but we get no sense of what that must have been like, no whiff of personalities. He is either hopelessly unobservant, or else too mealy-mouthed to reveal what he sees; he seems devoid of the humanity which could illuminate the more tragic figures (John Major for one) with whom he consorts. OK, he's worked like a Trojan in the Balkans; OK, he can speak Chinese; OK, he only sleeps three hours a night--but, being no Thatcher, he clearly longs for his rightful eight. No mention, by the way, of his notorious affair. Several times he speaks of going to bed "dog-tired". Perhaps he should now curl up in his basket. --Betty Tadman

Synopsis:
On July 1988, the day Paddy Ashdown was elected Leader of his party and this diary begins, the men from the Inland Revenue had to be hurried from the party's headquarters so he could make his first Leader's statement to the press. (The Revenue had called "because of our persistent failure to pay National Insurance contributions"). The party was virtually bankrupt, morale almost extinguished. In the depths of despair eleven months later, with everything apparently dissolving around him, he wrote in his diary, "I'm plagued by the nightmare that the party that started with Gladstone will end with Ashdown". But history turned out otherwise. On 2 May 1997, when this volume ends, the Liberal Democrats under Ashdown's leadership had been brought to their strongest position in two generations - 46 seats in the House of Commons and, as this book now reveals, on the brink of reshaping entirely the centre ground of British politics. The astonishing revival of his party (ruthlessly internally managed, as his daily thinking shows, and despite his frequent confessions of nervousness and absence of confidence) is one the great themes of this book.

The account which Ashdown gives here of his negotiations with Tony Blair to bring about that reshaping, which were of an extent and intensity until now entirely unguessed at except by their immediate advisers, is the main political story which the book has to tell. "Let me give it to you absolutely straight", Blair says to him in May 1996. "I repeat what I have said to Roy. The preferred option is very clear. It is to have you in the Government, even if there is a majority". The portrait of Blair himself and of those around him is the least varnished and most three-dimensional yet published. Yet these are only two threats in an entertaining and gripping book. Ashdown shows the extraordinary pressure with which political leades now live, constantly in the eye of the media, fighting to protect some small patch of personal life, surviving on a few hours sleep per night often for weeks on end. The stresses on him and his family are almost overwhelming. racist thugs torch his car, and threaten to do the same to his house in his constituency ("I am sacred to death of the house being fire-bombed with Jane inside"). The news of his earlier affair with Tricia Sullivan breaks in the press.

The book shows how media crises are handled, and how he and Jane coped with what was thrown at them. Finally, the Balkans. No British politician had such an intimate personal involvement with the crisis there during the 1990s or can write so authoritatively about it. Ashdown's account of coming over Mount Igman at dawn and entering Sarajevo through the tunnel underneath the airport is as exciting as anything in adventure fiction. yet contemplating Britain's role there he writes, "I don't know which was the stronger emotion, the anger of the shame". His condemnation of the inaction of the Conservative government is complete and unequivocal. The completion of Ashdown's account of that story, as of the domestic political negotiations which reached their high-water mark in April 1997, must wait for publication of his second and final volume in autumn 2001. In the meantime, it is clear from this first volume that Ashdown is providing us with the best and most detailed account of what it's like to be a front-line politician, and of the processes of politics in Britain since Richard Crossman.

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  • PublisherPenguin
  • Publication date2001
  • ISBN 10 0140297758
  • ISBN 13 9780140297751
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages672
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. On July 1988, the day Paddy Ashdown was elected Leader of his party and this diary begins, the men from the Inland Revenue had to be hurried from the party's headquarters so he could make his first Leader's statement to the press. (The Revenue had called "because of our persistent failure to pay National Insurance contributions"). The party was virtually bankrupt, morale almost extinguished. In the depths of despair eleven months later, with everything apparently dissolving around him, he wrote in his diary, "I'm plagued by the nightmare that the party that started with Gladstone will end with Ashdown". But history turned out otherwise. On 2 May 1997, when this volume ends, the Liberal Democrats under Ashdown's leadership had been brought to their strongest position in two generations - 46 seats in the House of Commons and, as this book now reveals, on the brink of reshaping entirely the centre ground of British politics. The astonishing revival of his party (ruthlessly internally managed, as his daily thinking shows, and despite his frequent confessions of nervousness and absence of confidence) is one the great themes of this book. The account which Ashdown gives here of his negotiations with Tony Blair to bring about that reshaping, which were of an extent and intensity until now entirely unguessed at except by their immediate advisers, is the main political story which the book has to tell. "Let me give it to you absolutely straight", Blair says to him in May 1996. "I repeat what I have said to Roy. The preferred option is very clear. It is to have you in the Government, even if there is a majority". The portrait of Blair himself and of those around him is the least varnished and most three-dimensional yet published. Yet these are only two threats in an entertaining and gripping book. Ashdown shows the extraordinary pressure with which political leades now live, constantly in the eye of the media, fighting to protect some small patch of personal life, surviving on a few hours sleep per night often for weeks on end. The stresses on him and his family are almost overwhelming. racist thugs torch his car, and threaten to do the same to his house in his constituency ("I am sacred to death of the house being fire-bombed with Jane inside"). The news of his earlier affair with Tricia Sullivan breaks in the press. The book shows how media crises are handled, and how he and Jane coped with what was thrown at them. Finally, the Balkans. No British politician had such an intimate personal involvement with the crisis there during the 1990s or can write so authoritatively about it. Ashdown's account of coming over Mount Igman at dawn and entering Sarajevo through the tunnel underneath the airport is as exciting as anything in adventure fiction. yet contemplating Britain's role there he writes, "I don't know which was the stronger emotion, the anger of the shame". His condemnation of the inaction of the Conservative government is complete and unequivocal. The completion of Ashdown's account of that story, as of the domestic political negotiations which reached their high-water mark in April 1997, must wait for publication of his second and final volume in autumn 2001. In the meantime, it is clear from this first volume that Ashdown is providing us with the best and most detailed account of what it's like to be a front-line politician, and of the processes of politics in Britain since Richard Crossman. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR001725955

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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Fair. On July 1988, the day Paddy Ashdown was elected Leader of his party and this diary begins, the men from the Inland Revenue had to be hurried from the party's headquarters so he could make his first Leader's statement to the press. (The Revenue had called "because of our persistent failure to pay National Insurance contributions"). The party was virtually bankrupt, morale almost extinguished. In the depths of despair eleven months later, with everything apparently dissolving around him, he wrote in his diary, "I'm plagued by the nightmare that the party that started with Gladstone will end with Ashdown". But history turned out otherwise. On 2 May 1997, when this volume ends, the Liberal Democrats under Ashdown's leadership had been brought to their strongest position in two generations - 46 seats in the House of Commons and, as this book now reveals, on the brink of reshaping entirely the centre ground of British politics. The astonishing revival of his party (ruthlessly internally managed, as his daily thinking shows, and despite his frequent confessions of nervousness and absence of confidence) is one the great themes of this book. The account which Ashdown gives here of his negotiations with Tony Blair to bring about that reshaping, which were of an extent and intensity until now entirely unguessed at except by their immediate advisers, is the main political story which the book has to tell. "Let me give it to you absolutely straight", Blair says to him in May 1996. "I repeat what I have said to Roy. The preferred option is very clear. It is to have you in the Government, even if there is a majority". The portrait of Blair himself and of those around him is the least varnished and most three-dimensional yet published. Yet these are only two threats in an entertaining and gripping book. Ashdown shows the extraordinary pressure with which political leades now live, constantly in the eye of the media, fighting to protect some small patch of personal life, surviving on a few hours sleep per night often for weeks on end. The stresses on him and his family are almost overwhelming. racist thugs torch his car, and threaten to do the same to his house in his constituency ("I am sacred to death of the house being fire-bombed with Jane inside"). The news of his earlier affair with Tricia Sullivan breaks in the press. The book shows how media crises are handled, and how he and Jane coped with what was thrown at them. Finally, the Balkans. No British politician had such an intimate personal involvement with the crisis there during the 1990s or can write so authoritatively about it. Ashdown's account of coming over Mount Igman at dawn and entering Sarajevo through the tunnel underneath the airport is as exciting as anything in adventure fiction. yet contemplating Britain's role there he writes, "I don't know which was the stronger emotion, the anger of the shame". His condemnation of the inaction of the Conservative government is complete and unequivocal. The completion of Ashdown's account of that story, as of the domestic political negotiations which reached their high-water mark in April 1997, must wait for publication of his second and final volume in autumn 2001. In the meantime, it is clear from this first volume that Ashdown is providing us with the best and most detailed account of what it's like to be a front-line politician, and of the processes of politics in Britain since Richard Crossman. A readable copy of the book which may include some defects such as highlighting and notes. Cover and pages may be creased and show discolouration. Seller Inventory # GOR004707472

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