I write this to the most extraordinary background cacophony. Parliament Square, on this gloriously sunny spring afternoon, is full of banner-waving, drum-beating, chanting demonstrators – a very large number of whom have quite clearly taken the day off school. Peaceful demonstration – and please God it will remain that – is one of the birthrights of every citizen in a true democracy, but I do wish those who are repeating their mantras would really think about the fate of any students who sought to protest in Iraq – and the ghastly death suffered by many of the brave souls who have dared to do so in the last three decades.
It's Thursday afternoon and the culmination of an extraordinary week and, for me, of an extraordinarily varied ten days.
Monday 10th March
I drove up from the constituency last night. One of the casualties of the changed hours has been my Sunday in the country. With only one full working morning at the desk I have just not been able to contemplate arriving here mid-morning or after. So now, after Sunday lunch, it's always away. Beating the Congestion Charge I was at my desk by just after 6.50am, and worked solidly through the morning. Then it was into the Chamber for Question Time, and for the Foreign Secretary's Statement on the deteriorating situation at the UN and the looming, and now surely inevitable, conflict with Iraq.
I was reinforced over my views not only by the Foreign Secretary's robust and sensible Statement, but by dinner with Calum MacDonald and the Bosnian Ambassador. At a time when we were in a tiny minority, we spoke out from our opposite sides of the House, against Government hesitancy and indecision whilst tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims were brutally murdered, raped and tortured. That is one episode of my Parliamentary career that I shall never regret. Eventually policy changed to the extent that those who had, from both main parties, opposed us over Bosnia, warmly endorsed the Kosovo decision. Now Bosnia is rebuilding itself into a proper democracy and we discussed a summer visit.
Tuesday 11th March
Again to the office before 7.00, and then, after Questions, to the Russian Embassy for a quiet lunch with the Ambassador and Sir Andrew Wood, one of our most successful recent Ambassadors in Moscow. Then it was back to the Chamber and later to Waterloo, to catch the Eurostar for Brussels.
Wednesday 12th March
The Foreign Affairs Committee have come for discussions at NATO and EU headquarters, but some are arriving on the early-morning train, and so our programme does not begin until midday. I take advantage of three private hours and, after an early breakfast, take a cab to the Sablon, that charming district of gently climbing streets and a multitude of antique shops. My bank manager will be delighted that they are all closed. But Notre Dame de Sablon is not and I am able to have a quiet half-hour in the most beautiful church in Brussels.
Coming out I buy a Daily Telegraph and take a cab to the Grand Place, where I have two excellent coffees and read the paper from cover to cover, looking out over one of Eurpoe's grandest public spaces. I buy the obligatory chocolates and head back to the hotel.
Our first meeting of the day is with Javier Solana. He combines profound knowledge of the European and NATO scenes with an irrepressible Latin good humour and even the undoubted problems and tensions of the moment have not subdued his optimism. It is a stimulating hour.
Then to a lunch hosted by Sir Emyr Jones Parry, our Permanent Representative at NATO, and a number of his colleagues. I sit next to one of the experts in Weapons of Mass Destruction, who tells me quite clearly that he is convinced our Prime Minister is right.
In the afternoon we have a series of briefings, from Emyr Parry Jones himself, from the American Ambassador and from the head of the NATO Military Committee. We end with a discussion with a group of Ambassadors to NATO, including the French, with whom I firmly (but I hope politely), cross swords.
In the evening Emyr Jones Parry and his wife entertain us to dinner in their residence, and again all of the talk is of the tensions in the Alliance, the EU and the UN.
Thursday 13th March
This is EU day. We have a series of discussions and briefings with the British team, rounded up with lunch at the residence of our Ambassador, Sir Nigel Sheinwald.
Then it's back to the station and the Eurostar. In my office two days has produced a fair mountain of mail and I spend three hours going through it.
Friday 14th March
Away from the flat shortly after 6.30. I love these early morning drives, especially when the sun is shining. The roads are empty and I am home before 9.30, with enough time to dump the laundry bag. Then it's off to a series of constituency visits and meetings, and a long surgery.
A great friend is coming for the weekend and he arrives from a dinner in Birmingham shortly before midnight – so it's been a very long day by the time I hit the hay.
Saturday 15th March
Up early again and a couple of hours of dictation and paper shuffling and then a day off. As so often when we have time to ourselves we head west to Shropshire, and beyond, over the Hereford border to the Burford House Gardens, where Mary buys some plants and we watch the amorous, spring-conscious ducks on the pond. Lunch is at the Roebuck in Brimfield, one of my favourite country pubs and then three hours mooching around the antique shops of Ludlow – quite the most beautiful town in England.
Sunday 16th March
After an eight o'clock service, a morning gently breaking the Commandment about work on the Sabbath, and then lunch and the drive back to London.
Monday 17th March
In before 7.00 – beating the Congestion Charge again! A morning at the desk and in for Questions. Then I meet a group of students from the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna to talk about the work of the Foreign Affairs Committee – and, inevitably, Iraq. I follow Donald Anderson and I think the group are suitably impressed at our united front. Then it's a meeting of the Commission – about which I must not write. I think the Commission is the only leak-free body I have ever known at Westminster. I hope that's not a hostage to fortune.
Mary and I had planned a very happy evening. She was coming for dinner with some friends we hardly ever see, but the news of the Statements came through just before she was due to catch the train – and so she didn't.
So it's an evening absorbing the news in a very sombre House and ending with Robin Cook's impressive and dignified resignation speech.
Tuesday 18th March
When I first came in the House, and indeed for many years after, there was always a queue outside the Chamber at 8.00 on the morning of a major debate. This morning I am the only Tory. There are two colleagues from the Labour side and about six Liberals.
At least the walk across makes a break after the first hour at the desk and then its back for our weekly House Magazine meeting followed by a meeting with colleagues on a hospital issue.
Today everything has been cancelled – a lunch with the Arab League Ambassadors, planned weeks ago by the Foreign Affairs Committee; the Committee meeting itself; the All Party Heritage Group visit to the Durer exhibition at the British Museum. And I sit. And sit. And listen. I am out of the Chamber for barely an hour from 11.30 until 10.00 at night. I hear virtually every speech – and intervene in two or three of them. I can't complain. I was called in the last debate, and that was a shorter one. But this is the House of Commons as it ought to be. The House is full. Members care passionately and speak accordingly, regardless of party allegiance.
I have heard every major Prime Ministerial speech in the House of Commons since 1970. I have never heard a better one than today's. And the wind-up speeches – logical and quietly passionate, of Michael Ancram and Jack Straw, reflect great credit on them, and on Parliament – as does the Government's decision to allow Parliament to have this vote before hostilities commence. For there is no doubt that if the Amendment is carried the troops will come home. The Government will fall. What will happen to Britain's influence in the world does not bear thinking about. But some colleagues feel so completely persuaded that the Government is wrong that they are prepared – and all credit to them – to vote according to their conscientious doubts and objections.
I am mightily relieved at the size of the majority – though not nearly so relieved as the Prime Minister.
Wednesday 19th March
Another early start and then Keith Young, our publisher, comes in for breakfast. After we have a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee and then its back to the Chamber before a reception for the Staffordshire Regiment, a meeting with the Chairman of Postwatch, a brief session with Philip Norton's politics students from Hull; and a meeting of the 1922 Executive and of the Committee – and all these latter interspersed by about a dozen votes.
In the evening a quiet dinner with Sir John Boyd, Master of Churchill College and Chairman of the Trustees of the British Museum. Much in common: much to talk about.
Thursday 20th March
And here I sit completing this, still to the sound of drum beats. I slipped out whilst it was being typed to go to Evensong in the Abbey – a few moments of timeless tranquillity to ponder and reflect. Tomorrow to the constituency again.
