Chris Mullin's Diaries - Decline and Fall

[GetOrfMoiLand]

I suppose I should have put this in fiction but thought it may get more of an audience in Politics.

I finished it last night. I cried at the end (what a saddo etc). It was an incredibly melancholy book, I thought.

Some really striking bits in it, I thought. One was a conversation he had with Ruth Winstone, in which she said (paraphrase) 'perhaps Labour's historic journey is now over' and deep doubts over whether Labour would ever be electable again.

Oft repeated that Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling are widely respected outside the UK for their performance during the banking crisis, and that they are widely viewed as having averted complete meltdown. I didn't know this.

But, he comes across as a man with such huge integrity, he really (in my view) should have remained an MP. The general tone was utterly sad.

Valedictory speech (printed at end) was excellent.

I heard bits of the R4 abridged serialisation. I found it both moving and amusing. It's on my 'to read' list.

Did you catch part 1 of the Gordon Brown story on R4 on Tuesday? Worth a listen.

Both of Chris Mullins books on his time as an MP were amazing, I really enjoyed them and they gave an excellent insight into the reality of politics I thought.

I here there is a third one due about his first years in Parliment.

Haven't read volume 2 yet but I went to see Chris Mullin do a talk and a book signing last night. What a gent! Very witty and as you say, Getorf, brimming with integrity. Most of his anecdotes were lighthearted but there was a rather chilling one about the former civil servant from Thatcher's time who told him that when unemployment neared 3 million they were told to send out instructions to dole offices to put new applicants on sickness benefits instead of unemployment benefit...

I haven't read volume 2, but loved volume 1. I felt like writing to him to say how much I admired his integrity, and that he is a real role model for how to behave as morally as you can within a crap organisation.

I loved the bits about his family trips around Sunderland - they always seemed to be having a picnic in February, followed by a long walk.

My favourite quote was something along the lines of 'We are all heading back to the Stone Age. Sometimes I think it can't come soon enough.'