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Was Bank independence really Blair's policy?

Reading Alastair Campbell's (incidentally, compelling and personally honest) diaries it occurred to me that it is possible to work out (or at least, guess) just where the excisions have been made to save Gordon Brown's blushes.

So, for example, isn't it odd that Mr Brown is scarcely mentioned during the discussion on Clause IV? What was his view? Was there something he said or did that Alastair felt was better left out?

And here's an even more interesting one - the independence of the Bank of England. I've heard it said before, that knowledgeable insiders insist that independence was Blair's idea not Brown's and that the latter needed to be persuaded.

Now look at Campbell's account. The moment when the decision was announced is covered in detail, but there is very little, suspiciously little, about the origin of the idea and the discussion of it. And none at all about Mr Brown's view. Why?

On Friday May 12th (Page 60) Campbell says:

TB and I discussed the need for a proper plan and strategy re the Bank of England. He was sure independence was the answer.

Then on January 25th 1997 he writes:

TB said to me that the way to really do in the Tories was to announce during the campaign that we would make the Bank of England independent.

The next time the issue is mentioned is when it happened. So, the first time it came up, it was felt worthy of inclusion in the diary and in the book, yet Mr Brown is not mentioned. The diary is silent on his role. Very odd.

If independence originally came from Blair this would substantially challenge the conventional view of Brown's tenure as Chancellor, particularly if Brown needed to be persuaded.

Perhaps it was a Brown initiative after all, but if so it is, let me put it this way, a shame Alastair didn't feel he had room to give us a little bit more about how the whole thing came about.

Time for a proper history of this policy I think.

What Campbell's diaries tell you about the Blair years

Have been cross-eyed reading the Campbell diaries - there are more than 750 pages. Others will look for the stories, I am sure, so I have been trying to read it for themes, for what it tells you about the Blair Government. I am particularly looking forward to Peter Riddell's take.

In the meantime here are a few of my thoughts:

The centrality of Blair. The diaries show that Blair was the chief strategist, driving the party on and always more notably centrist and big tent than the team around him (with the possible exception of Philip Gould). Without him Labour will be very different and inevitably more partisan and aggressive. The best glimpse into his mind provided by the diary is when Blair is asked what gives him his edge. "I'm less Labour than the rest of you," he replied.

The discipline. That traditional figures in the Labour Party - Neil Kinnock, Robin Cook, John Prescott, Jim Callaghan - were all, at times, very unhappy with new Labour but in a disciplined way kept their reservations quiet. An early story involving a row with a violently angry Neil Kinnock shows how bad things got at points. Yet in public there was very little of this. It suggests that by 1994 Labour simply wanted it more badly than many Tories do now.

The centrality of Northern Ireland. I suppose we knew this up to a point, but it is fascinating just how much time the PM spent on peace in Ireland. There is page after page, after page.

The seething and resentful Gordon Brown. Alastair does his best, but he can't hide tensions with Mr Brown, nor avoid completely making our new PM look, ahem, a little driven.

The centrality of exhaustion and Fiona. Right from the word go there is tension between Alastair's desire to be with his family and the back-breaking nature of the work. This is a big theme of the book. Fiona, his partner, was clearly unhappy with the time he was spending and the nature of new Labour.

It's impossible for a press secretary to delegate that much. I think the constant physical and emotional pull produced by being on call 24 hours-a-day and 7 days-a-week, when you've young children and an intelligent, articulate partner who doesn't fully approve, is an important explanation of Labour's press relations.

Over time Campbell's tensions, surprisingly high even when he starts, turned to anger and resentment at the interruptions and what he saw as the obtuseness of the press. In the end, I think the exhaustion got to Blair too.

Fight!

I am waiting for my copy of Alastair Campbell's diary and doing so with more anticipation than Nick Robinson, who complains that they have been filleted.

This is not just because a friend has called to read me a hilarious section in which Peter Mandelson starts a fight, throwing punches at Alastair during a speech-writing session, with Tony Blair moving to pull the two men apart.

It's because the complaint about filleting doesn't stand up.

Yes, as a historical record they are spoilt by political editing. But as a memoir they aren't. If the author had turned the diary notes into continuous prose, they would be less immediate and accurate but Nick wouldn't have been able to make the same criticism.