Exclusive! Blair stays awake in Hanover
If I were a "pol corr", as the late John Healy of the Irish Times used to call journalists who write about current affairs, I might have hacked out something along these lines this morning: "British Prime Minister Tony Blair met German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Hanover last night for talks, which were dominated by the Iraq crisis. Officials said only that a wide range of issues were discussed during an informal dinner at Mr Schroeder's residence."
It might well have been the case that the two leaders got blind drunk, came to blows, wrecked the furniture, watched "Black Hawk Down", swapped wives or nodded off with boredom, but such an account would never reach my readers, so tight is the noose around the news these days. Actually, it's been like that for a long time now and most of us have to wait for the publication of the diaries or the opening of the archives to find out what really happens behind those closed doors. And odd things do happen.
Take the letter former British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan wrote to the Queen about a major summit meeting with French, German and American leaders in 1959. It was recently released by the Public Record Office after being under extended closure:
"After lunch, which was extremely good, Dr Adenauer delivered for nearly an hour a lecture on the dangers of communism and the best way to deal with it in the schools, in the factories and in the homes. I regret to inform Your Majesty that I fell asleep during the latter part of this oration."
A gem. And here's another goodie from Macmillan about US President Eisenhower:
"There was something very queer in the contrast between the stately French which de Gaulle speaks and the strange and sometimes unintelligible Americanisms of the president. It was very much the Old World and the New."
One such "Americanism" he noted came when Eisenhower said he would "clean his schedule" to make way for a meeting. Macmillan remarked that the French interpreter found this phrase "somewhat obscure".
Thirty years from now, we'll really know what happened that January night in Hanover. Bet you Manchester United closing the Premiership gap to within two points of Arsenal was mentioned.
Diarist of the day: John Rabe, 12 January 1938"[Nanking] A month ago, Nanking fell into the hands of the Japanese. The body of that Chinese soldier shot while tied to a bamboo sofa is still lying out in the street not 50 yards from my house."
