Adventures Of A Civil Servant (Part 6):
The world was changing rapidly and I had the opportunity to help some newly independent countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
Towards the end of 1989, my role at TVEI was changing and my post was being transferred to Sheffield. I did not want to go to Sheffield, mainly because I preferred, in the longer term, to work in a DE Headquarters policy environment, rather than in the executive agencies of the Manpower Services Commission. I had just turned 50 and I decided that I was no longer going to go for jobs that would improve my promotion prospects, but to go for jobs that would interest me, particularly in the area of international relations.
There was, in fact, only one job in the Department at my level that fell into that category, and which was likely to be available. This was the post which dealt with relations with the International Labour Organisation (ILO). It was a fairly low-profile post, but involved taking a lead role in the negotiations that took place each year in Geneva on the formulation of ILO Conventions. I also knew that the current occupant of the post was looking for a move. My friend, Bob David, with whom I had worked from 1974 to 1976, had had a series of rapid promotions and was now Under-Secretary in charge of International Relations. I arranged to meet him and registered my interest in the post. He said the decision would be for the Head of Branch, Peter Brannen, but he would inform him of my interest.
Part of my problem in not getting promotion had been that the “Powers That Be” were looking, on the whole, for go-getting management types to run organisations like the Training Agency and the Employment Services, whereas I was seen as a “Policy Principal”. However, when it became known that I was looking for a move, it became apparent that there was a shortage of “Policy Principals” and I had two other offers of work. One was in the Health and Safety Executive, with the daunting task of drawing up the regulations implementing a large number of European health and safety directives. I declined that, with thanks. Bob David was also in charge of the Small Firms Division of the Department. He asked me to go and see another head of branch and the latter almost persuaded me to take a job with him. By this time Peter Brannen had more or less offered me the job dealing with the ILO, when it became vacant, so out of politeness I went to tell him that I was proposing to take the other job. Peter persuaded me to think again, for which I am eternally grateful.
Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, rapid, and previously unthinkable, changes were taking place. The Berlin Wall came down and many countries of Central and Eastern Europe broke away from the Soviet bloc: Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Romania and Bulgaria. The Minister of State in the Department of Employment, Timothy Eggar, asked the Department to explore whether we could help the newly independent countries in any way within the Department’s area of competence. Bob David was instructed to examine the possibilities and report back within a specified deadline. He, or Peter Brannen, asked me if I would be interested in this job, which I was. In the meantime, Michael Howard took over from Norman Fowler as Secretary of State. So, instead of moving to a backwater, I moved into the job in the Department which had the highest profile at my level!
I was given an office in Steel House, opposite Caxton House in Tothill Street. Steel House was an old-fashioned building with metal windows. I was given an office, but no staff, no office furniture and no telephone extension. I had to negotiate every item of furniture, which, naturally, was in short supply at that time. I seem to recall that obtaining a waste paper basket was particularly difficult. Personal computers were just beginning to come into fashion, but I had not yet mastered word-processing. (One weekend, early on, someone lent me a laptop, or the current equivalent. I carefully wrote out what I wanted to say in long-hand and then typed it up. However, I managed to lose all that I had written and did not try again until much later.)
Normally, at my level, all typing was sent to a typing pool, from which it emerged, usually with a large number of mistakes, a couple of days later. I made it clear that I could not operate in this way and so I was allowed to engage agency secretaries – at great expense to the Department. This, in itself, was a mixed blessing, because it meant I had to “train” a new secretary frequently. Fortunately, there was one who stayed quite a long time.
A “Know How Fund” had been set up jointly by the Foreign Office (FCO) and the Ministry of Overseas Development (ODM)) to help coordinate efforts, such as ours, to help the newly independent countries. I was to work closely with them. Some months later Barney Smith was appointed to be in charge of the Fund. I had met Barney on the ENA course in Paris in 1976. He had also come to work in UKREP just before I left. Later, Barney was HM Ambassador to Nepal and later still, HM Ambassador to Thailand.
In order to prepare the report, which I was charged with producing, I wrote to the British ambassadors in the countries potentially concerned: Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Bulgaria and Romania. In discussions with the Minister, we had established that possible areas where we might help were: employment services, training, health and safety at work and assistance to small firms. Ambassadors were asked to sound out the governments to see, whether there was any potential for help in any of these areas.
I received substantive replies from all, except Czechoslovakia. Stuart Laing was the Deputy Ambassador in Prague. He was working in UKREP, during the first year or two that I was there, so I knew him. He wrote back and said that they were too busy to do what we asked, but if I wanted to go out there, he would arrange for me to meet the appropriate people. Accordingly, in the middle of February 1990, I flew to Prague, accompanied by John Temple from the Training Agency.
It is hard to appreciate, over 25 years later, what an adventure this was. For all my life up to that point, Prague (and all the other Central and East European capitals) had been forbidden territory and, furthermore, somewhere that one did not particularly want to go to. The whole experience was extraordinary. During the drive from the airport, we passed scores of old dilapidated buildings, nearly all held up by scaffolding. In many cases there was more scaffolding holding up the original scaffolding. Then we would go into areas – around the Castle and the main square – with magnificent buildings that looked like illustrations from a child’s fairy tale book. We went out for a meal in the evening. The cost for the two of us, including wine, was about £2. By contrast, we were staying in the Forum Hotel. One evening, John was not feeling very well and asked for a whisky: this was charged at highly inflated western prices!
A meeting was arranged with representatives of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs on the morning after we arrived – a Thursday. We had no specific agenda. We went into a room, where there were half a dozen men seated, all senior officials in the Ministry, some of whom had survived from the Communist regime. This was probably the most productive meeting I ever had. The Czech and Slovak officials were very business-like, very pragmatic and very clear on what they wanted. After two hours we had established the framework of an agreement. After the meeting I sent a telegram to the Know How Fund telling them what we wanted to do. They were somewhat taken aback by the speed of events, but fully supportive of our initiative.
We visited a number of other official bodies in the next 24 hours, but these were not significant in terms of our main mission. We also went to a concert in the Prague Opera House. I did not understand a word of what was going on, but the building was magnificent.
On the Friday afternoon, the Ambassador, Mr Peter O’Keefe, took us for a meeting with the Minister, Petr Miller. Mr Miller was a blacksmith – like my father. But, unlike my father, he had been imprisoned by the Communist regime until a few months before. I do not usually notice men’s eyes, but Mr Miller had intense blue eyes, which sent the message to me at least that here was a man that I could trust. I went over the things that we wanted to try to do and he was very appreciative.
A young (36 year-old) Czech official was at both the main meetings. His name is Milos Zdenek. After the meeting, he approached John and me and asked whether we were staying in Prague on the Saturday. In those days airfares were cheaper, if there was a Saturday night between the outward and return flights. When we said that we were, he asked if we would like him to show us round the city and did we mind if he brought his six-year-old daughter with him? So began a beautiful friendship: we met several times in the nineties in Brussels and Prague and more recently Milos and Jana have been to stay with us four times in Skegness.
Milos and I worked together on a Joint Statement to be signed by the two Governments. I think we corresponded by Fax, which was just coming into common use. I also arranged for a party of senior Czech and Slovak officials to visit the UK just before Easter. Milos came on this visit and we sat in my office and finalised the text of the Joint Statement. Michael Howard went out to Prague, accompanied by Bob David, to sign the Joint Statement on 14 May 1990. A record timetable for an international treaty?
Michael Howard took a keen personal interest in this work. Consequently I sent him long updates on what we were doing, almost daily. I wrote all these by hand and then had them typed up. I had meetings with Michael Howard about once a week. It was decided between us that we would try to help Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia initially. Accordingly, I arranged exploratory visits first to Poland and then to Hungary. These were more high-powered than my visit to Prague.
Bob David led the visit to Warsaw, accompanied by officials from the Employment Services Agency (Roger Lasko) Health and Safety (Peter Graham, who had been at UKREP) and Small Firms (Pam Buley), all of whom were senior to me. We went to Warsaw just before Easter. The prices in the shops were even lower than in Prague. Warsaw was a city of contrasts. It did not seem as rundown as Prague. Many of the buildings were uninspiring Stalinist edifices. The old town, however, was beautiful. It had been razed to the ground by the Nazis, but had been reconstructed, stone by stone from old drawings. We also visited a training centre in Lodz and spent the night there. Our Polish host, who had accompanied us from Warsaw explained how Poland had been squeezed, through the centuries by its two powerful neighbours. He declined to say which one he was most afraid of.
Following this visit I prepared a lengthy report on possible action. This led to Michael Howard visiting Warsaw to sign a Joint Statement with the Polish Minister of Labour, Jacek Kuron. The two men could not have been more different in character: Michael Howard was urbane and cerebral, whereas Jacek Kuron was earthy and rumbustious. However, they got on really well together: my last memory of them is, as we were in the car leaving the last meeting between the two men, of Mr Kuron running out of the house to give Mr Howard a last present. During the last official meeting, it was agreed that I should stay behind in Warsaw to tie up some loose ends, the following day. This meant that I had a free afternoon. I decided to go into the Old Town. There was a big expensive looking café in a square near the centre. As the last of the big spenders, I decided to be extravagant and treat myself to a fresh orange juice, which I thought would be expensive. I ordered my orange juice and spent a long time, sitting in the June sunshine, savouring it. Eventually, I asked for the bill. It was 30 zlotys. The exchange rate at the time was 14000 zlotys to the pound. I only had a 10000 zloty note. The waitress spent about half an hour finding the change.
Soon after the first Polish visit, Peter Brannen led an exploratory mission to Hungary. While parts of Budapest were rundown and many prices were lower than in the UK, it was much more cosmopolitan than the other capitals I had been to. I remember thinking that the main (luxury) shopping street was not much different from Bond Street in London. The hotel we stayed in was on the banks of the Danube, looking up to the old town of Pest. That in itself is very beautiful. On a day off, Peter and I went on a boat trip up the Danube. On the boat were Peter Briers, Kenneth Brannagh and Emma Thompson. (Needless to say, it was Peter Brannen who recognised them, not me!) We went to a small town called Szentendre on an island near Budapest. It was very beautiful. A few months later, I accompanied Michael Howard to Budapest for a series of meetings, culminating in the signature of another Joint Statement. On the Sunday the Ambassador took us to the same island. My memory of that trip is of Michael Howard looking very relaxed, licking an ice-cream.
Following this political activity in the three countries a large number of bilateral exchanges were made between the UK and the three countries – actually four, because the Czech and Slovak services were autonomous. I was involved in co-ordinating these activities, but no longer involved in the visits. Nevertheless, the job remained busy and I rarely left the office much before the doors were locked at 8:00 pm.
During this period, I received all FCO telegrams relating to the situation in East and Central Europe, including discussions on the reunification of Germany and on the intractable situation in Kosovo. I also received information about available posts within and outside the Civil Service. On the Friday in July before I went on three weeks’ leave, I took a note I had prepared for the Secretary of State over to Bob David. We had a light-hearted conversation, towards the end of which I said: “You realise I’m giving up all these interesting opportunities to work abroad, in order to continue to work for you, don’t you?” Bob: “Which?” Me: “The Labour attaché post in Brussels, for a start.” Bob: “Would you be interested in going back to Brussels?” Me: “Yes.” When I got back to the office three weeks’ later, there was a message for me to go and see Peter Brannen, immediately I got back to the office. Peter told me that it had been arranged for me to go to work in the European Commission: Michael Howard had been consulted and agreed.
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