Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Civil servant who rose to become Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service, noted for his skill in delivering unwelcome news to prime ministers.
On the island
Eight records
I had one of those wind-up gramophones and I had a 78 of Lilly Marlane, which I played over and over again. My father was away in the war, and I think what fascinated me about this record was that it showed the human side of the war from the German point of view.
Harrow's played a great part in my life, because I was a schoolboy there, and I subsequently was a governor and became chairman of the governors. And the song which I've chosen is one called Good Night, which is about the lights of Hampstead seen from Harrow Hill as one of the boys is going to sleep.
The Tempest: Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises
I have always greatly valued John Gielgood's Ages of Man, and I would very much like to have an extract from that, perhaps the piece where Caliban is telling Prospero about the desert island.
Madama Butterfly: Viene la sera... Vogliatemi bene
Maria Callas and Nicolai Gedda
I now go to opera and I would like to have, if I may, some Puccini, which was my first love in opera, and I would love to have the duet from the end of the first act of Madam Butterfly between Pinkerton and Butterfly when they've gone through their marriage, they're alone, and they are for a time lyrically happy.
We always with our family played an album of The Seekers in the car when we were going on holiday. But also, this is a joke between my wife and me, because on those rather rare occasions these days, when we have an evening at home with my working on my papers at one end of the city and she correcting her school books at the other because she's a teacher, we say to each other, Lock the door, light the light, we're staying home tonight.
La Traviata: Morrò! La mia memoria
Maria Callas and Ettore Bastianini
Well, it's back to opera, and this is a sad piece. It's the duet from the second act of La Traviata, where Violetta has found great happiness with her lover, but her lover's father asks her to give him up, and she agrees to do so, though with great agony.
Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339: Laudate Dominum
The piece I've chosen is Mozart's Laudati Dominum, which is Psalm 117, and was sung at my daughter's wedding, and it would therefore serve two purposes. It would be some Mozart, and it would be a memory of a blissfully happy day.
Messiah: I Know That My Redeemer LivethFavourite
The last record is one to give me hope. I would very much like to have I Know That My Redeemer Liveth from Handel's Messiah because it's the piece of music which I think most combines comfort with hope.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:01Is putting across unpalatable truths a skill you've worked at, or is it a natural talent you discovered you had early on?
Well, I didn't know that I was particularly good at it. But it is a thing that civil servants have to do, because we support the governments in the carrying out of their policies, but that sometimes means telling them the difficulties about those policies, and perhaps the inconsistencies in them.
Presenter asks
3:04How do you cope with different masters and different personalities and still be your own man?
Yes, I think you do, and that's a matter of integrity. You... don't... obviously put advice in favour of nationalization to a conservative... government. You similarly... observe the point which... governments come from. But you have to observe your integrity and... advise as you think right.
Presenter asks
5:12Was your early success as effortless as it all seems when you read it on paper, or was there a lot of hard work behind it?
No, I remember a lot of tension and... hard work, particularly about the sport. But no, I was good at those conventional things. I was good at sport. I came from a family of sportsmen.
The keepsakes
The book
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
Paul Kennedy
I'd like to take The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy, because I would like a really substantial book on world history that I could read and reflect on.
The luxury
I could have a bag of golf clubs, so that I could devise a golf course for myself around the island. That would be a perpetual challenge. But please, lots of golf balls.
Presenter asks
7:26What did you think then at that time that life had mapped out for you?
Well, I came from a family where, rather like the Foresight saga, I was the third generation of a family which had started a small business and was looking to go into the professions. My father wanted me to be a lawyer... And wrongly thinking that all the law was like that, I couldn't bring myself to do it. And I think what attracted me about the Civil Service was both that I liked and admired the people that I knew were in it, and I felt that it was doing something for society.
Presenter asks
13:07What is the job of private secretary [to the Prime Minister] and what were its attractions for you?
Well, number ten is very much like a family, because it's not only the Prime Minister's office, but it's his house, and it is very small. And there are five civil service private secretaries there, whose job really is to act as the link between the Prime Minister and the Government departments.
Presenter asks
31:45Whose interests do you defend when the public and the government are at odds?
Well, I'm trying, I think, to convince Parliament and to convince the public that a rigorous decision has been taken about what public money should be spent on. And that is a decision which, when it concerns the politician, the politician shouldn't take themselves. And therefore, somebody like me has to take it. And what I want to do is to convince people that we take that decision scrupulously and with integrity.
“I have always liked that. I like playing by the rules. That was true of both school and games.”
“As a civil servant, you have always got to remember that you may be, you never know when, working for a government of the other party. And that is a matter you've always got to remember.”
“You're like a barrister. You've been working for one client. You now have to work for another. Of course it can be personally traumatic because you get attached to people. But it is part of the profession and that's what essentially divides civil servants from politicians.”
“Yes, they're in the treasure house of my mind, and... I think I have an obligation to keep them there... Forever.”