Books>
A View From The Foothills: The Diaries of Chris Mullin
Profile Books Search Profile Books by Chris Mullin Search Chris Mullin
 |
Released: 2009-03-02 Rating:  More Details: A View From The Foothills: The Diaries of Chris Mullin A View From The Foothills: The Diaries of Chris Mullin @Amazon A View From The Foothills: The Diaries of Chris Mullin @aStore |
Customer Reviews:
A bit of a whinger
I agree with the reviewer who pointed out that "Chris Mullin's diaries add little to what I already knew. His writing is not sufficiently interesting and the points he makes not suffiently original to warrant the size of the book and the time needed to digest it."
I was also struck by the number of times he appeared not to want to take tasks on whilst yet sounding a bit whingy about his lack of perferment. He didn't come over as particularly warm or particularly likeable or particularly committed to anything much. But I do not know Chris Mullin and I am basing this opinion on this slightly tedious book. I have sent my copy to a charity shop.
A great read from a humble man..good in paperback
At last an honest, humble view from the 'inside' of politics. Just reading the day to day details of his work shows how Parliament is not what I studied in "British Constitution.'
I recommend this to anyone. The paperback for £10 will be great value. Its full of insights.
What is shocking is that my London MP Rudi Vis (Golders Green and Finchley) seems not to do many of the things Mullins did! eg Waiting to nobble a Minister urgently in the Corridor; seeing a constituent at the Commons (!) or working the constituency at weekends.... my MP lives in East Anglia!
A Very British Politician
Despite being nowhere near as long as Tony Benn, Chris Mullin's diary is still an interesting read. More revealing about himself than Tony Blair, Mullin shows the moth-like attraction to the Prime Minister that so many in the Labour Party shared in the early years of the decade.
As a document of the "Blair Years", this book is superfluous (and like all books reviewing Tony Blair currently are, way too premature). However, as an insight into the personal - and petty - frustrations of party politics, this book is the perfect companion to that most stylish of diarists, Alan Clark: Both showing British politicians as being all too human, something often considered an unforgiveable sin by both the British media and the British public alike.
Entertaining, but troubling 
Reminiscent of Julian Critchley's irreverent memoir 'A Bag of Boiled Sweets', this book is hugely entertaining and (despite its bulk) an easy read. Every page offers interesting insights into the operation of our political class in general and New Labour in particular.
But, whether it was Mullin's intention or not, the book left me feeling uneasy. Iraq has raised the biggest ethical and moral questions for politicians since Suez and Mullin had serious reservations about the legitimacy of the UK's (Blair's) proposed action. He wanted to vote against the Government, but in the end only did so because he had backed himself into a corner with his constituency Party. If Mullin, decent man that he seems to be, could so nearly be brow-beaten by the Whips over an issue of such enormity, what hope have we of honourable government?
A real curate's egg 
Given that Chris Mullin is an established novelist, I found myself increasingly wondering how genuinely contemporaneous the "diaries" here really are.
Much of the supposedly realtime commentary in 2000/2001 (Blair/Brown; war in Iraq; getting bogged down in Afghanistan; the rapid rise of David Cameron) seems to be so remarkably prescient about the political developments to come in 2007-9, I must conclude that either he is a latter-day Nostradamus or there has been some judicious editing here.
Having said that, what does it tell us about politics? It will tend to reinforce the views of those of us who regard modern politicans as largely a self-seeking, mendacious bunch with little connection to the realities faced by their electorate.
Mullin himself has a fine turn of phrase and a gift for understated irony; but he also comes across as ineffectual, weak-willed, power-hungry but rather lazy - and very easily shifted in his principles by a sudden charm onslaught by "The Man" or any of the other big animals in the political jungle.
Very much a man who can "think six impossible things before breakfast". Easy to see how Blair got away with the Big Lie so often when people like Mullin were the only day-to-day check on his megalomania.
Listmania Lists:
Read the recession away
RELATED:
