How to be Leader of the Opposition

now on bbc2 were examining the stepping stone that most politicians regard as the catapult to the top job in 1945 the Prime Minister Winston Churchill had led the country to victory in the war he called a general election we're going to win but his bones were wrong and Churchill was swept from power in a Labour landslide on hearing the result a woman in Yugoslavia said poor mr. Churchill what's going to happen to him now is he going to be shot when the woman's remark was reported to him Churchill replied they reserved a far worse fate for me than that and to be leader of the Opposition William Hague knows exactly how Churchill felt as he prepares to set off with his wife fian on another attempt to boost his image for in his two years in the job he's achieved record levels of unpopularity I think the leader of the Opposition requires lessons on how to be a leader of the opposition and if he's really good to me I might tell him but I doubt he'd learn them [Music] Jawa being leader the opposition is the worst job in British politics what's the worst part of being leader with the opposition not being Prime Minister the Prime Minister and I had that chat just after he'd become prime minister and I became leader of the Opposition and had a discussion about who had the hardest job and we both came to the conclusion that I had the hardest job describe it her as a job in one word purgatory Haig and his wife set off for an Asian business dinner the opposition leader has a peculiarly British job his democracy's licensed Baraka the state pays him to oppose the government a salary of over a hundred thousand a year plus a further three million pounds to run his party the leader of the Opposition draws a salary and has a government car and indeed since the cabinet has chosen to forego the rate for the job that was awarded when we took over he at the moment draws more than we do it is a very very tough job to occupy and nobody wants to remain there voluntarily nobody sees it as the peak of their ambition they can't can they it can only be a transit capitalist a transit camp to glory or potential glory or Oblivion as opposition leader your speech tonight is designed to show how open and inclusive the Tory Party has become but there's a danger that the speech will be overshadowed by your wife's dress there's not that dangerous Phil miss occasion I'm enjoying the dress to ancient ladies they're going to be wearing stunning things yeah I don't think I shall be standing outside your spin-doctors hope that some of your wife's glamour will rub off on you for in the past two years you've rarely had a good press in a job where you thought you've had to learn as you go along I took over the party leadership in a situation we've never been in before I hadn't had such a heavy election defeat since 1906 and a Joe Balfour isn't around anymore for me to ask him exactly how he felt about it so I mean they hadn't been in opposition for nearly 20 years so most members of the party didn't have any recollection of being in opposition many of them didn't know where the opposition rooms were in the House of Commons no people sitting in office waiting to say this is what we're going to do today now that's fine I knew that was the situation aged only 36 when he took over Hague brought to the job two years experience as a cabinet minister and a previous career as a management consultant now he had a failing political business to turn around somebody has to take hold of it and say right you come and work for me you come and work for me get those folding stalls start answering the letters all opposition leaders receive a stream of visitors one of them fixed it for jimmy savile to bring a group of schoolchildren to meet the leader of the Opposition in person and welcomes your loosing welcome Lucy did come in and go and sit down I know Alice and we're usually best about being the leader for your position what do I like best about it my goodness me you do think of some unusual questions to ask first you work as a member of the team we have as you know what we call a Shadow Cabinet there are 23 others and so we try to work out what we think should happen and I think that's the most interesting part of it all right come in most early at the shadow cabinet but most of the time they're at least half a dozen of your corners are looking at you and listening to you I feel that they really ought to be doing that job was you're not up to it this is the reality of politics in mrs. Dash's case with exception of Keith Tracey who actually turned it down everybody thought that and they thought it for about 70 car they certainly thought it for 3 years you always have to watch your back in the shadowed cabinet as it will contain most of the contenders for your job if things fall apart the phrase Shadow Cabinet was originally a term of mockery and even today it's meetings show how far from real power you are as each week you try to decide where you can best attack the government Soumya the crisis and the livestock industry is quite relevant we could highlight the total failure of the government to respond to the problems of pig farmers we could do the same on the small abbatoirs which are severely good ear on the table will be people maybe who stood against you maybe you would have favored another but regardless of where they stood against you or not they will be very keen to de claim privately of course on the fact that you're a disappointment it can't be that easy running a shadow cabinet that includes people like John redwood who stood against you and said that he'd had more interesting conversations with his bathroom sponge but John redwood wouldn't say that now John redwood has been one of my most loyal and helpful colleagues in the shadow cabinet and of course when people are standing against each other in a leadership election they say some rude things about to each other but then you move on from lands like a family Rao and then you know the family sticks together don't know what if I agree with thing to previous contributions I also think we do need to fly light the massive number of job losses and factory closures that are continuing we've seen the shipbuilding industry completely wrecked another potential subject for attack is the government's European defense strategy Tom apples the government is getting away with murder about it I mean they've never had to answer any questions about it they media have shown very little interest in it and it maybe we could provoke some by a debate and I think there are some difficult questions well though you know it's the duty of the opposition to oppose you should learn that sometimes you can gain advantage by holding your fire and even on occasion supporting the government I think you need to balance the strategic with the tactical and I think if you look as there you are too concerned with petty points then that damages you a good deal that is the temptation of leaders of the opposition to go for any point which they think can quick blood from the Prime Minister on from the government generally but if they do that I think they're not building themselves up but somebody who thinks would be a good States from whom therefore they would like to see his plan [Music] to build up the reputation for statesmanship every opposition leader soon makes the pilgrimage to Washington first stop is the mandatory meeting with a man who knows everything dr. Henry Kissinger [Music] everyone in the world a lot for that dr. Kissinger I guess he was a very wise man next stop the White House you hope there's advantage in being filmed with the most powerful man on earth but if he doesn't share your political ideology he may not allow him the TV cameras Neil Kinnock had to be content with still photos if you're soul mates it's different although a president facing re-election will be publicly cautious when asked if he's talking to the next prime minister of Britain it's all I can do to keep up with American politics I only hope he's talking to the next American president if you feel you won't get a warm welcome at the Clinton White House you'll see what you can get from meeting the man who may be the next American president the Republican Governor George Bush jr. of Texas in fact I did maybe as great as Winston Churchill for that matter got the same hair line no it's a where's the church actually Weston Churchill's well I'm oftentimes asked about about who I think was one of the great world leaders and I say Winston Churchill this guy was unbelievably bright and interesting and witty and and anyway yeah he's good man back home there's one fixed weekly appointment that comes with the job Prime Minister's question time you and your parliamentary private secretary arrived early in the morning at Party headquarters to prepare for the session your advisors have drawn up a list of subjects you might raise today there's a report that Tony Blair's favorite businessman Lord Haskins has attacked the government for strangling British industry with red tape to go back and have another look we have know the end of this it's all a bit of a dog's dinner at the end of the day you know we do know that the layer is confident these regulatory issues no unlikely to make him look uncomfortable but you will have a straight bash against him you will you will be strong making a strong point that we think is right yeah but his life will probably be behind him and he will be confident on the issues you set off for the Commons wondering whether you can get any mileage from recalling John Prescott's widely criticized performance but the previous week's question time when he'd stood in for Tony Blair very good John Prescott will see is very tempting atmosphere he made such an idiot of himself it's very tempting the worst thing to have in any political system would be a prime minister and a leader of the Opposition who agree with each other about everything then the country would have no choice or a system where there isn't a leader of the opposition and then there's absolutely no chance there are quiet Parliament's in the world but there in Peking and Pyongyang where you have a vibrant democracy you have a noisy partner opposition must always be ready at any time to take over them this is the health of our democracy opposition has been there fighting attacking the government exposing its policies always ready to say we're ready to take over that is the cup of rust of politics of this country which is wonderful is he aware that the leading businessman who said we were consulted on the new Working Time laws but our advice was ignored it's all a dog's dinner is not only the chairman of his own better regulation task force but is his own business guru Lord Haskins himself so will he now revisit these regulations and reverse the government's policy [Music] madam Speaker it is precisely because we have appointed Lord Haskins as the chairman of the better regulation task force that we are in that we are in a position to consider the views that he's made the absence from the government benches of the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott gives you your opening I [Music] don't know where he's probably getting briefed for Prime Minister's Questions next Easter at the moment I'd rather of my deputy leader than his there Jimmy would hardly contain anybody can make your own side laugh at the other side the real art in Parliament is to make the other side laugh at their own side and that's boom that's the appeal Ivana to digs at John Prescott today how do you think William Hague does at Prime Minister's question time he is rather well actually he's very proud to say yet I you see I mean I love sitting I don't have to do anything about it watching them but I'm almost I always enjoy Prime Minister's question time I think he does very well Prime Minister's question time after the public slanging match comes a key unpublicized aspect of your work there are frequent secret meetings with the Prime Minister where you discuss sensitive subjects ranging from the honors list to spying and terrorism there's much more of this that goes on than meets the eye the sort of ranting adversarial ism of three o'clock that afternoon can be entirely dissipated when you slip into number ten at 5:30 for a chat like a couple of adults about something serious and usually very nasty there is mostly behind the scenes really yes what you mean you mean what a leader of the Opposition does in in terms of the relationship with the prime minister it's mostly behind the scenes yes I mean what sorts of things go on behind the scenes then well you've got a message from the PM saying we've got a problem here and I don't want to have to make a statement immediately but I'll let you know that I could do it in two or three days time if you try to have a chat now I'm happy so I go along say all right if it's ought to be helped act let's hold it back he telephones me sometimes I have to telephone him about national security matters about Northern Ireland matters on those areas where there is some common ground between the parties there are of course conversations between the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition and I think if people could see those I think they would be heartened by it I think they would think that was a healthy part of our political system and just because we are competing politically and we exchanged harsh words across the floor that hasn't comment it doesn't mean we're incapable of cooperating about the whole interest of the country and the national security of the country for instance but questions of national security can present an opposition leader with grave dilemmas about exactly what public stance to take when the government sends our troops into war okay all on Kosovo the opposition have supported the airstrikes on the basis of the military intelligence and assessment that the government say they received and that airstrikes would make a decisive difference and on that basis we backed them up but it's not easy for Haig's political secretary the former champion runner Sebastian Coe with no official Whitehall machine to support him to keep his leader up to speed on Kosovo [Music] like Michael in contrast the Prime Minister has kept in constant touch with the military campaign sending our forces into action can boost the Prime Minister's political standing they're risking their lives we're very conscious about but I believe that they are risking their lives and of course that is Justin right I hope we never have a prime minister who says I am going to send the RAF into action because it might help the opinion polls if we ever have that we have reached a sad day and I hope that's not the case now I don't think it's the case now and I hope it never will be the case whatever their misgivings about governments taking military action opposition leaders have tended to keep their criticisms strictly private they all remember the cautionary tale of what happened to one of their number four decades ago the Prime Minister Anthony Eden depicted the Egyptian president Colonel Nasser who seized back the Suez Canal from the British as another Hitler is familiar to many of us my friend we all know this is how fascist governments behave in ordering the troops into Suez to take back the canal Eden had gone back on personal undertakings he'd given to the Labour opposition leader Hugh Gaitskell Gaitskell responded angrily that without United Nations approval Eden Suez invasion was illegal there is no law behind it we have taken the law into our own hands only one thing now can save the reputation and the honor of our country Parliament must repudiate the government's policy the Prime Minister must resign the Tories turned on Gaitskell calling him a treacherous jellyfish and over the next year sought to drown him out in the Commons as his argument depended upon people following it quite closely not just on shouting insults they were very destructive of his effectiveness as leader of the Opposition I never was telling me on one occasion that if there's continuing backing and only one show you could usefully continuously of the Opposition subsequent opposition leaders who tended to draw the same lesson from sewers the fact that gates Gill had gained no political advantage from the Suez fiasco together with secret prime ministerial briefings have constrained the opposition when our troops go to war we are free to advocate what we think is best for the country of course we have to take care in asking questions in Parliament not to betray secrets that the military have given us in confidence into the Official Opposition but on the whole our hands are not tied if we want to advocate a completely different cause of action we are free to do so if we think it's right but only if we think it's right we're not going to differ just to create a route away from high matters of state and war and peace you need to raise your profile with local voters [Music] you also have to nurture your party's grassroots I'm suggesting in my brief they open up Market Street from the morning until 10:00 o'clock and have it pedestrian I just from 10:00 until 4:00 yeah would mean that the traffic the period could go through the center right I think yeah right yeah well all these things are constructive suggested it don't matter however constructive the suggestions interviews with the local media about local issues don't always give you a great chance to Sparkle and now we've got a situation where a much needed car park is under threat without an alternatives really being on often which is why we're standing here looking at the car park of the the modern politicians life if Europe the leader of political parties you go all around the country when I went down somewhere in the southwest and I turned up to do this radio interview and the chap who is there said one must we got mr. Tony Blair here the leader of the Labour Party welcomed us as hi and rats so now is to play the big issue down here it's the little Rockingham first initiative what do you think of it long pause I said well I I think it's I think it's a thoroughly good thing these types of local initiatives he said well the local labor groups against it I said well of course you know obviously once about the balance are they the pros and cons is it yes well the the local residents however have passed a petition in favor of it yes I said and of course there are many reasons why one should be cautiously optimistic about the prospect and then he finally said to me and of course it's not a bad thing for the Badgers either isn't it about managing your party presents one of your biggest problems and there are different ways of doing it 35 years ago the Labour leader Harold Wilson said the art was to keep the party train moving at full speed and he offered a streamlined set of beliefs for the modern age in all our plans for the future we are redefining and we are restating our socialism in terms of the Scientific Revolution the Britain that is going to be Ford in the white heat of this revolution will be no place for restrictive practices or for outdated methods on either side of Industry the white heat of the technological revolution sounded good which didn't affect me in a great deal but in a red was neutral between the two sides of the labor party but he had to take the heat out of the ideological contest within the party with out doing it in a way that scared off middle opinion and that was his skill Margaret Thatcher style was to confront her party head-on she had no time for consensus politics and offered the model of the strong leader the Russians said that I was an Iron Lady they were right Britain needs an Iron Lady the thing about mrs. Thatcher was she didn't listen to anybody even those very eyes she knew what had to be done while she was in opposition she was quite cautious about how she packaged some of these things not least cause she had to get through a shadow cabinet everyone shadow cabinet was absolutely aghast these years say Santa's she would put ideas in china cabinet to shock people and then out of the debris of discussion she probably be able to be left with something so you would over bid me Oh Kinnick and Michael foot before him presented contrasting styles of party management foot thought to be conciliatory labour had been infiltrated by the Trotskyist militant tendency but foot opposed tough action against the militants even though they were giving the party a damaging Lee extremist image I hope we won't have any expulsion from the Labour Party because I hate expulsion some people used to try and expel me and the old days but after foot went down to a disastrous election defeat Kinnick determined to show that he wasn't afraid to take on the extremists in his own party his first symbolic target was livable labour Council and the Massa nations of Derek happened its militant leader you start with far-fetched resolutions they are then pickled into a rigid dogma called and you go through the years sticking to that outdated misplaced irrelevant to the real needs and you end in the grotesque chaos of a labor council a labor council hiring taxis to scatter around the city handing out redundancy notices [Applause] there's one actually one better speech to be made it'll be the first one that I make to address the Labour Party conference as Labour Prime Minister yeah Neil Kinnock was the person that almost by physical force of will and courage took this party from this truly unelectable state and by force of minutes real force of will took it and made it electable it was his tragedy but he could not change it quite fast enough Tony Blair wanted labour totally rebranded his first symbolic target was Clause 4 which called for whole scale nationalization and was deeply cherished by old socialists we are the party that says we can be trusted to govern this country an essential part of creating that bond of trust between ourselves and the British people is that we are prepared to say and identify clearly where the party today stands if we want to change this country we should have the courage to change ourselves breaking free of old arguments means being prepared to change our agenda it means being prepared to change our language it means being prepared to change some of our policies to get his party to go along with fundamental change on domestic policy Hague comes up with a line designed to prevent further schisms between the Pro and anti factions on Europe that is the musician well I hope anything elective everybody is going to keep support the parking yeah yeah that will be an important task but as you arrive at a dinner to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the day Margaret Thatcher moved from opposition into government you decided to attack a specially symbolic target it's the legacy of Thatcherism itself and you plan to launch your assault at the free enterprise dinner where even lady Thatcher's oldest enemy had turned up for a show of reconciliation but you've decided to spoil the fun by launching a twin pronged attack with your deputy Peter lilly on the central tenet of Thatcherism as Peter Lilly is arguing forcibly tonight at another conservative gathering it is a great mistake to think that all conservatives have to offer his solutions based on free markets if we think that then we would have little to say about our public services where there are limits to the role of the market six weeks later Hague would sack Lilly but on the morning after their speeches the Tory High Command were in congratulatory mood about how well the dual assault had gone down the times public events no space to it along the line that we were seeking to get which was the woman Peter Burke much working together on me on a proposals for less of a role from the free market in the health service education service a fourth in the commentaries we do get quite a bit of criticism I think Boris Johnson's piece in The Telegraph it seems to me the only piece really this understood what we're about and Boris says the electorate conceives of the Katori party as a bunch of pinstriped Hooper backs bastards whoever secret plan is some central office safe they close down the hospitals and turn the remaining school playgrounds and it has the car parks I mean I think Boris is the only it's really the only one of the commentators who understood look what Peter and William was saying last night the Guardian not for the first time in recent weeks is quite sympathetic describing Peter is the high priest of the free market and says that he slayed the most persistent ghost the Thatcherism so that was set from our point of view given we were believer thought we were running into some problems with that standard afternoon it worked out about the world fit I think but that wasn't how it seemed the following day as the party reacted with outrage to the proposed u-turn and the press competed to predict how soon Haig would be kicked out you never get very far as a politician if you figure the papers the morning reading them on and you're in a bad mood all day you're in a good mood all day according to what was in the newspapers so I don't dwell a long time on on things like that you have to be conscious of what people are saying about you good and bad but you mustn't dwell on it so no it doesn't get me don't I haven't met many politicians in my life who have achieved a lot who haven't had the to pretty of attacks on them I am you know when you when you look at the people who really achieved a lot for their party or for their country they've usually been attacked incredibly harshly over sustained periods Margaret Thatcher Winston Churchill's despised in the House of Commons for part of a large part of his career so you don't have to be if you're worth your salt as a politician you don't get put off by that provider do you think you're doing the right thing when you're down as a leader the opposition you are really down you can be down as Prime Minister but there are certain things that buy you out the glorious support system is still there you can still do things but if you're down as leader of the Opposition I mean it's t it's the equivalent of being a political doser asking people to spare half a crown for a cup of coffee on the embankment I mean that's what it is it's a dreadful job months of adverse polls have not helped Edward Heath surmount his apparent distaste for grassroots politicking he tries very hard like a sensitive man in a butcher shop to conceal a faint nausea still pasting on a grin laughing a little to determinately at all the fleshy cordiality unload is your personal rating among your own supporters have to go before you consider yourself a liability to the party you'll need more popularity isn't everything you were consistently less popular than the party yes and today - they're not concern you know were their advisers that you had who suggested things that you might do in order to increase your advisers always suggest those sort of these sort of dress-up them somewhere or other or ride horses or I mean they always have these odd ideas unfortunately some leaders take notice of them who you're thinking of never mention names for the first 18 years of my life I lived over the shop which my father owned and ran when you were first in the house you saw mrs. Thatcher as leader of the Opposition she was terrible really Oh dreadful she was so bad it was embarrassing in what way well it was before she'd had anything done about her voice and she spoke very fast and in rather high pitched tones Britain is not a place merely for big large companies I was very inexperienced but my goodness me I was learning fast he Vence made me learn fast mrs. Thatcher was also learning media techniques from two colorful figures she employed as her key image makers one was Gordon Reece a former television producer of light entertainment and religious programs the other was the chairman of the ad agency Saatchi and Saatchi Tim Bell who'd like to keep a low profile campaign going if you're advising a leader of the Opposition what you want is somebody who you can produce somebody that you can you can deliver somebody that you can deliver the key messages get them across the way you want them to then you know whether your strategy worked or not Tim Bell and Gordon Reece arranged for mrs. Thatcher to have a complete makeover Reece organised for her to have breathing lessons to lower her voice and for her to meet Sir Laurence Olivier to learn how to project from a stage she was later to have both Bell and Gordon Reece knighted Gordon's absolutely terrific he knew exactly what needed to be done and he understood that it wasn't enough to have the right policies one had to look good in putting them over and he said my hair had to be changed and it would better have a look at the makeup and we better have a look at the clothes and see how they looked on television and so on and I hadn't taken any notice of these things before but he was very good he was a real professional [Music] Gordon Reiss encouraged mrs. Thatcher to appear on local radio and to give interviews to tabloid newspapers in the attempt to reach ordinary voters in the studio she was invited to pick her favorite popular record two brothers fighting on opposite sides and one sees the other I hadn't heard did you think I'd leave you dying when his room on my horse for two two little boys had two little toys each had the wooden horse gaily they played each summer's day warriors keeping up with Kevin Keegan can improve your street cred but there can be dangers in seeking to identify yourself too closely with popular culture [Music] [Applause] [Music] no previous pop video that featured a serving opposition leader if that had been the only instance then it would have been insignificant but added to being willing to sing added to being willing to dance added to even dancing with my own wife it accumulates into frivolity lack of earnestness and then throw in a couple of encounters with people who'd hit me and I chose to hit them back and an impression of someone who is immature gets across when you wore that baseball cap did you have any idea then how much it would be written about no probably not probably not but how much should we be constrained by those things as a sad world when you have to be constrained by everything like that when I saw William Hague put a baseball cap on even though I have no sympathy for the man obviously you wouldn't expect me to I recoiled for his sake I thought William II gonna be stuck with that if it's hot anybody this is thin on top as I am wears a baseball cap or some sort of cap if they're no but don't say they suffer for it now should that mean a politician wears a baseball cap in public or probably should actually probably should just be yourself and probably I should go around anyone more often and then people would stop talking about it the best advice is collar and tie shiny shoes a degree of formality and detachment because even if that doesn't win hearts it doesn't offend minds to market himself more effectively Hague chose Amanda play tell she's a former tabloid editor and an Australian who claims that she has the pulse of middle England well the thing I don't have to do with William Hague is invent him the way the Labour Party had to invent Tony Blair I'm just presenting him in the situation of putting into situations he feels completely natural with and letting people see the man that he is and I'm pretty confident that that's going to be a relatively simple task although he doesn't get much of a good press to the moment no he doesn't put the tides turning it's really turning and Windham hates just a genuine guy there we are Sam Smith's Yorkshire right well Cheers will taste the little test the Sam Smith here's to your victory okay am I the only one having a drink [Laughter] hmm just like it should be you wouldn't know it to travel from Yorkshire the path to power is always tricky but an unpopular government makes it much easier for you as opposition leader as Harold Wilson put it King Canute would have had more luck if the tide had been going out and Michael foot would have done better if his election manifesto hadn't been characterized as the longest suicide note in history but it may be that you personally are the problem for the voters one of the reasons that made them eventually put their cross by the conservative candidate was this innate feeling amongst a relatively small number of people that they couldn't see me as Prime Minister even highly articulate voters can't be explicit about it it's just there in the biochemistry as it were and it's a pity but it's a fact of life I recognize John Smith who took over from Kenneth looks solid and respectable he displayed all the skills of the successful Edinburgh Advocate he'd once been we are embarking on a great journey a journey to eliminate poverty injustice and homelessness labor now began to look like a government in Waiting with John Smith as the credible alternative Prime Minister there are few people the announcement of whose death would bring tears to the eyes of everyone who knew them John Smith was such a man John Smith's sudden death five years ago brought both sides of the house together to pay tribute to him and to reflect on the paradoxical nature of the job that he'd held the role of the leader of the Opposition is unique it is a vital role not in government that vital to the determination of the way in which we conduct our affairs and the protection of people who oppose the government on a range of issues the leader of the Opposition is in the anteroom of power and yet he's not in the seat of power itself and in that position perhaps for a short time perhaps for a long time he must maintain his party's hunger to govern and never let that appetite diminish he must remain confident and never let the years of waiting sour or in bitter him or the nature of public life John Smith was the second opposition leader to die in office in the past 40 years though it's well over a century since the last prime minister died in office time and chance happen to all people but they seem to have a special significance for a leader of the Opposition he's a terrible thing to say that somebody's heart attack is good somebody else's good fortune but there's no doubt at all of that that was the biggest rake of crater on credit luck in British politics 20 years why why did you say that because it removed John Smith from the scene competent Aimable regular popular but it did bring forward someone who was a phenomenon and Blair Aziz a phenomenon in the same way that smarty Sasha was a phenomenon he brought something completely new to the totem scene Tony Blair strength his little ears be young clean entirely different kind of politician he is both immediately appealing as a political leader but he also had the courage and the determination to so completely change the Labour Party that's the winning combination change the party make it electable be in your own terms electable the combination of New Labour you can trust me and a whole string of conservative policies or we'll keep the best of the conservative policies and just bring in a few little bits and pieces that without tweaks was very brilliantly done but of course you have to remember it was done at a time when we had probably the worst gun man in this country and it simply won't do for Mr Blair to say look I'm not a socialist anymore now can I be Prime Minister please sorry Tony job is taken in anyway it's too much to ask for your first real job [Applause] years eighteen long years I can't even be an optician it could only say today we are charged Hague had his own Dispatch Box made in blue leather when he became opposition leader for when you first lose power that withdrawal symptoms can be severe and it was only this week after his victory in the euro elections it seemed possible for outsiders to imagine that he and his shadows might be trusted with government red boxes once again how do you think William Hague's doing he's doing very well actually is it what else can I'm from Yorkshire he's from Yorkshire don't forget there may be blood ties there but it's a tough job as leader of the Opposition what do you think of the current leader of the Opposition does he wear a baseball cap yes I thought he'd given it up he did wear a baseball what do you think of him as the leader of the Opposition why not because he's leader of my party he is better than people think in what way he's intelligent he's decent he's got quite a considerable sense of himself and his own views all the virtues which you perhaps need and in terms of justifiable self belief to do the job in the first place but the ecology in which he has to operate means that those virtues simply do not shine and every previous stage in history like this there have been lots of armchair pundits who can never see how a political party can recover and knowing that seat it's finished now lost election heavily on that the end of it and of course that is now it's not actually the case and history has just proved that so many times so I do take part from previous instances from our previous leaders of the Opposition led their parties back from shattering defeat to victory in the face of endless cynicism and I'm going to do the same William there are always difficult days in opposition don't I know but remember every Conservative leader this century has gone on to be Prime Minister not quite lady Thatcher had somehow forgotten the Tory leader in the 20s Austen Chamberlain who never became Prime Minister but traditionally opposition's don't win elections governments lose them but faced with a very popular Prime Minister there are three things above all that you need to build on any midterm election successes that you may achieve you have to have a party united behind your leadership you need to present an attractive alternative vision of the future above all you need to persuade the voters to see you as Prime Minister [Music]

Channel: David Boothroyd

Views: 50,090

Rating: 4.9304347 out of 5

Keywords: Michael Cockerell, William Hague, Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Beckett, Edward Heath, Peter Hennessy, Ffion Hague, Jimmy Savile, Margaret Thatcher, Alan Clark, Roy Jenkins, Henry Kissinger, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, George Osborne, Betty Boothroyd, Sebastian Coe, Hugh Gaitskell, Anthony Eden, Harold Wilson, Michael Foot, Neil Kinnock, Philip Gould, Nick Wood, Amanda Platell, John Smith, Tim Bell, John Major

Id: VusdmOaNxcs

Length: 48min 55sec (2935 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 31 2017