A walk-on part

Diaries 1994-1999

Chris Mullin, Profile Books, 400 pages, hardback, £25

This is the third and final volume of journalist and former Labour MP Chris Mullin’s acclaimed diaries. It begins on the night of the death of then Labour leader John Smith in 1994, and continues until July 1999 when Mullin became a junior minister in the Blair government. Together with A View from the foothills and Decline and fall, the trilogy covers the rise and fall of New Labour from start to finish.

Witty, elegant and wickedly indiscreet, the Mullin diaries are widely reckoned to be the best account of the New Labour era.

The book covers many topics that are as relevant today as ever. For example, Mullin was a fierce critic of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his dominant position in the British media.

Mullin says Murdoch “has contempt for the rules, contempt even for governments. He can’t enjoy success unless he’s causing someone else pain”.

He produces papers advocating cross-media ownership, but then becomes disillusioned when he realises that Labour leader “Tony [Blair] does seem to be seeing rather a lot of him. What do they find to talk about?”

Mullin’s wit and keen eye for the absurd offer an irreverent glimpse of life behind the scenes at Westminster.

Reviews contributed by Bookmarks, the UK’s leading socialist bookshop. Order online at www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk