Fooled by the grinning wolves

I WAS astonished to find myself making a cameo appearance in the latest TV attempt to portray the rise of New Labour.

For some reason, the programme (excitingly called Blair And Brown) used a still picture of me, sitting in a room with the Blair creature and his mental valet, Alastair Campbell, during the 1997 Election. Blair and Campbell are grinning like wolves.

This was because they had just tricked me, something I’m still ashamed of. I had been standing on the doorstep of the building they were skulking in. They were so scared that I might ask an awkward question that they wouldn’t come out. They were tormented by the memory of a clash I’d had with Neil Kinnock some years before, which had ended badly for Labour. Eventually, they sent a smiling emissary to see me. Would I like an interview with the Great Leader? I could hardly turn it down but, like a fool, failed to make any conditions. So in I came and they asked brusquely: ‘What do you want to ask about, then?’

As I began, they laughed off the question (about schools) and they started to leave the room.

It was a compliment of sorts but I still wish I had stayed on the Birmingham doorstep. Who knows what might have happened?