Whitehall considers curbs on memoirs of special advisers

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

Whitehall is investigating new rules to stop senior civil servants and Downing Street special advisers making money out of selling their memoirs, Sir Gus O'Donnell, the new cabinet secretary, told MPs yesterday. His announcement follows the controversy over the publication of the former No 10 press officer Lance Price's memoirs, which both Sir Gus and his predecessor, Sir Andrew Turnbull, unsuccessfully tried to censor.

Such a decision would immediately devalue future memoirs, including the unpublished diaries of Alastair Campbell, said to be worth a seven-figure sum. Mr Campbell took a decision not to write them up while Tony Blair was still prime minister. It would also have affected a string of memoirs published since Mr Blair won the 1997 general election.

(...)

Sir Gus's disclosure and comments came as he was being questioned by Gordon Prentice, Labour MP for Pendle, during his first appearance as cabinet secretary before the Commons public administration committee. He told Mr Prentice he had asked officials to explore whether writing up private conversations in memoirs should be covered by crown copyright - in effect meaning that the state rather than the author would get the cash and blocking the opportunity for former civil servants and special advisers to make money from them.

Sir Gus made clear to MPs his distaste for advisers who indulged in such exercises. He said: "I have been lucky enough to have worked in No 10, the Treasury and now the Cabinet Office and would never have thought of writing up private conversations ... Making money out of private conversations is wrong."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,16518,1590199,00.html

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This calls to mind something Clarke said to the New Statesman last month:

I ask about the memoir in which Sir John Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner (who is a Clarke fan) accused Blunkett of backstabbing. At first, Clarke simply says: "It went wrong with David. I don't know why." But does he think Stevens should have written the book? "Actually, I don't. No. It's very difficult when senior public servants write accounts of this type. I don't think he should have done it. I shall not write a book of that type, and I don't think others should."

http://www.newstatesman.com/200509260017

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. No chance on a curb of special advisers, I suppose?

If you hire amoral spin merchants to take part in the vital decisions of the country, are you really surprised that they'll take the chance to sell their story of the hidden secrets?