0:00:02 > 0:00:04This is the secret world of Whitehall.
0:00:04 > 0:00:11Decisions taken here behind closed doors affect all our daily lives.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14In this three-part series, I'm telling the inside story
0:00:14 > 0:00:18of what's gone on over the years in the great institutions
0:00:18 > 0:00:19at the very heart of government.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23Tonight, the Cabinet Office.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26It's the secret power house of British politics,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29with the key task of keeping the government show on the road.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35It was here that the Cameron / Clegg coalition deal was hammered out.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38And the Cabinet Office houses the sinister-sounding COBRA,
0:00:38 > 0:00:43the government's anti-terrorist intelligence and emergency centre.
0:00:43 > 0:00:49It's where the most powerful unelected member of the government has his grand office.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52From here, the Cabinet Secretary, the real-life Sir Humphrey
0:00:52 > 0:00:56from Yes, Prime Minister, pulls the invisible strings across Whitehall.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18# Midnight One more night without sleeping... #
0:01:18 > 0:01:21A year ago, and the Cabinet Office in Whitehall
0:01:21 > 0:01:24became the centre of the political and media world.
0:01:24 > 0:01:29The Tories and the Lib Dems met to negotiate the coalition deal
0:01:29 > 0:01:32at a series of meetings behind the green doors
0:01:32 > 0:01:35of the normally camera-shy Cabinet Office.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37# Green door
0:01:37 > 0:01:41# What's that secret you're keeping? #
0:01:42 > 0:01:45What was it like for the Cabinet Office itself, which
0:01:45 > 0:01:48traditionally is rather anonymous as far as the public is concerned?
0:01:48 > 0:01:50Suddenly the Cabinet Office
0:01:50 > 0:01:52was at the centre of political and media attention.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56It was definitely very exciting for the Cabinet Office, because normally
0:01:56 > 0:02:00all the attention is on 10 Downing Street, that famous street outside.
0:02:00 > 0:02:05Suddenly, I was very pleased that we'd repainted the door
0:02:05 > 0:02:08because it was on all of those camera shots.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12And it was the centre of attention for a few days.
0:02:12 > 0:02:13I'm glad it was only a few days.
0:02:14 > 0:02:19The Cabinet Office, like many classic institutions in this country
0:02:19 > 0:02:23with considerable power, is hardly known about outside.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26It's only the initiates who appreciate all the time
0:02:26 > 0:02:29just how important and significant it is.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34The Cabinet Office prefers to do its work out of the limelight.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38Its key task is to try and make government work properly.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41Its high-flying civil servants form a mini Whitehall,
0:02:41 > 0:02:45who aim to co-ordinate policies and replace the traditional dogfights
0:02:45 > 0:02:49between ministries with what they call joined-up government.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55My first ministerial posting was in the Cabinet Office,
0:02:55 > 0:02:59a wonderful piece of luck that I was able to see
0:02:59 > 0:03:02the centre of government operating.
0:03:02 > 0:03:07The Cabinet Office make sure that every part of government is speaking to the other.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10It's like a sort of vast and rather intricate,
0:03:10 > 0:03:13finely tuned telephone exchange.
0:03:13 > 0:03:17You can feel all the plugs been put in across that board.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21The really important aspect of the Cabinet Office
0:03:21 > 0:03:23is to make government business happen.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27They're there to fix the meetings, they're there to take the minutes.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29They're there to find the compromises.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34The central part of the Cabinet Office's work is to ensure that
0:03:34 > 0:03:38the Cabinet and its powerful subcommittees work effectively.
0:03:38 > 0:03:44The Cabinet secretary, or his self-effacing senior officials, attend all ministerial meetings
0:03:44 > 0:03:49to record the discussion and the decisions for action across Whitehall.
0:03:49 > 0:03:55These were backroom people who relished being out of the limelight.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58There was a deal down that for concealed influence,
0:03:58 > 0:04:01and some would say power, there was anonymity while
0:04:01 > 0:04:04they were doing it, apart from the appearance in the odd honours list,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07when they would shimmer discreetly to the palace for a gong
0:04:07 > 0:04:09or an upgrade gong, and back again.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13But as a friend of mine used to say, rather unkindly of some individuals,
0:04:13 > 0:04:16they were scarcely household names in their own household.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22There have only been ten Cabinet Secretaries in the past century,
0:04:22 > 0:04:24since the Cabinet Office started,
0:04:24 > 0:04:28while there have been more than three times that many different governments.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Until recently, they remained figures unknown to the public.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36For the Cabinet Secretary was the keeper of the government secrets,
0:04:36 > 0:04:39for whom discretion was like the calcium in their bones.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43As the most powerful permanent unelected member of the Government,
0:04:43 > 0:04:45he was the chief policy adviser
0:04:45 > 0:04:47and father confessor to the Prime Minister.
0:04:47 > 0:04:53In Whitehall, where knowledge is power, the Cabinet Secretary is the person who knows most of all.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56For unlike the Prime Minister, the Cabinet Secretary is allowed
0:04:56 > 0:04:59to see all the papers of previous governments.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05When new Prime Ministers reach Number 10, the first person
0:05:05 > 0:05:12who will greet them once they step inside is the Cabinet Secretary.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16When the new Prime Minister arrives, I am waiting behind that door.
0:05:16 > 0:05:21The first thing I say is, "Congratulations, Prime Minister, and welcome to Number 10".
0:05:21 > 0:05:23The Prime Minister and his top mandarin
0:05:23 > 0:05:25then go to the Cabinet room.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27And then we have a few words
0:05:27 > 0:05:31about what the first few bits of business are.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34There are various nuclear and intelligence
0:05:34 > 0:05:39issues which new Prime Ministers need to be briefed on very quickly.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42One of the things the Cabinet Secretary has to do is to juggle
0:05:42 > 0:05:47those first 24 hours in managing this process
0:05:47 > 0:05:52of getting the urgent done, the urgent and important.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56In a sense what is happening there is a wrestle for power.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00The Cabinet Secretary is trying to capture the Prime Minister.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03Here's the new Prime Minister, hasn't been in office,
0:06:03 > 0:06:07slightly in awe of this grand figure from the Civil Service and he wants to establish
0:06:07 > 0:06:10the relationship straight away of mentor and mentee.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13Part of that is about trying to overawe the Prime Minister
0:06:13 > 0:06:17about his job, to put him in awe of what he's actually taking on here.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21The Cabinet Office on Whitehall adjoins Downing Street
0:06:21 > 0:06:24and is linked to Number 10 by an internal corridor.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26And there have been many subtle struggles for power
0:06:26 > 0:06:29between Prime Ministers and their top mandarin,
0:06:29 > 0:06:34for the Cabinet Office itself was born out of the barrel of a gun.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43# Oh, we don't want to lose you
0:06:43 > 0:06:47# But we think you ought to go
0:06:47 > 0:06:52# For your King and your country
0:06:52 > 0:06:54# Both need you so... #
0:06:54 > 0:06:59The First World War revealed the need for a central command structure in the British government.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03There was a shambles of communication between the Cabinet
0:07:03 > 0:07:06and the military, with orders being confused and not acted on.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10Things came to a climax with the Battle of the Somme.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15It cost 100,000 British lives.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21It led directly to the creation of the Cabinet Office.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26It's a Johnny-come-lately as a government department,
0:07:26 > 0:07:28it only started in December 1916.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32There had been a Secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence before that,
0:07:32 > 0:07:35but it wasn't until Lloyd George became Prime Minister
0:07:35 > 0:07:40that he decided that they needed a Cabinet Secretary, as in a Cabinet secretary.
0:07:40 > 0:07:45Of course before that, the proceedings of the Cabinet were not noted.
0:07:45 > 0:07:50So, it was not uncommon for people to come out of those meetings, from which there was no agenda
0:07:50 > 0:07:55and there were no minutes, with different views as to what had been decided.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59It took the Kaiser and a total war to get Whitehall to sort itself out
0:07:59 > 0:08:04in terms of running the Great War with a sense of supreme command,
0:08:04 > 0:08:08everything coming up to a hierarchy, to a pinnacle in the War Cabinet.
0:08:08 > 0:08:13In the 1916, David Lloyd George became Prime Minister,
0:08:13 > 0:08:16having forced out his predecessor.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19Lloyd George was a charismatic figure.
0:08:19 > 0:08:23He had a dramatised biopic made, which showed how, as Prime Minister,
0:08:23 > 0:08:26he was determined completely to reorganise the system he'd inherited.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34Lloyd George saw that the Cabinet had swollen dramatically to a record size.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38He decided to create a streamlined War Cabinet of seven.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44Lloyd George set up the first Cabinet Office
0:08:44 > 0:08:46to ensure the War Cabinet's decisions
0:08:46 > 0:08:49were circulated and carried out across Whitehall.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54The Prime Minister chose as his first Cabinet Secretary
0:08:54 > 0:08:58a Royal Marine turned Whitehall warrior called Maurice Hankey.
0:08:58 > 0:09:03Hankey was to hold the post for the next two decades, serving six Prime Ministers.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07He was known in Whitehall as the man of secrets.
0:09:07 > 0:09:09The only time Hankey ever talked publicly
0:09:09 > 0:09:13was at the very end of his life, when he told of his appointment.
0:09:16 > 0:09:23On the first day that Lloyd George became Prime Minister,
0:09:23 > 0:09:29when I shook hands with him and he was lying back in a chair
0:09:29 > 0:09:38he said, "You are shaking hands with the most miserable man on Earth."
0:09:38 > 0:09:43Lloyd George felt miserable because of the weight on his shoulders
0:09:43 > 0:09:46in the worst war the world had ever seen.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48Fearing Britain might lose, he gave Hankey the task
0:09:48 > 0:09:52of greatly strengthening the centre of government and ensuring that
0:09:52 > 0:09:56the Prime Minister's writ would run across the whole of Whitehall.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02Maurice Hankey was absolutely at the centre of the web
0:10:02 > 0:10:06for information coming in, and knowing what was happening and being absolutely crucial.
0:10:06 > 0:10:14He was so crucial that at the end of the First World War, parliament voted him a gratuity of £25,000.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17That is well over £1 million in today's money.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20That shows how important he was seen to be.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26Over the past century, as the Cabinet Office has grown in power,
0:10:26 > 0:10:29it's had a nomadic existence across Whitehall,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32before settling in its present home.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35Number 70 Whitehall has a Victorian facade,
0:10:35 > 0:10:39but it stands on the site of King Henry VIII's old Whitehall Palace,
0:10:39 > 0:10:44parts of which still exist and reek of history, political skulduggery,
0:10:44 > 0:10:46and Hogwartian quirkiness.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49You enter the Cabinet Office through
0:10:49 > 0:10:52the perfectly preserved Tudor Cockpit Passage.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55The second Queen Elizabeth was escorted on a visit here
0:10:55 > 0:10:5920 years ago by the then Cabinet Secretary, Sir Robin Butler.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03This was the site of the old Whitehall palace, that was used
0:11:03 > 0:11:06for sports and pastimes in the times of Henry VIII.
0:11:06 > 0:11:12In these buildings here, the Tudor and Stuart kings used to play tennis
0:11:12 > 0:11:14while the courtiers watched them through
0:11:14 > 0:11:16the window and kept the score.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20I always feel that's rather symbolic of the Cabinet Office work.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23The kings and their courtiers would watch cock-fighting
0:11:23 > 0:11:27and bear baiting here, and they'd hunt stags in the palace grounds,
0:11:27 > 0:11:29which are now St James's Park.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33Upstairs, the remains of King Henry VIII's real or royal tennis court,
0:11:33 > 0:11:37with its 40 ft drop to the ground floor, still survives.
0:11:39 > 0:11:44The 18th century Treasury room still houses the gilded chair of state
0:11:44 > 0:11:46that was made for King George I.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49Here, the king would chair meetings of his ministers
0:11:49 > 0:11:53that became known as the Cabinet.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56But there's another part of the Cabinet Office
0:11:56 > 0:12:00that remains off-limits for security reasons.
0:12:00 > 0:12:06Between the Cabinet Office, which fronts on to Whitehall,
0:12:06 > 0:12:10and Number 10, there's a locked door.
0:12:10 > 0:12:16And that symbolised, I always felt, the separation of the Cabinet Office from Number 10.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19Of course, it was famously featured
0:12:19 > 0:12:21in Yes Prime Minister, when Jim Hacker get so fed up
0:12:21 > 0:12:25with Sir Humphrey coming through the whole time, he changes the lock on the door.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32Bernard! I'm coming through to Number 10.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34I'm sorry Sir Humphrey, no, it is not convenient.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36I'm coming anyway.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38He thinks he's coming anyway.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59Open this door! Open this door!
0:13:02 > 0:13:04You'll pay for this! Open the bloody door!
0:13:06 > 0:13:09All that's historically accurate.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11In fact, the first week that I was Cabinet Secretary,
0:13:11 > 0:13:13I went to go through that locked door
0:13:13 > 0:13:16into Number 10, and found that there was a man changing the lock.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20And I said, "That's discouraging, I've only been in the office two or three days.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23"Has the Prime Minister told you to change the locks?"
0:13:23 > 0:13:26The man who was fitting it had seen the programme because he said,
0:13:26 > 0:13:30"No, somebody's lost their key, so we've got to change the lock,
0:13:30 > 0:13:32"but I have a key here for you, Sir Robert".
0:13:32 > 0:13:36Was that famous green baize door ever locked in your time?
0:13:36 > 0:13:38It was locked, but I had a key.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41We didn't at that time have a press button pad.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43It was all on key.
0:13:43 > 0:13:45- But I had the key. - But the key always fitted, did it?
0:13:45 > 0:13:49Oh, the key always fitted, yes. There was no episode
0:13:49 > 0:13:53like that in Yes, Prime Minister! I never had any trouble.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57I didn't have to crawl over the window sills or anything like that.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59Did it ever happen to you that you couldn't
0:13:59 > 0:14:01get through the door or into Number 10?
0:14:01 > 0:14:04Not yet is what I would say.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06So far, so good.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11I'm afraid I have to reveal to you, the door doesn't exist anymore.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13The viewers that are used to Spooks
0:14:13 > 0:14:16would be able to recognise the fact that it's now one of those
0:14:16 > 0:14:20tubes that you stand in and then are allowed out the other side.
0:14:20 > 0:14:22The door is no more.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28Since the Second World War, the Cabinet Secretary's palatial 18th-century office
0:14:28 > 0:14:32has housed a succession of real-life Sir Humphreys.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34Their relationship with Number 10 and the interplay
0:14:34 > 0:14:41between personality and power form a hidden history of life at the top of government.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47The first post-war Cabinet secretary served for nearly 20 years
0:14:47 > 0:14:50and was seen as a role model by his successors.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52He was Sir Norman Brook,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55the product of Wolverhampton School and Oxford.
0:14:55 > 0:14:57A high-flyer in the Home Office,
0:14:57 > 0:15:00Brook had been deputy secretary in Churchill's War Cabinet.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03He was also, literally, a cabinet maker.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05He made his own furniture in his workshop.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10Norman Brook was an extraordinary figure.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13He oversaw the building of the huge mixed economy and welfare state,
0:15:13 > 0:15:18all the nationalisations, creation of the Health Service and so on, in the Attlee years.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21Also at the same time, because of the Cold War, he was
0:15:21 > 0:15:25essentially the number one architect of the Cold War secret state.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29Norman Brook saw it as his job to think the unthinkable
0:15:29 > 0:15:33if the Cold War were to turn hot.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37Communist Russia had recently acquired its own H-bomb.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44As a nuclear power itself, Britain was seen as a prime target
0:15:44 > 0:15:46for a pre-emptive Soviet strike.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54At the Cabinet Office, Norman Brook worked in total secrecy
0:15:54 > 0:15:56on the doomsday scenario.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00Norman Brook constructed this enormously elaborate
0:16:00 > 0:16:03and immensely secret state to cope with the Cold War,
0:16:03 > 0:16:07where intelligence met civil defence, where it met home defence,
0:16:07 > 0:16:09where all the plans for post-attack were made.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17Norman Brook was seen as the indispensable right-hand man
0:16:17 > 0:16:21by four successive Prime Ministers, from Labour's Clement Attlee,
0:16:21 > 0:16:26to the Conservative Harold Macmillan, whom he served for seven years.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29Norman Brook was a great public servant.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32He was always calm, always unruffled,
0:16:32 > 0:16:36without any show, without any glamour.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40He was the friend and adviser of more than one Prime Minister
0:16:40 > 0:16:46and to all in turn, he gave equal loyalty and devotion.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50Norman Brook had shown that devotion to Anthony Eden,
0:16:50 > 0:16:53Macmillan's controversial predecessor as Prime Minister.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57At Number 10, Eden had secretly conspired
0:16:57 > 0:17:00with the French and Israelis to invade Egypt.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07Troops were sent to seize back the Suez Canal from Colonel Nasser,
0:17:07 > 0:17:09the Egyptian military strongman.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13The Suez invasion sparked bitter controversy in Britain.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20Downing Street was under siege and inside Number 10,
0:17:20 > 0:17:24the Cabinet Secretary Norman Brook revealed to the government chief whip
0:17:24 > 0:17:28that Eden had just given him a highly irregular order.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31Norman Brook came out of the Cabinet room and said,
0:17:31 > 0:17:34"He's told me to burn the lot of them".
0:17:34 > 0:17:36- To burn the lot of what? - The documents.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38- The secret documents?- Yes.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41Well, yes, the government documents.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45And is that what Norman Brook, the Cabinet secretary, went off and did?
0:17:45 > 0:17:46Yes.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49And what did you feel about that?
0:17:49 > 0:17:52Well, the Cabinet secretary was carrying out
0:17:52 > 0:17:56the Prime Minister's orders about Cabinet documents.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00But what did you feel about the Cabinet Secretary going off
0:18:00 > 0:18:05and destroying secret documents, which, if they'd become public,
0:18:05 > 0:18:09- would prove the Prime Minister had lied to the house?- Yes.
0:18:09 > 0:18:10What did you feel about that?
0:18:10 > 0:18:13Well, the Cabinet secretary was doing his job.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15- He was only obeying orders?- Yes.
0:18:15 > 0:18:21Anthony Eden asked Norman Brook to destroy the Cabinet papers
0:18:21 > 0:18:25relating to the conspiracy over Suez, which Norman Brook did.
0:18:25 > 0:18:26He did, I know that.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30Would you, if you had been Cabinet secretary,
0:18:30 > 0:18:34ordered by the Prime Minister to destroy Cabinet papers
0:18:34 > 0:18:39related to a conspiracy for an invasion, would you have done so?
0:18:39 > 0:18:43No one knows how you behave until you're in that situation,
0:18:43 > 0:18:45but I hope I would not.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48I mean, I am obsessive about paper, I keep everything.
0:18:48 > 0:18:53I think I would have found the whole episode of Suez impossible,
0:18:53 > 0:18:54very difficult to serve.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57I think a matter of conscience would have, seriously...
0:18:57 > 0:19:00Indeed I've talked to permanent secretaries of that time
0:19:00 > 0:19:03and I think there were a number of permanent secretaries
0:19:03 > 0:19:06who were very seriously close to resigning in protest about it.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09I think it's reprehensible, and I think the right answer
0:19:09 > 0:19:12would be to tell the Prime Minister you'd destroyed them,
0:19:12 > 0:19:13but you'd actually not.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16I don't think, necessarily, it's what I'd have done,
0:19:16 > 0:19:21I wouldn't have... I wouldn't have destroyed papers.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25Because it was, in a sense, my reputation as well.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27I mean, I think it's a pretty despicable thing to do.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30Brook did destroy them, but being a good civil servant,
0:19:30 > 0:19:33he put a note on the file saying that he'd been instructed by
0:19:33 > 0:19:36the Prime Minister to destroy them.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40Over two decades, Norman Brook kept the confidences and the trust
0:19:40 > 0:19:43of all four of the very different Prime Ministers he served.
0:19:45 > 0:19:47And he never gave an interview.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50He really was a man of secrets.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53There's no way of calibrating the weight of secrecy any body
0:19:53 > 0:19:58carries at any one particular time, for obvious reasons, because you don't know what they know.
0:19:58 > 0:20:05But Norman Brook, per square inch, had more secrets than any other figure in post-war Whitehall.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08Right through until the moment he retired in 1963.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14As Cabinet Secretary, Brook remained unknown to the public,
0:20:14 > 0:20:17and his successor was an equally self-effacing figure.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20Sir Burke Trend served Labour's Harold Wilson
0:20:20 > 0:20:24and three other Prime Ministers over a decade from 1963.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26Trend had been top man at the Treasury
0:20:26 > 0:20:30and had a double First in Classics from Oxford.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33But he saw Britain becoming a much more violent place.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39Industrial disputes were turning ugly.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49And there were bombing campaigns on the British mainland
0:20:49 > 0:20:53by the Provisional IRA and other terrorist groups.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00To counter threats to the security of the state,
0:21:00 > 0:21:05Burke Trend's Cabinet Office had set up a new emergency centre.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09It was to become known to the public by its sinister near-acronym, COBRA.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13The highly secret new centre's task was to co-ordinate
0:21:13 > 0:21:19the intelligence and security forces and respond fast to a crisis.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23COBRA is, actually, it sounds great, but it does in fact stand for
0:21:23 > 0:21:26Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms, rather mundane,
0:21:26 > 0:21:30but it's the place where we can brief the Prime Minister
0:21:30 > 0:21:34and bring together people through video screens and audio links
0:21:34 > 0:21:37and various sophisticated technology.
0:21:37 > 0:21:41There are accusations that opening COBRA is a bit of a
0:21:41 > 0:21:43"look at me jumping" kind of response,
0:21:43 > 0:21:46but, actually, it's a way of making sure
0:21:46 > 0:21:50you've got security, intelligence, the police, emergency services.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53Whatever you need for the nature of the crisis itself
0:21:53 > 0:21:56can be brought together in one place and able to communicate
0:21:56 > 0:21:58very rapidly with one another.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01You were able to make decisions, have the drum beat so that
0:22:01 > 0:22:05you're getting the latest information. These are very fast-moving situations.
0:22:05 > 0:22:10Find out what's happening, make clear what everyone should say publicly,
0:22:10 > 0:22:13what new information you need, what new actions you need to take
0:22:13 > 0:22:17and then get on with making sure that you deal with the incident.
0:22:19 > 0:22:26COBRA In the early 1970s, when it was first constructed, was also the war room.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29The decision-taking forum for transition to World War Three.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34At one end of it, separated from the main committee room, was the nuclear release room where
0:22:34 > 0:22:39the Prime Minister would have gone if he was in town and if he wasn't incinerated to do it.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43It was the only nuclear bunker in a capital of a nuclear power
0:22:43 > 0:22:46that has ever been above ground. Quite extraordinary.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50But COBRA remains the first port of call
0:22:50 > 0:22:54to co-ordinate responses to national emergencies.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58It's a significant legacy of Sir Burke Trend's time as Cabinet Secretary.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02In his ten years as top mandarin, he was highly regarded as a subtle
0:23:02 > 0:23:07adviser by the four Prime Ministers he served, with one exception.
0:23:07 > 0:23:08Well, Burke Trend's style
0:23:08 > 0:23:12wasn't to tell you what to do, and certainly not to tell ministers
0:23:12 > 0:23:13what to do, but to lead them
0:23:13 > 0:23:16by a notion of posing questions,
0:23:16 > 0:23:18which is sometimes called a Socratic approach,
0:23:18 > 0:23:23which would bring them to the solutions that he thought were probably appropriate.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26And he'd put this in his briefing for the Prime Minister,
0:23:26 > 0:23:30and when Mr Heath came in, Mr Heath, being a more managerial style
0:23:30 > 0:23:35of Prime Minister, expected people to tell him what they recommended he should do.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40In exasperation at this, at one stage, wrote on the top of the minutes, "I'm the Prime Minister,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43"I ask the questions, you're supposed to give the answers."
0:23:44 > 0:23:47Labour's Harold Wilson took a rather different view of Burke Trend's
0:23:47 > 0:23:51abilities to see his way through the fog of government.
0:23:51 > 0:23:57Harold Wilson described Burke Trend as the best civil servant he'd known.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01The American President Richard Nixon's state visit to Britain
0:24:01 > 0:24:05provided a telling instance of how the Cabinet Secretary could subtly
0:24:05 > 0:24:08diffuse embarrassment for a Prime Minister.
0:24:09 > 0:24:14Wilson had invited the President to address a meeting of the Cabinet.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18His ministers and Burke Trend were waiting in the cabinet room to hear Nixon.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22Nixon gave a brilliant exposition of the world as it was seen
0:24:22 > 0:24:25through the eyes of the United States President.
0:24:25 > 0:24:27Held us all, extremely interesting.
0:24:27 > 0:24:29Then, there was a sort of pause before we went on
0:24:29 > 0:24:32with the discussion, when coffee was brought in.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36And in some way, I still can't quite work out, in either putting milk
0:24:36 > 0:24:41or sugar or not into his coffee, he managed to pick up one of the very heavy inkwells,
0:24:41 > 0:24:44which were on the table in Downing Street, and pour the ink over his hands.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47A scene of absolute consternation broke out.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51I mean, Nixon was consternated by it, if that's a word, but everybody else was.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54Burke Trend, the extremely austere secretary of the cabinet,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57spilled a jug of cream over his own trousers.
0:24:57 > 0:25:02I've never been able to decide whether this was because he was so shaken by what was happening,
0:25:02 > 0:25:08or because he thought that if he introduced the idea that a bit of slapstick was Downing Street habit,
0:25:08 > 0:25:11it might make the President feel more at home.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15One of the most extraordinary scenes I've ever witnessed.
0:25:15 > 0:25:21After Burke Trend, the next guardian of the door from the Cabinet Office to Number 10 was Sir John Hunt.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24The product of public school, Cambridge and naval intelligence,
0:25:24 > 0:25:29he was dedicated to building up his personal power across Whitehall.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33John Hunt had a very strong sense that he was on this earth
0:25:33 > 0:25:36for a divine purpose.
0:25:36 > 0:25:41And that that purpose was to help government operate effectively.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45I mentioned in my diary at the time, I said,
0:25:45 > 0:25:50"Hunt's face is curiously colourless,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54"and his mouth flickers in a quick smile.
0:25:54 > 0:26:01"His eyes are fierce. He could run a machine very efficiently on behalf of any ideology."
0:26:02 > 0:26:06When Harold Wilson returned to power in 1974, he brought
0:26:06 > 0:26:13Bernard Donoghue from LSE to work with Marcia Williams and Joe Haines as his closest special advisers.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16They were to provide a political counterweight to the official
0:26:16 > 0:26:18advice from John Hunt and the Civil Service.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21And each night, a battle would be fought
0:26:21 > 0:26:25over what went into Harold Wilson's red boxes.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29Sir John Hunt felt that the Cabinet Secretary should have the last word
0:26:29 > 0:26:33with the Prime Minister, so he was deeply upset that
0:26:33 > 0:26:40I'd always wait until after he'd submitted the Cabinet Office policy memo to the Prime Minister, and then
0:26:40 > 0:26:47I'd read it in the Prime Minister's box in the private office and then submit some comments from us.
0:26:49 > 0:26:54No word of Hunt's behind-the-scenes battles for Wilson's ear reached the public.
0:26:54 > 0:26:59For Hunt was an ardent believer in complete secrecy about the inner workings of government.
0:26:59 > 0:27:04But all of that was to change as a result of diaries written by Richard Crossman,
0:27:04 > 0:27:07who'd been one of Harold Wilson's senior cabinet ministers.
0:27:07 > 0:27:13Crossman had kept extremely candid accounts of what really went on in Cabinet, which he wanted published,
0:27:13 > 0:27:17but which John Hunt wanted the High Court to ban.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21Hunt emerged from the shadows to give evidence in court.
0:27:21 > 0:27:25Sir John Hunt, the Cabinet Secretary said, in answer to questions,
0:27:25 > 0:27:27the Crossman diaries were in a different class
0:27:27 > 0:27:28from other political memoirs.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32One principal departure was that Crossman had attributed individual
0:27:32 > 0:27:35views to ministers in cabinet meetings.
0:27:35 > 0:27:36Crossman's behaviour, he said,
0:27:36 > 0:27:40made it impossible for a cabinet to work together in mutual trust.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45It's the first time that people see the whites of the eyes, if you like,
0:27:45 > 0:27:49of the Cabinet Secretary under pressure where they're up against it.
0:27:49 > 0:27:51And that must have been extremely uncomfortable
0:27:51 > 0:27:55for someone who had spent most of their life in the back room,
0:27:55 > 0:27:58suddenly, to be thrust into the limelight.
0:27:58 > 0:28:02Hunt and the government lost the case and the Crossman diaries were published.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07Hunt's successor was to be similarly exposed to the public.
0:28:08 > 0:28:13Sir Robert Armstrong was a product of Eton, Oxford and the Treasury.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17Unusually, for a Cabinet Secretary, he served just one Prime Minister,
0:28:17 > 0:28:18Mrs Thatcher.
0:28:18 > 0:28:24And his critics claimed that he came to identify himself too closely with serving her interests.
0:28:26 > 0:28:28She was a conviction politician.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31She and I got along very well together.
0:28:31 > 0:28:33And I survived the course with her.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39Any other points that we wish to raise, generally, before we go on to the main business?
0:28:39 > 0:28:42Like all Cabinet Secretaries, Armstrong would sit
0:28:42 > 0:28:46at the Prime Minister's right-hand side at Cabinet.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49He had the role of Mrs Thatcher's enforcer.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52It required vetting her appointment of new ministers.
0:28:52 > 0:28:58One in particular, the colourful Alan Clark, had attracted the attention of MI5.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03I had a meeting with good old Armstrong. He sent for me.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06He just produced a couple of files and said there are certain
0:29:06 > 0:29:10matters which the Prime Minister has asked me to draw to your attention.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13He said, you've been spoken of with approval.
0:29:13 > 0:29:15So I...preened myself.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18"Quite right too," I almost said.
0:29:18 > 0:29:20By the National Front,
0:29:20 > 0:29:22he snarled.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25We had a report from the security services who expressed
0:29:25 > 0:29:29worry about the possibility of a relationship with the National Front.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33He said that he had no relations with the National Front and he'd no use for them.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36Admittedly, he had some right-wing views and they sometimes
0:29:36 > 0:29:40commended them, but that didn't mean that he had anything to do with them, and I accepted that.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43And then he produced another file, he said,
0:29:43 > 0:29:46"There are certain matters in relation to your personal conduct
0:29:46 > 0:29:50"that would make you open to blackmail."
0:29:50 > 0:29:52Complete nonsense.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56I mean, my personal qualities are probably...
0:29:56 > 0:29:58open to criticism sometimes.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00What was he referring to?
0:30:00 > 0:30:03He was referring to...
0:30:03 > 0:30:09I suppose he was referring to relationships with...
0:30:09 > 0:30:13with other women that might...
0:30:13 > 0:30:16Well, we've seen what relationships with women can do to ministers.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19And he said, "You don't need to worry about that," he said.
0:30:19 > 0:30:23"These affairs are no secret, at all.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26"All of my friends know about them and my wife knows all about them,
0:30:26 > 0:30:30"and if anybody tried to blackmail me about them, I should say publish and be damned."
0:30:30 > 0:30:36I thought that was probably true, so I reported, accordingly, to Mrs Thatcher.
0:30:36 > 0:30:40Elsewhere in his diary, he said, "If you want my opinion
0:30:40 > 0:30:43"of Robert Armstrong, he's a full colonel in the KGB."
0:30:43 > 0:30:46HE LAUGHS
0:30:46 > 0:30:50Well, he was given to saying things like that, wasn't he?
0:30:50 > 0:30:54In fact, the Cabinet Office is the epicentre of British intelligence,
0:30:54 > 0:30:59and Robert Armstrong was Mrs Thatcher's top advisor on security and espionage.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03He was to find himself embroiled in the notorious Spycatcher affair.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10It involved the maverick MI5 agent, Peter Wright, who had written
0:31:10 > 0:31:13sensational memoirs that were to be published in Australia
0:31:13 > 0:31:16where he lived in exile. Mrs Thatcher wanted Armstrong
0:31:16 > 0:31:23to fly over to give evidence in the Australian High Court to prevent publication.
0:31:23 > 0:31:25The Prime Minister said, "Well, will you go, Robert?
0:31:25 > 0:31:28"I'm not going to instruct you to go,
0:31:28 > 0:31:32"I'm asking you to go. You're free to say no."
0:31:32 > 0:31:35Do you think you really were free to say no?
0:31:35 > 0:31:38Well, I didn't think I should say no, certainly,
0:31:38 > 0:31:39but I think...
0:31:39 > 0:31:41She questioned, expecting the answer yes.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45She quite deliberately put it like that, so that I shouldn't feel
0:31:45 > 0:31:49that I was being instructed to go, against my will, as it were.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52I don't think Robert Armstrong should have been invited by
0:31:52 > 0:31:54the Prime Minister to go to Australia
0:31:54 > 0:31:57to defend the British government's position on Spycatcher.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59That was for ministers.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01It's intensely political.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05But Armstrong's trip had a shaky start, for the Cabinet Secretary
0:32:05 > 0:32:08was unaccustomed to facing the media spotlight.
0:32:08 > 0:32:12They crowded around me, and...
0:32:12 > 0:32:14they got in the way, one of the cameras...
0:32:14 > 0:32:16These are the photographers?
0:32:16 > 0:32:22Yes. And I hate flying anyway, and it was quite a sensitive mission,
0:32:22 > 0:32:27and I felt very, I must have lost my cool for a moment.
0:32:27 > 0:32:28What did you do?
0:32:28 > 0:32:31I pushed a camera out of the way.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36Pushed a camera, rather than punched the photographer?
0:32:36 > 0:32:37I didn't punch the photographer.
0:32:37 > 0:32:41I just thrust the camera out of the way. I think it fell out of his hand,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44onto the floor. I don't know whether it was damaged or not,
0:32:44 > 0:32:46but he never sent me the bill.
0:32:46 > 0:32:50But in the Australian court, Armstrong came up against
0:32:50 > 0:32:53one of the country's most aggressive lawyers, who accused
0:32:53 > 0:32:56the Cabinet Secretary of lying in the witness box.
0:32:58 > 0:33:00So, I said that I hadn't told any lies.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03Perhaps I had been economical with the truth.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06And the British press jumped on to this phrase,
0:33:06 > 0:33:11economical with the truth, and wrote it up as lying, in the press.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14It became a notorious phrase.
0:33:14 > 0:33:18It's got me into the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22I admired Robert for going, but I think he should have said no.
0:33:22 > 0:33:26He really put his reputation on the line for his Prime Minister and his government.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29It must have been ghastly from beginning to end.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34Robert Armstrong retired after eight years as Cabinet Secretary.
0:33:34 > 0:33:39His critics claimed he'd been too willing to do the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher's bidding.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46Armstrong's successor, Sir Robin Butler, was determined to do things
0:33:46 > 0:33:51differently and restored the Cabinet Secretary to his traditional role
0:33:51 > 0:33:53of serving the Cabinet as a whole.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57Butler had long been seen as the golden boy of Whitehall, destined to reach the top.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01He had been a high flyer who had gained a rugby Blue,
0:34:01 > 0:34:05and first class degree after a privileged education.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09Harrow, University College Oxford, history and philosophy.
0:34:09 > 0:34:14From Oxford, Butler went straight to the Treasury, the elite civil service
0:34:14 > 0:34:16training ground, but his promising career was almost
0:34:16 > 0:34:21shattered in its first year when he appeared in the Treasury Christmas play.
0:34:21 > 0:34:25He had organised an explosion that was so violent, that a glass bowl
0:34:25 > 0:34:31flew off the stage and crashed onto the head of Sir Norman Brook, the legendary Cabinet Secretary.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36But Butler was forgiven and went on to work in Number 10
0:34:36 > 0:34:39as private secretary for a succession of Prime Ministers,
0:34:39 > 0:34:42before reaching the top of the Whitehall greasy pole.
0:34:52 > 0:34:54Lovely. Really warm.
0:34:56 > 0:34:57I'm timing it, you see. Every lap.
0:34:57 > 0:34:59I've got to do it in under 20 minutes.
0:35:01 > 0:35:06The new Cabinet Secretary would keep fit in his local lido in south London.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10I'm Sir Humphrey, and yes, yes, Minister.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13So, my job is to...
0:35:13 > 0:35:18be the chief engineer in the engine room of the Government.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21The normally hidden engine room of the government,
0:35:21 > 0:35:26was the weekly meeting in the Cabinet Office of the Sir Humphreys from each Whitehall ministry,
0:35:26 > 0:35:30the Permanent Secretaries. At the meeting, chaired by the Cabinet Secretary,
0:35:30 > 0:35:34the mandarins seek to co-ordinate government business for the week ahead.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37It is, in effect, a real Shadow Cabinet.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40Butler wanted the Cabinet Office to work for the whole Cabinet, and not
0:35:40 > 0:35:45be used by Number 10, solely for the benefit of the Prime Minister.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48I have always had to the view that the Cabinet Office
0:35:48 > 0:35:51has a different role from that of Number Ten.
0:35:51 > 0:35:54There are some people who think that the Cabinet Office ought to be
0:35:54 > 0:35:56a sort of Prime Minister's department.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00But I think the system works best if the staff,
0:36:00 > 0:36:03hopefully quite small number of staff who are in Number 10,
0:36:03 > 0:36:05both civil servant and political,
0:36:05 > 0:36:10wholly devoted to the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister's interests.
0:36:10 > 0:36:15And the Cabinet Office are the honest brokers in the system.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21The Prime Minister Butler worked for longest, as Cabinet Secretary, was John Major.
0:36:21 > 0:36:26They had a close relationship, sharing many interests, such as cricket.
0:36:26 > 0:36:31And Butler found Major to be the best negotiator he'd worked for.
0:36:31 > 0:36:32But it was a turbulent time.
0:36:32 > 0:36:37And Butler also had to deal with the very powerful figure of Michael Heseltine,
0:36:37 > 0:36:41who Major appointed to be his Deputy Prime Minister.
0:36:41 > 0:36:46Hezza was to be based in the Cabinet Office with a brief that ranged across the whole of government.
0:36:46 > 0:36:50John Major asked Michael Heseltine to come through and talk to me about
0:36:50 > 0:36:55ideas which Michael had for the structure of government.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59As we were coming to the end of that discussion, he said, "Of course,
0:36:59 > 0:37:03"I'll need a room worthy of the Deputy Prime Minister."
0:37:03 > 0:37:06And so he said, "This room here, you've got, is a very nice room."
0:37:06 > 0:37:11Robin had the most palatial office you've ever seen.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14No Cabinet minister has ever had an office like that.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18And I said to him, "Nice to see you, Robin," and everything, and sat down,
0:37:18 > 0:37:21looked around and I said, "This is a very nice office."
0:37:21 > 0:37:27Michael Heseltine then told Robin Butler the story of a previous Tory Cabinet minister called Duncan Sands
0:37:27 > 0:37:31who had been so impressed by the grand office of his top mandarin,
0:37:31 > 0:37:34that he felt he should take it over for himself.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37How did he react when you told him that story?
0:37:37 > 0:37:39I think he thinks you said, "Why don't I have this office?
0:37:39 > 0:37:41"This is a very nice office."
0:37:41 > 0:37:48Well, I don't think I ever quite said that, but the very clear implication was that Duncan Sands
0:37:48 > 0:37:51had said he'd have that office, and I was about to do the same.
0:37:51 > 0:37:53So, I said,
0:37:53 > 0:37:56"This is traditionally the Cabinet Secretary's room."
0:37:56 > 0:38:00But I could see that wasn't going to take the trick, and so I said to him,
0:38:00 > 0:38:02"We've got an even better room for you upstairs."
0:38:02 > 0:38:06So, he said, "Oh, well, can I see it?"
0:38:06 > 0:38:10So I said, "We'll have to get it ready for you, and so, let's make
0:38:10 > 0:38:14"an appointment for tomorrow morning, and come back and see it."
0:38:14 > 0:38:21And so he went off, and I went out to my staff and said, "I've no idea what room I'm talking about,
0:38:21 > 0:38:23"but what can we do?"
0:38:23 > 0:38:26So they said, "There's conference room B,"
0:38:26 > 0:38:29which is the size of...
0:38:29 > 0:38:31half a tennis court,
0:38:31 > 0:38:33but there's a huge table in it.
0:38:33 > 0:38:39So, I said, "Well, even if you have to get the Royal Engineers over from the Ministry of Defence,
0:38:39 > 0:38:45"get the table out." The next day, I took Michael Heseltine upstairs
0:38:45 > 0:38:50and we walked in at the door which is one corner of the room, and we looked across this room.
0:38:50 > 0:38:51It was huge!
0:38:51 > 0:38:58Much too big, but it was a defensive response from Sir Humphrey.
0:38:58 > 0:39:03He says that you said to him, as you looked at the office,
0:39:03 > 0:39:07you said to him, "I think you and I are going to get along."
0:39:07 > 0:39:09HE LAUGHS
0:39:09 > 0:39:11That's exactly what I would have said.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14And from that point, there was no difficulty.
0:39:14 > 0:39:16But there was a sequel to the story.
0:39:16 > 0:39:21Which was the day of the election, when we lost the election,
0:39:21 > 0:39:26in '97, and Robin, I'm told, was seen in his shirtsleeves,
0:39:26 > 0:39:30helping people to restore the Cabinet committee room
0:39:30 > 0:39:34that had been my office, to make sure that no-one else got it.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40When New Labour came to power, Tony Blair wanted radically to reform
0:39:40 > 0:39:44the traditional way of running the government.
0:39:44 > 0:39:48And Robin Butler fell out with Blair over the new Prime Minister's plans
0:39:48 > 0:39:52to give Number 10 much greater power and control over Cabinet ministers.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55Butler strongly objected to Blair's style of working informally
0:39:55 > 0:40:00with his close, personally appointed political advisers, like Alastair Campbell.
0:40:00 > 0:40:05A style that Butler was later to dub "sofa government".
0:40:05 > 0:40:08Tony Blair said about you that Robin Butler was a traditionalist
0:40:08 > 0:40:12with all the strengths and weaknesses and reverence for a tradition that would imply.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16Is that a fair picture of you as Cabinet Secretary?
0:40:16 > 0:40:18I don't think it is a fair picture.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22I was associated with a lot of reforms to the Civil Service.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26Some of which some of my colleagues thought went too far.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30And, yeah, I believe in progress and reform.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32But I...
0:40:32 > 0:40:37If the accusation is that I supported the traditional Cabinet government,
0:40:37 > 0:40:39as opposed to sofa government,
0:40:39 > 0:40:42that is an accusation that I'm perfectly willing to plead guilty to.
0:40:42 > 0:40:47I do think the attack on sofa government is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard.
0:40:47 > 0:40:52The weakness of the argument in particular is shown by basing it on an item of furniture
0:40:52 > 0:40:55rather than anything else. If that's really important.
0:40:55 > 0:40:59It doesn't matter if you're sitting on a sofa or round a coffin-shaped table when you're making a decision.
0:40:59 > 0:41:03It is a sort of death rattle of the mandarin classes.
0:41:03 > 0:41:07People venting their anger as they see a system disappear.
0:41:09 > 0:41:14The Blairites saw Butler as the quintessential Sir Humphrey figure.
0:41:14 > 0:41:19The smooth reassurance on the surface masking the obstructiveness beneath.
0:41:19 > 0:41:22What the Butler saw was the very different relationships
0:41:22 > 0:41:27he'd had as Cabinet Secretary with the three prime ministers he'd served.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31I was once asked what was the difference between working for
0:41:31 > 0:41:35Margaret Thatcher and John Major and Tony Blair.
0:41:35 > 0:41:40I would say that, if you said something critical of that sort to Margaret Thatcher,
0:41:40 > 0:41:43she would be affronted. "What do you mean, how could you say that?"
0:41:43 > 0:41:47But it wouldn't rupture your relationship with her.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51If you said something critical to John Major he'd be sad.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55He'd say, "Oh, do you really think that we made such a mess of it?"
0:41:55 > 0:41:58And if you said something critical to Tony Blair he'd say,
0:41:58 > 0:42:01"You're absolutely right, quite agree with you."
0:42:01 > 0:42:04But you wouldn't really know whether he did.
0:42:05 > 0:42:11Butler left Number 10 after agreeing with Tony Blair on the senior mandarin to replace him.
0:42:11 > 0:42:16And the outgoing Cabinet Secretary had tipped the wink to his successor.
0:42:16 > 0:42:19Robin said to me, "I don't want you to acknowledge you know this
0:42:19 > 0:42:23"but the Prime Minister is going to ask to see you this afternoon.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25"He's going to ask if you will be prepared to be Cabinet Secretary.
0:42:25 > 0:42:29"I wanted to prepare you for it, to make sure you say the right thing."
0:42:29 > 0:42:32I was bowled over by this. It was extraordinary.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36Sure enough, the phone call came. I went into the room and sat down.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39Tony Blair said, "I want to talk about how we're going to tackle the job."
0:42:39 > 0:42:41I said, "Hold on, should you...?"
0:42:41 > 0:42:45He said, "Robin will have told you. I want you to be Cabinet Secretary.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48"Let's talk about what we're going to do." We went straight into the job.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51I have this theory I've never been asked to do it.
0:42:51 > 0:42:53I'm not objecting, I was delighted!
0:42:54 > 0:42:59Blair's new Cabinet Secretary had a can-do reputation.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02And the public-school-and-Cambridge educated Wilson
0:43:02 > 0:43:06aimed to become the Prime Minister's indispensable right-hand man,
0:43:06 > 0:43:08but he faced stiff competition.
0:43:08 > 0:43:13What Tony wanted to do was to sort of operate through
0:43:13 > 0:43:18his own tight, personally appointed circle.
0:43:18 > 0:43:22I think that Richard Wilson, when he became Cabinet Secretary following Robin,
0:43:22 > 0:43:28never quite succeeded in overcoming that slight distance, that slight detachment
0:43:28 > 0:43:33that Tony had injected into the relationship between him and his top civil servants.
0:43:33 > 0:43:39Richard felt that Robin had allowed himself to be too distant and too outside Number 10.
0:43:39 > 0:43:43Richard made his name as the deputy secretary in the Cabinet Office
0:43:43 > 0:43:47who had resolved problems for Mrs Thatcher and really played a central role.
0:43:47 > 0:43:49He wanted to be in that role but he fell into this category
0:43:49 > 0:43:52of trying to force himself too much on the Prime Minister,
0:43:52 > 0:43:56which then made the Prime Minister less keen to have his advice.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58His reacting against what he perceived Robin to have done
0:43:58 > 0:44:02led him to be perhaps too keen, too enthusiastic.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07For his part, Blair had visions of annexing the Cabinet Office and its staff
0:44:07 > 0:44:15to work directly for him in a new, powerful, all-singing, all-dancing Department of the Prime Minister.
0:44:15 > 0:44:20A couple of times while we were in Number 10 Tony looked at the idea of having a Prime Minister's Department,
0:44:20 > 0:44:23whether you should reinforce Number 10 and make it into a full department
0:44:23 > 0:44:27with the requisite number of civil servants, budgets and what-have-you.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29Richard didn't like the idea at all.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34He thought we were making a mistake and he said it was unconstitutional and tried to stop us doing it.
0:44:34 > 0:44:39When we tried to appoint more staff to Number 10 he thought we were doing it by the back door, and vetoed that.
0:44:39 > 0:44:44I have to admit to you that I was pretty strongly of the view
0:44:44 > 0:44:46that it was not a good idea.
0:44:46 > 0:44:51Partly because of my abiding belief in collective responsibility.
0:44:51 > 0:44:57I also think it was in a way about accumulating more power to a man
0:44:57 > 0:45:00who I thought was already remarkably powerful
0:45:00 > 0:45:05and I think that this concept of building him up into a President was one
0:45:05 > 0:45:09which was really very dangerous politically in all sorts of ways.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15The presidential Tony Blair was becoming increasingly disillusioned,
0:45:15 > 0:45:19both with his Cabinet Secretary and with the Cabinet Office itself,
0:45:19 > 0:45:23and especially its much-trumpeted role of being able
0:45:23 > 0:45:27to act quickly and effectively in the face of a sudden emergency.
0:45:28 > 0:45:33In September 2000, a dramatic challenge came out of the blue.
0:45:33 > 0:45:38A motley group of farmers and lorry drivers seeking fuel-duty cuts
0:45:38 > 0:45:42used French-style tactics to blockade oil refineries.
0:45:42 > 0:45:47Tony Blair, we told you back in May that we had troubles in the countryside.
0:45:47 > 0:45:52Maybe you'll listen now, when we get the same effect as what's happening in France.
0:45:52 > 0:45:56Less than 100 people in the protest,
0:45:56 > 0:46:00organised with scarcely any structure and just mobile phones,
0:46:00 > 0:46:07came uncomfortably close to bringing the economy to a halt in the space of very few days.
0:46:08 > 0:46:13The protesters snarled up major roads and blockaded city centres.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17And with motorists panic-buying, the pumps were running dry.
0:46:17 > 0:46:21Tony Blair ordered his Number 10 staff and the Cabinet Secretary
0:46:21 > 0:46:24to get an immediate grip on the situation.
0:46:26 > 0:46:31What we did was open up COBRA at the Cabinet Office Briefing Room.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34And we put a very big effort into making that an effective mechanism
0:46:34 > 0:46:37for dealing with the crisis.
0:46:38 > 0:46:44And what was Tony Blair's reaction when the petrol tankers stayed stuck in the refineries?
0:46:44 > 0:46:45Oh, frustration.
0:46:45 > 0:46:52Because it ought to be possible to make that happen from this powerful centre of government.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55People didn't realise at the time quite how close it was.
0:46:55 > 0:46:59Hospitals were about to close down. All the ATMs in Britain were about to close down.
0:46:59 > 0:47:03We were thinking of using emergency powers and putting the military on the street. It came very close.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06Only at the last minute were we able to get the thing moving again.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10Alastair Campbell in his diaries said
0:47:10 > 0:47:12that the Cabinet Office and COBRA,
0:47:12 > 0:47:17- defended to the hilt by Richard Wilson, was hopeless during that. - Did he?
0:47:17 > 0:47:19That's what he says in his diary.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22Well, we weren't hopeless, actually.
0:47:22 > 0:47:24In fact, we were pretty good.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28I remember that there was a view in Number 10 that we were hopeless.
0:47:28 > 0:47:33I would argue... My memory is it was the occasion when the Prime Minister
0:47:33 > 0:47:36began to see that COBRA and the Civil Contingencies Unit
0:47:36 > 0:47:39were useful and important in times of crisis.
0:47:40 > 0:47:46But Richard Wilson now became the victim of a number of personal attacks on his competence.
0:47:46 > 0:47:51Unnamed sources close to the Prime Minister told the media
0:47:51 > 0:47:55that Tony Blair had lost confidence in his Cabinet Secretary.
0:47:55 > 0:48:00Richard felt that the Downing Street machine had been ganging up on him and briefing against him.
0:48:00 > 0:48:02I think it made him feel unsettled.
0:48:02 > 0:48:07We got quite an outburst from him at one point on that, which was quite difficult to handle.
0:48:07 > 0:48:08What happened?
0:48:08 > 0:48:12Well, he had a rather stormy encounter with Tony
0:48:12 > 0:48:17and then withdrew behind the green baize door, because Tony gave him back as good as he got,
0:48:17 > 0:48:21when Richard was being fairly dismissive of
0:48:21 > 0:48:25the record of the government and the way the government worked.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29Tony reacted quite strongly to this sort of... We made peace afterwards.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33I am not aware that he ever lost confidence in me.
0:48:33 > 0:48:37My relationship with him was good right up to
0:48:37 > 0:48:40the point at which I retired. He asked for my views on things.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43It's also true that my power began to wane,
0:48:43 > 0:48:48once my successor was appointed, which was April 2002.
0:48:48 > 0:48:50But I still went to meetings in Number 10.
0:48:50 > 0:48:54Blair's third Cabinet Secretary in five years was Andrew Turnbull,
0:48:54 > 0:48:57who'd been a Number 10 Private Secretary.
0:48:57 > 0:49:03Educated at grammar school and Oxford, Turnbull used the same lido as Robin Butler.
0:49:03 > 0:49:07I'm the Permanent Secretary of the Department of the Environment.
0:49:07 > 0:49:11Turnbull had gone on to become top mandarin at the Treasury.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13Right, OK. Well, I'd better go, then.
0:49:14 > 0:49:18Let's put that in my...put that in my shoe.
0:49:18 > 0:49:20He's your top policy man...
0:49:20 > 0:49:22on lidos.
0:49:26 > 0:49:32He was Margaret Thatcher's Private Secretary, now he's Cabinet Secretary.
0:49:36 > 0:49:38And John Major's actually.
0:49:40 > 0:49:46As Cabinet Secretary, did you try and get closer in terms of working with Tony Blair than
0:49:46 > 0:49:50you had seen it happen with both Robin Butler and Richard Wilson?
0:49:50 > 0:49:51Erm...
0:49:51 > 0:49:55Well, I think I tried. I don't think I got a lot closer than they did.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58Erm, I just don't...
0:49:58 > 0:50:01I think that wasn't the way that they wanted to work.
0:50:01 > 0:50:07Tony Blair never really viewed any of his Cabinet Secretaries
0:50:07 > 0:50:14as those really sort of trusted, experienced, safe pairs of hands,
0:50:14 > 0:50:17close-up advisers,
0:50:17 > 0:50:22in the way that previous prime ministers had regarded the holders of that job.
0:50:22 > 0:50:28His time as Cabinet Secretary sometimes reminded Turnbull of the episode of Yes, Prime Minister
0:50:28 > 0:50:31when Jim Hacker had managed to get one over Sir Humphrey.
0:50:34 > 0:50:36Oh, look, it's Humphrey.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50BURGLAR ALARM SOUNDS
0:50:51 > 0:50:56It's been enshrined in history, the famous episode where Sir Humphrey
0:50:56 > 0:50:59is being taunted by the removal of his key
0:50:59 > 0:51:06and the poor sod has to climb round the windows and is banging on it saying, "Please let me in."
0:51:06 > 0:51:07Er...
0:51:07 > 0:51:14That is the fate that...befalls you if you become seriously marginalised.
0:51:14 > 0:51:16But...
0:51:16 > 0:51:18Did that fate ever before you?
0:51:18 > 0:51:21No, I don't think I was seriously marginalised.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24Maybe I was...marginalised, but not seriously so.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29So how frustrating did you find your time as Cabinet Secretary?
0:51:29 > 0:51:34I didn't think it was that frustrating at the time. As I look back...
0:51:34 > 0:51:37I'm more frustrated.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42Turnbull handed over to Gus O'Donnell after four dispiriting years.
0:51:42 > 0:51:48Sir Gus came from a rather different background from traditional Cabinet Secretaries.
0:51:48 > 0:51:53He'd gone to a south-London state school and read economics at Warwick University.
0:51:53 > 0:52:00After a PhD at Oxford, he'd been a university lecturer, before joining the Treasury as an economist.
0:52:00 > 0:52:02At the Treasury he rose fast.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05And after a spell as Press Secretary to the Prime Minister John Major,
0:52:05 > 0:52:11O'Donnell became Permanent Secretary to the Treasury under the Chancellor Gordon Brown.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14Gus, how are you? Good to see you.
0:52:14 > 0:52:18The south Londoner was a keen footballer and a fan of Manchester United.
0:52:18 > 0:52:23I am a Cockney Red. I have supported Manchester United all my life through thick and thin.
0:52:23 > 0:52:27The Cockney Red's people skills and media experience
0:52:27 > 0:52:34endeared him both to Brown and Tony Blair, and O'Donnell was made Cabinet Secretary in 2005.
0:52:34 > 0:52:35Hi, welcome.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38Welcome to the Cabinet Secretary's room.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40This has got a lot of history to it.
0:52:42 > 0:52:47Just outside the historic room, O'Donnell installed this motivational slogan.
0:52:48 > 0:52:52The slogan was originally used about a martyred French saint
0:52:52 > 0:52:55who was said to have walked for six miles,
0:52:55 > 0:52:59carrying his own severed head under his arm while preaching a sermon.
0:52:59 > 0:53:05After Tony Blair lost his head to Gordon Brown, O'Donnell remained Cabinet Secretary.
0:53:05 > 0:53:10Sitting next to Brown, O'Donnell believed part of his job was to see round political corners.
0:53:13 > 0:53:19Looking into his crystal ball, the Mystic Meg of the Cabinet Office set his officials to work.
0:53:19 > 0:53:25They acted out the roles of politicians in different scenarios for a hung parliament.
0:53:26 > 0:53:30It's kind of summed up by the Boy Scouts' motto - be prepared.
0:53:30 > 0:53:33We wanted to be prepared for all possible outcomes.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36I'd like to be able to tell you that we worked through that successfully,
0:53:36 > 0:53:40but in fact we had individual civil servants
0:53:40 > 0:53:43playing the parts of the different leaders.
0:53:43 > 0:53:48And, as civil servants, we failed to come up with a deal there, because
0:53:48 > 0:53:51actually we'd given very tight negotiating remits to those people.
0:53:51 > 0:53:57In reality the political parties were much more successful in that and they managed to come to an agreement.
0:53:58 > 0:54:03After the general election had produced a hung parliament and four days of negotiation
0:54:03 > 0:54:10in the Cabinet Office, the new coalition government had been born - with Gus O'Donnell as the midwife.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15For me, as Cabinet Secretary, this was a momentous occasion.
0:54:15 > 0:54:20Post-war there hasn't been a full coalition government.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23For us, we were in uncharted territories.
0:54:23 > 0:54:26What emerged, the Conservative/ Liberal Democrat coalition,
0:54:26 > 0:54:32then worked very intensively with the Civil Service to produce their programme for government.
0:54:32 > 0:54:38When the co-hosts of the coalition went to their first Cabinet meeting, David Cameron told his ministers
0:54:38 > 0:54:44they were the latest additions to the long list that Gus O'Donnell had served as Cabinet Secretary.
0:54:44 > 0:54:4885 different Cabinet ministers, so that's, er...
0:54:48 > 0:54:52And you've got 15 years to go if you want to be the longest-serving Cabinet Secretary,
0:54:52 > 0:54:55which is Maurice Hankey, from 1916 to 1938.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58So you're just really starting out.
0:54:58 > 0:55:03Like many new prime ministers, David Cameron made immediate changes to the Cabinet Office.
0:55:03 > 0:55:09He set up a new White-House-style National Security Council that would work in the Cabinet Office.
0:55:10 > 0:55:16The Prime Minister chairs a top-level weekly meeting of the NSC in the Cabinet Room itself.
0:55:16 > 0:55:21It brings together our military and spy chiefs with ministers and mandarins.
0:55:21 > 0:55:27Their task is to identify, in a strategic way, threats from the enemies of the state.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31The heads off the Security Service and the Secret Intelligence Service
0:55:31 > 0:55:35have laid out there is a very serious threat, believe me.
0:55:35 > 0:55:41This Prime Minister has taken that, as past prime ministers, very, very seriously indeed.
0:55:43 > 0:55:46On the domestic front, Sir Gus says he had a new mantra.
0:55:46 > 0:55:50Supporting the Prime Minister and supporting the Deputy Prime Minister,
0:55:50 > 0:55:51who's based in the Cabinet Office.
0:55:51 > 0:55:56'Well, I would describe myself as the equidistant Cabinet Secretary
0:55:56 > 0:56:00'between the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister.'
0:56:00 > 0:56:04From this office where we're filming now, it is, and I've counted it,
0:56:04 > 0:56:0650 places to get to the Prime Minister's office
0:56:06 > 0:56:09and 50 paces to get to the Deputy Prime Minister's office.
0:56:09 > 0:56:12And I think that's a very nice balance to have.
0:56:13 > 0:56:18The coalition government has made Sir Gus the highest-profile Cabinet Secretary ever.
0:56:18 > 0:56:23And the top trio take the stage with Sir Gus looking every inch the third among equals.
0:56:23 > 0:56:27And now the man who really holds the ring. Gus, over to you.
0:56:27 > 0:56:30Thank you very much, Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister.
0:56:30 > 0:56:35'What this has meant for us is that we have a completely different way of operating.'
0:56:35 > 0:56:39That's because, as civil servants, we have put across the message
0:56:39 > 0:56:43that whenever a policy decision comes up we need to coalitionise it.
0:56:43 > 0:56:48That means very early on making sure that it works across the two political parties.
0:56:48 > 0:56:52Civil servants in the Cabinet Office are much happier now, with the coalition government,
0:56:52 > 0:56:58because by virtue of it being a coalition, they have to discuss everything all the time.
0:56:58 > 0:57:03They have to listen to each other's views, they have to have committees again.
0:57:03 > 0:57:10I mean, collective government and responsibility really does have to start operating again
0:57:10 > 0:57:17when you're welding together two separate parties and putting them together in the same government.
0:57:17 > 0:57:23It makes the Cabinet Office much happier, because it sort of fulfils their historic role.
0:57:23 > 0:57:26But recently there have been strains in the relationship
0:57:26 > 0:57:29between the Cabinet Secretary and the Prime Minister.
0:57:29 > 0:57:33Gus O'Donnell, who signs his paperwork with the initials GOD,
0:57:33 > 0:57:38wrote a secret memo urging the government to draw up a Plan B for the economy
0:57:38 > 0:57:42if the coalition's Plan A of huge spending cuts doesn't work.
0:57:42 > 0:57:46Cameron was furious when the memo leaked to the media.
0:57:47 > 0:57:50As far as your relationship with David Cameron is concerned,
0:57:50 > 0:57:58it's said that he had "words" with you after a memo which you've written about Plan B had leaked.
0:57:58 > 0:58:02I'm not going to get involved in discussions about current policy.
0:58:02 > 0:58:04Not going to get involved!
0:58:04 > 0:58:06But how long are you going to stay as Cabinet Secretary?
0:58:06 > 0:58:09Well, I've been in the job five years.
0:58:09 > 0:58:14One thing I'd say is to beat Maurice Hankey's record I need to do another 17, and I'm not going to do that.
0:58:15 > 0:58:20In its 100-year history the 10 Cabinet Secretaries have all been men.
0:58:20 > 0:58:26And, although Whitehall whispers are that they might be the first ever Dame Humphrey Appleby,
0:58:26 > 0:58:31it looks more likely that Sir Gus' successor will also be a man.
0:58:31 > 0:58:36Whoever gets the job, the Cabinet Secretary's most sensitive task remains.
0:58:36 > 0:58:39Judging when to say, "No, Prime Minister."
0:58:40 > 0:58:46Next week, what's really gone on over the years behind the black door of Number 10.
0:59:03 > 0:59:05Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:05 > 0:59:07E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk