This is now jeopardised by Hackers extraordinary, foolish and unprecedented decision to show Cabinet Committee minutes to a newspaper editor, with the consequent risk -- nay, certainty -- of publication. It is because Bernard and I were present at the meeting that the damage can be contained, and it is for these reasons that Bernards minutes should take the form that I instructed him to take.
[Appleby Papers PU/12/3/86/NCH]
[Bernard Woolleys fears as to the unprecedented release of minutes that he had written were soon to be fully realised. The minutes were indeed published in the Daily Post Ed.]
Daily Post
Monday 13 August
CABINET COMMITTEE MINUTES PUBLISHED EXCLUSIVE
Brief reference confirms Hackers claim
by our political staff
For the first time ever, and with the permission of the Prime Minister, the Daily Post publishes an extract from the minutes of a secret cabinet committee. They reveal
Quote:
The Solicitor-General advised that there were no legal grounds for suppressing chapter eight. The Prime Minister accepted that there were no legal grounds.
SIR BERNARD WOOLLEY RECALLS [in conversation with the Editors]:
I had lost my cloak of anonymity. For the first time in my life I became a public figure -- almost the worst fate that can befall a civil servant, in my view. Other than being sent on gardening leave, of course.
It meant that I myself had to answer questions from the press, questions that I was not free to answer, nor able to -- questions that required a degree of prevarication and economy with the truth that I, as a non-politician, was ill-equipped to evade.
The morning those minutes appeared in the Daily Post I was accosted in Downing Street on my way to work. No doubt you can find it all by looking up the archives.
The Times
Tuesday 14 August
Woolley says Prime Minister is above the law
Official Secrets Act not applicable to Hacker
By our Chief Political Correspondent
Bernard Woolley, the Prime Ministers Principal Private Secretary, today admitted that the Official Secrets Act does not apply to the Prime Minister.
His replies turn an interesting light on the unwritten British Constitution
[All the newspapers carried essentially the same story. The full verbatim conversation is to be found on the BBC Nine OClock News filmed report, and we reprint the transcript here Ed.]
BBC TV
British Broadcasting Corporation
The attached transcript was typed from a recording and not copied from an original script. Because of the risk of mishearing the BBC cannot vouch for its complete accuracy.
NINE OCLOCK NEWS NEWSNIGHT
TRANSMISSION: AUGUST 14th
ACTUALITY:
SHOT OF BERNARD WOOLLEY APPROACHING THE CAMERA IN DOWNING STREET
KATE ADAM: Can we have a word with you, Mr Woolley, about the minutes of Jim Hackers meeting with the Solicitor-General which were published in the Daily Post today?
BERNARD WOOLLEY: Look, Ive got to go to work.
ADAM: Just a few questions.
WOOLLEY: Im sorry, I cant comment.
ADAM: But youd agree it all looks very suspicious?
WOOLLEY: What?
ADAM: The Prime Minister offered to publish them last Thursday. Why did it take so long?
WOOLLEY: Well, because they werent
HE HESITATES, AND LOOKS AROUND ANXIOUSLY
ADAM: Werent cleared? Werent cleared for publication? Didnt the Prime Minister clear them last Thursday?
WOOLLEY: Yes, but, well, theres the Official Secrets Act.
ADAM: Thats what wed like to understand, Mr. Woolley. How can they be cleared for publication if theyre subject to the Official Secrets Act?
WOOLLEY: Well, the Prime Minister can clear anything.
ADAM: So you are saying that the Prime Minister is not subject to the Official Secrets Act?
WOOLLEY: Um, no.
ADAM: No he is or no he isnt?
WOOLLEY: Yes.
ADAM: So when it comes to the Official Secrets Act, the Prime Minister is above the law?
WOOLLEY: Not in theory.
ADAM: But in practice?
WOOLLEY: No comment.
CUT TO:
KATE ADAM TALKING TO CAMERA
ADAM: What Bernard Woolley seems to be saying is that the Prime Minister makes the rules. He would not be drawn further about the content of the minutes, though he denied the rumour that the minutes took four days to appear because Mr Hacker can only type with two fingers.
[That final comment by Kate Adam resulted in a complaint from Number Ten Downing Street to the Chairman of the Governors of the BBC. The BBC hotly denied that the comment showed any sign of bias against the government Ed.]
[Hackers diary continues Ed.]
August 14th
This morning Bernard told me that he had been interviewed by the press. I was not pleased. It is not his job to give interviews.
He explained that he had not meant to do so, but had been trapped into speaking to them.
I asked him what he had said.
Um Nothing really.
This answer did not have the ring of truth. If hed said nothing, he would not have come to confess it. And his eyes were decidedly shifty.
So whats the problem? I asked.
Well he hesitated, they were asking me about you.
Not very surprising. What about me?
About you and the Official Secrets Act, Prime Minister. [When Hacker wrote this entry in his diary he had not yet seen the TV news or the morning papers. This conversation with Bernard Woolley took place immediately after he spoke to the press Ed.] They asked me whether you were bound by the Act.
Of course I am, I confirmed.
Yes, of course you are, he agreed.
I waited. Nothing. He stared at the wall unhappily. So? I pressed him.
Well, it, er, may not come out like that.
What do you mean? I asked with menace in my voice.
Well, um, thinking back on what I said, and what you said, and what I said you said, or what they may say I said you said, or what they may have thought I said I thought you thought, or they may say I said I thought you said I thought
He petered out. Grimly, I told him to go on.
He took a deep breath. I think I said you thought you were above the law.
I was aghast! You said that??
Not intentionally. But thats how it seemed to come out. Im terribly sorry. But they were asking all those questions.
I couldnt believe it. Bernard, I asked with real curiosity, what made you think that, just because someone was asking you questions, that you had to answer them?
He said he didnt know. Nor did I. It was hard to believe. Hes never answered my questions just because I asked them. I was furious. After a lifetime in the Civil Service, an entire career devoted to evading questions, you suddenly decide to answer questions today? And from the Press? You must have flipped your lid, Bernard!
He begged me not to shout at him. He was near to tears. He assured me that he wouldnt ever answer any more questions, ever again, ever!
I calmed down. I told him to get Humphrey in at once. And while we waited for Humphrey to arrive, I gave Bernard my eight ways to deal with difficult questions:
1. Attack The Question. Thats a very silly question, how can you justify the use of the words, above the law?