Chance Witness: An Outsider's Life in Politics

by Matthew Parris

A frank autobiography by "The Times" columnist and ex-politician Matthew Parris. His childhood was spent on a variety of different countries as his engineer father moved jobs; Rhodesia, Cyprus, the Middle East and Jamaica. After Cambridge and Yale, he joined the Conservative central office at roughly the same time (aged 26) he discovered he was gay. He worked for Michael Dobbs, Chris Patten, and Mrs Thatcher (who famously fired him), before entering parliament himself. Part participant, part bystander, Matthew Parris describes what it was like to be so close to the centre and remain an outsider.

Genres: Politics, Biography, Nonfiction, Autobiography, History, British Literature, Humor

501 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matthew Parris' memoir is infinitely readable, and I like his honesty, even though I don't share his political outlook. The latter is likely to give you a belly ache from time to time as you go through the book.

Yes, I too am a liberal at heart. But it won't do, liberalism won't do; there are things in heaven and earth undreamed of in a liberal's philosophy and many of them are found in Africa. As a boy I did notice that, and while much of the raging against nice people may have been an adolescent raging against my parents, not all of it was. There are some bleak truths in Conservatism, and I was dimly sensing them.

He has however got a perceptive and original perspective on things, and that makes him pleasantly quirky. On the other hand, time and time again he is rude and bitchy, and one gets the impression that a good story is a far greater priority than normal decency and tact, let alone loyalty or friendship....but perhaps that an inherent part of all journalism?
Sometime he protests his innocence when he mauls people, like the time he outed Peter Mandelson on Newsnight as being gay, which he says was purely an accident, but even after reading his defence I find it pretty iffy....or in the way he defended his banter about John Precott's uneducated use of English.... Throughout the book, I got the impression that he has a cavalier attitude towards other people's vulnerabilities.

Parris has lived a rich life. He talks about his childhood in Zimbabwe, his experiences at Cambridge, as a civil servant at The Foreign Office, as a backbencher MP under Margaret Thatcher's government..... and as a parliamentary sketch writer and then columnist at The Times. He also wrote for The Sunday Telegraph, The Sun and The Spectator, plus he headed the television series Weekend World.

Cambridge was good fun, but also an eye opener...

Most of Cambridge was middle-class or grander; most of Cambridge was bright. If at first I had thought there was any natural link between the two, I was discovering that the same relationship did not apply in the England beyond my university. I was discovering that the key advantage a public school education gave a boy was a manner and a self-belief which shielded him from being found out too quickly. You often had to know an expensively educated Englishman for months, sometimes years, before you discovered he was thick. Fee-paying education was a sort of course in confidence-trickery.

He is scathing about The Foreign Office

I hated the Foreign Office. I hated it with a slow-burning, fiery passion. I hated the obsession with procedure, with polish, with process and with style, to the exclusion of anything but a passing interest in content. I hated the superb intellects and well-founded sense of superiority I encountered all around me: abilities always equal to and often greater than my own, but harnessed to what? Time and again (it seemed to me), energies were bent not towards doing the right things or even giving the right advice, but doing things in the right way, and protecting - if possible enhancing - one's own position..... Intelligent as the whole ethos of the place was (it was frighteningly so), little was done, no opinion offered, no telegram despatched, no minister briefed, without careful and methodical attention to procedure. Procedure trumped all; systems eclipsed usefulness.

He is also pretty scathing about the experience of being an MP

I have mentioned that it is commonplace for MPs to compare their first days at Westminster with the experience of being a new boy at school...... Though you do feel lost and do have to ask where to loos are....you don't feel small. It's when you begin to understand your place in the British constitution that you feel small.

In fact at first you feel quite big and rather proud, and important, and equal. The House - as opposed to the government, or Opposition, or Commons timetable - is yours: it really is: you can go anywhere: the policemen know your name: the servants of the House are your servants, and treat you with obsequious contempt ....

Only gradually do you realise that none of this is making much difference to anything. Only slowly does it sink in that though the world will doff its cap to you, and though you will always be on the top table at any local feast, and though the local newspaper will print your thoughts on any subject and even the letters editor of The Times will be inclined to let you jump the queue, and though your name will now by in Who's Who until you die, nobody is actually taking any notice.

You are a little monarch in your own constituency. In the House you are a smaller fish, but still you feel you belong to a most important - the most important - club. Your head swells. But your heart troubles you because you know it's not true. You know you are there only because your party association chose you and few have ever voted you as an individual, or ever will. You know, too, that your power at Westminster is almost zero, the whips humiliate you privately and your influence in the constituency derives not from your skill or the real respect you command, but from the portcullis on your notepaper. (The motif on writing paper from The House of Commons.) You know you are a fraud and your position is a fraud.....It breeds an internal cynicism and an imperceptibly opening gap between your public life and your private, internal life.

Having said that, he surprised himself by "falling in love" with his constituency of West Derbyshire. Even though he resigned from being a politician, he bought a house there and has lived there ever since.

The job that seems to have been the overwhelming success in his life is that of being a sketchwriter and then columnist at The Times. He says that he gets between twenty and a hundred letters a week from his readers, and that he enjoys the feedback - one senses the presence of a conversation between them and mutual respect.

A big issue that runs throughout his life is his work to help educate, enlighten and forward issues around homosexuality....both as an MP and as a journalist. In the book he describes his own experiences with great honesty..... At the end of the book, he says he is still alone "I have had lovers but with my lips to theirs would find my gaze wandering. Call this selfishness if you like but I have never wanted anyone to lose themselves in me...." But in my edition of the book there is an epilogue. He talks about the increasing depth of friendship he experienced over 10 years with his old friend Julian. Eventually they became a couple, and in 2006 they entered a civil partnership.

The one great chunk missing from the book are descriptions of his travels, which have been wonderfully adventurous....but he has described these elsewhere, in other books.

All in all a pleasantly gripping and entertaining read, along with fairly frequent burps over our differing political attitudes.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up at a Bookcrossing Zone, not because I have a general appetite for political memoirs but because I remembered that Matthew Parris had been MP for West Derbyshire at one time. I wasn't sure I would find it particularly interesting and it was selected to be a 'bag' book. And then it was promoted, and not just because it is quite a big paperback to be lugging around - I was gripped.

He's an odd sort of a cove and no mistake - as the title says, an outsider on the inside. I am not sure the book provides any easy answers as to why. He had an interesting early life moving around various hot places with his family and seems to have been a reflective sort of a person from the start. Reflective and gently contrarian. It was a little frustrating that although his remarkable expeditions are mentioned in passing, there is no detail, this being a fairly plump already political memoir.

It was interesting to read the book at a time when a pay rise for MPs is being hotly debated as he describes the selection process and life of an MP. I lapped up all his descriptions of the Derbyshire Dales and its denizens, was absurdly excited by references to MP surgeries just down the road from me and meetings at my children's school. I found it a helpful if only superficially comforting read to understand the mindset of decent Tory people at a time where their policies are causing so much pain - he is writing about the 80s, here we are again. I couldn't decide whether to laugh, cry or throw the book across the room when he quotes The Walrus And The Carpenter weeping over the oysters they are about to eat. And I was reading it just after the death of Margaret Thatcher whose personality looms over most of the book, even after she has left office.

It is a sad book in many ways. The struggle for gay emancipation is well-described, although he names so many names it seems the closet must have been stiflingly full. I was disturbed however at his similarity to Queen Victoria, reputed not to have believed lesbians exist. I would have liked him to expand on his views on same sex marriage beyond 'not being sure' (the book predates civil partnerships and the current progression to same sex marriage. I would have liked to understand his apparent lack of interest in long term commitments better - there seem to be contradictions in his disposition and his actions. He clearly took a long time to get to where he wanted to be in terms of livelihood and his many false starts without major disasters are instructive - but personally, is he where he wants to be? I couldn't tell one way or the other. I really did think he had very interesting things to say about why people do what they do.

I often found myself turning back to check when the book was first published - it seems too fresh to be 10 years old.

[Jeff Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matthew Parris is such a good writer and storyteller, few could fail to find this long book rewarding, moving and very funny in places. It's the story of his life from early childhood until the Blair years of the early 2000s. There's astonishing honesty in here, not only about Parris himself but on some well-known others, friends and colleagues, that gives insight into contemporary political lives and institutions. I'm not a Conservative (Mr Parris was a Tory MP) but I felt myself better educated and informed after reading this book.

[Orlaith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew very little about Matthew Parris before being given this book as a present. but he is a really interesting guy. His success is not linear. He tried different occupations for size. I have not seen this kind of honesty in a memoir before.

Not many leave the civil service for politics. The political scene in the UK is so different to Ireland - he more or less landed into a constituency with which he had no previous connection. And leave politics for journalism.

Highly recommended.

[Trawets · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matthew Parris has been in my bathroom since February, I imagine he would be glad to escape though I'm sory to see him go, he has been an amusing guest giving insights into the world of politics. A campaigner for gay rights, Matthew Parris, is open about hs self and forgiving of others.
If you want to know about the life of a House of Commons "backbencher" this is a good starting point.

[Ian]

One of the best autobiographies I can recall reading. Very intelligent man who has rubbed shoulders with some of the most influential politicians of our era. And funny too. If you have ever enjoyed reading his political sketches, you will enjoy this book

[Ben Jeapes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matthew Parris has lived a charmed life, though you can't begrudge him any of it and he might dispute that anyway. By his own admission he is not especially good at anything and has failed at most things – except that that chain of failures and chance events has made him an essential political commentator who is always able to hit the nail precisely on the head. He has a lot of vulnerabilities and a lot of contradictions, all of which are laid bare here. The secret pain of being gay at a time it could still have destroyed his career; keeping his integrity as a Tory in a party he admits is full of ghastly people who do ghastly things; always (usually) managing to be honest and truthful. He has been around for a long time - he began his political career before Thatcher was Prime Minister, so he has seen a lot of things happen, always from the point of view of an outsider on the inside. He lived abroad for most of his first 19 years so is still always able to take one step back and look at things from a distance, even when he is also in the heart of them. He is witty, well spoken and self deprecating and the book is a joy to read.

[Kathrin Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rate Matthew Parris highly as a political columnist and a sympathetic radio interviewer. I therefore enjoyed this autobiography, giving me a little more background on his youth and formative years. Well written and very entertaining.

[Steve Angelkov · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read. I was directed to this book by a friend who mentioned Matthew Parris was an interesting character.

I'm not a 'tory, but was very pleasantly surprised by this memoir.

An interesting insight to Thatcher's government and the authors continued desire to seek new challenges.

[John Ollerton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book, but small print, I have eye strain.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started well enough but became rather tedious thereafter mainly because off too much self examination.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

You may politically disagree with Parris (I do). But he is an excellent writer, a perceptive observer of politics, and his account of life as a gay MP is very moving and interesting.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another holiday attempt, this well written autobiography at least managed to perk up my reading interest. Determined to see himself as an outsider, Parris paints a picture of a solitary guy who took fifty years of his life in an effort to really begin living it and resultantly I found the book quite downbeat. There's no doubt that self-effacement is an appealing trait, but here it becomes a sometimes irritating disguise and sometimes provoked a desire to shout "Oh for God's Sake man, give yourself some credit for what you have achieved!!" The other alternative title I thought appropriate would have been "The Quiet Homosexual's Guide to Life", because there is no doubt that being gay in Thatcher's Britain, not to mention political party, not to mention this day and age itself, must colour the whole way the world looks. But Parris insists that this is a minor, minor botheration which really isn't relevant to his life all that much. Yeah, right.
I'm writing this three quarters of the way through the book, and I hope the tone picks up.

[Catie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as part of the Popsugar 2016 Reading challenge, knocking the political memoir category down early as this is not really my reading matter of choice. I selected this book because, although our political affiliations differ, Parris has always struck me as a likeble cove and I thought there would be lots of juicy stories of Tory excess and eccentricity.
The book was more serious and moving than I expected and while there were some spicy anecdotes that wasn't what really kept me reading so much as the internal story of Parris himself: well-meaning, erratic, seemingly lazy yet driven and far harder on himself than an observer ever could be.

[Gareth Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Matthew Parris is my favourite columnist. Original, thoughtful and gentle he is an antidote to those who get paid for being contraversial. A great columnist does not, I now know, make a great autobigrahper. The political parts both his time as MP and his work as a columnist and sketch write are fine, but the rest is far too earnest. What works well in observing the world comes across as preachy and dull in observing himself. It's not a bad book and Parris is a good writer. Ther is just far too much of a not especially interesting life.

[Glenys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite my knee-jerk recoil from his Tory affiliation, I agree with reviewers who found this a really good read He's honest and witty, and makes the most of his almost compulsive 'outsider' identity. Some parts were laugh-out-loud funny. As someone whose gay political activism was in the 1970s, I found it interesting if odd to read about his struggling to come out in the 1980s, when attitudes had already softened somewhat. Thank goodness he did.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/71616.html[return][return]I have a certain sense of loyalty to Clare College, Cambridge, where I spent five mostly happy years between 1986 and 1991, and part of that includes following the careers of my fellow alumni not just from my own year but those who attended after I left (like the sf writer China Mi

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly good read. I don't share Parris's political convictions in the slightest (he's a Tory, I've voted for pretty well everyone except the Tories in my time) , but that didn't stop my enjoying his puzzled outsider's take on life in the Tory party during the high-noon of Thatcherism. As readable and as funny as you'd expect from a very entertaining columnist and sketchwriter.

[Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very entertaining glimpse inside Thatcherite politics during a crucial period of change which I was too young to understand while it was taking place. As one would expect of a journalist and sketchwriter, all the many and varied characters are described with an adept wit and - sometimes nostalgic - humour, with well-chosen anecdotes illustrating an interesting and serendipitous career.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cambridge-Yale Mellon Fellows are the best! Although I'm not planning to become a Tory or, erm, 'receive' on Hampstead Heath...

[Liz Wager · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't share Parris' political views but this is a wonderfully written autobiography with just the right amount of anecdote and introspection -- classy and entertaining

[Paul Billy-Bong-Gong]

i would if i could, but i can't... need more cash