Dear Queen

Product Description


BETWEEN November 1997 and July 1998 then-government whip Janet Anderson was given the task of writing nightly reports to Her Majesty The Queen on that day’s business in Parliament. That role as Vice Chamberlain is steeped in history, going back to Henry VIII, but she was told that Her Majesty did not like dry-as-dust missives, and would welcome something a “bit gossipy.” Janet took to the job with gusto. This was a period when the honeymoon with the voters enjoyed by Tony Blair’s New Labour Government was coming to an end and Britain was heading towards war. Janet covered such heavyweight issues, but spiced up her reports with all the gossip, rumours and drink-fuelled humour sweeping the Palace of Westminster. In a chatty, increasingly informal – but always proper – way she referred in her missives to Pre-Menstrual Tension, Champagne parties, Christmas shopping, and which woman MPs were rumoured to be pregnant. She was also delightfully and unashamedly forthright about colleagues on both sides of the House. She told the Queen that: John Bercow, now Commons Speaker, was “odious” and a “nasty piece of work” who raised “bogus” points of order. Twice-Oscar-winner Glenda Jackson constantly missed debates as transport minister. The Ulster Unionists were a “sour bunch.” Former war correspondent and anti-sleaze MP Martin Bell was “a pathetic joke figure.” One-time Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley objected to the use of the word “gay” instead of “homosexual.” And former Tory leader Michael Howard was just “loathsome.” She threw in other references to Teletubbies in Parliament, the risk of the ceiling falling on the heads of MPs and schoolboy behaviour in the House. It is hard to imagine such forthright correspondence going directly to the Queen. The daily reports have never before been published. Nor have those of any of Janet’s predecessors and successors. She, unlike them, retained copies. They make hilarious reading and amount to a colourful daily diary of a turbulent period in British political history.


About the Author


JANET ANDERSON was best known before the 1997 election campaign for suggesting that people would enjoy more sex under Labour. She was born in December 1949 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne into a family of miners and housewives. She was educated at Trowbridge girl's high school and then Kingswood Grammar in South Gloucestershire, followed by the Polytechnic of Central London and the Université de Nantes. From 1971 she worked as a secretary at The Scotsman and the Sunday Times. In 1974 she became the personal assistant to the MP for Blackburn, Barbara Castle, legendary figure in the Labour and women's movements, and worked closely with her for seven years. She performed the same role for Castle's Parliamentary successor Jack Straw until the 1987 general election when she unsuccessfully fought the marginal seat of Rossendale and Darwen. Janet became a campaigns organiser for the Parliamentary Labour Party and then the Northern regional organiser for the Shopping Hours Reform Council campaigning to extending the Sunday trading laws. She was also secretary to the Tribune Group and wrote a short biography of Barbara Castle which was published in the Dictionary of Labour Biography edited by Greg Rosen. Janet re-fought Rossendale and Darwen successfully at the 1992 election, winning by just 120 votes. She became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Beckett, a post which she held for a year. She was an opposition whip from 1994-96, before being appointed Shadow Minister for Women. While in this role she notoriously joked in an interview that women would become "more promiscuous" under a Labour government. Following the 1997 election landslide she became a junior whip in Tony Blair's new government, a job which included the title of Vice Chamberlain to the Queen. After a year before being promoted minister for Tourism, Film and Broadcasting and was responsibl