Decline & Fall is the second volume of Mullin’s diaries, which I bought on a whim to read on my phone without having read the first volume. The first volume was about life as a junior minister in Tony Blair’s government; this one starts with him being sacked after the 2005 election, and so is about being a backbench MP in the last five years of the Blair/Brown government.
It probably would have made more sense to read the first volume first, but I enjoyed this anyway; because he never had a senior job in government, he’s just enough of an outsider to provide a clear-eyed account of life in the Westminster bubble. I might have to read the first volume, now.
And, incidentally, the fact it’s a diary made it well suited to reading on a small screen. Short entries mean you can easily dip in and out of it.
» The picture is of a design for fabric for a roller blind for the Houses of Parliament by Augustus Pugin, from the V&A.
2 replies on “Decline & Fall by Chris Mullin”
I can heartily recommend A View from the Foothills, which I’ve just finished reading. It’s frank, passionate, funny, despairing. There are some nice running gags with various betes noires. Some surprising insights, eg, the reason The Man was so keen on faith schools. Off to read Decline and Fall now, and I may even try A Very British Coup.
Yeah, reading them in the wrong order was a bit of an odd decision really, but I probably will read the first one now.