A rare survivor

Date: 04/01/1996

NO member of the British Cabinet is more accomplished in the art of survival than Malcolm Rifkind, who succeeded Douglas Hurd last year as UK foreign secretary.

This is the Conservative “wet” who prospered as a senior member of the “dry” Thatcher government. This is the man who is one of the top three ministers in a centralist, London-dominated administration but who remains an unashamed devolutionist. This is that rarest of British political animals, a Conservative who thrives in Labour-dominated Scotland.

Malcolm Rifkind is no one's idea of a passionate politician. But in the heat of debate he can summon a torrent of argument and detail - a talent honed in the Scottish law courts where he worked successfully as an advocate - which devastates opponents.

His ability to make speeches without notes is from a lost political age. Edward Heath was probably the last British politician to master that ability so successfully and Rifkind's brilliance in this respect has led some to assume he has a photographic memory.

A few years ago at a Conservative Party conference, he commended to his audience a list of government achievements, listing them progressively by number from one to 20 and never once referring to a script.

There can be few British politicians who know more about survival than the Scottish Conservatives. At one point, before the last general election, they were down to nine out of 71 seats. You have to know how to duck and weave to be a successful Tory in that atmosphere.

Rifkind has been doing so splendidly all his life. As the challenges have grown bigger, so his advance has become more dazzling. Those who have known the man for most of his political life are not surprised by his progress. He is famous for a certain diplomacy with the powerful and his caution with journalists, who enjoy his company at lunch but whose failure to solicit an unguarded word is abject.

The foreign secretary's ability is unquestionable. The most damaging criticism one opponent was able to offer recently was that he is clever rather than wise.

That observation will never be tested more than now, as he prepares to map a course for the UK's struggling government in the EU in preparation for this year's Intergovernmental Conference.

Rifkind's challenge is Douglas Hurd's legacy. Where Hurd was the ultimate Tory grandee with his cool eloquence and air of patrician calm, Rifkind is the energised talker who has never been known to lose an argument that mattered in public.

But his style as a reasoning, pragmatic, broad-church Tory makes him a neat fit for the UK foreign office, where successful foreign secretaries have always been those who rubbed along well with the system.

Rifkind can also employ Hurdish wit when the occasion arises, as it did last year in Sarajevo when he came under sniper fire. “Ah, well,” he remarked afterwards, “my experience is that one's reactions in such circumstances are commensurate with one's knowledge of events.” In other words, he had not known he was in danger until it was over.

Rifkind's promotion to the foreign office was a 'coming home'. Much earlier in his career, in 1982, he had served as an under secretary there. He was quickly promoted to minister of state by the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who recognised his talent even though she mistrusted his politics. It speaks volumes for Rifkind that his well-known dislike of hard-nose economics and right-wing rhetoric did not work against him. Thatcher simply needed a dependable secretary of state for Scotland. With that job goes cabinet rank, and Rifkind has never looked back. Thatcher had good reason to be wary of him. Rifkind came to prominence as a keen devolutionist and was so devout in the cause of decentralising British politics that, early in his career, he quit a junior government job in protest when the Conservatives abandoned a pledge to devolve power to Scotland and Wales.

In his native Edinburgh, Rifkind is reputed to be a closet federalist. But before Eurosceptics reach for their guns, it should be pointed out that he would deny that charge vehemently today.

Earlier last year, when still defence secretary, Rifkind confirmed himself as a pro-European, but did so in a carefully-worded Brussels speech in which he described the EU as a collection of nation states. This was a civil but hard rebuttal of federalism as many Europeans see it, and signalled a perceptible hardening of his own views. His script was perfectly in harmony with John Major's line.

Hurd was widely regarded by the Eurosceptics in his own party as an ardent European who was standing in the way of their efforts to push the government towards a tougher anti-EU line.

But EU diplomats say that while Rifkind's style in Council of Ministers meetings may be different to that of his predecessor, the result is the same.

“He is more sceptical than any minister we have seen so far,” said one. “Hurd always tried to be neutral so as not to be too positive, while Rifkind tries to be neutral to avoid being too negative.”

Another pointed out that British ministers regularly found themselves forced into battle because UK government policy was so often at odds with that of other member states. For that reason, he said, there had not been “an enormous change” since Rifkind took over from Hurd.

Rifkind is the first Conservative foreign secretary too young to remember much about the British Empire (although he worked for a time in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, in a legal practice). One of his favourite themes is the EU as part of a larger Europe, which is in turn part of a post-colonial world.

This means on the one hand a “relevant and robust” relationship between the EU and North America, a Europe based on nation states winning the consent of the people and, on the other hand, a Europe firmly wedded to a friendly Russia.

In the enlarged EU as envisaged by Rifkind, there will be no room for the Common Agricultural Policy in its present form, no federalism based on what he calls Sixties' ideas.

He foresees a new order in which the nation states have a “crucial and unavoidable obligation” to cooperate in shaping Europe and its role in promoting world stability.

As a start, he has called for the creation of an Atlantic Assembly which would bring European and American politicians together regularly to discuss a range of issues. He is also a firm supporter of NATO and of a Western European Union which has an operational but limited role.

All this is typical Rifkind. He remains a pro-European, but an ultra-cautious one. He has taken care in recent times to present himself as what the British now call a 'Euro-realist'. His language is measured by the political realities of serving in a struggling government riven by Europe and one in which every nuance can lead to backbench rebellion.

It is a popular misconception that Rifkind has suddenly lurched towards the Eurosceptics on issues like integration and the single currency. This view is over-simplistic: Rifkind, famous for being all things to all men, is just behaving in character and toeing the party line.

After the UK's problems with the EU, the British foreign secretary's biggest challenge is Bosnia. He has already had a frosty exchange with the Washington power-brokers about America's role in the Balkans. He warned the hawks that if the US broke the Muslim arms embargo, he would pull out UK troops. His lecturing did not go down well, but he had taken the prudent precaution of getting US Secretary of State Warren Christopher on his side, and Anglo-American policy is now harmonious.

Rifkind's talent for survival has never deserted him. In the days when he was running Scotland, an attempt was made by Michael Forsyth and the right wing of his party to persuade Thatcher to remove him. Rifkind showed his steelier qualities when he faced down his combative prime minister before carefully timing his entrance to the party conference, where he won a warm ovation.

After that, he was never in danger again.