Andy McSmith's Diary: From Siberia to cyberspace, it’s been a long journey

These days, prime ministers do not chat casually with hacks they hardly know without an official standing guard

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev during a state visit in 1989 (Getty)

Technology has changed the nature of news. In the summer of 1989, I witnessed how it shocked Margaret Thatcher that words spoken in a provincial British town could be instantly broadcast somewhere so remote that it was once a place of political exile.

Her plane was crossing Russia and had to refuel in Bratsk, in Siberia. Courtesy required the Prime Minister to leave the aircraft to meet the mayor, which she did in a building where nothing was modern except for a brand new Sky dish. In the room where we hacks were kicking our heels, Sky was showing Elton John.

Her duty done, Thatcher wandered in, saw me, and decided I would be more interesting company than the mayor of Bratsk – a very low bar. The way she raised her eyes to the ceiling told me how much she had not enjoyed that conversation. My asking whether she had seen the Elton John video set her off, because in the room where she met the mayor Sky News was broadcasting from the Green Party annual conference, at which someone had said that there was litter on Britain’s streets. Thatcher was outraged. She exclaimed: “He can’t say that in a programme broadcast all over the world!”

These days, prime ministers do not chat casually with hacks they hardly know without an official standing guard. It can take only seconds for a hack to share what they have heard with a huge audience. It has taken me 27 years to write that story.

That’s a blow!

The Labour MP John Woodcock has apologised for a typing error in which he offered voters “head” when he meant “help”. He says: “Service I offer to constituents does not extend this far.”

Whitby jetset

I am sorry Whitby Town Council has lost Simon Parkes, a Labour councillor with a unique back story, who stood down last May. Simon was a councillor a diarist could appreciate. At the age of eight months, he says he learnt that his mother was an 8ft-tall green alien with huge eyes and a kite-shaped face. When he was 10, he fell off a wall and “died”, but a black crow took him to a space craft where alien doctors restored him to life. The really weird thing is that he also says he had “often” met Tony Blair.

No-worries Dorries

I do not know if life is long enough to sample a Nadine Dorries novel. The first was given an excoriating review by The Daily Telegraph, but then the Tory MP had risked retribution when she bravely attacked that paper’s publicity-shy owners, David and Frederick Barclay. Her books have sold astonishingly well, bringing her a declared income in the nine months to February of more than £155,500, to supplement her MP’s salary, with a guarantee of at least another £224,000 over the next two years. I hope she leaves it all to her grandchildren so they never need to know the price of milk.

House of Cads

Michael Dobbs, the author of House of Cards, found it very painful making one of his first interventions since being ennobled as Lord Dobbs, because he was discussing a fellow Conservative whom he knew. Lord Taylor of Warwick was out of prison after serving three months of a 12-month sentence for fiddling his expenses. Lord Dobbs pleaded with the House authorities to have a private word with him to stay away. It was all they could do, because legislation to expel a peer did not then exist.

Lord Taylor still regularly visits the Lords, where he tables a vast number of written answers and sometimes speaks. His presence is rarely reported because his notoriety is eclipsed by that of Lord Hanningfield, who is due to stand trial on a fraud charge. Between June 2012 and the end of October 2015, the last month for which figures are available, Lord Taylor pocketed £99,900 in tax-free attendance allowances. Not bad money for an ex-con.

Onwards online

And that’s all. If you enjoyed the Diary, trying logging in at andymcsmith.co.uk