Book Festival: Alex Salmond leads the Hurd

No doubt keen to show his face at what is turning out to be a highly impressive Book Festival, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond chaired the talk by Douglas Hurd and Edward Young on their new book Choose Your Weapons.

An examination of the motivations and personalities of 11 British Foreign Secretaries, it draws on Hurd’s own experiences in the post between 1989 and 1995. Since Salmond (despite his ambitions) has no say in foreign policy, it wasn’t entirely clear what he could bring to the discussion with the Tory lord. Yet he was able to tease out some amusing moments in the Q&A session.

The book focuses on some of the lesser-known Foreign and Commonwealth Secretaries of Britain’s imperial past. In Hurd’s opinion there were two broad classes of Foreign Secretary. One was the “Palmerstonian” bombasts, who were keen to throw Britain’s imperial weight around. The other was the more soft-spoken realists, who favoured protection over foreign entanglement. It’s an interesting concept, but as any international relations student will be able to tell you, not a novel one.

One memorable part of the book describes the ill-fated Lord Aberdeen, who belonged to the latter school of thought. Despite trying to find solace in charity, he was racked with guilt for his role in taking Britain into the Crimean war. Another colourful figure to emerge was Earnest Bevin, a postwar Foreign Secretary who loudly declared that “Britain’s not going to be beaten about!” as soon as he met American top brass.

Some good-natured banter between Salmond and Hurd on Scottish independence made for an interesting Q&A. Hurd chided the SNP for protesting his novel Scotch on the Rocks, a political thriller about a Scottish separatist movement. Salmond opined that Hurd’s thrillers were “cracking,” and that he was more worried about the Kalashnikovs on the front cover misrepresenting the peaceful movement for Scottish independence. The youthful Edward Young, Hurd’s researcher turned co-author, managed to get a joke in by describing himself as the “junior partner” in the special relationship.

The panel managed to cover some serious topics too Hurd believes that more effort should be made to strengthen international institutions to deal with issues like climate change and financial crises. In response to an audience question, he suggested that attitudes to Britain’s imperial past amongst its former colonies were “settling down.”

All in all, the event was another addition to the Book Festival’s growing list of successes.