With Respect, Minister

A View from Inside Whitehall

Brian Unwin

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781784538736
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781786731357
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

How have the workings of the British civil service changed over the past forty years? In this new memoir, Sir Brian Unwin discloses his veritable wealth of experience behind the scenes of British government. His reflections chart a course from his education at Oxford and Yale, through to a seven year stint as President of the European Investment Bank. On the way, his vivid and diverse career spanned diplomatic posts in Ghana and Southern Rhodesia, time at the Treasury and the chairmanship of HM Customs and Excise. Including a first-hand, eyewitness account of the air crash that killed UN Dag Hammarskjoeld, these memoirs encounter some of the most iconic moments and personalities of late 20th century politics. Over the course of his career, Unwin has attained an understanding of the finer details of British government like few others - at once nostalgic, personal and deeply knowledgeable, his memoirs shed light on the inner workings of Whitehall.

Table of contents

• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• List of Abbreviations
• Preface
• 1 Early Days
• 2 National Service (1953–5)
• 3 University: Oxford and Yale (1955–60)
• 4 First Steps in Whitehall: Commonwealth Relations Office (1960–1)
• 5 Rhodesia and the End of the Central African Federation (1961–4)
• 6 Death of Dag Hammarskjöld (September 1961)
• 7 A Brief Interlude in Ghana (1964–5)
• 8 Return to Whitehall and Rescuing Zambia (1965–8)
• 9 Starting in HM Treasury (1968–75)
• 10 Controlling Spending and Managing the Budget: HM Treasury (1975–81)
• 11 Information Technology Tsar in the Cabinet Office (1981–3)
• 12 Getting Our Money Back from Europe: HM Treasury (1983–5)
• 13 At the Centre: Cabinet Office and the Westland Affair (1985–7)
• 14 Collecting Tax and Protecting Our Border
• 15 Financing Europe’s Infrastructure: European Investment Bank (1993–2000)
• Epilogue: 2000–
• Sources
• Image Section
• Index