What is the typical special adviser (SpAd) like? What are the most challenging parts of the job? These are just some questions I asked Peter Cardwell, author of the new book The Secret Life of Special Advisers. Originally from Richhill, County Armagh, Peter spent time working as a journalist and broadcaster before serving as a special adviser (SpAd) to four UK cabinet ministers within Conservative governments. Whilst most SpAds, he said, tend to serve for around two years, he “very happily got three and a half,” admitting “no SpAd lasts forever.”

What stuck out for me in this interview was Peter’s comment: “I think – as so many people involved in politics know – most people, not everybody, but most people who are in politics want to make life better for other people. You may disagree with their methods and ideology, but they are essentially good people. A lot of them could earn a lot more money doing less work. Of course there are ego-maniacs, and people who are ethics-free. But for every Malcolm Tucker [from the TV show The Thick Of It] there is a Josh Lyman [The West Wing].”

Reflecting on his experience, he said “I wouldn’t change it. Some of it was awful, but most of it was really interesting.” The highs and lows are now in the book.

You can catch our full conversation below. Or, further down, I’ve shared some highlights from the Q&A.

SpAds are given a pretty bad reputation at times – from the fictional The Thick of It to the infamous real-life Renewable Heating Incentive (RHI) inquiry in Northern Ireland. Is that fair? Will this book set the record straight?

I hope the book will be a warts-and-all… There is no typical SpAd. There is no manual about how to do it. Maybe my book will be the new manual. It is a very weird job. You are kind of a friend [to a minister]. An adviser. You are looking at policy, and the media. You are protecting your Minister. You’re not just another civil servant. You’re not just another person at the office. You have to have a connection to Number 10 [Downing Street] and know the mind of your minister. It took me around six months to know how James Brokenshire thought, how he was going to react to certain situations. It takes a while to get to know someone.

I would like to think that I acted in an ethical way. We obviously hammered Labour as hard as possible. I went out of my way to make life as difficult as possible for them and [former Labour leader] Jeremy Corbyn. This time last year [2019] we were fighting a General Election. I have no doubt in my mind that Jeremy Corbyn would have been a disaster for the country [as Prime Minister].

I was definitely told off a couple of times by the permanent secretaries of the departments I’ve worked in, as I outline in the book, most notably by Jonathan Stephens of the Northern Ireland Office. We had a full and frank exchange of views on a number of occasions. And he is actually a really decent and reasonable human being. And most of the time he was correct.

There are good and bad SpAds, just as there are good and bad shop assistants, doctors and civil servants. Hopefully I was one of the less rubbish ones.

What were the most challenging parts of the job?

Brexit was a massive challenge. The result of the 2017 election was disastrous for the Conservative Party. We were anything but “strong and stable.” Dealing with the DUP in terms of Confidence and Supply was a totally new dynamic. Generally, they were pretty good to deal with and quite reasonable. But obviously that put a lot of pressure on how we could do things in the Northern Ireland Office, and even – whether it was real or perceived – people thought we [Conservative Party] were too close to them… I think it set back Stormont from being restored, despite the best efforts of James and Karen.

The last six-eight months of Theresa May’s administration was just awful. Just horrendous. We were in office, but not in power. We couldn’t do anything. We were paralysed by the parliamentary arithmetic, by the arguments over Brexit. Then Boris Johnson came in and that all got better, for a short period. And then coronavirus happened. I wasn’t in government during coronavirus, but clearly the government are having a lot of problems with that.

On Northern Slant, in our Northern Roots series we ask people, “What do you think when you see Northern Ireland portrayed in the media”? Living in London, what do you think?

Most of the time it’s great. Titanic Belfast was voted the world’s best tourist attraction a few years ago, and of course we have the Giant’s Causeway, and Game of Thrones has helped improve the image of Northern Ireland. Twenty-two years on from the Belfast Agreement, we have some really good PR.

I hope that the Northern Ireland centenary stuff will be positive and outward-looking and remind people of all the good bits of Northern Ireland – and that we gave the world Mary Peters, Van Morrison and drinking chocolate.

What drives me completely up the wall are things like Edwin Poots [current NI Environment Minister] saying that there is more coronavirus in nationalist areas than unionist areas. It takes a particular genius to sectarianise a viral disease. It’s hard to explain these things to English friends.

There are lots of really good things about living in Northern Ireland, to say nothing about just how welcoming and kind people are. It’s just a shame. I think our politics is actually behind where people are. Most people don’t think day-to-day in a sectarian way. But the way the system is set up is: mandatory coalition and the adversarial nature is unfortunately holding us back, even though that was the mechanism hard-fought for, to get us over the line in the first place.

In a word, are you hopeful for the future of Northern Ireland?

Hugely. Hugely. In a word – yes.

Where can we pick your book up?

You can pick it up on Amazon.

You can also pick it up on Hive, which supports independent book shops. I’d love to know what people think about it. If you want to write a review on Amazon, even a couple of lines, that really helps. Or leave me a comment on Twitter @PeterCardwell.

The audio recording of the conversation is available below.