Looking Back on Progress with Helen Garrod

I was there (almost) at the beginning of Progress. In those first days in 1996 it was Derek Draper and Kate Dixon; then I turned up, initially as an intern, to process the backlog of magazine subscriptions and somehow stayed. I remember my “interview” with Kate as not really an interview at all as Kate did all the talking. And then I was squeezing my powered wheelchair into the desk by the door.

I must have been there at least a week before Derek appeared. I knew his name of course, and I’m sure Kate must have warned me, but I don’t think I was quite expecting the whirlwind of ideas and energy that was about to come bursting through the door. Whenever Derek turned up it was rather like when Meryl Streep first arrives in the offices of her fashion magazine in The Devil Wears Prada; except that Derek was much more imp than devil, with a sense of humour to match. He was a force of nature all unto himself. Plus, whenever he arrived in our quiet little office it would suddenly become overcrowded with people, and all 10 telephone lines would spring to life leaving Kate and I struggling to answer them all.

That first day though we were about to put the magazine “to bed,” to send it to the printers, and Derek wanted a piece to go in on the ongoing Party restructuring. So he threw a scrap of paper onto my desk, told me to phone the number on it and write an article. I had 30 minutes to do it.

It was a test, of course. Now, I’d always been told I could write, but this had to have been my most desperate assignment yet. Still, I took a deep breath and picked up the phone. It was about seven or eight o’clock in the evening and the name and number on the paper was the home number of the Deputy General Secretary of the Labour Party, Margaret McDonagh. She was in the middle of hosting a dinner party and, not surprisingly, wasn’t amused. Couldn’t it wait until tomorrow? No, I’m sorry, but it really couldn’t!

Fortunately for me she was terribly good about it, and provided me with the details I needed, and I wrote the wretched article. Derek seemed delighted, so presumably that was how I got the job as Progress’ main in-house writer.

That first experience of working for Derek though was pretty typical. You never quite knew what he would ask of you, or indeed do himself next. I have a distinct memory of him once throwing a phone number at Kate belonging to someone he’d met who worked in the White House. He wanted the guy to write an article for the magazine. Fine. No problem. Kate phoned the number, expecting to speak to some lowly minion working in a back office, only to be told no, Paul Begala couldn’t come to the phone right now because he was in with the President.

But if this gives the impression that Derek was only interested in hanging out with the rich and powerful, nothing could be further from the truth. He was a true egalitarian in the sense that he would talk to everyone and be genuinely inclusive. Indeed, he clearly had very little patience with anyone he felt had been over promoted thanks to their wealth or privilege. That’s one reason I suspect not everyone liked him back then. But he was always interested to hear about and meet the volunteers who would come into the office to stuff envelopes.

Anyhow, my memory of our little office back then, was of Derek coming up with wild ideas and wacky enterprises, Kate struggling to prevent the whole ship Progress from flying completely off the edge of the world and into the sunset, and me watching on being far too entertained by it all. On a remarkably large number of occasions Derek would march into the office, throw me yet another number, and tell me to phone up to get his flashy sports car out of the pound. All the while Kate would be grumbling that I was “not his PA,” and that was definitely not in my job description. Another time I remember climbing out of my wheelchair for some reason while he was in the office and him immediately leaping in and, to Kate’s horror, driving around crashing into all the furniture. I’m sorry to say I was too busy laughing to join her in her scolding.

I also remember Derek saying that hiring Kate was the best thing he’d ever done, and I’m sure he meant it. Undoubtedly without her Progress would never have happened at all and certainly wouldn’t be here today. When she started there wasn’t even an office; she found the inexpensive and now demolished church-owned building in Carteret Street, practically next door to the Fabian Society. If Derek was the smartest person I’ve ever known, Kate is surely the most organised and productive, and she certainly brought stability to the enterprise.

So now 30 years on it’s truly heartening to see Progress back and by the looks of it, stronger than ever, in new (and in a few cases not so new!) hands, with more staff, and even bigger events while still as committed to winning power as ever. I was always and still am a true believer in pragmatism when it comes to electoral politics; it was why I applied for that internship 30 years ago, and why I’m still proud today of the very small part I played alongside Derek and Kate and everyone else who helped back then, from our trustees to the people who came in to stuff envelopes. Oh, and of course I want to thank Lord David Sainsbury who was generously paying all our salaries the whole time, even though I personally didn’t know it until long after!

So long may Progress continue–and I’m sure it will, as it’s become a vital part of British politics by now. But that’s not the only reason I value the continued existence of Progress. I also value Progress’ robust health today as it serves as a fine legacy for that extraordinary and much missed character, Derek Draper.

 

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