If I were able to sit by Derek Draper’s bedside now, I’d talk about the old times when Things really did Get Better - just like the famous Labour 1997 election anthem promised - and he was an integral part of events.
Then he was known affectionately as “Dolly”, to friends and enemies alike in the bars of Westminster.
In the 1990’s, Dolly was very much an insider in the New Labour project that brought Tony Blair into power.
He mostly knocked around with the likes of Peter Mandelson, but he’s what they call in those circles a clubbable man. He was a great mixer, ready for a laugh with anyone.
I used to meet him occasionally in the company of Charlie Whelan, Gordon Brown’s press secretary, who was in the opposite camp, politically speaking.
But he is good fun, easily recognised: hair swept back, an impish grin, the clever working class boy from Chorley, Lancs, with a fondness for champers, who likes being just that bit more outrageous than he should be.
He loved to boast about how well-connected he was, which was substantially true because his easy manner enabled him to talk to politicos of all stripes.
And there is no doubting his commitment. “He was great company and he was bloody good at his job,” says Charlie Whelan. “And he was relentless in wanting to see Labour elected.”
“Dolly” went into the lobbying business, characteristically bragging: ”There are 17 people who count. And to say I am intimate with every one of them is the understatement of the century.”
He admitted that made him look big-headed, but laughed it off with “it’s not a crime”. He’s never one likely to say “I should never have said that!”
He made a – for him – discreet return to front-line politics under Gordon Brown with Labourlist, the platform for opinion and information, which is still going, a testament to his organisational ability.
As I said, if I could sit by his bedside now I’d try and bolster his resolve to win through.
Charlie Whelan goes one better: “If I could talk to him now I’d say see you down at the Red Lion in half an hour!”
