The Political Editors: Julian Haviland
Politics Unpacked
Anna Covell
4.1 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 23 December 2023
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Political Editors is half a century of politics told by the people who wrote the first draft of history for the Times.
Over the festive period we're re-releasing the entire series.
Julian Haviland became political editor of the Times in 1981, but his career in journalism began in the 1950s and covered every prime minister from Alec Douglas-Home to Margaret Thatcher. He tells Matt about his recollections of a smug Jim Callaghan, the decent but flawed Harold Wilson, and Thatcher having a stiff drink before her weekly audience with Queen Elizabeth.
He also reveals that the Queen was horrified by police conduct at the Battle of Orgreave during the miners' strike, a story he confirmed but was unable to run at the time.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Matt Chorley, and this is Politics Without the Boring bits. |
| 0:08.0 | We're revisiting our series, The Political Editors, which is one of the favorite things that I did on the podcast this year. |
| 0:15.4 | In this episode two, it's a really special chat with Julian Havelin, who joined the Times as political editor from ITN in 1981. |
| 0:33.1 | I don't think that other people in the world would share the view that there is mounting chaos. |
| 0:38.3 | Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. |
| 0:41.3 | With our way! |
| 0:43.3 | It is time to put up or shut up. |
| 0:46.3 | A new dawn has broken, I don't know. |
| 0:48.3 | This is a decisive moment for the world economy. |
| 0:51.3 | Now the decision has been made to leave, we need to find the best way. |
| 0:55.1 | Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. I have been repeatedly assured that there was no party. |
| 1:02.5 | Growth, growth and growth. Some mistakes were made. |
| 1:08.3 | Half a century of politics told by the people who wrote the first draft of history for the Times. |
| 1:14.5 | This is The Political Editors. |
| 1:17.3 | For this episode, Julian Haverland on making the journey from political editor of ITN to the Times, |
| 1:23.4 | his memories of Thatcher, Wilson, Alec Douglas Hume, |
| 1:26.6 | and a remarkable story about the Queen he never got to publish. |
| 1:31.9 | The Queen was watching this on TV, |
| 1:35.1 | and when the horses went in and rode through some of the miners and knocked through down, |
| 1:41.4 | the Queen said, well, that's awesome. |
| 1:45.3 | She took an extremely large |
| 1:47.2 | scotch. |
... |
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