The Political Editors: Julian Haviland
Politics Unpacked
Anna Covell
4.1 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 22 August 2023
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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.
The Political Editors is half a century of politics told by the people who wrote the first draft of history for the Times.
Plus: Columnists Daniel Finkelstein and Jenni Russell discuss whether shoplifting has effectively been decriminalised, whether the Conservative party is choosing the right people to fight the next election, and whether Rishi Sunak has a future as an artist.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, this is the Webbox Podcast, I'm Matt Chawley. |
| 0:06.9 | Coming up today, part two of the political editors, lots of nice messages about the interview |
| 0:12.3 | yesterday with Fred Emory today, it's a special interview because it's with Julian Haveland |
| 0:17.8 | who sadly died earlier this month, but I spoke to him only a few weeks before he died |
| 0:23.4 | to talk to him about his time as political officer of the times. |
| 0:26.6 | Some extraordinary stories coming up, some extraordinary memories even going about to |
| 0:29.4 | Alec Douglas Hume, but also some extraordinary stories that he couldn't publish about the |
| 0:34.8 | Queen. |
| 0:35.8 | So that's coming up in just a moment. |
| 0:37.4 | But first, let's take a look at the day's news for today's Columnist panel. |
| 0:45.5 | The Columnists on Times Radio. |
| 0:50.2 | And we say hello to Danny Finkelstein, he's here with the studio, hello Danny. |
| 0:53.1 | Hello. |
| 0:54.1 | Good to see you. |
| 0:55.1 | And Jenny Russell, hello Jenny. |
| 0:56.1 | Good morning. |
| 0:57.6 | And Jenny, nice to be with you. |
| 0:59.4 | Let's start with your call out today in the Times. |
| 1:01.4 | You've been writing about crime and how shoplifting has been effectively decriminalized. |
| 1:09.1 | Well, a few weeks ago, I had the Met Police Commissioner, Mark Lolli, in the studio on the |
| 1:13.7 | show. |
| 1:14.7 | And I asked him exactly that whether he thought people had a license to shoplift. |
... |
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