The Political Editors: Philip Webster
Politics Unpacked
Anna Covell
4.1 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 23 December 2023
⏱️ 24 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.
The fourth episode features, Philip Webster, political editor of the Times for 18 years and a colossus of the Blair and Brown eras who survived nine editors at the paper. He tells Matt about writing the story that killed Tony Blair's dreams of joining the Euro, getting stuck on Margaret Thatcher's battle bus, and what happened when he was locked up in Africa with Neil Kinnock.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Matt Chulay, and this is Politics Without the Boring Bits. |
| 0:08.1 | Over the Christmas break, we're revisiting our series The Political Editors, |
| 0:12.5 | speaking to the people who wrote politics for the times over the past half century. |
| 0:19.0 | It's one of my favorite things we did in 2023. |
| 0:22.2 | In today's episode, Philip Webster, |
| 0:24.3 | the political editor of the Times from 1992 until 2010. |
| 0:33.2 | I don't think that other people in the world |
| 0:35.8 | would share the view that there is mounting chaos. |
| 0:38.6 | Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. |
| 0:42.2 | With our way! |
| 0:43.8 | It is time to put up or shut up. |
| 0:46.7 | A new dawn has broken. |
| 0:48.3 | This is a decisive moment for the world economy. |
| 0:51.5 | Now the decision has been made to leave, we need to find the best way. |
| 0:55.2 | Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. I have been repeatedly assured that there was no party. |
| 1:02.6 | Growth, growth and growth. Some mistakes were made. |
| 1:07.9 | Half a century of politics told by the people who wrote the first draft of history |
| 1:12.7 | for the Times. This is the political editors. On this episode, Philip Webster, the longest |
| 1:19.9 | serving political editor from 1992 to 2010. On the rise of Tony Blair, the fall of Gordon Brown, and being taken hostage at gunpoint |
| 1:30.8 | with Neil Kinnett. I'd made it my business to make myself known to Tony Blair and Gordon |
| 1:37.8 | Brown. And I know they both did trust me. Sometimes Blair shook his head and said, I wish I hadn't |
| 1:44.0 | trusted you. It was easily |
... |
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