The Political Editors: Steven Swinford
Politics Unpacked
Anna Covell
4.1 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 23 December 2023
⏱️ 26 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 final episode features The Times' current Political Editor Steven Swinford, who has been in the job for a turbulent three years, straddling three prime ministers and at least 42 ministerial resignations. He tells Matt about covering partygate, Tories squaring up to each other, a serene Liz Truss as her premiership exploded, and sacking the chancellor via tweet.
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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, revisiting my series, |
| 0:09.0 | the political editors speaking to the people who wrote the first draft of political history for the Times. |
| 0:14.5 | And in this, the final episode, the current political heads of the Times, Stephen Swinford. |
| 0:24.7 | Thank you. the current politics games at the times, Stephen Swimford. I don't think that other people in the world would share the view that there is mounting chaos. |
| 0:30.0 | Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. |
| 0:33.7 | Without a raise! |
| 0:35.2 | It is time to put up or shut up. A new dawn has broken, has it not? |
| 0:40.3 | This is a decisive moment for the world economy. |
| 0:42.3 | Now the decision has been made to leave, we need to find the best way. |
| 0:46.3 | Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. |
| 0:50.3 | I have been repeatedly assured that there was no party. Gross, growth and growth. |
| 0:56.8 | Some mistakes were made. |
| 1:00.6 | Since 1785, Times journalists have been writing the first draft of history. |
| 1:06.1 | In our series, The Political Editors, we've reflected on half a century of politics with the people who had a front row seat. |
| 1:14.4 | We began with Watergate and we end with Partygate. In part seven, current political editor Stephen Swinford on the political violence of three years with three prime ministers. |
| 1:26.2 | Tories squaring up to each other, |
| 1:28.5 | Serene Lee's trust as her premiership blew up, |
| 1:31.3 | and sacking quasi-quarteng by tweet. |
| 1:34.4 | In the two and a half years that I've been political editor, |
| 1:37.2 | we've had three prime ministers, |
| 1:38.8 | at least 42 ministerial resignations. |
| 1:41.5 | And literally, they physically squared up to each other in the garden. |
... |
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