I always wanted to be a journalist, current and particularly political affairs have always fascinated me. I grew up admiring the television interviewing techniques of Alan Whicker and David Frost. I always admired the way they were able to be apparently so polite and yet so incisive in the questions that they asked. In print, I was an early reader of what were then called broadsheets, and have always felt that reporting news is an important and indeed noble thing to do. So it was perhaps inevitable that, armed with the one year course from the National Council for the Training of Journalists at Harlow College and two weeks’ work experience at The Richmond and Twickenham Times, I came to London looking for a job in journalism. Shifts on various national newspapers eventually led to six years as a lobby correspondent for firstly The Sunday Express, and then The Mail on Sunday, covering the first years of Tony Blair’s government, the early struggles of the post-1997 general election Conservative Party, daily encounters with the legendary Alastair Campbell, and culminating in covering the Prime Minister’s campaign for the 2001 general election. Although I left national journalism to pursue my career in other areas, a commitment to news and comment has stayed with me ever since, firstly as a co-founder and investor alongside Iain Dale in Biteback, the publishers of the magazine Total Politics, and more recently joining Iain Martin as he established and built the Reaction news and comment site. It is no surprise, therefore, that this new book on John Wilkes by Robin Eagles, who among other things is the editor of the House of Lords (1660-1832) section about the History of Parliament, and who runs a brilliant X stream focusing on the activities of the Georgian parliament, immediately attracted my attention.
John Wilkes, 1725 to 1797, led a life of extraordinary and buccaneering adventure. Soldier, magistrate, politician, journalist, and fellow of the Royal Society – a man of many and varied parts. Incredible now to think that he was the one who forced the government in 1771 to allow journalists or the media to print verbatim accounts of parliamentary debates. In our time, Members of Parliament can barely get serious press attention for anything that they do, so how extraordinary to think that the press had to fight to be allowed to report what politicians of that era said. He was a man of extraordinary contrast. In many ways a radical, he was a strong believer in liberty, but he became increasingly conservative as he became older. He was closely involved in both Westminster politics, as well as the politics of the City of London, and he served as Master of the Joiners’ Company. He supported the rebels in the American War, he was opposed to war with the rebels, and he was a keen proponent of religious tolerance. He was a notably moderate magistrate, but above all else, his key success and one for which we should all remain grateful to him to this day, is the protection of the freedom of the press to report, without restraint or interference, the speeches and activities of our political overlords. It is as fundamentally a precious right today as it was when he gained it then. And as we see in countries all around the world, where press freedom is frequently under attack, it remains a responsibility for all of us to ensure that that freedom remains intact for ourselves and for those who follow us.
Champion of English Freedom: The Life of John Wilkes, MP and Lord Mayor of London
By Robin Eagles
Amberley Publishing
£22.99.
Champion of English Freedom - Amberley Publishing (amberley-books.com)
