Book description
The relationship between those who wield power and those whose job it
is to tell us what they are doing has always been fraught with
tension. Politicians now expect to be on camera and facing aggressive
questions from the moment they open their front door to the moment
they return home at night. Everything they say and do is instantly
broadcast and dissected on 24-hour news channels, blogs and Twitter.
It was not always this way. Live from Downing Street takes us
on an absorbing journey through the hard-fought battles for the right
to tell the public about the decisions taken on their behalf.
Parliament once imprisoned those who dared to report what MPs had
said. Broadcasters used to be banned by law from debating anything
newsworthy and even from covering elections. Since that censorship
ended, the two sides have clashed repeatedly.
We follow the fluctuations of the power struggle from Walpole to
modern times, dwelling in fascinating detail on those who fought back
- Churchill, Wilson, Thatcher and Blair. At the same time we learn of
the emergence of the equally charismatic key players from radio and
television: the Dimblebys, Day, Frost, Walden, Paxman and Humphrys.
Nick Robinson provides a colourful and personal examination of what
life is like as the BBC's Political Editor - a role described in a
report for the White House as 'the most important job in British
political journalism'. Peppered with informative but witty anecdotes,
his account reveals his own considered view of the controversial issue
of impartial reporting. Live from Downing Street is a gripping
story written by someone uniquely placed to add his own perceptive
insights and observations.
Sharp-witted, full of surprises and with a great sense of history,
Nick Robinson pulls back the curtain on an essential part of the
democratic story. For everyone who wants to know more about the long,
and sometimes hilarious, mud-wrestle between power and the media - and
about the man behind the glasses - this is a must. Andrew Marr Canny,
plain-speaking and fair, Nick Robinson writes as the pentrating insider
he is. Matthew Parris Nick Robinson studied Politics, Philosophy and
Economics at Oxford before joining the BBC in 1986. After a decade
working behind the cameras - as a producer on programmes ranging from
Crimewatch
to
On the Record
and
Panorama -
he became a reporter and presenter. He is the only person to have been
Political Editor of both
ITV News
and now
BBC News
- a job he has held since August 2005. As well as appearing on TV and
radio he writes an award winning blog. Nick lives in North London with
his wife and three children.
