Strange but true, my interview with Boris
Sunday, July 24, 2022 at 17:30 ”Hasta la vista, baby.”
Only Boris could sign off his final PMQs with such a flourish.
For all his faults he’s brought humour, determination and a great big splash of colour to our grey political landscape and I for one thank him for that.
As it happens, and this may surprise you, but 22 years ago, shortly before he was elected MP for Henley, I interviewed him in his office at The Spectator.
The strange thing though is not that I interviewed him but that until yesterday I had forgotten all about it, which is why I’ve never mentioned it (because as readers know I’m not averse to a little name-dropping).
The article came to light only when I was searching for another magazine (see previous post) and found some ‘lost’ copies of Freedom Today, a publication I edited for two years from 2000-2002.
The reason I forgot about it, I think, is that it wasn’t a ‘serious’ interview of the kind I did with John Bercow, film director Michael Winner, Chelsea chairman Ken Bates and many more.
The feature was called ‘A Word In Your Ear’ and it was one of those fluffy back-of-the-magazine Q&A pieces that are often frustratingly superficial and banal.
The interview probably took no more than 15 minutes but what I liked - reading it for first time in over two decades - is the fact that you can hear Boris’s voice loud and clear in response to my single word prompts.
See what you think.
Henley? What a place!
Son of Stanley Johnson (eurocrat, environmentalist and former MEP), Boris Johnson is prospective parliamentary candidate for Henley where he hopes to succeed arch europhile Michael Heseltine. Educated at Eton and Oxford, where he was president of the Oxford Union, he spent five years in Brussels as the Daily Telegraph’s EC correspondent (1989-1994), returned to London as political editor (1995-1998), before being appointed editor of The Spectator in 1999.
Eton …
I’ve eaten many things in my life and I’ve just eaten an enormous lunch.
Oxford …
What a great place, up the river from Henley. Row very very hard and you’ll get there.
Henley …
What a place! It’s a fantastic constituency and it’s a dream come true to be the prospective parliamentary candidate.
Why …?
You know when you’re playing cricket and a ball comes and you think, ‘I’m going to play a defensive shot’, and you really mean to play a defensive shot but then, for no reason at all, you decide to have a great swipe at it. That’s basically what happened with Henley.
Heseltine …
What a colossus! I wouldn’t go along with everything he did but he’s a fantastic achiever and has an enormously distinguished record as a public servant and administrator. He rang me the morning after [I was selected] and we had a very nice conversation. I don’t know if delighted is the right word, but he has shown every sign of being, er, welcoming.
Eurocracy …
Too much of it. When I went to Brussels I was by no means hostile to the idea of European cooperation. I was - and still am - very much in favour of a common market but I became disillusioned pretty quickly with the way it was run. We’ve got the worst of all worlds at the moment. We’ve got a massive inter-governmental operation coordinated by unelected bureaucrats in a way that’s completely opaque to the electors of the national governments.
Politicians …
Much underrated.
Journalists …
Great bunch of guys!
Influences …
Homer.
Heroes …
Pericles, Ian Botham, Emerson Fittipaldi.
Thatcher …
Great girl, crazy girl. I wept on the day she was done in.
Blair …
Could do with improvement.
Environment …
Oh, I’m as green as they come. I’m a militant cyclist and I believe that mankind is perfectly capable of causing an environmental catastrophe and we have to be careful that we don’t. I’m not an unreconstructed ‘let-the-market-rip’ man on the environment. I do think you have to have some basic principles to restrict pollution.
Interests …
Painting, drawing. I started as a child using my fingers. I first knew I was an artist when I daubed myself with mud. In my bid to become a renaissance man I’ve also been trying to learn the piano. It’s heavy going at the moment but I’m alright.
Sports …
Great stuff. Love ‘em. Rugby, tennis, squash, cricket, anything. I’m up for it.
Aspirations …
I still have a dream that I’ve been picked to play rugby for England and no-one can quite believe it. I can hear the commentary in my head. I get the ball. I’m going for the try line - and then something terrible happens and I wake up. Apart from that, I just want to scrape together enough to get my children a decent education and be a good MP. Really. Honestly.
Career …
No career plan otherwise I wouldn’t be faced with the loss of a wonderful job at The Spectator. I fear that journalism as a profession is full of many young men and women in a hurry and I’ll soon be forgotten.
Abuse …
You’d be crazy to get into politics if you didn’t want a bit of abuse. I’m right behind it. Let them abuse me. That’s fine. It’s better they should abuse me than interfere in people’s lives.
Blondes …
Have more fun. No question.
You may have spotted them yourself but several things stand out.
One, that wonderful cricket analogy could apply not only to Henley but to his entire political career, Brexit especially.
Two, “I’m as green as they come.” This was in October 2000, remember, so it may be a bit harsh to place the blame for his Net Zero policies on poor old Carrie, as some have done.
As for his dream of playing rugby for England “and then something terrible happens and I wake up”, I’ll leave others to psychoanalyse that and how it might have foreshadowed another ambition - that of becoming PM.
Finally, it’s a mystery to me why I don’t remember interviewing him but at the bottom of the article it states, very clearly, ‘Boris Johnson was talking to Simon Clark’ so this is clearly not a dream.
Anyway, I’m so glad I found it. Perhaps, before he leaves Number Ten, I should have another word in his ear.
Words that come to mind include ‘Brexit’, ‘Rayner’ and, of course, ‘Rishi’.
Reader Comments (3)
Do you use shorthand Simon? It's a mark of a good, fast and accurate shorthand writer if you hear your interviewees voice come through when you read and transcribe your notes. As one of very few people who have 120 wpm I know this to be true ☺️
Sadly not, wish I did but I never worked for a newspaper so was not formally trained. I’ve always recorded interviews on a tape or digital recorder then transcribed them. Very time-consuming if the interview is a long one.
Very true which is why shorthand is so important to a journalist. It allows fast access to the information and quotes you will use.
Contemporaneous shorthand notes are also the only acceptable evidence in a court or hearing should a journalist be brought to account for something they've written or broadcast.
Just imagine how things might have turned out if Andrew Gilligan had a shorthand note of his interview with weapons inspector David Kelly at the time of the Iraq invasion instead of notes taken on a lap top and then edited into his story about how the claim that Saddam Hussein's alleged WMD could be launched in 45 minutes, used to persuade the country of the need for war, was untrue.
I write and teach Teeline which is not hard to learn but building up speed takes time. I honestly don't know how I would have managed without it when I was working as a journalist and I'd hate to lose it because of the time I've spent nurturing it.