Live From Downing Street

Product Description

The relationship between those who wield power & 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 & facing aggressive questions from the moment they open their front door to the moment they return home at night. Everything they say & do is instantly broadcast & dissected on 24-hour news channels blogs & 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 & 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 & Blair. At the same time we learn of the emergence of the equally charismatic key players from radio & television: the Dimblebys Day Frost Walden Paxman & Humphrys. Nick Robinson provides a colourful & 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 & observations."