Many big cheeses from the BBC were at the launch of political editor Nick Robinson’s memoirs last night at The English Pig at 4 Millbank. There was much gossip about Jimmy Savile but old hands held their cards close to their chests.
“If I was as honest as John Simpson, maybe I could tell you more,” Robinson told guests including Chris Huhne, George Osborne, Ed Balls, Andrew Neil, Mark Damazer, Michael Cockerell and Sir David Butler. No sign of George Entwistle or Helen Boaden.
“I am often asked why I’m filmed in Downing Street in front of a closed door when I could be in a studio,” he said. “The answer is because it’s there and we are allowed to be there.”
Robinson told an anecdote about Sir John Major who, like BBC chiefs today, was often on a sticky wicket. “When your backs are to the wall, turn around and fight,” Major is alleged to have said. The tragedy is that no one seemed to know whether the former PM was joking.
