139: Nigel Nelson

It was a huge privilege for this week’s Nostalgia Interview to meet Nigel Nelson, the longest serving political editor in Fleet Street. Nigel works for the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People. We recorded our interview on the afternoon that the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer received fines from the Metropolitan Police for attending a party in Downing Street during lockdown. Nigel gives us his take on whether they should have resigned and how the removal of the Prime Minister affects the country’s command structure.

Nigel has worked with seven Prime Ministers, and he explains that he still has a frisson of excitement every time he walks into the House of Commons. He talks about how history can teach you lessons but that it can’t tell you what will happen next. We discuss how the nature of news and politics has changed over the years and how it is now a 24/7 operation.

Nigel talks about the things he sometimes can’t publish and why he is irritated by political biographies, and how facts don’t always tell the full story.

From his teenage years Nigel has had an interest in politics and a talent for writing and he reveals how he has done things which he could only have dreamed about when he was young, including writing a political novel.

I ask Nigel if he ever thought about being on the other side of the fence and he recounts the time he did toy with that idea at the time of the SDP in the 1980s. We learn why he would rather be on the sidelines than becoming one of the players.

We find out about the events that Nigel has influenced through his work on The People, and we talk about why he admires Ken Clarke and Nigel Farage from the other side of the political spectrum and the importance for a political journalist of not becoming too friendly with politicians. Nigel shares his thoughts on how Prime Minister’s Questions is really theatre and we learn that politicians often don’t get along with politicians on their own side.

We learn that Nigel’s favourite film is Zulu and we discover why Muhammad Ali is such a pivotal figure and why Nigel has an interest in Gregorian chants. Nigel expresses his thoughts on organized religion, and we discuss whether politics and religion are similar.

His mother was a spy and Nigel reveals his own experience of when the intelligence agencies tried to recruit him, too. Nigel explains that he would rather reveal than keep secrets. We also learn why he turned his back on university.

Being a journalist, Nigel has a ringside view on history and he talks about his experience of being under fire at the time of war, how he and his wife have diametrically opposite political positions, and we learn why Nigel favours coalition as the best form of government.

Then, at the end of the interview, Nigel reflects on his life and career and explains why he is a forward looking person.

Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Nigel Nelson and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.