Romps, Tots and Boffins
Page 8
Then there were the people who sent in suggestions. There will inevitably be someone I’ve missed off the following list, and if that’s you, I apologise. There are others, some of them journalists and others politicians and those around them, who made clear they would prefer their contributions to remain a private matter.
Many of the contributions have come from the men and women of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, whose comradeship is often a delight:
Matthew Barrett, Jason Beattie, Rafael Behr, Jack Blanchard, Sarah Bloch, Robin Brant, Kirsty Buchanan, James Chapman, Matt Chorley, Joe Churcher, Michael Deacon, Graeme Demianyk, Giles Dilnot, Andrew Gimson, David Grossman, Ross Hawkins, Simon Hoggart, Patrick O’Flynn, Juliette Jowitt, Soraya Kishtwari, James Lyons, James Landale, Flora Mac-Queen, Kevin Maguire, Chris Mason, Rob Merrick, James Millar, Tom Newton Dunn, Jim Pickard, Sophy Ridge, Stefan Rousseau, Michael Savage, Kevin Sinclair, Andrew Sparrow, Rajeev Syal, James Tapsfield, Anne Treneman, Michael White, Jonathan Walker, Kirsty Walker and Patrick Wintour (whose disapproval of this project didn’t stop him occasionally submitting his own copy).
Then there were the journalists who piled in:
Kate Allen, Catherine Bennett, Hannah Bewley, Mick Booker, Jenny Booth, Hattie Brett, Anna Blundy, Daniel Bourke, Tania Branigan, Tony Braisby, Ben Brogan, Andy Bruce, Kay Burley, Peter Campbell, Rory Cellan-Jones, Nick Cohen, Christopher Cook, James Cook, Gaz Corfield, Shane Croucher, Marion Dakers, Gordon Darroch, Lynn Davidson, Clive Davis, Greg Dawson, Chris Deerin, Laura Devlin, Claire Donnelly, Gavin Drake, David Ellis, Chris Giles, Brian Ging, Tom Gordon, Vincent Graff, Andrew Graystone, Michael Greenwood, Tom Harper, Paul Heaney, Catherine Hickley, Les Hinton, John Honeywell, Duncan Hooper, Paul Hutcheon, Ed Johnson, Richard Johnstone, Fachtna Kelly, Tom Kohn, Valentine Low, Douglas Marshall, Iain Martin, John Mckie, Colette McBeth, Tim Montgomerie, Laurie Muchnick, Simon O’Hagan, Patrick Osgood, Jenny Parks, Gill Penlington, James Reed, Duncan Robinson, Harry Rose, Dan Sabbagh, Tim Sharp, Robert Shrimsley, Christopher Spillane, Paul Staines, Terry Stiastny, Nigel Thompson, Matt Walsh, Olly Wehring, Michael White, Tom Wilkinson, Chris Williams, Peter Woodifield, Robert Wright.
Friends, academics, press officers, PR people and those who can only be described as Westminster villagers also helped:
Matthew Bailey, Tim Bale, James Barbour, Simon Bayly, Alex Belardinelli, David Bradley, Adam Corlett, Emily Craig, John Curtis, Steven Fielding, Daniel Forman, Peter Fortune, Suzanne Franks, Al Fraser, Sam Freedman, Tim Gardner, Julian Glover, Madeleine Hallward, Alison Hardie, Jonathan Hewett, Marcus Honeysett, Dave Howard, Christine Jardine, Mike Jempson, Philip Karsgaard, Sarah Knapton, Michael Lea, Iain Mackenzie, Richard Meiser-Stedman, Gabriel Milland, David Mills, Tim Murray, Katie Myler, Elizabeth Oldfield, Michael Paterson, Geraint Preston, Paul Richards, Abbie Sampson, Hopi Sen, Dylan Sharpe, David Skelton, Jacqui Smith, Ed Staite, Stefan Stern, James Stewart, Ibrahim Taguri, Steve Van Riel, Andy Walton, Giles Wilkes, Stewart Wood, John Woodcock, Simon Wren, Kenny Young.
And I’m finally grateful to the people of Twitter who showed unstinting enthusiasm for the project. In some cases, I don’t have a real name, but they’re known unto the internet:
@Andrew182651, @bbqbobs, @bilbocroft, @ BristleKRS, @citizen_sane, @forwardnotback, @ Infamyinforme, @letweetcestmoi, @Nickinthecity, @MsNicolaLucas, @PeterJQJ, @plaintexters, @ ralasdair, @realpolitikhome, James Allen, John Avery, Chris Bell, Asa Bennett, Chloe Bidos, Ed Caesar, George Cazenove, Sam Clack, Andrew Denny, Allan Draycott, Alex Dunlop, Nicky Edwards, Mark Ferguson, Colin Forster, David Hall-Matthews, John Hitchin, Adam Hurrey, David Johnston, Robert Kaye, Maggie Lavan, Omer Lev, David Lucas, Sam MacAuslan, Steven Maloney, Della Mirandola, Sean Mulcahy, Kevin Meagher, Peter Morley, Ian Moss, Thomas Neumark, Gareth Nicholson, Matt Nixon, Brian Nolan, Daniel Olive, James Robinson, Daniela Sacerdoti, Niall Smith, Stephen Smith, Thomas Singlehurst, Ben Stanley, Tom Startup, Jessica Studdert, Adam Tyndall, Luke Tyson, N Von Ho, Peter Walker, Peter Warner, Danny Webster, Oliver Wilkinson, Max Wilkinson.
My wife Sophie played the roles of editor, technical adviser and judger of jokes with unflagging enthusiasm. Her own book has pictures of cowboys in it, and will be of more immediate interest to our sons Fraser and Cameron. But I hope when they’re older they’ll like mine, too.
My greatest debt is to my mother, Sue Hutton-Squire, whose tales of her days as a secretary in a Sydney newsroom first made me wide-eyed at the idea of a journalist’s life. In one of our final conversations in 2012, she reminded me that I’d once been a humorous writer, quoting to me a joke I’d made 18 years earlier. She loved the English language, and I think this is a book she would have enjoyed.
About the author
Robert Hutton has been UK political correspondent for Bloomberg since 2004; previously, he worked at the Mirror and Financial Times. Arguably his most notable contribution to journalism has been the introduction of the ‘news sandwich’ to the political lexicon. He lives in south-east London with his wife and two sons.
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