"Flowing with stories": Lord Fowler reviews 'Close to Power: A Westminster Life'
2 April 1982: Foreign secretary Lord Carrington on the day that Argentina invaded the Falklands | Image by: Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix
3 min read
Peter Hill has written an excellent memoir of his time reporting from the corridors of power
Peter Hill, the author of this excellent short book, describes his life as a BBC reporter. He was a member of the so-called ‘Cambridge mafia’ who were undergraduates in the early 1960s.
There were a host of student politicians who later would make the Commons as well as satirists like Peter Cook and David Frost and actors like Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen. Peter Hill himself became editor of the very professional university paper, Varsity.
It was an exceptional time at Cambridge that no one can quite explain. Regular visitors from the outside world included Ted Heath and at different times most of the senior figures from all political parties. When I was at Cambridge, I remember particularly a visit by Harold Macmillan, the then-prime minister, which attracted an audience of around 2,000. It was also the age of National Service. Peter himself served in the Royal Navy but most of his time was spent not at sea but learning Russian.
The BBC, with reporters like Hill, has rightly a big reputation overseas
Throughout his book the stories flow. Hill was in the BBC commentary box when the Argentinians invaded the Falklands in 1982. He tried to interview George Brown when he resigned from Labour to join the SDP but was defeated by Brown’s “erratic” behaviour. The strangest case of all came after he had retired and pursued the story of a lady on the Isle of Wight who, during the Second World War, had insisted on taking her dog for a morning walk along a beach where all civilians were strictly banned. Her reward was a secret trial for treason at the Old Bailey.
But to my mind the most important message that comes from the book is the professionalism of the BBC. He worked for a media organisation that demanded consistently high standards. I remember the emphasis that an early director general, William Haley, placed on accuracy and independence and this was part of the BBC training from the start. No party political candidate was allowed on the staff.
Peter Hill, like all reporters, was there to report what was happening with as much objectivity as he could achieve. Reporters were not advocates for one side or the other. It is those journalistic standards that are even more important today in an age where too many governments seek to bend the truth to fit their case.
That is why the BBC, with reporters like Hill, has rightly a big reputation overseas – and it is why an organisation like Fox News will never challenge the authority of the BBC or its reporters.
Lord Fowler is a Crossbench peer
Close to Power: A Westminster Life
By: Peter Hill
Publisher: Memoir Magpie
