The Secret Life of Special Advisers by Peter Cardwell

Author:Peter Cardwell [Cardwell, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

It’s not always plain sailing for journalists at conference either. Moments before one particular broadcast, Sky News’ then political editor Adam Boulton had a minor wardrobe malfunction, resulting in what tailors call the ‘seat’ of his trousers loudly splitting.

Quick as a flash, his producer Clare Parry – the nicest person I worked with in a decade in broadcasting – constructed an intricate but effective solution, using black gaffer tape to seal the gap in the seat of Adam’s trousers.

The problem was that while one side of the gaffer tape is black, the other side – in this instance, the side that was facing outwards – is white. Taking the correspondent–producer relationship to a new level of intimacy, Clare sourced a black marker and, with just moments to spare before going live, coloured in Adam’s ‘seat’ to disguise the gaffer tape.

It’s not strictly relevant to a chapter on party conferences, but perhaps this is also the point to inform you of not one but two other trouser-related incidents regarding my former colleague Adam Boulton; a master at political presenting, reporting and analysis but clearly not an expert when it comes to trousers.

One such incident came in July 2019 when Adam, now promoted to the intriguing title of Sky News editor-at-large, was standing in Downing Street wearing a white suit, about to broadcast. He promptly managed to sit on a Mars bar, which Sky News political editor Beth Rigby helped him peel off.

The other trouser-related story comes from my first day working at Sky News in Westminster in 2012. Starting that day as a political news editor, I had an introductory chat with my new boss, Esmé Wren, then Sky’s head of politics. She was sitting, facing me, with her back to Adam’s glass-walled office just yards behind her. As Esmé gently explained, ‘Things are done in a slightly different way here at Sky News than other places you have worked, and you’ll have to adapt to that quickly.’

As she spoke, Adam, in the glass office, dropped his trousers, took off his shirt and stood in his boxers and vest for all to see. He was changing into a suit before he went on the telly. My face must have betrayed my shock that someone would do this in a glass cubicle in an open-plan office. Esmé glanced back at Adam’s state of undress, a frequent occurrence in the Sky Westminster office, as I was to learn. Without missing a beat, Esmé said, ‘The benefits of a public school education, eh?’

Adam is a heavyweight of British political broadcasting in many ways. At the end of that first day, the then deputy political editor of Sky News, Joey Jones, very kindly took me for a drink to welcome me to the fold. ‘What’s it like being deputy to Adam Boulton?’ I asked. Joey paused. ‘Adam casts a long shadow,’ he said, taking a sip of his gin and tonic, before adding, ‘He casts quite a wide shadow too.’

Back to conference. I remember in

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