Q&A
What made you become a journalist? I liked the idea of hanging around in pubs looking louche.
What other job might you have done/have you done? Lawyer, I suppose. I was also a dustman briefly but I’m not really suited to proper work.
And the best? The Independent in the early days. It was a stonking place to work and by far the best paper at the time.
What advice would you give someone starting in journalism? Things have moved on immeasurably since I left full-time employment eight years ago, so I’d hesitate to offer guidance. This magazine carries useful advice.
When did you join the NUJ and why? As soon as I arrived from the Cardiff University journalism course to start my first job as a reporter on the Kent Messenger. In my home town – Briton Ferry in south Wales – pretty well most people were in unions. My dad, a painter and decorator, was a Ucatt activist. It’s in my blood.
Are many of your friends in the union? All my journalist friends are in the union.
What’s been your best moment in your career? As Labour reporter on The Times, I refused to cross picket lines in the Wapping dispute – and so did my colleagues on the labour staff, Donald Macintyre and David Felton. I’m quite proud that we stuck two fingers up at Murdoch. These days I’m really enjoying being a freelance.
Who is your biggest hero? Can’t decide between Aneurin Bevan, Miles Davis and Gareth Edwards.
And villain? Rupert Murdoch – or “Poo-pot” Murdoch as my young sons called him during the Wapping dispute.
NUJ & Me
Barrie Clement is the former Labour and Transport Editor of The Independentt.
What is the worst place you’ve ever worked in? The Sunday Telegraph where I did five years’ porridge as chief City sub-editor. I hated the paper’s politics and I was both disdainful and baffled by the world of finance. I wasn’t too clever at layouts either. Apart from that … I applied for a job on the paper because I wanted to work in Fleet Street.
Which six people (alive or dead) would you invite to a dinner party? I think dead people, with all due respect, might be a bit boring – and possibly malodorous. Anybody still alive fancy a pint instead?
What was your earliest political thought? I took a strong dislike to Elizabeth Windsor when I was five. What was that preposterous metal contraption on her head? I’ve always been a republican.
What are your hopes for journalism? That people start to value independent journalism once more. I am a socialist, but I believe newspapers – or any other medium – should have a crack at being impartial. Objectivity doesn’t mean unthinking even-handedness or dullness.
And fears? That only nasty, mean-spirited right-wing papers survive.
How would you like to be remembered? As a thoroughly good egg.
theJournalist | 19
DAVID COLEMAN / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO / JEFF MORGAN 16 / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
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