Paul Routledge ( ; born 11 December 1943)

Dennis Griffiths Dennis Griffiths (8 December 1933 – 24 December 2015) was a British journalist and historian, regarded as the founding father of newspaper history from the earliest days of Fleet Street. His ''Encyclopedia of the British Press 1422–1992'' has ...

(ed.) ''The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422–1992'', London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992, p.498–99 is an English journalist. Routledge currently writes for the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...

'', where he is a political correspondent, and is considered '

Old Labour The British Labour Party grew out of the trade union movement of the late 19th century and surpassed the Liberal Party as the main opposition to the Conservatives in the early 1920s. In the 1930s and 1940s, it stressed national planning, using ...

' in his political outlook.

Biography

Born in Yorkshire, he is the son of a railway clerk, although most of his male relatives were miners.Ian Aitke
"The New Statesman Profile - Paul Routledge"
''New Statesman'', 15 January 1999 After an education at Normanton Grammar School and

Nottingham University The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...

, where he read English, Routledge began his career in journalism on graduation. By 1969, he was working for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' on the Labour relations desk, later becoming Labour editor. Following a brief period in Singapore, he joined ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'' (in 1986) shortly after the

Wapping dispute The Wapping dispute was a lengthy failed strike by print workers in London in 1986. Print unions tried to block distribution of ''The Sunday Times'', along with other newspapers in Rupert Murdoch's News International group, after production wa ...

. When ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' took over that newspaper, he left for ''

The Independent on Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was published ...

''. In 1985, Routledge was the subject of much controversy in the British media after he engaged in a discussion on the miners' strike with Queen Elizabeth II, which is against convention of Royal visits. After being denounced by much of the tabloid press, he was forced to apologise for this by ''The Times'', but later said that his apology was inaccurate. In the introduction to his biography of

Arthur Scargill Arthur Scargill (born 11 January 1938) is a British trade unionist who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1982 to 2002. He is best known for leading the UK miners' strike (1984–85), a major event in the history of ...

, Routledge states that he had missed the briefing on how to behave during the visit, as he was originally due to miss the event to cover an NUM meeting in Sheffield. He gives an account of the conversation of 28 February 1985: :The Queen volunteered that she had been down a coal mine in Scotland, which had closed not long after. Innocently, I asked what her feelings about the strike were. She thought it "very sad", and after a pause added "It's all about one man, isn't it?" - or words to very similar effect. I wasn't taking notes, nor was anyone else. Evidently, it was not done. I offered the view that perhaps it wasn't about one man: knowing the miners, having been brought up among them, I thought that one man couldn't bring out 100,000 men for a whole year. There was a pregnant pause, and the royal party moved on. The exchange had taken thirty seconds at most. He has written biographies of

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...

Peter Mandelson Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson (born 21 October 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who served as First Secretary of State from 2009 to 2010. He was President of the Board of Trade in 1998 and from 2008 to 2010. He is the ...

, Arthur Scargill and Airey Neave.

Personal life

Paul married Lynne Margaret Sowter on 9 April 1963. They welcomed their first great-granddaughter following the birth of a granddaughter to his second daughter.

References

1943 births English male journalists British social commentators Daily Mirror people Journalists from Yorkshire Living people {{UK-journalist-stub