POLITICAL JOURNALIST MARK D'ARCY

First published on 1st August 2024
Mark D’Arcy was one of the most respected political correspondents, working for the BBC’s Today in Parliament programme for over two decades. Mark, who has lived in Horsham for more than 25 years, recently retired from the Beeb but continues to present an independent podcast that delves deep into Westminster affairs. AAH met Mark at Carmela Deli to discuss his career…
CHAMBER OF SECRETS
My journalism journey began at the Putney Chronicle, a weekly newspaper in southwest London. It was always my ambition to be a journalist and I even read newspapers as a schoolboy growing up in Chichester. At the Chronicle, I gained qualifications from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) and learned the basics of journalism, regularly meeting local police officers and compiling a weekly crime round-up.
For a brief spell, I worked on the party newspaper of the SDP (Social Democratic Party). I also enjoyed a stint as a researcher on Weekend World on London Weekend Television, a political interview programme presented by Matthew Paris. Despite modest viewing figures, it was highly influential, with political powerhouses such as Margaret Thatcher and Neil Kinnock facing tough questions in long, searching interviews of a kind that are almost extinct now. My job was to delve into key issues and form lines of questioning for the presenter, but the viewing figures caught up with it and the programme was cancelled by LWT.
Next stop was the Leicester Mercury, a daily regional title. In those days, there were journalists scribbling industriously on the press benches in every council chamber in the country and you could come away with dozens of stories. I covered meetings of Leicestershire County Council, Leicester City Council and smaller suburban districts, producing a whole page of reports on issues like road schemes and budget cuts. It was the dawn of the computer age and I would plug my computer into a phone socket at home and laboriously type my story straight into the Mercury mainframe for the sub editors to pick up in the morning.
People sometimes ask me for career advice, but it’s difficult as the landscape is so different today. The entry-level jobs at local newspapers are no longer there, which is a great shame. It’s important to have impartial journalists reporting on local council meetings and informing the community of developments, but that’s becoming harder as fewer of us buy newspapers. There has been an emergence of citizen journalists performing such roles, but their objectivity and accuracy varies. Sadly, regional titles are a pale shadow of what they once were, which is down to economics. They used to be funded by advertising in property and motoring sections, but people now go online to look for a house or car.
My next job was at East Midlands Today, a regional BBC channel. I loved working at the Mercury and leaving was tough, but it proved to be the right choice as many former colleagues were soon made redundant. As regional TV grew, many journalists like me transitioned to broadcasting. I didn’t get much training and was never completely comfortable in front of a camera, but I enjoyed the job.

TURBULENT TIMES
In 1998, I joined Westminster Hour, then a new Sunday night show on BBC Radio 4 that covered the major political stories of the day. It was a time when politics was relatively boring and the resignation of a parliamentary private secretary (the most junior government job) would trigger excitement! In the past 15 years, that has completely changed as we’ve lunged from one political crisis to another. We had the financial crash of 2008 and the Coalition in 2010, which was extraordinarily novel at the time. Then we had the Brexit referendum, the pandemic and Partygate, and further turmoil since with the cost-of-living crisis and war in Ukraine. With politics dominating the headlines, much bread and butter governing didn’t get done and we’re living with the consequences of that today.
I have spent the last 22 years as a correspondent for Radio 4’s Today in Parliament. I’ve interviewed several Prime Ministers (before they entered No. 10) including David Cameron and Sir Keir Starmer, but always found that the higher up the political spectrum you climb, the more guarded you become. The best interviews tend to come from backbenchers who and are more willing to shoot from the hip. You do meet some politicians who think they’ve been media trained, but they really haven’t been. They say things like, “Thank you for asking me that question, as it’s a very important one and needs to be answered!” As a journalist, you know they’re waffling, not answering. That’s why sometimes you hear a presenter push for an answer as a battle of wills ensues.
Covering Brexit was demanding and I was close to burnout when Covid struck and everything came to a standstill. During the first lockdown, I was deemed an essential worker and would regularly have a train carriage to myself as I commuted from Horsham to Victoria. The normally bustling Victoria Station would be deserted and I might see two people during the 10-minute walk to the Houses of Parliament. It was almost like being in an apocalyptic movie. I reported on numerous health debates inside Westminster, when Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Shadow Secretary Jonathan Ashworth became quite a double act, and the nation waited with bated breath for daily press briefings with the latest Covid figures and restrictions.
One of my roles at BBC Parliament was to present Book Talk, discussing published works with a political link or penned by politicians. I interviewed the likes of Jeffrey Archer, Jonathan Sumption (who has written about the Hundred Years War) and Michael Dobbs (House of Cards). I have written several books myself, including one on the London Mayoral election of 2000 and another celebrating the 60th anniversary of Today in Parliament.

POLITICAL PODCAST
I recently left the Beeb to do something different. Technology has come on leaps and bounds and with just a laptop and a microphone you can now broadcast your own podcast. There are billions of them and mine is called Parliament Matters. I met with Ruth Fox, Director of the Hansard Society (independent think tank on parliament and democracy) who had the idea for the podcast and I jumped at the chance to be involved. The podcast is less about the capital P politics of government policy, polls and elections and more about how Parliament works and what MPs and peers do. That is very much my skill set.
With so many political programmes vying for attention across many different platforms, you need to be distinctive. There’s a whole swathe of law called secondary legislation, which provides a rich source of largely un-noticed laws created by ministers. They’re usually rubber-stamped by Parliament, but they can be very important. For example, all the lockdown regulations came into force this way - so we keep an eye on them.
It is also nice to have a degree of editorial freedom with the podcast, which is a novel feeling for me. Every BBC journalist has an inner editorial policy department constantly telling them not to say things! You develop instincts based on preserving impartiality and anyone who breaks the rules soon finds themselves in trouble. I’ve always been cautious and it’s difficult to shake that habit, but I’m becoming a little more expressive.
The BBC still enjoys a fantastic slice of the national conversation and remains an authoritative, trustworthy outlet for news. Although it has blots on its copybook, I remain a great defender of the Beeb. It is due for charter review in this period of government and I hope it will be renewed on terms that allow it to continue much as it is. One of the factors behind the division in American society is that they don’t have a trusted source of impartial news. Some suggest that the BBC isn’t always that either, but it comes closer than any other broadcaster in the world. In the US, you could live your whole life watching only left-wing or right-wing news, without anything being challenged, creating a two-tribe society that doesn’t understand the other’s viewpoint. I always recommend people read outside their comfort zone. If you’re a Daily Mail reader, read The Guardian and vice versa, just to gain an insight into different opinions.
I followed July’s election campaign with a slight sense of amusement, as key issues were not addressed. There wasn’t much conversation about the dire state of public finances that would leave any new government with little choice but to cut public spending and increase taxes. The climate crisis was sidelined and only the Lib Dems talked much about social care. However, I believe that Keir Starmer will be an effective Prime Minister. He is a bright guy who has run large organisations before as Director of Prosecutions and has a strong team around him. He ran a fantastically cautious campaign and let the other side fall apart, which worked. If there’s one part of the job that he perhaps finds difficult then it’s communication, but in my experience, people grow in stature during their term in office and he already looks more confident.
For the first in about 30 years, I stayed up to watch the results rolling in from the comfort of my own home - I’ve always been at a count or in a studio before. When a caption came up that read, ‘Horsham: Lib Dems Gain’, I almost fell off my chair! Although if felt like such a result might be coming, I didn’t think it would happen this time. There was a triple whammy for the Tories, with boundary changes making the constituency less solidly Conservative than it once was, the Reform party attracting traditional Tory voters and also a huge number of tactical votes for parties best placed to remove Tory MPs. The net result is that Jeremy Quin, who has been an effective minister and as far as I can tell a well-liked member of the Conservative Party, is out and the Lib Dems are in. ν
Further information:
To listen to Parliament Matters, visit: www.hansardsociety.org.uk/news/parliament-matters-podcast
INTERVIEW: Ben Morris / PHOTOS: Alan Wright & Mark D’Arcy