Fern Britton’s guest today was Paddy Ashdown. It’s a thoroughly fascinating journey through his life. You see his baby photographs, you get a real insight into the early tragedies and influences which shaped him. He talks frankly about faith, life as a soldier and political leader.
Find out how he felt when he saw that exit poll this year. Hear how he feels about war “If you aren’t terrified, you are an idiot.” He also talks about his religious faith.
You could do a lot worse than cosy up with a cup of tea and watching it here.
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5 Comments
Just watched it all. A brilliant documentary. Paddy comes across well. Good interviewing by Fern too.
It’s hard to know where to start in terms of talking points after it. I suppose I’ll just say that Paddy (or Jeremy as I now know) has served his country well.
We already knew this though, but he opens up more than I’ve seen him open up before and it also teaches us a bit about history for those that were too young to understand conflicts such as the one in Bosnia.
A terrific programme on a remarkable man. It s become too usual for politicians to be criticised in ways beyond the appropriate. Paddy represents service beyond the call of duty. Its a tendency some of our members have of seeing his recent contributions as mistakes , for example in 2015 s general election , or advice about Syria . That’s a mistake in my view. The wisdom, dynamism and humanity of this man is inspiring, I hope he continues to do so .
There were some areas where there has never ben a better politician than Paddy Ashdown.Particularly in terms of local leadership in which he is one of the few people in the Party (David Alton, Steve Webb) to have driven himself forward in a constituency without any real central support. He is, however, human and his ‘discussions’ with Tony Blair were not his finest hour, which is the reason why we had the early (too early?) elevation of Charles Kennedy.
A remarkable man, whom I have had the pleasure to meet several times over the past 25 years. I thought he handled Fern’s questions on his ‘affair’ with honesty and the right amount of tact. (Didn’t his approval ratings go up after it was revealed?) Eating his hat aside, I wonder what he really thinks about the events since May and the fact that his beloved Yeovil is Tory again.
John Marriott: It was the party’s rating that went up, possibly because of increased coverage in newspapers.
At the subsequent general election campaign manager Des Wilson said that the only positive (from focus groups or opinion polls) was Paddy Ashdown, so the campaign consisted substantially of photo opportunities.
There was no mention of his role as Northern Ireland spokesman, in which he used to do a double act at federal conference with John Alderdice, then leader of the non-sectarian Alliance Party of Northern Ireland.
At one point Paddy answered a question which had been edited out.
Some mention could have been made of Russell Johnson, who is pictured with Paddy confronting Serbs.
The war was not just in Bosnia, it was in the whole of the former Yugoslavia, although Slovenia exited with few casualties. This remains an issue in which Paddy’s expertise will be relevant when the date of the EU referendum is published.
During the 2015 general election campaign he came to Maidstone, addressed the Liberal Democrats, press and media. He then made a separate speech to a large group of Ghurkas, preferring their curries to army rations and describing combat in the jungles of Borneo.
The quiz question “What is Paddy Ashdown’s first name?” is now too easy, although “What is Gordon Brown’s first name?” is still available.