Speaker’s corner

Congratulations to Lord Forsyth of Drumlean who is the new Speaker of the House of Lords.

If you’ve been paying attention to my musings (and name dropping) over the years you will know that Michael Forsyth gave me my first job after I left university in 1980. He was the youngest director of any public relations firm in London and we were introduced - in a pub - by Madsen Pirie and Eamonn Butler, founders of the Adam Smith Institute who I had met, through a mutual friend, earlier the same evening.

There was a very loose connection because Madsen, Eamonn and Michael had all been at St Andrews University in the early Seventies when I was at school in the town, but prior to that evening I didn’t know any of them.

Our meeting was fortuitous because Michael was a Westminster City councillor at the time and the council offices were a few yards from The Albert pub in Victoria Street where I had arranged to have a drink with my friend. I wasn’t even living in London at the time. I was merely in town for an interview with a business magazine whose office overlooked The Green in Richmond upon Thames.

It was a real sliding doors moment because had I not been in London that day and not gone to the pub to meet my friend I wouldn’t have met Eamonn, Madsen or Michael, and Michael wouldn’t have invited me for an interview and then offered me a job - all within a few days.

That chance meeting changed my life (not necessarily for the better!) because until that moment I only had one aim - to be a journalist – and having been rejected by the BBC I was applying exclusively to magazines and local newspapers around the country.

Public relations wasn’t on my radar at all but it was my ambition to work in London sooner or later and the chance to work in London immediately (in an office a very short walk from Fleet Street) was too good to turn down. It certainly wasn’t for the money. My initial annual salary was £3,500 which is £18-19,000 today, adjusted for inflation. Thankfully, after six months it was raised to £5,000.

I won’t repeat the full story because I’ve told it several times, but I worked for Michael for two and a half years - at KH Publicity and then Michael Forsyth Associates, which he founded in 1981 - before I left to try and revive my dream of a career in journalism.

Our paths have crossed only occasionally since then, but I remain grateful that he gave me my first job and I have watched from afar as he became the member of Parliament for Stirling (from 1983 to 1997) and a government minister (including Secretary of State for Scotland from 1995 to 1997), before being awarded a peerage in 1999.

My real admiration for him, however, stems from his principled approach to politics, policy, and government, and his long-standing loyalty to Margaret Thatcher. (He was one of the few who stood by her, even in her later years when he was part of her inner circle of close friends who helped look after her.)

In my opinion there are few politicians with Lord Forsyth’s degree of integrity so his election as Speaker of the House of Lords is greatly deserved.

See also: Small world

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean. Photo credit: Alamy