MY JERICHO
Bill Emmott
Former editor of The Economist
This meeting was held on April 24, 2019
Bill Emmott now divides his time between Cranham Street and Dublin. Of Jericho he says, “I live here because it’s an hour from London and it’s a wonderful place. I can cycle around town and walk the dogs on Port Meadow.”
He is involved with the Nissan Institute and the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. His career began as a student, getting a 1st in PPE at Magdalen College. He gave up a DPhil at Oxford on Communist participation in French politics after the war to join the Brussels bureau of The Economist at the recommendation of his tutor Bill Johnson.
“I had the idea of getting into journalism anyway.”
Emmott worked his way up to become the editor of The Economist, a post he held between 1993 and 2006. “It was friendlier than All Souls. It was a small team, growing to about 70 and the articles were published without names. It was collegiate in the best sense. It was like chairing an ever-changing but fascinating seminar.”
The Economist has established itself as an international business magazine. “It is a cheerleader for globalisation. It was set up as part of the free trade argument in 1843 and was notoriously harsh about the Irish famine.”
However, the magazine has maintained a critical outsider status, bolstered by its economic model, which relies 55% on reader subscriptions, 45% on advertising revenue.
“There are 1.5 million subscribers per week.”
Under Bill Emmott’s editorship The Economist pushed a socially liberal agenda, including support for gay marriage and investigative work, targeting sometime Italian Prime Minister and media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi for his Mafia links and bribing of judges.
“All of it’s true of Trump. He will play the victim in 2020 as Berlusconi did. I think he [Trump] is a crook. He’s fiddled his taxes all his life. He learned all he knew from Roy Cohn.”
Bill Emmott now works as a writer and international affairs consultant.
In relation to the world as a whole he sees China following Japan into economic stagnation when the credit bubble bursts.
A Remainer, he nonetheless believes Britain will leave the European Union in the next few weeks “on something like May’s terms.”
“But Labour could change the political weather by coming out for a second referendum.”
Report by: Roger Howe
My Jericho offers a series of independent events organized by Jericho resident John Mair. Many are at at St Barnabas. Others are streamed on YouTube.
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
You can book on the My Jericho website
Forthcoming meetings
| Date | Venue |
|---|
Previous meetings
Visits