Over the last 30 or so years I’ve been fortunate enough to meet many famous people, including politicians and those adjacent to politics. I thought it might be reasonably interesting to tell you about a few of those meetings…
David Cameron, ex-PM
During my very brief dalliance with the Conservative Party in 2009, I met Cameron at a Party, er, party. He asked me what I did; I told him I worked in journalism, and that I had recently moved out of London because it was getting too much (I didn’t specify what the ‘too much’ was; one doesn’t in polite company). He said: “I don’t blame you.” Shortly afterwards I had my photo taken with him (above). He struck me as a smooth, charismatic operator. He shut down a Party member who said something about the EU. “Don’t bang on about Europe!” Cameron retorted. Yes, I was actually standing next to him when he said those words. Okay, he almost certainly said it several different times in several different places but still, I quite like that I can claim that he said that fateful phrase in my presence. When DC left I patted him on the back and said “Good luck.” “Thanks!” he replied. And a year later he was prime minister. So just like when I said to Alan Shearer in 1995 “you can come and play for Newcastle any time” and a year later he did, I’d like to think it was thanks to me. All me.
Boris Johnson, ex-PM
I left London in 2008 but in the next few years I kept wandering back there, and in 2010 I was ambling near London Bridge for some reason. And who was that riding by on a bicycle in an uncertain and shaky fashion, clad in suit and tie? Why, it was the London Mayor who, in my last voting act as a Londoner, I’d helped put in the post. He stopped his bike and went to the side of the road to take a call on his mobile phone. “Boris!” I yelled out, and he raised his arm in a friendly wave. “Who’s that?” a black fella nearby asked me. “That’s the Mayor of London!” I breathlessly told him, flushed with excitement at seeing with my own eyes the politician I thought would become one of the greats of the era. Of course now I think along the lines of people who relate the story of how they met a serial killer when he was a child and wish they had done something to stop him, but back then I still had stars in my eyes.
Nigel Farage, future (?) PM
I saw Farage a couple of times in Bath when he was speaking at events in the city (unlikely to happen now), but I only chatted to him once, in March 2016 when he was at the Pavilion (where the Beatles played!). My then girlfriend took a photo of us together, him roaring with laughter, as is not uncommon. Why was he laughing? Because I said to him: “A few years back I got a photo with David Cameron, but now I’m more of a fan of you, so I’m going to put this in the frame instead!” Which was somewhat sycophantic. But true. On stage he was brilliant, the consummate political communicator – even when he was scribbling notes while answering questions, which I found odd (note: he did that at the earlier event at the Bath Forum in 2014, not the one at the Pavilion).
Tom Harris, ex-Labour MP
The second time I was inside the Houses of Parliament (the first was a university trip) was when I was lucky enough to interview Labour MP Tom Harris about his love of sci-fi and horror, for a genre magazine I was editing. I liked him very much. He was equally knowledgeable about Doctor Who as he was the Blair government (although I told him a saucy tale about the last moments of Second Doctor Patrick Troughton’s life that he hadn’t heard before, and one about First Doctor William Hartnell saying disparaging things about Jews). He told me he couldn’t stand Gordon Brown, and Brown knew this when in Downing Street. We had our chat on the river terrace of Parliament; it was rather lovely being there. I also enjoyed seeing inside the Strangers’ Bar, which felt like the world’s best pub, one which had seen Labour MP Eric Joyce badly misbehave a few weeks previously. The political direction Tom took in the years afterwards pleases me, with him voting for Brexit and writing a Telegraph column that I tend to nod my head in agreement to.
Lembit Opik, ex-Lib Dem MP
When I was with Tom Harris in the Strangers’ Bar we bumped into Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik, who seemed a little drunk and appeared to be on good terms with Tom. He was quite sweary. I think this was soon after he had stopped dating Cheeky Girl Gabriela Irimia, and I thought it wise not to mention to him that I had met, and was photographed with, said Cheeky Girl and her sister not once but three times at media parties (I’d asked her how it was going with Lembit: “Okay” she said in a flat tone of voice that indicated that it wasn’t really going okay). Anyway, he was friendly and, again, I’m glad to see that, on X, he has become fairly politically sound nowadays, railing against Net Zero for instance.
Ralf Little, actor
In 2005 I chatted to the Royle Family cast member at a media shindig and asked him if the show, which I enjoyed, was coming back. “I’d love it, but it depends on Caroline [Aherne],” he replied (it did return). We got on well. Why do I tell this particular story? Because there’s a postscript: 10 years later or so, Little was a raging Leftie on Twitter saying silly and unpleasant things. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but journalist Iain Martin had retweeted, with disdain, one of Little’s rants. I decided to respond to Little, telling him he was daft, or some variation on that (I never do anything like this these days) and he responded with fury. I’d told him I’d met him once and liked him but was disappointed with what he was now saying, and in his retort he said something like “I don’t remember meeting you” – which was dumb because he had no idea who was behind the tweet – “but I think you’re an effing effer”, or words to that effect. The experience shook me a little (heh). And it brought home how much worse a world it is when we know the politics of those we’d previously only been entertained by on our TV screens. Like Gary Lineker. Ooh, the things I could tell you about him…
That’s all for now! These remembrances have taken up a bigger word count than I anticipated, so I’d better stop there. But there could be more in future if this post is liked. Again, without wishing to sound too much like Piers Morgan, I have met many other celebs…
Russell David is the author of the Mad World Substack.
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Please don’t turn into another Gyles Brandeth, other peoples’ celebrity anecdotes are invariably uninteresting unless something really interesting or unusual is imparted. (Charles Kennedy once told me to FO inside the HoC, but I don’t like to brag).
“Other people’s celebrity anecdotes are invariable uninteresting…”
I don’t think so. I enjoyed reading about those encounters – it’s always interesting to meet someone in the public eye and it’s good to hear about other people’s experience of meeting them, however briefly; for one thing, it’s possible to tell a lot about someone who’s famous to a greater or lesser extent, by how they interact with the rest of us.
As for Charles Kennedy – I have not a shred of doubt that he would have liked to give me the very same message that he imparted to you, when I had a few words with him privately after a discussion show in which, as ever, he insisted on describing himself as a Catholic. He has since appeared before his Judge so I won’t elaborate on that, but at the time, I shared with him my undiluted opinion about his alleged Catholicism. It went down like the proverbial lead balloon although, mercifully perhaps, I can’t remember much of the detail. All I can say with certainty is that he didn’t scream and shout but that said, he did ask to add me to his Christmas card list. You have to laugh.
Typo – penultimate sentence should read “… that said, he did NOT ask to add me to his Christmas card list.”