Just listened to a podcast interview with this person, who turns out to be an utter git. http://english.cctv.com/2016/05/09/ARTI6mSb0lgrRJ5NgBuiIfdR160509.shtml I was interested to find out about him, because he was the BBC's expert reporter in Cuba for 5 years and then went to Venezuela. He also reports for the Torygraph and some US TV channel. He hopes to be appointed as an ambassador soon because he likes the overseas life, or if not that, then perhaps a peerage? Stephen was born in South London he says. I was surprised. A man of the people then perhaps after all? But no, it became clear he was the youngest of 5 kids and they lived in some mansion in Wimbledon. Sort of South London-ish. He attended an "independent" school near home (that means private prep school in posh people's code speak) where he'd written a few articles for the school magazine and edited matron's newsletter. He wasn't really much interested in writing as such though, it was just a way of avoiding being buggered in the billets of the school's military cadet force. Which university did he go to? asked the very American interviewer. I sighed to myself and wondered aloud whether it would be Oxford or Cambridge. It was Cambridge. He did English lit. Wasn't much sure what to do with his jolly self after graduating and then a chum from uni suggested jotting down a few words about historic squares in London and as luck would have it, another chum was able to get them all published serially in the Evening Standard! Funny how things work out isn't it? Well he got taken on by the Standard full time and then it was soon off to the Beeb, where without to much fuss he became a producer on the Nine O'clock News! Such fun! At the BBC, he explained, you can pretty much do what you want, so when a job came up as foreign correspondent in Cuba, he jumped at the chance. Before the interview, he read up furiously about the place, so he had the answers ready the next day! White flannel suit and Panama hat purchased, suitcases packed, he arrived in Havana, where he's billeted in a very nice apartment he has to say. Very pleasant and nice and central. In his reading, he has discovered that Fidel is ill and he hopes that he'll die,so that he will have a BIG story to report on. Sadly, nothing happens. People lost interest he says regretfully. He was there for five years, despite representing the BBC he unfortunately didn't manage to interview Fidel at all. Saw him in the distance once though. Nor Raul, nor anybody else senior. He did learn to windsurf though, so that was alright. Of course, he was severely repressed whilst there. Goes without saying. Were his reports censored? Well no, not as such, not in the traditional way, but we'll there was a certain pressure from the Cubans not to say too many horrible untruths about them or I might get kicked out. They didn't say so, as such, but they used to frown sometimes and be a bit off with me when I'd written something particularly foul. And they used to spy on me. He didn't say how or why and the interviewer didn't ask. Perhaps he spotted someone with a pair of binoculars sitting on the beach as he leaned his windsurf board over for another lap. I had a quick Google of his articles about Cuba put of interest. Believe me comrades, nothing good. Not even about beach life. It seems brave Steve totally ignored the frowns of the Cubans and wrote any old shyte he liked. Anyway, in the end, he WAS kicked out. Tan tan TANN! We need to hear more about this bombshell. What happened? Was he frogmarched to the airport by secret security police in sunglasses? Something like that? No, nearly like that. Very similar. How they did it was, the five year stint came to an end and the foreign journalists visas were being renewed, his didn't arrive. Clear communist sabotage! Mind you, he was being recalled by the BBC and perhaps the Cubans knew that and that was why it hadn't been renewed he pondered. He was being replaced by someone from BBC Mundo who spoke Spanish he noted regretfully. Anyway, went to Venezuela for 6 years. Failed to interview either Chavez or Maduro ("a brilliant man managing an impossible situation." he blurts, before realising the mistake and quickly adding "....and a crazy Hitler too!" What a flipping milksop posh boy know nothing idiot. No wonder we get the level of news we do.
