It’s tricky to know where to start with Will Hutton when you
interview him. Do you ask about his economic theories - as published in
The State We’re In - which helped shape Tony Blair’s stakeholder society
speech?
Or perhaps about the intensely personal columns that have flourished at
the Observer under his tutelage - Ruth Picardie’s harrowing account of
her unsuccessful battle with cancer or Kathryn Flett’s emotional split
from her husband?
Do you ask him about his chairmanship of the Employment Policy
Institute, or his Governorship of the London School of Economics? Or do
you go for the subject which can prove the true indication of a man’s
character?
I settled for talking about football and asking which player is his
favourite.
’I suppose it’s David Beckham,’ Hutton says. ’He always seems to be a
thinking player. I’m impressed by his intelligence on the field. He’s
also a team player in that he won’t squander chances by keeping things
for himself. I also think he really works hard.’
It’s a cheap journalistic trick, but let’s see how Hutton stands up to
comparison with his favourite player. A thinking journalist? As a former
economics correspondent for the Guardian as well as Newsnight, with an
MBA, a Political Journalist of the Year Award and a best-selling
critique of the structure of the British economy under his belt, you
could call him a thinker. As for hard-working, Hutton’s pervasive
confidence is only rattled when you ask about his spare time.
’It’s hard to fit things in sometimes,’ he admits. ’I can find my
evenings taken up with things like my membership of the governing
council of the Policy Studies Institute. I’m also a huge walker and I’m
working on improving my golf.’
What seems odd about his editing style is the apparent conflict between
the intellectual economic journalist, which Hutton undoubtedly is, and
the explosive, emotional way the paper has developed. The columns are
just part of the style and intense subject matter that makes up the
Observer these days. Where does it come from?
’Economists have feelings too,’ Hutton bristles slightly. ’My hope is
that the Observer is a liberal paper and the readers are as interested
in Ruth coming to terms with the dreadful fact of her mortality as they
are in the structure of the country economically and socially. I’d like
to think the Observer is about the way we live today.’
Hutton’s close relationship with the party of government is both an
advantage and an uneasy challenge. Throughout his career he has, in
effect, been in oppostion to the mainstream thinking of the day. Now he
is broadly supportive of the ruling ideas.
’Through the 1980s, liberal papers were out of the loop,’ he says. ’I
think the Observer was to a certain extent an unhappy bystander. Now our
best contacts are running things, which means we will inevitably get
better stories than the right wing papers. I think that will pay off in
circulation terms. We will be seen to be a better informed paper than
our rivals.’
HIGHLIGHTS
1983
Economics correspondent, Newsnight
1990
Economics editor, the Guardian
1995
Assistant editor, the Guardian
1996
Editor, the Observer
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