At No.3 in 20 minutes? Yes please

Getting interviews with experts and in Whitehall and parliament is not an easy task but for every dozen you don't get a few work out, and sometimes it can happen quicker than you expect. Most of the interviews I had fixed took days and several emails and phone calls back and forth so when I emailed over 20 MPs the night of the voting on the Iraq Inquiry and I got a response from the former Home Secretary David Blunkett's secretary indicating the possibility of an interview I called it a stroke a good luck.

The next morning after an interview with Michael Codner, the Director of military sciences at the Royal United Service Institute I rang Robert Newman to check if my luck had got me an interview with Rt hon David Blunkett.

I was waiting for him to get back to me so I didn't want to head back to the suburbs in case he called back so I decided to do some door knocking on some of the big legal firms around the Strand since I had not yet been able to get an interview with an expert on international law. I was in the waiting room at one of the firms when I got a call from Robert Newman, Bunkett's secretary saying he had 15 minutes to give me if I could be there for 1pm. I had just under 20 minutes to make a mad dash to Westminster. I left my contact details with the receptionist who was still waiting for the lawyer to get back into the office and rushed out , jumped on the tube which would be faster than bus number 11 in high heels and practically ran all the way to No.3 .

I was once again imaged, checked and tagged and Robert appeared to lead me up to the office. 15 minutes was promised, 20 minutes is what I got and that's where the role of Rumsfeld and Cheney and the word 1441 became not just important to my story but I also began to understand the issues surrounding the reconstruction, the role of America and where the UN Security council resolutions fitted into this complex black oily Iraq matrix.

I even got my own printed copy of the days Hansard which would simplify my scrounging attempts for key quotes and clips and of course get to grips with the part of the debate that I didn't watch the day before. Feeling quite chuffed with myself after Rob handed me the document and saw me out through the main reception on floor zero I was on my way. I have to say what I took with me was more than an interview and audio for my radio package, I also carried an impression that only reiterated what Jo Swinson's assistant Hannah Young had shown towards me and that was courtesy. The reason that struck me was because I was a trainee journalist, a student but they still treated me like a respectable member of the press.


For more information on my interviewees and what their organisations do please click on the Names below:
Michael Codner
MP David Blunkett