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Mirror man is regional daily’s new star columnist

A regional daily has recruited a veteran national newspaper journalist and political biographer as its new star columnist.

Paul Routledge will be joining the Huddersfield Examiner as its Wednesday columnist after executive editor Andrew Jackson left for a BBC job in Leeds.

Paul enjoyed a stellar career on the nationals including long stints at The Times and more recently the Mirror.

Although he left the staff of the Mirror 18 months ago, he still writes for the paper on a freelance basis.

Paul Routledge visits Scarborough to reminisce about his childhood holidays almost 70 years ago

Paul Routledge visits Scarborough to reminisce about childhood holidays almost 70 years ago

Huddersfield Examiner Editor Roy Wright said: “We are delighted to have someone of Paul Routledge’s stature working for us, it’s a great coup.

“His reputation as an incisive journalist goes before him. I am sure our readers will enjoy his no-nonsense approach to life leavened as always with a merry wit.”

As well as his newspaper journalism, Paul published two explosive political biographies in the 1990s which laid bare the faction-fighting within New Labour.

His biography of Gordon Brown published in 1998 revealed the full extent of the feud between the then Chancellor and Prime Minister Tony Blair.

This was followed in 1999 with the publication of Mandy: The Unauthorised Biography of Peter Mandelson which proved even more agenda-setting.

Its revelation about the loan of £370,000 to Mandelson from the Paymaster General, Geoffrey Robinson, led to the resignation of both ministers.

8 comments

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  • February 9, 2016 at 9:29 am
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    Yorkshire Post: The regional that thinks it’s a national. Whatever happened to fresh, young talent?

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  • February 9, 2016 at 11:48 am
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    @New ideas. What has the Yorkshire Post got to do with it? The story is about the Huddersfield Examiner.

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  • February 9, 2016 at 2:35 pm
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    Star columnists, however fine they are trumped up to be, are for those people in the world who cannot form their own opinions. A little more news is likely to go down better with most readers in the real world.

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  • February 9, 2016 at 4:58 pm
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    Nono…Thank God for subs!
    Actually, I didn’t read all the story.
    NOTE TO JUNIOR REPORTERS: always DOUBLE check WHAT YOU ARE WRITING ABOUT.
    As for the comment…I’m sure Paul is a great guy. It’s just that I think that newspapers should cast their nets more widely. And they desperately need to put in something that will appeal to young people.
    After all, youth rules in the commercial world today..

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  • February 9, 2016 at 8:52 pm
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    @Newideas.
    You are looking a bit of a mug. Stop trying to dig yourself out of the brown stuff.

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  • February 10, 2016 at 9:25 am
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    Jim d: Show me someone who has never at some time been in the brown stuff.
    British journalism badly needs people with fresh ideas. You won’t find it in the Yorkshire Post, Huddersfield Examiner, and certainly not on the Mirror. The latter is just a political con act, pretending to be left wing to divest the Labour Party of its true activists.

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  • February 10, 2016 at 9:44 am
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    Jim d:Someone’s just told me (sorry to go on about this) that apparently the Mirror still publishes its Andy Capp cartoon strip. For God’s sake…this is 2016 not 1960!

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  • February 10, 2016 at 11:55 am
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    I’ve always found Paul Routledge very readable and I think the Examiner’s readers probably will too. Fresh young talent is one thing, but experience and quality writing is just as important. Encouraging a younger readership has always been a near impossible challenge. The only ones who show more than a passing interest are those who want to be in the papers and those who want to be journalists.

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