The famous Paxman-Michael Howard interview - Newsnight archives (1997) 

Absolutely! Just like when they say "we had robust discussions" = a full-on shouting match

Yes, I do too.

I have a feeling you may be right.

No, did he threaten to over ruuuule him?

*No, he was entitled to express an opinion, he was not entitled to instruct Derek Lewis what to do and he did not instruct.*

I think maybe he said he would see if he had the authority to overrule him, then after consulting someone, discovered that he did not have that authority. Its splitting hairs examining the exact words of a conversation that was obviously heated.

Hey now, he said he’s never afraid to take responsibility for tough decisions. Except for answering a simple fucking question.

WHAT????? THAT'S INSANE! Point out exactly where he said that or else you are insane!!!!

You may think that, I of course couldn't possibly comment.

He took advice

He did not overrule Derek Lewis. He took advice and expressed his opinion, as he was entitled to do, and did not instruct him.

A lean mean lying machine lol

@ Josh Price you are a fool and a communist

If you look, he doesn't break eye contact and his tone is very confident. A very smooth politician in that regard.

He still seems thoroughly honest compared to Boris and his cronies

The Rocky Marciano of political double talk

You must be too young to remember the late, great Robin Day. You should check out his interview with John Nott - the then Secretary of State for Defence during the 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands and subsequent Falklands War, it was priceless!

It's a legendary interview. No one forgets this.

Yep, two heavyweights in a contest that ended in a draw.

Politics at its worst.

Howard was hated in this time

No such thing as a decent politician, they're all liars and evil.

100% agree. If it was a politician from today's government being interviewed, they'd just lie to get out of it. Howard ducked and dived so he could avoid telling a lie. There used to be some honour amongst thieves!

That's part of what makes this interview so legendary - but it's also that Paxman is so persistent in trying to get the answer he wants, it leaves viewers thinking that they both knew the truth, both of them knew that each other knew the truth and Paxman is trying to get Howard to admit the truth or at least tell an outright lie that he could be beaten with. In many ways, it's a great shame that this was chalked up as a Howard loss (he didn't lie, he didn't dodge, bluster or answer a question of his own invention), as it's a masterclass of political answering - but because it was perceived as a loss, every other politician watched and learned "Don't engage, don't take a fighting stance, don't try to talk your way out - dodge, bluster, blur the facts, muddy the waters, disrespect the interviewer and their art until they're too exasperated to chase you for a straight answer or the director calls time."

@@smokerjim That's dodging you have described. Snake politician.

@@shitholeworld I'd prefer to have politicians like Corbyn or Sanders in America, but if we have to suffer from Tories (suffer being the operative word), I'd rather have the likes of Major or Howard than out and out spivs like Johnson, Truss or Sunak

And the fact that Boris refused to tell him who he had been doin ..

When you ask your wife for sex on a day that isn't your birthday.

Did she threaten to overrule you?

@@springydingy1 She took advice.

@@fds7476 But you haven’t answered whether she threatened to overrule you, did she threaten to overrule you?

🤣🤣🤣

I used to threaten to overrule him, until I took an arrow to the knee.

"I saw a mudcrab today"

IS THIS TRUE!?

The other version is when they start the sentence with, "Look,..."

Right on. It make me wonder if there's some secret school where would-be politicos go for training in how to answer (or evade anaswering) difficult questions.

@@songsmith31a They definitely have what is called 'media training'.

Yes, it's also a means of prolonging a non answer to waste air time, and gives themselves a few more seconds to think of something else if necessary.

Paxman was playing for time. He's since said he had the controller in his ear telling him to stretch it out.

@@tucky1878 Controller? What?

@@ianoliver3879 The BBC TV producer. Paxman was NOT being a clever interviewer, just doing what he was told to do.

Well done my ass. He didnt get an answer from him.

I’m not sure he dodged anything to be honest. Giving an unfavourable answer isn’t dodging the question

Hello! I love this interview but I wanted to ask, one year later, if your okay and you feel a bit happier now? 😄

I reach for some flavored gin, but whatever works for you.

Would you like a coffee, Mr Howard? "Well I would rather say that I would prefer a bean enhanced Brazilian sourced beverage".

@@davidmansell5986 I took advice, on what beverages were available.

@@MarkusAldawn do JV Cuckoo

If he has just said that in the interview, then Jeremy wouldn't have needed to ask another 11 times.

@@mahfuzurchowdhury2765 Indeed, Jeremy declined the offer.

Paxman was as bad as the willy-waving Tories he pretended to grill

But that's the problem with asking a liar that question. They'd lie.

@@davidjames579 how do you know the questioner has never lied ? Conflict there I think.

The way he replied was totally unnatural. You could have parked a bus in the gap between certainly and not.

@@francishunt562 You don't. But Michael Howard is the subject of the interview.

Around once every 2 weeks.

Yeah too true

We should also be like Howard, and refuse to be bullied.

Quite right. You can always tell when a Politician is lying, Their lips are moving!

They talk like this about everything though. The point is when they lie it doesnt stand out unlike in this circumstance where there is a GigaChad interviewing him. You could ask him "do you like chocolate cake?" And even though the benign answer would be yes, they would be sayin shit like "I think the bakery is doing great things and I wish them success"

@Damien Montero Thats why hed be so vague in the first place. Regardless of whats true, he will never directly lie so that he doesnt have to keep track to what he admitted to. You have to remember public figures are intentionally questioned incessantly in order to coax sensational things out of them, lies included.

Its The Same Ol Thing.

@@alfching2499 true, politicians are expert at avoiding answering questions. It pains me to say, but Howard is a master.

Did you go to a Tory debating school?

@@bobsmith3291 eh no idk what that is or if you’re joking or smth but 😂

@@cosimocubing3820 did you watch it in a private Tory school?

@@bobsmith3291 no

Is the teacher who showed it to you still working there?

"I did not overrule Mr Lewis." (Actually answers this question, which is not whether he threatened to overrule him.)

@@andymerrett I know, the comment above phrases the question as "did you over rule him?"; that question, the one in the comment, is answered by Mr Howard's response.

They wouldn't turn up. They're too cowardly to subject themselves to an interviewer like Paxman.

I wish he's doing to Boris Johnson over his lies and mishandling on his own actions during our pandemic.

Hopefully everyone in the last 20 years.

He doesn't give a flying fu*k who asked him. Nice MP pension to keep him on the gravy train.

@@HowDidIGet3700Subs I see him a lot in Pimlico when I’m walking my dog. I need to remember to shout it out next time for a laugh.

@@mrlotusmic good idea. message me here next time & i'll pop there to do the same- around the corner in chelsea.

😂 true accent pops out.

He was from Llanelli not Swansea

@@phillip2632 He was born in Swansea; Llanelli was where he went to grammar school.

@@phillip2632 He was born in Gorneinon, which is part of Swansea & not Llanelli.

Small print: As long as your name is Micheal Howard.

Once a Tory parasite, always a Tory parasite. 🪱

He's a vampire? Or did she mean Knight?

Creepy man.

There is something of the night about Widdecombe herself, and something of the shrew as well

@@FlyingDutchman19801 Lol

As Tory leader, there was certainly something of the sh1te about him. He was better than IDS though, as he is a person with a functioning brain, even though he's a Thatcherite Tory.

It’s not brilliant by Howard - just another slimy politician who refuses to answer a simple yes or no question

Bronze plate.

Even though Paxman is good old buddies with Boris. The whole establishment from the media to the politician’s are all cut from the same cloth. Don’t be fooled.

this comment aged like fine wine

It used to be that politicians considered Paxman a challenge. After Farage, Trump, Galloway and Corbyn all they need to do is scream "elitist media bias!" and their praetorian guard of internet cretins will lynch any particularly difficult journalist- he may not be Paxman, but Jeremy Vine doesn't deserve professionally disenfranchised narcissists calling him a "thieving toe rag" under his announcement of his father's death.

Baxman, would have torn the happy millionaire idiotic Boris to treads. "Did you ever ly to the public? Prime Minister." "May I say, I spoke to the French president only just last night, it must have after ten, and what a golly fellow he is....." "Were not talking about the French, will you answer the question... Prime Minister? Did you ever ly to the public on any matter regarding Brexit?" "May I say, I have spoken to the French president on the...." "For the eleventh time Prime Minister will you answer the question...have you ever lied to the British people?" "I must say to you, and may I say I have over many years, admired your program...." "Thank you Prime Minister for coming.....you lying bastered."

The problem with conservatives these days is they refuse to do interviews regularly...it's a deliberate strategy by conservative party

How did you ever reach such an outlandish conclusion

*threatened to overrule him!

Lol, a low bar. If you want to see an expert political interviewer, then look up Brian Walden and a programme called 'Weekend World'. You just might be surprised at the difference in quality.

yes, too bad conservatives aren't anymore

This had nothing to do with Boris, you can't seriously bring him into every political discussion that happened 25 years ago. It's like blaming Hitler for the Crimean war.

In short: He did threaten to overrule him

In short, Paxman was so upset in the way he treated Howard,he sent Howard a crate of Champagne by way of apology. True story, before anyone doubts it.

I can't see where the shame or issue is with admitting he 'threatened' to over rule him. This was the second time prisoners had escaped from Derek Lewis' jails the public were starting to think prisoners were escaping left right and centre. It's a GOOD thing he threatened to overrule - Lewis was incompetent at least Howard was looking out for the public.

lol yeah Howard and Portillo's railway journeys.

He is a charismatic man and a good tv presenter on trains and a decent talking head when he was on the BBC show This Week. However, he was an ineffectual politician and a terrible shadow chancellor circa when the Tories were thrased in the 2001 General Elections. He was distrusted among his own party. That's why he left politics and went into Television.

But a frigging useless politician. Only there for the money.

@@tebraizshahzad3364 Basically he was too honest, which doesn’t say much for the rest of them.

He went to prison!!

Can you give some context?

@ironside eve The video.

I'm from the UK and have no idea what you're talking about

@@lauralishes1 he means this same interview, because its so famous. But i admit i only first saw it just now

@@joedwyer3297 Yeah same. First time I've ever heard of or seen this interview. RU-vid recommended it for some reason.

Or when ex English school teacher, Diana Gould, called Margaret Thatcher out over the sinking of the General Belgrano on the BBC General Election Special, Nationwide: On the Spot in 1983 where members of the public got to ask some questions. She just wouldn’t let go; she was an absolute tigress! 🤣🤣

Ironic that Nott didn't last long after that interview

@@fatbelly27 My own thought at the time during that interview featuring the Falklands War was that when Nott departed, I wondered if Robin Day was resisting the temptation to observe that his guest was doing something that was not available to the British troops stuck in their trenches under fire of a far more dangerous sort.

Fire him? Ooh, you're hard.

​@@dampsquid2494 Well, I am The Terminator

Yes, but did he(Mr Howard) threaten to overrule him?

The last time anything like this happened was when the government kept referring to Theresa May's "Plan B", without specifying what it was (because it didn't exist), as the deadline to Article 50 ticked closer. James Cleverly was thrown to the wolves on Question Time. Fiona Bruce kept asking what the plan was, to the point that the audience were laughing. But it only happened because it was inevitable, due to unanimous hatred. I've not seen anyone at the BBC do anything on the sort since.

Murdoch hates it.

Also strange to see a politician caring about being accused of lying as opposed to reveling in it as they seem to do nowadays.

Paxman was extremely overrated : even University Challenge is too much for him now.

hindsight hero

He's chivalrous?

They were each admiring the other's stubbornness and persistence. Paxman was going to keep on asking and Howard was going to keep on not saying.

If memory serves this was just after Labour had won the election and this man was running for leadership of the defeated Conservative Party. He was taken out by this interview. Ironically Paxman kept asking that question repeatedly because his producer asked him to pad it out because they were running ahead of time.

Wow , haven't heard that before, thank you for your originality.

Do you use it as a good or bad response?

Good question.

@@Delightfully_Bitchy thanks

You have a point, I’ve always considered it a good one but a few weeks ago a colleague gave me a different perspective; he feels it’s a bad example,arguing Paxman goes to far,flips the drama triangle and makes Howard the victim. I disagree, but maybe that’s because I can’t bring myself to feel sorry for a politician under any circumstances

@@charlotte-mg9wj this forum is weird, you wrote that months ago, i wrote a comment 8 minutes ago, then you respond. Its like Tom's midnight Garden

He was ripped apart by Paxman, 12 times to be exact. How can you possibly say he dodged the question? Caught out lying through his back teeth by simple repetitive questioning. Horrid man that he is, but George Galloway ran rings around Paxman when interviewed. That's who notes should be taken from.

If a politician doesn't say yes or no...then it is admittance to an answer that is bad for them. No one dodges a beneficial gift.

They don't need lessons in question avoidance, you either have that ability or not.

@@francishunt562 have you met The Tories...Nadine Dorries!!!🙄

@@stevesmith3682 yes but you dont have him down as saying he did

RSF - resting smirk face

Bollocks

why am I thinking about stopped clocks at the moment?

I just looked this up its true! 🤣 They should do a Whisky line called 'Overruled' 😂