Eat your heart out Jeremy Paxman. Bank of England governor Mervyn King last night pointed us to how to do short, sharp interviews that go straight to the heart of matter:
In the very first television interview given by a governor of the Bank of England in 1958, Cameron Cobbold explained national debt to Robin Day on "Tell the People", the highlight of ITN's Sunday evening schedule fifty years ago.
Here is the exchange:
Cobbold: The National Debt represents the sums of money which the government have over the years borrowed from the public, mainly in this country and, to some extent, abroad. That is really the amount of expenditure which they have failed over the period to cover by revenue.
Day: Have we paid for World War II?
Cobbold: No.
Day: Have we paid for World War I?
Cobbold: No.
Day: Have we paid for the Battle of Waterloo?
Cobbold: I don't think you can exactly say that.
