Broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby on UK elections, his new book, Russia’s war psyche and Tony O’Reilly’s holiday home
The British historian and journalist on UK elections, his new book, Russia’s war psyche and Tony O’Reilly’s holiday homeJonathan Dimbleby: 'I feel intense frustration as I see the lies and evasions that politicians churn out as a means of trying to seduce the public.' Photograph: Roberto Ricciuti/Getty Imagesused to be the Dimbleby family business. Former war correspondent Richard Dimbleby hosted the BBC’s first all-night results coverage on television in 1955.
The Reform Club was where the fictional Phileas Fogg set off to go around the world in 80 days in the Jules Verne novel. For the former globe-trotting broadcaster Dimbleby, it has been a journey lasting closer to 80 years: he becomes an octogenarian next month. “I feel intense frustration as I see the lies and evasions that politicians churn out as a means of trying to seduce the public. I think there is a real Tweedledumb and Tweedledee aspect , and that’s why it is different from 1997. I’m glad I am not a part of it, to be honest.”
It recounts in terrifying detail Operation Bagration, the Soviet summer offensive that bludgeoned the German army from the east following the Allies’ D-Day landings in the west. The Russians, however, did most of the heavy lifting, decimating Adolf Hitler’s forces after a huge strategic feint, ensuring Nazism’s ultimate defeat.
“That feeling is deeply held in Russia: a mixture of astonishment and resentment. ‘Why do they not give us our dues? Why are we not invited to march alongside them? Why are we not treated as honoured partners in the destruction of Nazism?’”, trades on his people’s resentment over the West’s historical ingratitude. The old Russian war psyche, which thinks little of sacrificing huge numbers of troops in the “meat grinder”, can also still be seen in its tactics in Ukraine today.
“Had I been a marching person, I think I would have been marching in the case of Gaza, marching after October 7th for the victims of Hamas, and I would also be marching now for the right of the Palestinians to be treated with humanity and to have a state.” Dimbleby spent time in the North early in his career at the outset of the Troubles. He recalls once filing an Easter report that referred to “tribes” in nationalist circles, and how this did not go down well with the republican movement’s then publicity chief, Danny Morrison. According to Dimbleby, Morrison, whom he described as a “charming monster”, sent him a letter warning him he was no longer welcome in republican areas of the North.
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