Interviewing Prime Ministers for East Anglia: A graduate story
By: Alumni Team
Paul Geater (SOC77) spent 43 years at the East Anglian Daily Times (EADT) in Ipswich, mainly as a political writer and political editor, including running the coverage of every general election from 1992 to 2024. Paul graduated in 1980 with a degree in Politics and Economics. He is now retired but, as he tells us in the interview, he is not finished with the world of politics. He also tells us of getting into journalism, interviewing Prime Ministers and an abortive career in banking.
How did you discover UEA?
I was born on the Suffolk coast less than a mile from the Sizewell power station and went to school in Framlingham. After missing a couple of A level grades, I went through clearing and was offered a place at UEA in 1977. I'd been interested in politics at school (inspired by a history teacher) and was one of the first to study economics at A level. As soon as I got the offer from UEA I snapped it up. I knew Norwich a bit from living only 40 miles away…And it was dead easy to get to home matches at Portman Road, home of Ipswich Town!
How did you find your UEA experience?
It was lively studying politics in the late 70s, especially during the Winter of Discontent and as a Young Tory at the time I got involved in plenty of debates in the LCR bar - but I did feel people respected my point of view and certainly I respected my opponents.
My sporting interest has always been as a spectator - I did used to go to Carrow Road when Ipswich Town were away with some university mates (mainly to give moral support to the away team!)
What did you want to do after graduating, and how did your career develop?
I was always interested in news and journalism, but a careers advisor persuaded me that it was a difficult job to get into, the pay's not great (dead right there!) and as the banks were looking for graduate trainees in the milk round why not try there. Hence, I ended up with a job at NatWest as unemployment rates hit 3 million. My mother was delighted!
Sadly, after my first week of filling in cash chits, stamping cheque books and filling in forms I realised I probably wasn't made for that life and, after six months when I was asked to commit myself to a further two-year apprenticeship, I decided to join the ranks of the unemployed to look for a job in journalism.
I applied to the EADT, which had been the paper I had read from the age of about 11, and they offered me an interview and an aptitude test which I passed, and I was one of the first trainees on their training course in 1982.
How has the industry changed during your career?
Journalism has changed dramatically during my career. I started working at a local office and putting stories I had typed on to sheets of paper on to an Eastern Counties' bus to head office and printing press in Ipswich. It ended when I decided that, having reached state retirement age, I didn't want to go on a long course to tell me how to use AI to allow my career to progress.
What are some of your career highlights?
Specialising in politics, I've met and interviewed every Prime Minister since John Major - including Liz Truss (although not during her tenancy of No 10). Blair was the most enigmatic. When I interviewed him on a train on his way to a party meeting in Ipswich he was engaging, happily chatting about Suffolk political issues. On another occasion when I had the chance to interview him during a round-robin in Downing Street it felt as if he couldn't wait to get away.
I met David Cameron four times - always engaging and helpful. Probably the easiest to interview and most open with the press.
The stories that I remember with most fondness are the investigative work where you have to chip away at the council or the government department to try to get the answers to questions that they really don't want to address. That takes time and effort.
Today you don't seem to get local newspapers being able to do that so much - the emphasis seems to be much more on getting hits and moving on to the next story.
How do you see the future of the industry and how would you recommend students get into it?
I'm not sure that there will be many people like me in the future - working 43 years for the same media employer. It pains me to say it, but the days of the print newspaper do seem numbered and even online news is being cut down to bite-sized social media posts.
There are jobs now being advertised in local news organisations and they are very useful stepping stones to careers in public relations, working for national news services, working for think tanks and in advertising.
But the wizened old local hack teasing out the big stories from the area they call home is, I fear, gone forever.
And how about retirement – what does that look like for you?
My politics "journey" started as a young Tory at the UEA. Now that I've retired, I've decided to join a political party for the first time in 40 years. I'm now one of the newest members of the Labour Party - inspired by our new PM Andy Burnham whom I last met at a trade union rally in Ipswich back in 2017.