As a journalist on John Prescott’s local paper, the Hull Daily Mail, in the 1970s and early 80s, I found he was one of the few local politicians who took the trouble to understand how the media worked – our deadlines, for example.
Some of them would phone up at any time and dictate a prepared statement as if they expected it to go in the paper verbatim, while John had better timing and was always ready to be questioned and respond.
