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http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> Notices, obituaries and tributes >> Alan Watkins (Funeral 24.5.2010) http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1274547156 Message started by TerenceJ on May 22^nd, 2010, 4:53pm

Title: Alan Watkins (Funeral 24.5.2010)
Post by TerenceJ on May 22^nd, 2010, 4:53pm

THE FUNERAL WILL TAKE PLACE AT ST BRIDES CHURCH,FLEET ST,LONDON EC4 at 12noon on MAY 24th 2010.

ALAN WATKINS (BBC POLITICAL COMMENTATOR)
The political commentator Alan Watkins - who was credited with coining the phrases "the men in suits" and "young fogeys" - has died at 77.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid tribute to a columnist who "graced the public stage with his elegant writing, his insights and his humour".

His employers included The Observer and since 1993 The Independent on Sunday, which called him a passionate Welshman.

The son of Carmarthenshire teachers, he also wrote about rugby and drink.

Mr Watkins, who had been a journalist for over 50 years, had suffered kidney failure.

Born in Swansea, he went to Amman Valley Grammar School, studied law at Cambridge and was called to the bar before joining the Sunday Express.

His work will survive the test of time

Prime Minister Gordon Brown
The Independent on Sunday quoted his son David describing him as a "proud Welshman and a proud journalist".

The newspaper also quoted Mr Brown saying that his father had first "pointed me to Alan Watkins's weekly column as something I had to read".

Mr Brown added: "His work will survive the test of time."

The newspaper also quoted Conservative leader David Cameron, who called him a "superb columnist with perhaps the best sweep of British political history of anyone writing for a newspaper.

"His columns often made you chuckle, but always made you think and almost always made you better informed".

'Wrote like a dream'

John Mullin, editor of The Independent on Sunday, said he was "the most brilliant journalist, a one-off. He had unrivalled contacts, a unique feel for politics and he wrote like a dream".

Mr Watkins is attributed with having first used "the men in suits" to describe party grandees who tell their leader it is time to resign, while "young fogey" was his description of a rising politician with old-fashioned attitudes.

When writing on the decline of Welsh rugby in 1998, he observed: "Wales no longer has coal, steel or grammar schools. I knew the rot had set in when the Cardiff Arms Park crowd were ignorant not merely of the Welsh songs - which would have been understandable enough - but of the English ones as well".

Welsh rugby great Gareth Edwards told The Independent on Sunday: "I respected and admired his work.

"He was very knowledgeable about the game and he didn't seek sensationalism. People respected that. He enjoyed the game, and that came over in the way he wrote about it."