Chris Moncrieff, veteran former political editor of the Press Association, enthralled students in the Centre today with tales from his fifty years as a frontline political reporter. He recalled how he broke the news of Margaret Thatcher’s resignation, ended the Gulf War five minutes early because his clock was fast and watched Denis Thatcher feed a bun to the wrong end of an elephant. He advised aspiring journalists always to carry a passport, to dress smartly and to use shorthand. He said his only regret was that his parents wanted him to be a solicitor, so he spent a few months working for a law firm in London before he got his first job as a reporter. That was in 1949. He has met every post war British Prime Minister, including Clement Attlee and Winston Churchill.