It’s my union

... although I’m an impostor

JEREMY PAXMAN, presenter of BBC Newsnight, has been an NUJ member for 32 years. He says:

I suffer from Impostor Syndrome. In other words I have always wondered why anyone took me seriously.

This was especially true when I became a journalist (something which happened because it seemed a way of gratifying my curiosity more than anything else.) So one of the first things I did when I started work was to join the NUJ. It seemed a way of proving to the world that — whatever the lack of evidence to support the claim — I really was a hack.

If I’m frank, I’d have to admit there was another consideration, too. The trades unions really were a power in the land. Seen from the twenty-first century, the 1970s seem to have happened in another country: with one weak-kneed government after another inviting swaggering union leaders into Downing Street for beer, sandwiches and appeasement.

At the time, union agreements prevented anyone as wet-behind-the ears as I was from getting a job in Fleet Street. I couldn’t believe I could get a union card without first demonstrating I was a proper journalist.

I still can’t believe I’m a proper journalist. But I’ve still got the union card.