The birth of Sky News......

It’s hard to believe that Sky TV is only 20 years old. I have literally grown up with it, and was at its bedside, almost, at its birth.

As a geeky 31 year old living over my shop in Swansea I amused myself with two 5 foot parabolic satellite dishes which scanned the Clarke belt for any signs of life out there.

I was at the cutting edge of this new technology and soon learned that if one was patient enough you could find live feeds of news stations to their headquarters, uncut and uncensored. Yes- there was someone out there, and I was not alone, and nor were they.

Then amidst the live feeds, and unintelligible German or French language television stations, Sky news broke forth.

The Sky test card gave way to test transmissions and then finally on the 5th February 1989 television was to change for ever.

Little did I think, whilst controlling my excitement, that my straightjacket of 4 TV channels was being ripped from my body to give me telly freedom and that I was soon to be making telly history too.

Sadly Brynmor John the MP for Pontypridd died in December 1988. I hadn’t given much thought to putting my name forward as a candidate there as it is one of those solid Labour seats where they weigh the vote on election night to save time.

I was encouraged by Cardiff Conservative HQ to put my name in the hat. Nigel, “its for the experience of the interview- to improve your interview technique for other more winnable seats that will come up”. I duly fell for their lies and put my name forward. There were 50 people who had put their names forward so there was always a chance I wouldn’t get selected.

Fat chance! Before I knew where I was I was trudging the hills and valleys of Pontypridd as the Conservative’s anointed son.

The short of it was that there I was on by-election night standing on a gallows, appropriately, with BBC and ITV news crews all around. They were interested in the by-election as it might give a pointer to the future of the PM - Margaret Thatcher.

But there was one more news crew on the gallows. It was Sky News. Richard Bestic was their journalist who asked me if I would be interviewed.

I leapt at it. I told Richard that my folks had a dish which perplexed him. Hardly anyone had a dish at that time and he encouraged me to phone my mum in order that she could watch it on Sky News and double their viewing figures!

So new were they to the game that Richard had to look at one of his aides standing behind the camera who gave him a had gesture to tell him that they were live as even they couldn’t watch it at the count as they didn’t have a dish.

Yes, to think that my humiliation at taking the Conservatives from second place to third place in the seat had a new outlet. Pontypridd was making history….Kim Howells was their new MP. I was told that our campaign couldn’t have gone any better. The operation was a success, but the patient died.

Sky was on the scene in a big way…..and the outcome of their first by-election, and the one that followed very quickly in the Vale of Glamorgan was helping to shape the map of Conservative fortunes. The writing was on the wall for Margaret Thatcher and she was soon to be ousted. This was well covered on Sky.

Also covered by Sky was another event in my life soon after in 1991 - the first by-election under John Major. And it was the 13th safest seat in the country. I was the candidate in Ribble Valley for the Tories. It was the Poll Tax by election. I lost. The Poll Tax was axed and Sky was there to cover it all!!!!!