In the summer of 1997 I did the first of what would be four stints of work experience at The Observer newspaper and, my God, you can’t imagine how exciting it was there then. Labour had just been elected, there was a real belief that the country was changing for the better and The Observer and The Guardian — its parent paper — were at the absolute centre of it all. I felt as if I’d been given keys to the kingdom, even — no, especially — when I was dispatched to dig out every quote Gordon Brown had ever uttered about fuel VAT.
Well, a lot can happen in 27 years. Labour is back in, and The Observer still exists — just — but
