Robert Orchard

Freelance political journalist & lecturer; recent very mature MA student at King's College London. Was BBC Pol & Parly Correspondent at Westminster for 25 years

[Robert Orchard @OrchardRob]

@davidcornock Some of us remember him well, for various reasons! His finest hour: helping inflict the only 2nd reading defeat on the Thatcher government in 1986 (?) on the Shops Bill to liberalise Sunday Trading. But some not-so-finest hours too...

[Robert Orchard @OrchardRob]

@nickmacpherson2 the customers of probably every bank in the world would have said 'I want my money out'. We were THAT close to a total collapse of the banking system....

[Robert Orchard @OrchardRob]

@nickmacpherson2 and it wouldn't be just RBS customers... the customers of probably every bank in the world would have said 'I want my money out'. We were THAT close to a total collapse of the banking system

[Robert Orchard @OrchardRob]

@nickmacpherson2 "The Bank was haemorrhaging money. I said, well - how long can you last? And he said 'maybe two or three hours' !! If the Bank had gone down, the cash machines would have gone off, the doors would have shut, and it wouldn't be just RBS customers...

[Robert Orchard @OrchardRob]

@nickmacpherson2 Darling told my MA students' class at King's College, London, he had only received one scary phone call in his life: on 7 October 2008 from the chairman of RBS:
"RBS was probably then the biggest bank in the world, with a balance sheet bigger than the UK's GDP. (more)

[Robert Orchard @OrchardRob]

@nickmacpherson2 The Bank was haemorrhaging money. I said, well - how long can you last? And he said 'maybe two or three hours' !! If the Bank had gone down, the cash machines would have gone off, the doors would have shut... (more)

[Robert Orchard @OrchardRob]

@DArcyTiP @rachelcbyrne Best wishes for the future, Mark. There is life after the BBC and I'm sure you have many things you want to do with your extra time. You'll soon wonder how you managed to fit in going to work. You will be much missed and the BBC's parl'y output will be diminished by your leaving

[Robert Orchard @OrchardRob]

@davidcornock @DArcyTiP @UKHouseofLords @LadyBasildon All best wishes for the future, Mark. There is life after the BBC and I'm sure you've many things you want to do with your extra time. You'll soon wonder how you managed to fit in going to work. You'll be much missed and the BBC's parl'y output will be diminished by your leaving.

[Robert Orchard @OrchardRob]

@abbeyshakespear Sorry I missed it... especially Puck putting a girdle round the earth in 40 minutes!

[Robert Orchard @OrchardRob]

@gavinesler It's not an argument for abolishing the House of Lords, a 2nd chamber of parliament that does vital work analysing in detail and often amending rushed and ill-considered new laws. It's an argument for ending the totally unacceptable cronyism of the present appointments system.

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

Just left 11 Downing Street, after being invited to an urgent private meeting with @Jeremy_Hunt to discuss mortgages. I can't detail the discussion, but rest assured all the points I've been making about the need for banks not to ramp margins & proper forbearance were made.

[Robert Orchard @OrchardRob]

@NickServini Gilbert John retiring ?! The irreplaceable BBC voice of Swansea and West Wales for decades, certainly long before I joined BBC Wales in 1979. Happy retirement, Gilbert... a fine, unflappable and honourable journalist and colleague and a really great guy.

[Alan Quick @thealanquick]

Well done to all concerned, close to back of the net I’d say! ⚽️⚽️👏🏼👏🏼

[Matt Frei @mattfrei]

I spent a career as a BBC corr telling people around the world that the Corporation was independent of govt control. But this Sharp/loan/Boris business really doesn’t help. It undermines the global footprint of one of the British institutions that still commanded respect abroad.

[Robert Orchard @OrchardRob]

@RHarrabin Hi Roger, can you contact me sometime, please? Only have your old BBC email address. Thanks, Robert O

[Robert Orchard @OrchardRob]

Relatives of thousands buried at cemetery fear for the future after sale https://t.co/joJ1PlQ8uX

[Robert Orchard @OrchardRob]

@EliotWilson2 @JoshuaRozenberg @UKHouseofLords Quick query, please, for piece I'm writing. You say, Eliot, that Mackay was the last "old-style" Lord Chancellor, and Joshua has written that he was "the last lord chancellor to serve all three branches of the constitution". Didn't Lord Irvine of Lairg have the same brief ?

[Robert Orchard @OrchardRob]

@ontourwithlucy @TimRileyPrimo Brilliant Tim, Gareth and All! A prestigious prize for the second year in a row!

[Robert Orchard @OrchardRob]

@hughlaurie Yes, great in so many ways, and HL is a star in so many ways. I read and enjoyed all Agatha C whodunnits back in the day and yet - perhaps it's age - I found such a complex denouement explained so briefly right at the end slightly bewildering without going back and rewatching it.

[Philip Cowley @philipjcowley]

This is so inept that it can't actually be being briefed by his friends and supporters, surely? This has to be malicious. https://t.co/MQQxHeMoFO