Jon Snow — smug Leftie who chanted ‘F*** the Tories’
ACHIEVEMENTS
CHIEF presenter for the smugly Left-wing Channel 4 News since 1989. Snow, 70, is as well known for his multi-coloured ties and socks as for his politically correct views. President of Cycling UK, which has promoted the activity for more than 140 years — aggravating motorists fed up with the increasing number of cycle lanes.
CHARACTER
SEEN as self-deprecating and vivacious by his friends. To his critics, he is a sanctimonious embodiment of the liberal metropolitan elite. Has admitted having ‘a huge ego’ and being ‘a man of limited intellect’.
BACKGROUND
HIS father, the Reverend George D’Oyly Snow (Eton and Oxfordeducated), was the Bishop of Whitby. Jon attended the elite Winchester Choristers’ School.
DODGY ANCESTRY
HIS colonialist grandfather, Sir Thomas D’Oyly Snow, was an army general who fought to uphold the British Empire against warring Africans in the Anglo-Zulu War. During World War I, he sent thousands of men to their deaths in the Battle of the Somme.
POLITICAL JOURNEY
EXPELLED from Liverpool University in 1970 after a skirmish with police during an antiapartheid protest. Has since said: ‘My views haven’t changed much since I was a student.’ While at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, was reported as dancing with a group of Liverpool University students and chanting ‘F*** the Tories’. Although he insists ‘impartiality is a very, very precious entity’ in broadcasting, he has admitted privately to being a ‘pious, pinko liberal’ — refusing to wear a poppy for Remembrance Day.
MARRIAGE
ENGAGED to fellow TV journalist Anna Ford for a time and had a 35-year partnership with human rights lawyer Madeleine Colvin, with whom he has two daughters. For decades avoided marriage because of a ‘pathological fear’ of claustrophobic relationships yet, in 2010, wed Zimbabwean scientist Precious Lunga at the £800-a-night Firefly Hotel on Mustique.
WOMEN
A SELF-CONFESSED feminist but has been quoted as saying: ‘Sex comes into every evaluation of a woman — there’s no doubt about it. It’s rather delicious really.’ Once admitted to the physical allure of Margaret Thatcher (‘She was the sexiest matron I ever met.’)