Henry Zeffman

And David Cameron was the absolute master of it, and would help his cause by insisting that it was a handheld microphone like this, rather than the sort that is clipped on.

Because Gordon Brown once found himself...

trying to do just that.

Not the incident where it was still on in the back of the car, although there was that.

There was one, I think, with Adam Bolton, the former political editor of Sky, where the interview finished and Gordon Brown got up and left and then ten seconds later there's a twang as the microphone comes off his jacket and goes flying back.

The FOMO of potentially missing stories is it never escapes you.

Although the nature of the job I do means that if they happen when you're on holiday, that is the end of the holiday.

And the one that I recall, just because it made me laugh, I thought it was a great line from the news desk.

I didn't need any persuading to go anyway, but I was on holiday and I was back home in Yorkshire.

And Nicola Sturgeon announced that she was resigning as Scotland's First Minister.

And the news desk redefined Yorkshire as being, quote, halfway to Edinburgh.

Which has the merit of geographical accuracy.

And so began a trip on the most amazing railway in the UK and one of the best in the world, which is the Settle Carlisle.

It comes with the downside of very little phone signal.

In fact, I remember trying to record a newscast in Carlisle Station, which has a rather better phone signal, before finally getting to Bute House and to Holyrood and cover the departure of a very influential Scottish First Minister.

So there you go.

Whenever I'm back in Yorkshire...

halfway to it.

It's a very London-centric way of defining Britain's geography.

But that's what the news desk said to me.