11 Liam Thorpe

Liam Thorpe: Politics, campaigns and body mass index

JORGE CAPERA meets the political editor of the Liverpool Echo to talk about his career and going viral

Liam Thorpe, Political Editor Liverpol Echo

After covering some of The adrenaline kicked in and I had a contacted by a friend of Stephen’s clear that for those two years Stephen the biggest stories in few things to balance. The first was: because I had done some previous had been getting more ill and that the Liverpool in recent ‘I need to get this out first’. stories about benefits. effort, the pain, and the anxiety of years, the Political Ed- “As soon as somebody had sent me “I thought it was a fairly normal everything he had been going through itor for the Liverpool the mail that the Labour party sent one of these stories. But, then, he sent was making things worse.” Echo Liam Thorp has become the around, I was writing as fast as my me a picture of Stephen and I just The campaign led to a review of go-to political savvy in Merseyside. tiny, little hands would allow me,” couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe how the Department for Work and

His journalism has made waves all he said. this was someone living in England Pensions was awarding the benefits the way from the banks of the Mersey The Political Editor for the Echo in 2019.” Stephen was supposed to receive, and to Westminster and has been awarded indeed managed to get this news out He refers to one picture showing to Stephen being reimbursed about by the prestigious Society of Editors. first. Nevertheless, in other occasions Mr Smith after starving for several 4500.

Nonetheless, the 6.2 foot – not to he has also exceled at covering long- months. “However, what was incredible sad be confused with 6.2cm – journalist term, investigative stories. When they met, Stephen told him was that the money actually arrived has talked with Liverpool Life about One of these was Stephen Smith’s how he had been fighting for two too late. About a week or so before, the stories behind some of the biggest fight to get reimbursed years of years to get the basic level of benefits Stephen had died,” Liam said. exposés that he has reported for the Employment and Support Allowance to live while suffering with a number The campaign of the ManchesEcho in recent years. He also spoke benefits that had been denied to him of health conditions. ter-born journalist won an award about his feelings after a year of cov- by the government. Liam said: “I began a campaign for from the Society of Editors in 2019 ering the Covid-19 pandemic and, of “It was one of the most difficult him to get back the money that he and his reputation has grown ever course, his body mass index, which and emotional stories I probably should’ve had for the two years he since. He has been offered jobs in the led to a story about Liam, rather than by him, going viral. have ever written,” Liam said. “I was had been fighting because it was very national newspapers, in London, 

Liam began by talking about his reporting of the latest update in the saga of the Labour party elections of their candidate for the Liverpool mayoral election. The political scene in the city was thrown into chaos when the National Labour Party decided to scrap an agreed shortlist of candidates for the election in May and re-open the contest. It was one of the most difficult and emotional stories I ‘ Liam said: “It was pretty crazy. “As soon as we broke the news, probably have ever you could see prominent national journalists retweeting you. Then, everyone was coming at you like ‘give us reasons, give us answers’. written ’ Liverpool Town Hall, ©Creative Commons

but so far he has declined the offer of moving down south because – he says – he enjoys being the go-to person in Merseyside for political journalism, and he is “A northern boy at heart.” However, being one of the main political journalists in the region seems to have put a lot of pressure on Liam, especially in these pandemic times. He says that sometimes such pressure has made him to feel like he cannot switch off.

“At the moment, the news cycle is just insane and Covid just never stops,” he said.

“It’s quite a lot to handle when you are just put on this all hours of every day.”

Liam said that these circumstances, plus having to work from home all the time, led him to have “a bit of a wobble” in mid-January.

He said: “It felt like I had been writing about this really difficult, challenging and sad story for so long. It felt kind of endless because, personally, I was living with the difficulties of the pandemic and then I couldn’t escape from the misery of it either, because it was all that I was writing about.”

According to him, many journalists are dealing with similar levels of anxiety and pressure. Moreover, he said journalists have also been facing more abuse online recently.

He said: “Scrutiny is fine, but when it borders into abuse, then it becomes a problem.

“You do start to think ‘What kind of reaction am I going to get for tweeting about this story?’”

Ultimately, this has led Liam to delete the Twitter app from his phone and sometimes to leave it at home when he goes out on walks. It also has led him to block and denounce people who have sent him abusive comments online or have threatened him.

Nonetheless, the pandemic has had some funny moments as well. Recently, Liam became the main character in an hilarious and absurd situation that has been featured on the news worldwide. “I got offered the Covid-19 vaccine way ahead of time and I initially booked an appointment,” he said.

“But, the more I thought about it, the more I felt uneasy about it because it just didn’t seem right that I was ahead of so many more vulnerable people.”

After making a few phone calls, Liam discovered his height had been entered into the system as being of 6.2 cm instead of 6 foot 2 inches, which gave him a body mass index (BMI) of 28,000 – a morbidly obese person has a BMI of 40.

The story was featured by many UK news-outlets, including the BBC, the Guardian and – of course – the Echo, and even in other countries like New Zealand and Iceland. However, for Liam there is a moral from this story which is more important than how much it has been covered.

He said: “If you are in my position and you think that you have not been correctly offered the vaccine, it is worth just checking. It might just be a mistake.

“In my case that was good, because it meant that someone else could get that appointment, someone who needs it more than I do,” Liam said.

Liam certainly seems to have made inquisitiveness and triple-checking facts his second nature. Moreover, it seems like he really does care about Liverpool and her people. This is perhaps why he might just be the greatest political editor in the history of the city – albeit not the smallest.

If you are in my position and you think that you have not been correctly offered the vaccine, it is worth just checking ’

Coming home? Maybe!

CHARLIE BAKER-MULLINGS

Liverpool Opinion

In the past week, reports have surfaced that the UK is in pole position to host this summer’s European Championships.

Initially, the Euros were scheduled to take place in the summer of 2020 and as last year would have marked the 60th anniversary of Europe’s biggest international football tournament, UEFA took the decision that they would not have one host, but 12 host cities around Europe, with Wembley hosting the final.

However, after the coronavirus pandemic caused the tournament to be postponed by a year, UEFA are now looking into reverting back to a more traditional one-host-nation format to allow as many fans as possible to attend.

Thanks to the rapid vaccination roll-out, excellent infrastructure and plethora of ready-made stadiums to choose from, the UK has now become the frontrunner to be given honour of playing host.

More than 20m people have already received their first vaccination across the UK which is the highest number in the world, and this week the UK population also received a ray of hope from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who set out his ‘road-map’ for the next few months and stated – bar any major complications – the UK should be back to some kind of normal by the middle of June, including fans being able to attend sports events from May.

It was after this announcement that Italian journalist Tancredi Palmeri posted a tweet claiming that England [the UK] is being seriously considered to be sole host and that a decision will be made by sometime in April.

With games already scheduled to be played at Wembley (North London), Hampden Park (Glasgow) and the Aviva Stadium (Dublin), these grounds would keep all those fixtures in place.

It is also likely that should the Euros come to the UK, that Old Trafford (Manchester), Villa Park (Birmingham), the Millennium Stadium (Cardiff) would also be shoe-ins to host games due to their capacities, locations and historical significance, henceforth taking the stadium tally up to six.

There would be a huge opportunity for Anfield to also be a key host stadium, as capacity-wise it has been increased to 54,000 in recent years, with a complete renovation of the Main Stand being completed in 2016, and given that the last time England hosted the Euros in 1996, Anfield was used, it is more than likely to happen again.

During Euro 2016, which was held in France, ten stadiums were used, and this is more than likely to remain the same. Newcastle’s St. James’ Park would be a contender, as it is the biggest stadium in the North-East, while it is likely that the Olympic Stadium in East London would battle with the newly-built Tottenham Hotspur Stadi um for the secondary London-based stadium slot.

Brighton’s AMEX Stadium could also be in contention to provide some South-coast representation.

Although a decision is not set to be made for at least another six weeks, the current state of play across Europe would imply that there is a very strong chance the UK will be hosting the European Championships this summer.

EUROS FACT FILE

The European Championships (colloquially known as The Euros) is an international football tournament for Europe’s best national teams • Takes place every four years, two years before/after the World Cup • Teams qualify through a qualification process involving 55 nations • 24 teams compete in the tournament – this recently increased from 16 teams starting in 2016 • The group stage consists of six groups of 4, with the top two from each group advancing to the knockout rounds, and the four best 3rd place teams also qualifying to create a round of 16 • The tournament then takes up a knockout format – round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, final • Portugal won the most recent iteration of the competition in 2016 – no country from the UK has ever won or even got to the final • Germany and Spain are the most successful teams in competition history, tied on 3 wins each

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