My father was a journalist for 50 years in Leeds and Fleet Street. I thought about a career in business to show I could do something different, but the reaction among prospective employers was, shall we say, underwhelming.

As a cub reporter, I devoured books about journalism.

We British play an important role in Europe, even if we have a traditional and historical ambivalence towards the continent.

While the web is very much the first draft of history, a rough-cut, it still has to be good journalism, well-sourced, reliable. Clearly, the printed form is going to have more effort put into it, going to be more reflective and relevant.

Thanks to social media such as Facebook and Twitter, a far wider range of people take part in gathering, filtering and distributing news.

But I do think that Brexit, an exit of Britain from the European Union, would trigger real pressure on the United Kingdom.

My own special relationship with America began at an early age. My father, a fellow journalist, named me after Franklin Delano Roosevelt.