David Cracknell is a former journalist in the United Kingdom. Formerly political editor of ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'', he is head of a public relations firm, Big Tent Communications.

Early life

Cracknell attended Forest School in London and later went on to

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located on Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England and VI of Scotland, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale ...

. While at Oxford, his short story ''Alternative Medicine'' was published by Margaret Drabble in the first series of '' The Mays''.

Journalism career

Prior to launching his own consultancy in 2008, he covered politics for newspapers for over 15 years, including stints at ''

The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, first published on 5 February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Tele ...

'',

Press Association PA Media (formerly the Press Association) is a multimedia news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and ...

and finally being political editor at ''

''. He also helped found ''

Sunday Business ''Sunday Business'' was a national Sunday broadsheet financial newspaper published in the United Kingdom, which ran from 1996 to 2006, when it was turned into a magazine called '' The Business''. History The newspaper was founded by Tom Rubyth ...

'' with Jeff Randall in 1998. During his seven years as political editor of ''The Sunday Times'', Cracknell contributed to "an extraordinary run of Whitehall scoops" which exposed

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

's government. On 23 May 2004, he revealed the doubts of Foreign Secretary

Jack Straw John Whitaker Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State, as Home Secretar ...

that tactics in Iraq were "heavy handed". Another big story came in April 2004 when he revealed a series of leaked cabinet papers on

David Blunkett David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett, (born 6 June 1947) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Education and Employment from 1997 to 2001, Home Secretary from 2001 to 2004 and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in 2005. ...

's plan to introduce compulsory ID cards. On 8 August 2004, it was revealed that Sir David Omand, the UK's intelligence and security coordinator, had told a meeting of the British cabinet he was launching a major leak inquiry, which ended up costing an estimated £1 million. Cracknell obtained a leaked document written by

Alastair Campbell Alastair John Campbell (born 25 May 1957) is a British journalist, author, strategist, broadcaster, and activist, who is known for his political roles during Tony Blair's leadership of the Labour Party. Campbell worked as Blair's spokesman an ...

shortly before the 2005 general election which claimed that the Labour Party was "home and dry".

Business career

Following his departure from ''

'', he was a managing director at PR firm FD, formerly Financial Dynamics, as well as being chairman of its public affairs division, where he advised

Northern Rock Northern Rock, formerly the Northern Rock Building Society, was a British bank. Based at Regent Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, Northern Rock was originally a building society. It demutualised and became Northern Rock bank in ...

on its recovery plan following the bank being taken into public ownership. He left in August 2008 to found his own communications firm, Big Tent Communications, of which he is managing director.

Personal life

Cracknell lives in London and Rye, East Sussex and is married with three children. In 2007 Cracknell played piano on a single by Gabrielle and

Paul Weller John William Weller (born 25 May 1958), better known as Paul Weller, is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Weller achieved fame in the late 1970s as the guitarist and principal singer and songwriter of the rock band the Jam, alongside ...

called "

Why Why may refer to: * Causality, a consequential relationship between two events * Reason (argument), a premise in support of an argument, for what reason or purpose * Grounding (metaphysics), a topic in metaphysics regarding how things exist in v ...

External links

Big Tent Communications

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cracknell, David British male journalists The Sunday Times people Living people Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford People educated at Forest School, Walthamstow Year of birth missing (living people)