By Dominic Ponsford
As assignments go, being told to walk from London to Edinburgh must be among the more outrageous newsdesk requests.
But luckily Sun man Tim Spanton is a keen walker and thoroughly enjoying his 430-mile trek to the G8 summit.
Spanton, 48, was given just two days’ notice
that he would be embarking on the Long Walk to Justice. Previous
assignments have included dressing up as a snail to meet Ken
Livingstone after he started the congestion charge and meeting Claire
Short dressed as a bug when she accused the US government of bugging
the UN.
He spoke to Press Gazette as he was somewhere just north
of Melton Mowbray. He said: “I don’t actually own a car, I walk to work
and I normally walk about 20 miles at the weekend so I think they
thought this was a natural job for me.”
Spanton started his
career on weekly titles the Cambridge Times and Ely Standard before
moving on to the Doncaster Evening Post and then The News in
Portsmouth. He has been at The Sun since 1997 and before that worked on
the News of the World for 10 years where, among other things, he donned
tights and a cape to dress up as Captain Cash.
He said: “This
isn’t the oddest assignment I’ve ever had, but it’s certainly the
longest.” By Tuesday he had walked 156 miles in six days and was on
course to reach Edinburgh by 2 July
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