Early Life
Born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, in 1963, Robinson was interested in political journalism from the age of eight. He was educated at Cheadle Hulme School and University College, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. In 1982, while travelling in Europe, he survived a car crash in Lille, France, in which the car, a two-door Beetle, exploded and his friends James Nelson and Will Redhead (son of Brian Redhead, a journalist and co-presenter of Today on BBC Radio 4) were killed. Robinson was "severely burned", spent five weeks in hospital and had to defer his university place. Brian Redhead became Robinson's mentor, and later encouraged his career in political journalism, giving him a copy of Tony Benn's Arguments for Socialism for his birthday. However, Robinson's early political affiliations were to the right: At university he was President of the Oxford University Conservative Association; in 1986, he spent a year as national chairman of the Young Conservatives, and earned the nickname "Blue Robbo", in reference to Derek Robinson, a trade union spokesman who was known as "Red Robbo".
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