Archives for November 2011

It was absolutely gruelling yesterday facing the Leveson inquiry. Not because anyone there was unpleasant - indeed everyone was warm and supportive. But because, in the past few days, I had become gradually more aware that I was sticking my head "above the parapet".

That's why I looked tired and at least 105 years old, honest, I hadn't had a lot of sleep worrying about it all. The reporting of my evidence in today's papers reflects absolutely the newspapers' attitude towards gutter journalism and their particular part in my story. The Mirror reports the critical things I said about Murdoch. The Sun reports my saying that not all popular journalism was bad and that I had indeed done some great campaigning and fund-raising with them. They totally ignored the 90 per cent of my evidence that was highly critical of them! The Daily Mail just reported me as though I were some "celebrity", and missed some of the points I was making about press standards - perhaps because their editor has been very outspoken about not needing a regulatory body.

But as you will see from the utterly gobsmacking evidence being given today by some former reporters - we really have much, much more to see come out of this quagmire. I am finding the evidence utterly riveting. I think once the public hear today's evidence from the horses' mouths - the reporters who actually have committed some of these jaw-dropping practices, they may start to understand what the more famous "victims" have been complaining about.

So said one of my guests this morning whilst we were talking about the Leveson Inquiry. I'm due to give evidence to the inquiry myself next Monday, so I've been taking a particular interest in the proceedings.

How come we have a culture which apparently accepts that celebrities don't deserve a private life because they "court" publicity, a culture where tabloid journalists will do almost anything to get a story, and where, as Hugh Grant put it at the inquiry, "hate sells".

It has happened because these things have developed slowly and steadily over many years. Drip feed.

But it doesn't mean we cannot stop the drip feed and review this culture, and address it.

I think Hugh Grant was immensely impressive. But particularly articulate was Joan Smith, the writer and former partner of MP Dennis McShane, who spoke of the underlying misogyny of the tabloid press whose hacks behave like children. They are, she said obsessed with sex, they're infantile, remorseless and pitiless.

"We're all two dimensional to them", she said, "just fodder for a story".

...All next week on BBC Radio Berkshire Anne, will be hearing the stories of Berkshire's hidden homeless. Anne has been out with the team from St Mungo's and Launchpad in Reading to meet some of the people who have found themselves without a roof over their heads.

In the picture above you can see Anne in a small area of woodland just outside Reading town centre, a stonesthrow from where many of you might live or shop. Here, astonishingly, six or seven people have set up home under canvas as they have no where else to live.

On Monday you can hear Anne share the tales of what she has seen, and Julie's story. Julie is from Reading and after problems with alcohol caused her to fight with her family she found herself on the streets with just the clothes she was standing in. Julie tells Anne about the low times she faced and the heartwarming kindness of complete strangers.

Anne Diamond meets Berkshire's hidden homeless, starting Monday 21st November from Midday.

I love Baroness Trumpington of Sandwich, and not just cos of her name - though it is brilliant!

She's 89. She helped break Hitler's codes during the war at Bletchley Park. She's known for being a feisty outspoken woman - which is why, I guess, she is still sitting in the House of Lords doing her thing as only she can.

In 1989, she was the country's oldest female minister (Agriculture, Fish and Food) and when she was a guest on Desert Island Discs she chose as her luxury object the Crown Jewels, since she thought it would increase her chances of a quick rescue!

Today, however, she made the Daily Mail in a picture of which she may (or may not) be proud. She was caught by the cameras doing a two fingered salute to a fellow peer, Lord King (who I used to know quite well when he was the local MP for my first newspaper, the Bridgwater Mercury, in Somerset)

Whether or not the great lady intended a two fingered salute, she is not a stranger to interesting photos.

I thought you'd like this one. Unusual, to say the least.

Apparently she's a member of the Parliamentary Smokers' Club! Clearly smoking agrees with her!

The Leveson inquiry starts today and already many observers are asking if it can possibly do any good. Its remit is to look at not only phone-hacking but also press culture, practice and ethics. And it is about time we asked whether or not we have the press we want or the press we deserve - because we do indeed have, perhaps by default, a press whose values have been distorted or warped by its very worst members. (I'm one of the so-called 'core participants' and will be giving evidence some time in the next couple of weeks.)

Hugh Grant puts it particularly well when he says it's all a bit like going to buy a bottle of milk.

When an actor, tv presenter or so-called celeb does an interview to promote something they're doing, they're exchanging the interview for a bit of much-needed publicity. The newspaper gets an interview which will help sell the paper. It's a fair exchange.

Just like the fair exchange you make when you give money to the milkman for the milk.

But just embarking upon that deal does NOT give you the right to demand further pints of milk for free or indeed break into the milkman's house and raid his fridge.

You start to see his reasoning? I do.

Throughout my career, whenever certain members of the red-top press have sought to defend an invasion of my privacy here or an overzealous pursuit of me there, they have always said something like: 'you seek publicity when it suits you, you cannot complain...' Indeed, that very argument was used against me in a Press Complaints commission hearing some years ago - and was summarily dismissed.

What some papers would never acknowledge was that they wouldn't write about you (good or bad) or splash your picture all over their front page if they didn't think it would help them sell their newspaper.

In other words, their use of you was almost entirely for their commercial gain. I say almost entirely, because I also believe that, in some cases, their zeal to report on some victims was more than that - perhaps even malicious...

If you'd like to read what he thinks - and why - and what, hopefully Leveson might achieve, have a look at this piece in today's 'i' newspaper - My View, by Mary Ann Sieghart. She argues that Leveson must find a way of making things easier and cheaper for victims of bad press. Perhaps we don't want to go as far as having an Ofcom style quango for the press, but we do need something stronger than the present system.

There must be a few!

Met up with sports broadcasting legend Dickie Davis today who is supporting a great campaign to help what we used to call "the old and cold" - those elderly people who live in fuel poverty.

Those who can afford their heating bills should think, suggests Dickie, of giving back their government fuel allowance, in order to help others directly. Enter the Berkshire Community Foundation who've launched "Surviving Winter" which could enable you, if you're more comfortably off, to join in.

...my laptop is back to her old, beautiful self and working like a dream. What's more, I did NOT have to pay for the repair. They conceded that I'd been to them before, back when the machine was still under warranty. Interesting, they couldn't actually find a record of my previous visit on their computer.

But then I fired up my laptop - and there it was, on my old emails!

So they graciously bowed, and admitted there was 'surely some mistake' - and dismissed the bill entirely!

Thanks to them for being so understanding! Well done!

...well, you know what I mean.

I've got this wonderful little paper thin laptop that suddenly started to behave badly just about a year after the year's warranty ran out. Now I'm told it has needed a new hard drive and I'm going to have to pay for it!

Aaagh!

But life is almost impossible without it.

I'll have to put up a fight - that it started going wrong well within warranty. I'll tell you how I do tomorrow. I'll probably come home with a fortune's worth of new computer gadgetry anyway. That well known fruit shop is a very dangerous place for me to visit.