About two months after the Council had upheld my complaint about the lying attribution to Republicans for all the fatalities arising from the conflict in Northeastern Ireland since 1969, three London newspapers, all on the same morning, published exactly the same lie . An elderly gentleman in Birmingham contacted me and complained to the Press Council about THE DAILY EXPRESS and its stablemate THE DAILY STAR. Another 9 months elapsed before the Council upheld the complaint. You will remember that like a well-trained Corgi the Council censured a tabloid for inoffensive photographs of the pregnant Princess Diana in a Bikini.
I complained to the Press Council about THE DAILY MAIL but it arranged, some weeks later to publish about two lines correcting its story which had been published, splashed over three quarters of a page beside its Editorial.
The lies had been published under the name of their source – Sir Humphrey Atkins, Northern Ireland Secretary,
The three papers’ onslaught was directed at the Greater London Council leader Ken Livingstone. Recognising the growing popularity of Sinn Fein at the polls, the GLC had invited some of its members to put their case to Londoners. To understand what people are, said the right-winger Trevor Philips, in THE TIMES, about a week ago, you should see its enemies.
Ken Livingstone and the GLC were hosting Sinn Fein and ANC speakers when the Tories would have hanged them.
But time moved on. The British public recognised the Press Council as a toothless and useless institution. So it changed its name to THE PRESS COMPLAINTS COMMISSION, retaining its old Staff.
Sir Humphrey Atkins disappeared and reappeared as Baron Colnbrook, KCMG, PC. He emerged as Chairman of The Press Complaints Commission.
As a paid-up reader of The Times I would have no locus-standi with the Commission if I were to lodge a complaint such as I had made with its predecessor under the new rules.
I would have to be a member of the IRA to be eligible.
Lewis Carroll, Kafka and Joseph Heller between them could not have conjured up such a perfect Swindle.
By the way, Christopher Thomas went on to be Correspondent for THE TIMES in New York and India.
Then he vanished and no record of his existence is traceable on the Internet. Did he die of shame or did he become such an embarrassment to his employers that they done him in?
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