Sir: On the evening when Michael Vestey puts me in
the Newsnight studio telling Jere- my Paxman to drop a grovelling note to Peter Mandelson, I was actually at home. I watched Newsnight and did not talk to any- one about it until the next day. Whatever Jeremy wrote, he did it unprompted by me or anyone else so far as I know. Anyone who knows and admires him as I do will find the suggestion that it was a 'grovel' laughable.
As for whether I was 'acting on the orders of . . . Sir John Birt', I wasn't acting for any- one. Damn it, I wasn't even acting! Sir John has never spoken to me about the Newsnight incident, nor have I heard from him about it directly or indirectly. Sony to disappoint.
Richard Ayre
BBC News, Television Centre, Wood Lane, London W12
Michael Vestey writes: I must accept Richard Ayre's statement that he was not in the Newsnight studio on the night of the Pax- man-Parris interview, despite information I had to the contrary, as well as that con- tained in Mr Paxman's letter. Following his example I might even hand in a note of apology on his doorstep. However, Mr Ayre's letter thickens the plot. It is a pity he fails to elaborate on the precise circum- stances of Mr Paxman's letter to Peter Man- delson and the memo he composed with Anne Sloman banning any mention of Peter Mandelson's name in the news coverage of the incident. I, too, find it hard to imagine Jeremy Paxman grovelling, but this is the impression given by the whole absurd affair. I agree entirely with Mr Paxman's view that people's private lives are their own affair, but in his questioning of Matthew Parris he invited his interviewee to name Cabinet ministers who were homosexual, thus spark- ing the controversy about Mandelson.
Incidentally, I was too young to retire from the BBC. I left it voluntarily to do other things, and after the way in which this incident has been handled I am very glad I did so.
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