Barclays' banking
From Andrew Neil Sir: Stephen Glover's entirely speculative article (Media studies, 7 February) about what might happen to the Daily Telegraph under the Barclays was remarkably bereft of facts even by his normal fact-free standards — and one of the few 'facts' he did deploy was actually untrue.
'Under Mr Neil's watch,' he wrote, 'millions were lavished on the European before it closed.' He is not the first media commentator to promulgate this canard — it is sloppily recycled by most at every opportunity — but he is just as wrong as all the rest, as a moment's research would have discovered.
The Barclays bought the European in 1992 and closed it in 1998. For much of that time I was editor of the Sunday Times, where I was blamed for many things, but never the losses of the European. I took it over in May 1997 and ran it — though only as editor-in-chief, not chief executive responsible for its finances — until December 1998, during which time the losses fell from over £10 million a year to under £6 million a year, their lowest ever, The Barclays were nevertheless advised (though not by me) to close it at the end of 1998 because they had just acquired Sunday Business and there was concern at the prospect of running two loss-making publications.
So, contrary to Mr Glover's assertion, the vast bulk of the £60 million or so the Barclays are reported to have lost during their six-year ownership of the European clearly did not happen 'under Mr Neil's watch'.
By the way, is this not the same Mr Glover who, several years ago, wrote confidently in your magazine that the Barclays would soon sell the Scotsman and be out of newspapers altogether? I warned him at the time that it was untrue — indeed I assured him they were anxious to acquire more newspapers (an assurance events have since vindicated) — but he airily dismissed my representations, saying he had better sources than I.
I have never seen Mr Glover correct (or apologise for) this avoidable error. Perhaps when he does we might take his subsequent media prognostications a little more seriously.
Andrew Neil Publisher, Scotsman Newspapers and the Business, London SW I
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