Sceptical and confident
From Mr Conrad Black Sir: Stephen Glover's article (Media studies, 11 December) contained several inaccura- cies in reference to the Daily Telegraph. That newspaper has not 'unwaveringly opposed the Good Friday Agreement'. It has been sceptical of promises that have not, in fact, been kept, but supportive. Mr Blair and Mr Mandelson exerted no pressure on me over the Telegraph's Ulster policy and there was certainly no attempted recourse to 'bullying'. The Daily Telegraph editorial of 26 Novem- ber said that it was unaware of any reason to abandon Mr Trimble's 'no guns [decommis- sioned], no [IRA participation in] govern- ment' stance of last summer, but that if there were material changes unknown to us which justified Mr Trimble's faith in an early start to IRA weapons decommissioning, our views would change.
Mr Glover is correct in asserting that I have confidence in the editor, Charles Moore, but he is so evidently deserving of it that that hardly merits Mr Glover's con- gratulations, any more than Mr Blair, on this subject at least, deserves his strictures. Conrad Black
Chairman, Telegraph Group Ltd, Canary Wharf, London E14
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