LETTERS You're Fayed
Sir: It must be very frustrating for John Plender to have spent six years writing hos- tile articles and fronting hopelessly one- sided television programmes about this company and its principals only to see his efforts come to nought, but for his own sake he really ought not to let pique rule him quite so strongly as it does in 'Rubbing shoulders with the Queen' (5 February).
He sneers at Mr Mohamed Al Fayed's work for Great Ormond Street Hospital without realising that his involvement began four years before he acquired House of Fraser and is inspired solely by the hos- pital's life-saving treatment of his infant son; to uncharitable people the knowledge of others doing good can clearly enrage, but Mr Plender must endeavour to keep his demons under control.
Harrods' sponsorship of the Royal Windsor Horse Show began four years before Mr Al Fayed acquired the company. He honoured the existing contract not because he wished to be seen 'rubbing shoulders with the Queen', but because it would not have occurred to him to break his predecessor's commitment.
The House of Fraser pension fund employed most of the best practices recom- mended in the wake of the MGN scandal long before Robert Maxwell's death. Mr Plender's assertion that the House of Fras- er (Stores) pension fund 'will have been segregated from that of the parent compa- ny at the time of the float' is disingenuous. The pension fund has always been run by independent trustees.
Mr Plender says that it is `to protect investors' that Mr Al Fayed and his broth- ers will have no shareholding nor manage- ment representation in the floated compa- ny House of Fraser (Stores). The real rea- son of course is that the Fayed brothers are selling the stores in their entirety and wish no further involvement. To suggest other- wise is puerile. Mr Plender alleges 'lavish hospitality' to 'most of the Third Estate'. I doubt if I have lunched three journalists in the last year; I suspect it's a poor week for Mr Plender when he doesn't enjoy at least three free lunches.
We have never accepted the validity of the DTI report on the takeover of House of Fraser and it is to Mr Al Fayed's credit that he has challenged the inquisitorial nature of such enquiries at the European Court of Human Rights. Mr Plender seeks to dimin- ish that success. He ridicules 'the mere phrase' human rights because it 'carries an aura of sanctity about it' — strange indeed from a postulant to the Chattering Class. If he doesn't like 'human rights', what about fair play'? By any standard the Fayed brothers did not experience it at the hands of the DTI inspectors. The European Court will determine matters in due course, but Mr Plender is clearly fearful that it will find for the appellant.
He commends to us his television pro- gramme The Harrods Sale, transmitted on a summer Sunday afternoon in 1988 to an audience of three dozing pensioners and a parakeet. He spent nearly an hour on his subject without ever mentioning that the sale could not have happened had not Tiny Rowland sold his shares to Mr Al Fayed on not one but two occasions — somewhat akin to describing the Battle of Waterloo without mentioning Napoleon's deploy- ment of the Old Guard.
For his part, Mr Al Fayed is quite con- tent to have his achievements judged by his customers. Of one thing you can be sure, he will not be concerned whether or not he will ever be a member of White's. In expressing the opinion that he is not eligi- ble for White's, Mr Plender is either dis- playing an innate racial prejudice or exhibiting once again the sort of attitude which diminishes this country.
Mr Al Fayed had the temerity to bring in from abroad £615 million of his own money and invest it in this country. He did so at a time when the pound was flat on its back and the economy was in crisis. He has carried on investing in Britain. He has developed his companies. He has won the approval of
many people by his sheer doggedness in the face of an unprecedented campaign against him, of which Mr Plender was merely a part. He has succeeded, and that is really what Mr Plender cannot forgive.
Michael Cole
Director of Public Affairs , Harrods Limited, Knightsbridge, London SW1
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