ANOTHER VOICE
Freude, schoner Gotterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium
AUBERON WAUGH
On the second of the two occasions on which I found myself sitting next to Sir Denis Hamilton at a luncheon party, I told him that I thought his greatest achievement in journalism was to have closed down the Sunday Times for the best part of a year, during the glorious lockout of 1979, but that against this must be weighed the responsibility for having closed down the Times for the same period at the same time. Probably few people remember it now, but the Times in those days was an intelligent, well-written newspaper under the benign, impish editorship of the great Sir William Rees-Mogg. It was a blow from which British journalism is only now begin- ning to recover, with the arrival in its place of the Independent. But the Independent's crossword is still hopelessly galumphing and humourless compared to that of the Times and it was a difficult period for the nation's husbands when they found their wives deprived of the Times crossword.
I was not sure how well disposed Sir Denis was to take this highly qualified commendation from a man who was 20 years his junior. In fact, despite my noto- rious insensitivity to these things, I sus- pected there might be a certain lack of that joyous bonhomie and rapport which nor- mally springs up between two journalists. On the strength of Hamilton's excellent war service in the Durham Light Infantry — he ended the war as a brigadier — I might have hoped to have found a soul- mate. But it was not to be. He died last week before I had the opportunity to congratulate him on recent improvements in the Sunday Times — admittedly some years after he left it — including its delightful leader page column by Susan Crosland, who sets the pace for Ingrams and myself on the Observer and Sunday Telegraph respectively, and the best Insight column I have ever read.
Perhaps the time has come to make amends to the shade of Sir Denis. He it was who invented the Insight idea, whereby a team of journalists works over a particular subject, sometimes for many months, until they have enough material to write a book on it. Over the years, it has been responsi- ble for more boredom than the entire Bench of Bishops. Because of the English libel laws, which make it hazardous to attribute a motive or even suggest a conne- xion between two established truths, these articles have read as a list of inconsequen-
tial facts, generally relating to a subject in which practically nobody is interested.
This Sunday, however, within the week of Sir Denis's death, the Sunday Times Insight team came up with a story which will have caused immense happiness to all who have been associated with the maga- zine Private Eye, and might be used as an example of the surviving spirit of free enterprise in Mrs Thatcher's Britain. It concerns Mr Paul Halloran, Private Eye's handsome, popular chief investigative journalist (also known as O'Hanrahans or Hanratty) a man who contributed much to the pleasant atmosphere of my last years on the Eye.
Halloran has always had a finger in many pies. Only a few weeks ago he gave an amusing story about Literary Review to the Mail on Sunday. A little enquiry revealed that he has an arrangement with the Mail on Sunday by which he is expected to draw its attention to any interesting snippets which come into the Private Eye office. Despite this arrangement, the very biggest stories which come into the Eye office like the one brought by an informant who claimed, falsely, that he had seen Jeffrey Archer consorting with a prostitute seem to end up with the News of the World. No doubt when Mr Stewart Steven, the Mail on Sunday's editor, saw the amount of damages which the News of the World paid for that particular story, he was heartily relieved.
I have not heard it suggested that Hallor- an had anything to do with setting up the `sting' whereby News of the World staff staked out the prostitute concerned and photographed the moment when Archer's money was handed over to her, nor is there any reason to suppose he was involved in it. What is suggested in the Sunday Times article is that he has been involved in a `sting' of quite another sort, involving bogus arms deals with Khomeini's Iran.
`Insight can reveal that for at least seven years, Halloran has supplemented his Pri- vate Eye income by acting as a London- based "fixer" for two American arms dealers and US government informers.' This statement, written with all the solemnity of prose which has been mulled over long and hard by the newspapers legal department, appeared on the front page under the heading 'Exposed: Eye journalist in bogus arms deal'.
How I clapped my hands and danced with joy when I read it, vowing to write nothing rude about the Sunday Times for at least three months. Of course, there is not the faintest suggestion that Halloran has been involved in anything illegal. That would not be something to rejoice about. What these two enterprising Americans did, apparently, was to lure other Amer- ican arms dealers into deals to supply the Khomeini regime with weapons. Then they exposed them to the American authorities, claiming a reward based on the value of the deal.
Nor was my reason for rejoicing any- thing to do with the possible embarrass- ment these revelations would cause Hallor- an. Nobody likes to see an old friend embarrassed. No doubt he will think of other ways of supplementing his income from Private Eye. Part of my joy was in reflecting that someone has found a way of surviving on the miserable wages paid by that magazine. In 16 years' labouring for it — by the end, in 1986, my wages were just nudging the £5,000 mark — I found myself writing for the most extraordinary publica- tions, but it certainly never occurred to me to offer arms to the Khomeini regime and then tip off the American authorities.
Part of my joy was, as I say, in the fact that the spirit of free enterprise still sur- vived in Britain, even if on this occasion it had manifested itself in the activities of a Cook Islander; part in the fact that after 25 years or so, the Sunday Times Insight team had at last come up with a good story.
One hopes it is true. How desperately one hopes it is true! Unfortunately, at this stage, Halloran seems disposed to deny it. He explains a payment of $25,000 from one of the bounty hunters as being repayment of a loan; he explains an air trip to Texas as being in search of journalistic information; he explains the opening of a dollar account for them as the sort of thing anyone would do for an informant. "I know it is alleged that I'm involved with Howard and Tuck- er," he says. "I did not know what was going on." ' No doubt Sir Denis Hamilton is looking down from Heaven, in company with that Big Boy Scout in the Sky.
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