Rewriting history
Sir: Keeping track of the extraordinary things written by Mr Panagiotis Theodora- copulos (Taki for short and he is) is never easy, but when he states (High life, 12 October) that Mr Mohamed Al Fayed 'set out to screw the Tory Party for the citizen- ship snub and, as they say in Hollywood, he sure did some screwing', it is simple to demonstrate the falsity of his words.
The Home Office turned down Mr Al Fayed's application for naturalisation on 23 February 1995. The first story detailing Mr Al Fayed's disclosures of corruption in the Tory ranks appeared in the Guardian on 19 October 1994 — more than four months before. If anyone did some screwing, it was Mr Theodoracopulos with the facts. Here is another example.
His account of how he abandoned his ill- judged libel action against Mr Al Fayed has all the Taki touches but conveniently misses out what you really need to know. When he pulled out from the action on 27 June this year, his solicitors, Peter Carter-Ruck and Partners, insisted on a clause that neither party nor their advisers should make any comment whatsoever about the terms of the settlement except to say that the pro- ceedings had been dismissed.
I thought Mr Theodoracopulos was so pathetic that I did not even bother to issue a press release of the agreed two-sentence statement; now your columnist uses your pages to rewrite history in contravention of his own confidentiality undertaking. He is right in only one respect — Mr Al Fayed was magnanimous in not insisting upon his costs because he doubted that the plaintiff could pay, the baklava business not being so good these days.
By the way, Mr Al Fayed is not 'pledged to rub the Tories' faces in the dirt'; he has no grudge against Mr Major but does insist that a high court judge must be appointed to undertake an inquiry into all the circum- stances surrounding the political conspiracy of which he has been a victim since 1985. Michael Cole
Harrods, Knightsbridge, London SW1
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