A friend in need
Sir: It really is courageous of Bruce Ander- son (Politics, 18 October) to accept that doubts exist about Neil Hamilton's guilt. After all, Mr Anderson is famous for being political columnist-in-residence to whoso- ever happens to be Conservative leader (as his recent sycophantic comments on Mr Hague confirm); and the aim of the Tory high command is to make Neil Hamilton a distant memory of an unsavoury period in British politics that ended in May.
There is ample material in the Downey report itself to sow doubts among reason- ably open-minded people. Evidence provid- ed by two of Mr Al Fayed's employees proved crucial in convincing Sir Gordon Downey that Neil Hamilton had received cash payments from Mr Al Fayed. Yet employer and employees gave differing accounts of the manner in which money was passed to Mr Hamilton and of the amounts involved. Furthermore, in the employees' evidence some events were recalled in detail ten years after they had occurred, but others — particularly where a perfect memory might have proved awkward — had been obliterated by the passage of time and could only be dimly called to mind.
Many take the view that in these matters friendship is not exactly an asset in seeking truth, and I am a close friend of Neil and Christine Hamilton. Friendship does, how- ever, confer certain advantages. People engaged in a prolonged campaign to con- ceal misconduct are unlikely to be able to sustain falsehood in private conversation over many hours accompanied by a certain amount of alcohol. In all my conversations with the Hamiltons I have never had cause to doubt their innocence.
Alistair Cooke Flat 1, 68 St George's Square, London SW1
Previous page
