DIARY
When I was appointed chairman of Associated Newspapers, I asked Lord Rothermere for a job description. He replied, 'David, you know very well what a newspaper chairman's job is. You must protect the editors from the management, while at the same time protecting the edi- tors from themselves.' What I had not bar- gained for, however, was that I would also have to protect both journalists and man- agement from a malign force of ignorance — namely the Government. Leaving aside VAT, it poses two other threats: first, pri- vacy legislation, and, second, the rigid cross-media restrictions which prevent newspapers from owning more than 20 per cent of a television or radio station. This was supposed to further competition, to stop the growth of monopolies and the con- centration of political power. But the law of unintended results invariably applies to modern British legislation, and the Broad- casting Act was no exception. Rupert Mur- doch was brave enough to see that satellite television would be the way round these regulations. Now he and his partners in Sky, which he controls, are building a fear- some multi-channel monopoly. British independent television companies, artifi- cially restricted to regional midgetry, get smaller and smaller in relative terms as continental and American companies merge and enlarge. The biggest British independent television company barely makes it into the top 30 television organisa- tions in Europe. How are we going to com- pete in this world of giant wheeler-dealers? ITV companies should be allowed to merge, and newspaper companies, with their experience of sales and marketing, should not be banned from buying them. Otherwise most independent British televi- sion will fall into foreign hands and news- paper profits will be invested in overseas stations, for all publishing companies must become multi-media to survive. Many offi- cials and parliamentarians seem unaware of this. They point out that it is less than five Years since the act and it would be better to let things 'settle down' before serious amendments are made. What an amazing attitude. Don't they know that the world of digital compression and interactive televi- sion is exploding at demonic speed? It's rather like the Romans asking Mount Vesuvius to settle down in 79 BC.
Meanwhile, Rupert Murdoch contin- ues to construct his digital highway in the *Y. This Government (and no doubt oth- ers) mutters under its breath about his increasing power. But surely Rupert is just a man who falls in love with new ideas and the fun of developing them first. Having DAVID ENGLISH said that, I must admit he can be somewhat unnerving even in jest. Some weeks ago, he asked if we were interested in the Indepen- dent. I said that as the Daily Mail no longer regarded the Express as a major rival and a reinvigorated Independent could usefully divert our real competition, the Daily Tele- graph, I hoped that it would survive. I added that I couldn't see anyone buying it except for a musical price (and that was not on offer) because the cost of making it
viable would be vast. 'Much more than vast,' Murdoch replied. 'And I'll tell you why.' He proceeded to let me into his plans
to drop the price of the Times. Then, seeing my face, he touched my arm solicitously and added, 'Don't worry about the Tele- graph. Leave them to me. I'll put them out of business for you.'
Iinvited John Smith to lunch and he was fun. Unlike his predecessor, Neil Kinnock, who refused to enter our headquarters, Smith thoroughly enjoys a knock-down- and-drag-out meal with the capitalist press. He has decided to press the cause of single mothers in opposition to the Tory tactics of denouncing them. He refused to accept the findings that the children of single parents (nearly always mothers) fare more badly in school and are more likely to be involved in criminal activity. Such surveys, he said, were warped because these children were victims of poverty not one-parent families. He seemed not to know about research conducted amongst the poorest part of the population, like for like, which shows chil- dren with two parents perform better in school and are more law-abiding than those with just one. He must read the conclu- sions, we said, of King and Elliot in the soon to be published Oxford Text Book of Medicine. That brought about a change of subject and we talked about his heart attack. Going back to work, he explained, had speeded and completed his recovery, so he was pleased to see Michael Heseltine returning. 'It's the best way to get better,' he said. 'I know. And, anyway, what else would Michael be doing if he wasn't back in
the House?' It was a good question, for Heseltine has not been enjoying his enforced convalescence. He told me in Blackpool that he had done something he had never had time to do before. He had watched a great deal of television. And? It had disgusted him. The 'transatlantic rub- bish' was mindless and appalling. He just couldn't stand it. The violence and the gore of television was one of the reasons for the increase in crime in Britain. Could nothing be done about it then? 'I don't know,' replied the great interventionist. 'But I dread to think where society is going with it.'
hen Margaret Thatcher heard that
the friends of Larry Lamb were giving a pri- vate dinner for him, she re-arranged her diary so that she could come. 'Larry did so much for me and our party,' she said. The once formidable editor of the Sun has spent months recovering from a massive heart attack and, as he himself says, 'Don't get around much any more,' so Margaret's presence meant a lot. She was immensely solicitous, listening to his views, gently ask- ing how he spent his days, talking about the old times, showing quite the opposite face to the one she had turned on Sir Robin Day the week before. Day (who seems heartily fit) tried his regular line of chat with her. 'I'm getting so old,' he wailed, 'I don't know what will become of me.' Don't talk such nonsense,' she answered briskly. `But I'm nearly seventy!' he quavered, gaz- ing at her expectantly. 'What am I sup- posed to do?' I have seen the old fraud try this technique on a number of comely young women at parties. It invariably brings out their maternal instincts and they often drop everything to go to dinner with Robin in order to see he gets proper nourishment. (They have of course inferred that he's too shy to enter restaurants alone and, unless he has a companion, it's home to an empty flat and beans on toast.) It's his personal Meals on Wails programme and it normally works a treat. But not with Lady T. 'Think positive, Robin. And do not give in! Look at Denis, he smokes and he drinks and he's seventy-nine. He doesn't give in.' He cer- tainly doesn't, especially on the one-liners. When Margaret was telling Larry about the magnificent food and service in an oriental hotel the Thatchers had recently visited, he interrupted her to bark, `So it damn well should have been. You may not have noticed, my dear, but they were charging like the bloody Light Brigade.' Charging like the Light Brigade! How does he do it? I intend to use this marvellous Denis phrase at every opportunity and I pray it goes into the vernacular.
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