It's all lies

Sir: When you state that Andrew Mackay's only 'offence' was to describe me as an executive rather than as a non-executive director of Mirror Group Newspapers, you lie (Maxwell's unapologetic hagiographer, 22 February). I made it abundantly clear that my objection to this squalid man was his allegation that I was involved in crimi- nal fraud. That was for party political rea- sons and, as he well knows, was baseless.

When you state that I said I could prove Maxwell was a crook, you lie. Had I been able to do so, I would have done so.

When you state that I coveted Terry Lan- caster's job as political editor, you lie. I told Maxwell I would not attend the weekly Tuesday lunches he was initiating unless Lancaster was invited and when, two months later — not four days as you state — I was offered Lancaster's job, I accepted it only on condition that Lancaster was well-treated.

So when you state that Maxwell's greet- ing to me was to offer me the job of politi- cal editor, you lie. That first meeting, as the then editor, Mike Molloy, can testify, was when I laid down to Maxwell the terms on which I was willing to work for the Mirror under his ownership.

When you state that I was Charles Wilberforce, you lie. Lancaster and Geof- frey Goodman wrote the Wilberforce arti- cles; if I ghosted one, that was the total.

The story about Lancaster seeing me at Glasgow airport carrying Maxwell's bags is entertaining; pity that's a lie, too.

When you state my book on the Wilson years was serialised in the Daily Mirror and that 'soon afterwards' I was hauled aboard as leader-writer, you compress the truth. It was some 15 months afterwards. I did not 'bring in' Bernard Donoughue and Helen Liddell to the Maxwell 'Cabinet,' though I wish I had. They were two of the outstand- ingly good recruits to a not very good crew who surrounded Maxwell in his business affairs. I was certainly responsible for the hiring of Janet Hewlett-Davies as Director of Public Relations. Firing her was one of Maxwell's greatest errors. Her record of serving Harold Wilson, Ted Heath, Jim Callaghan and Geoffrey Howe and being Head of Publicity at the DHSS fully justi- fied her hiring.

When you state, using the words of an unidentified former executive, that Donoughue warned me of 'the jiggery-pok- ery with the pension fund,' you lie — and so does she.

And when I stated, on the Today pro- gramme, that the robbery from the pension

fund was a total and horrifying shock, I told the truth. It was, not only to me but to those Mirrdr executives and Pension Fund Trustees who saw Maxwell more often and worked with him more closely on the busi- ness affairs, as distinct from the editorial ones, of the Mirror Group.

As for my needing a father figure. . . I've always thought the amateur psychologist was the least admirable of journalistic fig-

'We'll get our picture on a Benetton poster.'

ures. Pity your anonymous hack didn't seek to ask me about the purported facts in your piece about me. He might then have found that I fight my own battles.

Pity about the lies. It wasn't a bad piece, otherwise.

Joe Haines

1 South Frith, London Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent