LETTERS
Making enemies with Major
From Mr Stewart Steven Sir: Mr Stephen Glover has used his col- umn on several occasions to lament, with what he regards as nicely edged satirical intent, John Major's failure to reward me with a knighthood on my retirement from the editorship of the Evening Standard. I had actually expected an earldom and so you can imagine my disappointment.
The reason why Mr Major and I fell out is there for those who wish to find it in his admirable memoirs and I'm surprised that Mr Glover missed it (Media studies, 20 November).
'Our intention,' writes Mr Major on page 393, 'was better health-service provision overall, but the effect this had on institutions with famous names — and none more so than St Bartholomew's (Harts) Hospital in the City, which was threatened with closure — made an argument which in public-rela- tions terms we could not win. We persevered but so did our opponents, and the issue was, I think, to be a factor in our dismal 1997 general election showing in London.'
It is fanciful in the extreme to imagine that a knighthood was ever on offer, but during the Evening Standard's highly suc- cessful 'Save Harts' campaign I was told twice, in fairly rough language by go- betweens, that if I did not desist the Prime Minister would not easily forgive me. I replied with equal vehemence and was transformed overnight from being the 'old friend' of Mr Glover's thesis to one of Mr Major's 'opponents'.
But Mr Glover should not weep for me and the lost bauble of his imagination. I was made an Honorary Perpetual Student of the Medical College of St Bartholomew's, which in these egalitarian days surely has rather more street cred.
Stewart Steven
29 Priory Avenue, London W4
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