Celtique

I note that politicians and journalists have been falling over themselves in praise of Lord Jeffrey Archer who has died aged 86. I don’t share that view. Back in 1987 Archer sued the Daily Star for libel after they reported he had paid for sex with a prostitute. Thanks to his lies in the witness box he was awarded £500K in damages, a record at the time. Actually the paper was right he had had paid £6K for her services. The editor, a talented Aussie called Lloyd Turner who had done a great job for the paper, was fired by the idiot owner who preferred to believe a politician than his own staff. That verdict left Turner, according to his wife, a broken man, and he died five years later at 57. So, he never had the pleasure, some six years later, of seeing Archer, being jailed for perjuring himself and forced to hand back the £500K. Archer’s lies destroyed Turner’s career and hurried the end of his life. Disgracefully, that story has been ignored by the good and great in the hagiographies.