Whither Gary Jones, the Express editor who worked from home (where he is now probably)
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be... except in the Drone of course where the Good Old Days are fundamental to its mission to please. My pals Dismore and Manners, who insist they are on the younger side of some of their Express contemporaries (well, they would wouldn’t they,) have been exploiting that and I rarely hesitate to jump on a good bandwagon when it comes along.
But first to the exit of Gary Jones from the Express, still billed on the Reach website as editor-in-chief (oh please!) of both Express titles. I met Jones just the once and that was in the garden at Southwark Cathedral following the funeral there of Helene Costas, my brilliant PA during my greasy pole days at the DX.
In summary, Jones insisted that editing the Express was a piece of piss though being in the hallowed environs of a cathedral he might have phrased it differently. But that is what he meant. He said he worked mostly from home (lockdown or not) and gave the impression that life in charge of what was once one of the greatest newspapers in the world was so easy.
So what about morning and evening conference (mostly done by phone) and the exchanging of ideas in an office environment, in the pub or at lunch? None of that apparently. Well, what are emails for?
I sympathised with him that the Express had fallen into the cold, unloving embrace of Reach plc and that seemed not to bother him, though he might have been careful not to say anything damaging about the suits who pay his mortgage and the fees for his son, then at Eton.
Jones is on record as being a Labour supporter in charge of a traditionally Conservative cheerleading newspaper but that’s nothing new. Labour-supporting Bob Edwards had the rare distinction of being appointed editor of the DX by Beaverbrook, then being fired by Beaverbrook and finally being re-hired as editor by Beaverbrook.
The mercurial Beaver also chose future Labour MP Tom Driberg as the first editor of the new William Hickey column in 1933. Driberg was an upper class queer (the word in those days for gay as it is again today among the cognoscenti,) and allegedly a spy for the Soviets. Michael Foot, a great favourite of the ’Old Man’ and later Labour leader, was made editor of his Evening Standard in 1942.
When I was at the Express from 1979 to 1995 it was never ‘a piece of piss’ though it was great, great fun. We worked hard and it was usually worth it and, compared with Reach, the management was full of titans (*exaggeration alert, see my columns passim).
As readership shrinks for all print newspapers, Reach appears to be doing nothing. The Times, meanwhile, is arguably better online than in print because it is updated minute-by-minute as news breaks. The Mail titles have poured money into the challenge and it was Lord Rothermere, back to being 100 per cent owner of the company, who took on the vast US market with huge investment. As a result MailOnline US went from a standing start three years ago to employing 450 journalist based at all points of North America.
Current news events seem to have a habit of proving that nothing is really new. Today the royal we are urged to mock is Meghan Markle, aka Duchess of Sussex. For obvious reasons I’m not including the odious sponging creep ‘Prince’ Andrew, because that’s a given. But, pre-war it was Wallis Simpson who was billed as the woman who stole Edward VIII and in doing so almost brought down the monarchy. Now of course we know the truth about Little Prince David and his fondness for unparalleled privilege and for Hitler and his gang.
I have been to Villa Windsor in the Bois de Boulogne three times where Edward and Wallis spent most of their exile and it would fit into a couple of the 27 rooms of Royal Lodge, soon we hope to be the former home of Prince Andrew. But the overwhelming sense of Villa Windsor is one of sadness where two lost people lived out their days doing nothing. They didn’t even have Netflix to pass the time.
Fallen idols are certainly nothing new. Today it’s Huw Edwards and apparently Jay Blades, a great favourite of the saintly Judi Dench. Before it was Rolf Harris, Gary Bloody Glitter, Martin Bashir and of course Jimmy Savile. Plus ça change etc...
Even assassination attempts on American former and would-be presidents is nothing new. In March 1981 I saw at first hand why Kelvin MacKenzie had the talent to be a great editor. That was the day when John Hinkley shot and seriously wounded President Reagan and I was standing in as deputy to Kelvin, the night editor. As the first flashes came over the wires we saw the attempt played out on TV and Kelvin’s first reaction was simple: ‘Right Framey, you take everything in the news pages and squeeze the best into Page 16,’ the last news page that particular night.
‘But Kelvin, we don’t know yet how serious it is and Page 16 has a bloody great 25x4 ad so there’s bugger all room.’
‘Just get on with it, I’ll look after the rest.’ He did; news, features, the lot and it was a great lesson in instinctive editing.
A few weeks later Kelvin was appointed editor of The Sun by that other former Daily Express sub-editor, one Rupert Murdoch.
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So many things bring down political leaders, so many in fact that you would think they would learn the lessons of the past. So why has Sir Keir accepted donations to the tune of £50,000 from Lord Ali to be spent on clothes for him and his wife and even a pair of specs for the prime minister.
It’s obvious those glasses are not focusing. He should have gone to Specsavers.
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The wisdom of Nadine Dorries: in her so-called column for the Mail last week she said that if the King can’t persuade his wretched brother to leave Royal Lodge ‘then his ex-wife should take the lead. When dealing with difficult men it very often falls to a woman with a wise head to sort it all out.’
Fergie and wise head? I rest my case...
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PS: Is it only me who thinks the latest assassination attempt on Donald Trump just days after he lost to Kamala Harris in the one and only TV debate was a little choreographed? The would-be killer was fired at by Trump’s secret service but came away unscathed.
Call me an old cynic but....
ALAN FRAME
18 September 2024
