Charles Moore's statement | Media | The Guardian Charles Moore's statement Wednesday 1 October 2003 06.51 EDT First published on Wednesday 1 October 2003 06.51 EDT Share on Messenger Close Charles Moore has reluctantly decided to retire as Editor of The Daily Telegraph in order to write the authorised biography of Lady Thatcher. He will be succeeded by Martin Newland, 41, formerly Deputy Editor of the National Post of Canada and prior to that Home Editor of The Daily Telegraph. Sarah Sands continues as Deputy Editor of The Daily Telegraph and becomes Saturday Editor. The Chairman of the Telegraph Group, Lord Black, said: "Charles Moore has been an outstanding and successful Editor and we part with him with reluctance. Fortunately, he continues as a columnist and Group Consulting Editor. In his tenure, he led the newspaper to a successful outcome of the price and circulation war, and to a substantial modernisation, while being faithful to the newspaper's best traditions. Martin Newland will, I am sure, uphold the high standard of Bill Deedes, Max Hastings and Charles Moore. He is a Telegraph veteran who was an important part of the great success of the National Post.

Martin is an outstanding journalist." Charles Moore, 46, who has been Editor since 1995, said: "It has been an honour to edit The Daily Telegraph for eight years. It is the greatest newspaper in this country. I am delighted to be able to continue in my new role and leave the paper in excellent condition and the editorship in very capable hands." BBC NEWS | UK | 'Gentleman journalist' remembered 'Gentleman journalist' remembered Lord Deedes died at home in Kent after at short illness. Figures from the worlds of politics and journalism have paid warm tributes to veteran reporter Lord Deedes, who has died aged 94. He had a unique claim to fame, as the only man to have edited a national newspaper - the Daily Telegraph - and been a member of the Cabinet. PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN The prime minister said Lord Deedes had been a shining example of commitment to public service. "He started writing as a professional journalist more than 76 years ago and few have served journalism and the British people for so long at such a high level of distinction and with such a popular following.

"An MP and also a Cabinet minister, he will be remembered most as an outstanding and long-serving editor of the Daily Telegraph and then a much-read columnist. "You could agree or disagree with his views, but like so many others I found his writing fair-minded, informed, and enlightening." WILL LEWIS, DAILY TELEGRAPH EDITOR Mr Lewis said it was an "honour and privilege" to have worked with Lord Deedes. "He was a wonderful inspiration - both as an outstanding journalist and as a human being whose wealth of experience and charity work will be very sadly missed." SIR MAX HASTINGS, FORMER DAILY TELEGRAPH EDITOR Lord Deedes was replaced as editor of the Daily Telegraph by Sir Max Hastings in 1986, who said: "Bill was a very remarkable figure in every way. Bill was a dear friend who will be greatly missed Baroness Thatcher "Most journalists are secretly or openly slightly ashamed of our seedy, rackety trade, but Bill was from beginning to end always the gentleman journalist. "He was a reporter of the utmost integrity and enormous skill." CHARLES MOORE, FORMER DAILY TELEGRAPH EDITOR Mr Moore said Lord Deedes set the highest standards as a journalist.

"The reason why he was such a great journalist was that he remained absolutely on top of what was happening, and he lacked the vanity and egotism that too many of us have. "And therefore he was a superb medium for news because he didn't want to get in the way of it. He understood the job of the reporter was to get the story and to tell it in a clear, crisp way." BARONESS THATCHER, FORMER PRIME MINISTER Baroness Thatcher knew Lord Deedes for more than 50 years and he was a close friend of her late husband Sir Denis Thatcher. She told the Daily Telegraph: "Bill was a dear friend who will be greatly missed. "He had a uniquely distinguished career in politics and journalism. "He managed to appeal to new generations just as effectively as he did to earlier ones. I am deeply sorry at his passing." ANDREW NEIL, FORMER SUNDAY TIMES EDITOR Mr Neil, a one-time colleague of Lord Deedes at Westminster, paid tribute to him on BBC News 24. Lord Deedes pictured in his beloved Fleet Street in 1988 "What made him special was his longevity for a start. He was around for ever.

"I remember meeting him as a young man when I joined the lobby in the 1970s, and 30 years later he was still writing as prolifically as ever. "He had a wonderful knowledge. He had seen everything, he had done everything. He'd been in the Second World War, he'd lived through the Atlee government, the rise of Thatcherism, the rise of Blair. "And he was also charming. He was charm personified and he always had time to help young journalists." CONSERVATIVE LEADER DAVID CAMERON Moore retires as Telegraph editor - Telegraph Moore retires as Telegraph editor By Tom Leonard, Media Editor 12:01AM BST 02 Oct 2003 Charles Moore is to retire as editor of The Daily Telegraph in order to write the authorised biography of Lady Thatcher. He will be succeeded by Martin Newland, 41, formerly deputy editor of the National Post of Canada and before that The Daily Telegraph's home editor. Sarah Sands continues as deputy editor of The Daily Telegraph and becomes editor of the Saturday edition. Mr Moore said yesterday that he had taken the decision reluctantly after eight years editing the "greatest newspaper in this country".

He added: "The biography is an enormous project, and I need to get on with it." He will take a six-month sabbatical from the company before returning as a weekly columnist and group consulting editor. Lord Black, the chairman of the Telegraph Group, said: "Charles Moore has been an outstanding and successful editor and we part with him with reluctance. "Fortunately, he continues as a columnist and group consulting editor. In his tenure, he led the newspaper to a successful outcome of the price and circulation war, and to a substantial modernisation, while being faithful to the newspaper's best traditions. Martin Newland will, I am sure, uphold the high standard of Bill Deedes, Max Hastings and Charles Moore. He is a Telegraph veteran who was an important part of the great success of the National Post. Martin is an outstanding journalist." Mr Moore, 46, said it had been an honour to edit The Daily Telegraph. "I am delighted to be able to continue in my new role and leave the paper in excellent condition and the editorship in very capable hands.

I would like to thank the hundreds of our staff and the millions of our readers." Mr Moore, who has also edited The Sunday Telegraph and The Spectator, said the single achievement during his tenure at the daily paper that gave him most pride was fighting and winning the price war against The Times. Despite The Times's decision to slash its cover price to 30p in 1993 in an attempt to overtake its rival, its daily circulation still languishes about 300,000 copies behind The Daily Telegraph, whose market share has grown. Mr Newland said: "It's a huge privilege to take over the undisputed market leader. I hope I can do justice to Charles's achievements." After graduating with a BA in history and an MA in theology from London University, he joined the Catholic Herald as a reporter in 1986. He moved to The Daily Telegraph in 1989 and spent seven years on the news desk before leaving for Canada. He is married with four children aged one to 13.

Telegraph editor quits | London Evening Standard Tuesday 30 September 2003 23:00 BST Click to follow The Evening Standard Charles Moore is to retire as the editor of The Daily Telegraph to write a biography of Lady Thatcher, it was announced today. Mr Moore, 46, who has edited the newspaper since 1995, is to write an authorised biography of the former Conservative Prime Minister. He will be succeeded by Martin Newland, 41, the former deputy editor of the National Post in Canada, and previously the Telegraph's home news editor. Lord Black, the chairman of the Telegraph Group, said: "Charles Moore has been an outstanding and successful editor and we part with him with reluctance. "Fortunately, he continues as a columnist and group consulting editor. "In his tenure, he led the newspaper to a successful outcome of the price and circulation war, and to a substantial modernisation, while being faithful to the newspaper's best traditions. "Martin Newland will, I am sure, uphold the high standard of Bill Deedes, Max Hastings and Charles Moore. "He is a Telegraph veteran who was an important part of the great success of the National Post.

Martin is an outstanding journalist." Mr Moore said: "It has been an honour to edit The Daily Telegraph for eight years. "It is the greatest newspaper in this country. "I am delighted to be able to continue in my new role and leave the paper in excellent condition and the editorship in very capable hands." Sarah Sands will continue as deputy editor and becomes Saturday editor, a spokeswoman for the newspaper said. More about: BLISTERING letter of resignation to the UK Telegraph! Follow DL on BLISTERING letter of resignation to the UK Telegraph! Five years ago I was invited to become the chief political commentator of the Telegraph. It was a job I was very proud to accept. The Telegraph has long been the most important conservative-leaning newspaper in Britain, admired as much for its integrity as for its superb news coverage. When I joined the Telegraph had just broken the MPs’ expenses scandal, the most important political scoop of the 21st century. I was very conscious that I was joining a formidable tradition of political commentary. I spent my summer holiday before taking up my duties as columnist reading the essays of the great Peter Utley, edited by Charles Moore and Simon Heffer, two other masters of the art.

No one has ever expressed quite as well as Utley the quiet decency and pragmatism of British conservatism. The Mail is raucous and populist, while the Times is proud to swing with the wind as the voice of the official class. The Telegraph stood in a different tradition. It is read by the nation as a whole, not just by the City and Westminster. It is confident of its own values. It has long been famous for the accuracy of its news reporting. I imagine its readers to be country solicitors, struggling small businessmen, harassed second secretaries in foreign embassies, schoolteachers, military folk, farmers—decent people with a stake in the country. My grandfather, Lt Col Tom Oborne DSO, had been a Telegraph reader. He was also a churchwarden and played a role in the Petersfield Conservative Association. He had a special rack on the breakfast table and would read the paper carefully over his bacon and eggs, devoting special attention to the leaders. I often thought about my grandfather when I wrote my Telegraph columns.

‘You don’t know what you are fucking talking about’ More Inside- reply 12 02/22/2015 Circulation was falling fast when I joined the paper in September 2010, and I suspect this panicked the owners. Waves of sackings started, and the management made it plain that it believed the future of the British press to be digital. Murdoch MacLennan, the chief executive, invited me to lunch at the Goring Hotel near Buckingham Palace, where Telegraph executives like to do their business. I urged him not to take the newspaper itself for granted, pointing out that it still had a very healthy circulation of more than half a million. I added that our readers were loyal, that the paper was still very profitable and that the owners had no right to destroy it. The sackings continued. A little while later I met Mr MacLennan by chance in the queue of mourners outside Margaret Thatcher’s funeral and once again urged him not to take Telegraph readers for granted. He replied: “You don’t know what you are fucking talking about.” Events at the Telegraph became more and more dismaying. In January 2014 the editor, Tony Gallagher, was fired.

He had been an excellent editor, well respected by staff. Mr Gallagher was replaced by an American called Jason Seiken, who took up a position called ‘Head of Content.’ In the 81 years between 1923 and 2004 the Telegraph had six editors, all of them towering figures: Arthur Watson, Colin Coote, Maurice Green, Bill Deedes, Max Hastings and Charles Moore. Since the Barclay Brothers purchased the paper 11 years ago there have been roughly six more, though it is hard to be certain since with the arrival of Mr Seiken the title of editor was abolished, then replaced by a Head of Content (Monday to Friday). There were three editors (or Heads of Content) in 2014 alone. For the last 12 months matters have got much, much worse. The foreign desk—magnificent under the leadership of David Munk and David Wastell—has been decimated. As all reporters are aware, no newspaper can operate without skilled sub-editors. Half of these have been sacked, and the chief sub, Richard Oliver, has left. Solecisms, unthinkable until very recently, are now commonplace.

Recently readers were introduced to someone called the Duke of Wessex. Prince Edward is the Earl of Wessex. There was a front page story about deer-hunting. It was actually about deer-stalking, a completely different activity. Obviously the management don’t care about nice distinctions like this. But the readers do, and the Telegraph took great care to get these things right until very recently. The arrival of Mr Seiken coincided with the arrival of the click culture. Stories seemed no longer judged by their importance, accuracy or appeal to those who actually bought the paper. The more important measure appeared to be the number of online visits. On 22 September Telegraph online ran a story about a woman with three breasts. One despairing executive told me that it was known this was false even before the story was published. I have no doubt it was published in order to generate online traffic, at which it may have succeeded. I am not saying that online traffic is unimportant, but over the long term, however, such episodes inflict incalculable damage on the reputation of the paper.

by Anonymous reply 1 02/17/2015 According to the Guardian, "Peter Oborne, the Daily Telegraph’s chief political commentator, has resigned from the paper, accusing it of a “fraud on its readers” over its coverage of HSBC. In a blistering attack on the paper’s management and owners, Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, Oborne claimed the paper deliberately suppressed stories about the banking group in order to keep its valuable advertising account. He said it was a “most sinister development” at the paper, where he claimed the traditional distinction between the advertising and editorial department had collapsed." by Anonymous 02/21/2015 Everyone is out deer stalking today, so nobody is available for comment. There has never been an era when journalism standards were not under threat. The very existence of conservatism as a political force depends on the absence of accurate journalism, which the owners seem to understand better than the author of this rant. by Anonymous reply 7 02/21/2015 Well, I suppose this is a sad commentary, on some level, about the decline of discourse and all that.

On the other hand, if he was using words like "solecisms" regularly in his pieces, he probably should have seen the writing on the right-wing wall. by Anonymous reply 8 02/21/2015 By and large, Britain does not have a free press. Our media is not run by the government, and nor does it engage in widespread censorship. Instead, the media is run by a tiny group of politically motivated moguls, themselves in league with other private interests through advertising or personal networks. Journalists from non-privileged backgrounds are filtered out through unpaid internships and expensive post-graduate qualifications, ensuring the media is a closed shop for the well-to-do. According to a report published by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission last August, over half of the top 100 media professionals are privately educated. News coverage all too often reflects the priorities, concerns and prejudices of this tiny sliver of the British population. Rather than being a means to hold the powerful to account and fairly report issues, the media is the ultimate political lobbyist for our elite. ... Columnists who support the political status quo are treated as thoughtful and nuanced; the tiny few that deviate are treated as predictable. ...

This doesn’t just go for the corporate-owned press. Detailed research by Cardiff University finds that the BBC is biased in favour of corporate and establishment voices. Its political coverage is dominated by former Tory or overtly rightwing figures; the Tories – including David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson – heavily recruit from Auntie Beeb. As anyone on the left who has appeared on the BBC will know, neoliberalism is its commonsense and starting point. ... We desperately need more opponents of the status quo in the mainstream media. The reason we don’t have any is because – in our deeply compromised democracy – the media is so often there to serve the interests of the rich. by Anonymous Thatcher fears hastened Moore exit | Media | The Guardian Thatcher fears hastened Moore exit Wednesday 1 October 2003 09.55 EDT First published on Wednesday 1 October 2003 09.55 EDT Share on Messenger Close Charles Moore's decision to step down as editor of the Daily Telegraph after eight years was hastened by fears for the health of Lady Thatcher, the subject of a voluminous biography he is writing.

Sources at the paper said Mr Moore told colleagues that he made his decision after the funeral of Denis Thatcher in July and told Telegraph owner Lord Black of his plans shortly afterwards. He has already been paid a £750,000 advance for the book, which will not be published until after the death of the former prime minister, and he is anxious to spend more time on his interviews with Lady Thatcher. Moore, 46, plans to take a six-month sabbatical from the company before returning as a weekly columnist and group consulting editor. His successor is Martin Newland, 41, a former deputy editor of the National Post in Canada, which he helped Lord Black to launch, and a former home editor of the Telegraph, who has a reputation for being "a very bright and very sharp" operator. In a statement today, the Telegraph said Moore had agonised about leaving to complete the book, which is expected to be published in two or three volumes. "Charles Moore has been an outstanding and successful editor and we part with him with reluctance," said Lord Black. "Fortunately, he continues as a columnist and group consulting editor.

In his tenure, he led the newspaper to a successful outcome of the price and circulation war, and to a substantial modernisation, while being faithful to the newspaper's best traditions. "Martin Newland will, I am sure, uphold the high standard of Bill Deedes, Max Hastings and Charles Moore. He is a Telegraph veteran who was an important part of the great success of the National Post. Martin is an outstanding journalist." Rumours about Moore's decision started to circulate last night at the Labour party conference after he confided in senior colleagues that he had made up his mind to go. "It came out of the blue, but I think everyone here who has worked under Martin before thinks it's a good thing. He is dynamic, has lots of ideas and cares about news. Charles was very hands-off and distant and the Telegraph needs a bit of a rocket up its ass at the moment," said one Telegraph journalist. Another journalist who worked under Newland said: "He's very bright, sharp, effs and blinds a lot and has this maniacal giggle.

He'll certainly mark a change in culture and blow a chill wind through the old fogey brigade." Moore said it had been an "honour" to edit the Telegraph since 1995. He dismissed any suggestion that a decline in circulation at the Telegraph was a factor in his decision to leave. In the last year the Telegraph's circulation has fallen through the 1 million barrier to just above 900,000, but this was largely due to the newspaper's decision to axe bulk and subscription sales from its headline sales figure. "Lord Black was a keen supporter of the decision to get rid of our bulk sales, which was something pushed very strongly by me, which takes down our headline figure of circulation and that's working," he said. "Our full price sales figure is higher than it was a year ago and the money is being reallocated in a way we think is sensible," he added. Moore said the single achievement during his tenure that gave him the most pride was fighting, and in his view winning, the price war against the Times. In 1993 the Times slashed its cover price to 30p in a bid to overtake sales of the Telegraph and to squeeze the Independent out of the market.

While sales of the Independent have suffered, the circulation gap between the Times and the Telegraph has actually widened. Over the past year the Telegraph and other broadsheet newspapers have clearly signalled the end of the price war by gradually increasing their cover prices. Only last week the Telegraph announced it was increasing its Monday to Friday price by 5p to 60p. "It's not just a commercial matter, it's an editorial one. The reason we have stayed on top is we have committed ourselves to journalistic excellence," said Moore. Moore also said he was proud of the recent design changes that he has instigated at the Telegraph. "There's always a great task with an incredible name like the Telegraph. How do you uphold the tradition and modernise? I feel that we have succeeded in doing both. I particularly feel in the last 18 months with our new front and our new marketing campaign ('read a bestseller every day') we have managed that. We have updated [the paper] without buggering it up." Moore described his successor Newland, who was a reporter and religious affairs correspondent on the Telegraph, then headed up the home news operation before leaving to help Lord Black launch the Post, as "tremendous".

"He's very direct, energetic, professional and determined, very tough, but also straight. I think he will be a very good combination of the traditional and the modernising. He's a great Telegraph man, but he's also a tough man who wants to get things done," he said. When Moore returns to the Telegraph in six months' time as group consulting editor, he will be responsible for advising on new developments and "troubleshooting". "We will be 150 in 2005 and we need to think about how best to celebrate that and make it a self-advertisement. I will be responsible for that," said Moore. Jeremy Deedes, managing editor of the Telegraph, described Newland as "the best candidate" for the job. One journalist on the paper described Moore as "well-liked, but rather intellectual". "He was less hands-on than Max Hastings (his predecessor), but he was hands on with stories he was interested in such as the war in Iraq and the euro," the source said. The insider added that Newland was generally viewed as "newsy and quite tough". ·Did you work with Martin Newland or Charles Moore? Send us your bouquets or brickbats.

To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk confidentially email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 7239 9857 TRANSCEND MEDIA SERVICE » Why I Have Resigned from the Telegraph Why I Have Resigned from the Telegraph MEDIA , 23 February 2015 Peter Oborne – Open Democracy The coverage of HSBC in Britain’s Telegraph is a fraud on its readers. If major newspapers allow corporations to influence their content for fear of losing advertising revenue, democracy itself is in peril. 17 Feb 2015 – Five years ago I was invited to become the chief political commentator of the Telegraph. It was a job I was very proud to accept. The Telegraph has long been the most important conservative-leaning newspaper in Britain, admired as much for its integrity as for its superb news coverage. When I joined the Telegraph had just broken the MPs’ expenses scandal, the most important political scoop of the 21st century. I was very conscious that I was joining a formidable tradition of political commentary. I spent my summer holiday before taking up my duties as columnist reading the essays of the great Peter Utley, edited by Charles Moore and Simon Heffer, two other masters of the art.

No one has ever expressed quite as well as Utley the quiet decency and pragmatism of British conservatism. The Mail is raucous and populist, while the Times is proud to swing with the wind as the voice of the official class. The Telegraph stood in a different tradition. It is read by the nation as a whole, not just by the City and Westminster. It is confident of its own values. It has long been famous for the accuracy of its news reporting. I imagine its readers to be country solicitors, struggling small businessmen, harassed second secretaries in foreign embassies, schoolteachers, military folk, farmers—decent people with a stake in the country. My grandfather, Lt Col Tom Oborne DSO, had been a Telegraph reader. He was also a churchwarden and played a role in the Petersfield Conservative Association. He had a special rack on the breakfast table and would read the paper carefully over his bacon and eggs, devoting special attention to the leaders. I often thought about my grandfather when I wrote my Telegraph columns. ‘You don’t know what you are fucking talking about’ Circulation was falling fast when I joined the paper in September 2010, and I suspect this panicked the owners.

Waves of sackings started, and the management made it plain that it believed the future of the British press to be digital. Murdoch MacLennan, the chief executive, invited me to lunch at the Goring Hotel near Buckingham Palace, where Telegraph executives like to do their business. I urged him not to take the newspaper itself for granted, pointing out that it still had a very healthy circulation of more than half a million. I added that our readers were loyal, that the paper was still very profitable and that the owners had no right to destroy it. The sackings continued. A little while later I met Mr MacLennan by chance in the queue of mourners outside Margaret Thatcher’s funeral and once again urged him not to take Telegraph readers for granted. He replied: “You don’t know what you are fucking talking about.” Events at the Telegraph became more and more dismaying. In January 2014 the editor, Tony Gallagher, was fired. He had been an excellent editor, well respected by staff.

Mr Gallagher was replaced by an American called Jason Seiken, who took up a position called ‘Head of Content.’ In the 81 years between 1923 and 2004 the Telegraph had six editors, all of them towering figures: Arthur Watson, Colin Coote, Maurice Green, Bill Deedes, Max Hastings and Charles Moore. Since the Barclay Brothers purchased the paper 11 years ago there have been roughly six more, though it is hard to be certain since with the arrival of Mr Seiken the title of editor was abolished, then replaced by a Head of Content (Monday to Friday). There were three editors (or Heads of Content) in 2014 alone. For the last 12 months matters have got much, much worse. The foreign desk—magnificent under the leadership of David Munk and David Wastell—has been decimated. As all reporters are aware, no newspaper can operate without skilled sub-editors. Half of these have been sacked, and the chief sub, Richard Oliver, has left. Solecisms, unthinkable until very recently, are now commonplace. Recently readers were introduced to someone called the Duke of Wessex. Prince Edward is the Earl of Wessex.

There was a front page story about deer-hunting. It was actually about deer-stalking, a completely different activity. Obviously the management don’t care about nice distinctions like this. But the readers do, and the Telegraph took great care to get these things right until very recently. The arrival of Mr Seiken coincided with the arrival of the click culture. Stories seemed no longer judged by their importance, accuracy or appeal to those who actually bought the paper. The more important measure appeared to be the number of online visits. On 22 September Telegraph online ran a story about a woman with three breasts . One despairing executive told me that it was known this was false even before the story was published. I have no doubt it was published in order to generate online traffic, at which it may have succeeded. I am not saying that online traffic is unimportant, but over the long term, however, such episodes inflict incalculable damage on the reputation of the paper. Open for business? With the collapse in standards has come a most sinister development. It has long been axiomatic in quality British journalism that the advertising department and editorial should be kept rigorously apart. There is a great deal of evidence that, at the Telegraph, this distinction has collapsed.

Late last year I set to work on a story about the international banking giant HSBC. Well-known British Muslims had received letters out of the blue from HSBC informing them that their accounts had been closed. No reason was given, and it was made plain that there was no possibility of appeal. “It’s like having your water cut off,” one victim told me. When I submitted it for publication on the Telegraph website, I was at first told there would be no problem. When it was not published I made enquiries. I was fobbed off with excuses, then told there was a legal problem. When I asked the legal department, the lawyers were unaware of any difficulty. When I pushed the point, an executive took me aside and said that “there is a bit of an issue” with HSBC. Eventually I gave up in despair and offered the article to openDemocracy . It can be read here . I researched the newspaper’s coverage of HSBC. I learnt that Harry Wilson, the admirable banking correspondent of the Telegraph, had published an online story about HSBC based on a report from a Hong Kong analyst who had claimed there was a ‘black hole’ in the HSBC accounts.

This story was swiftly removed from the Telegraph website, even though there were no legal problems. When I asked HSBC whether the bank had complained about Wilson’s article, or played any role in the decision to remove it, the bank declined to comment. Mr Wilson’s contemporaneous tweets referring to the story can be found here . The story itself, however, is no longer available on the website, as anybody trying to follow through the link can discover. Mr Wilson rather bravely raised this issue publicly at the ‘town hall meeting’ when Jason Seiken introduced himself to staff. He has since left the paper. Then, on 4 November 2014, a number of papers reported a blow to HSBC profits as the bank set aside more than £1 billion for customer compensation and an investigation into the rigging of currency markets. This story was the city splash in the Times, Guardian and Mail, making a page lead in the Independent. I inspected the Telegraph coverage. It generated five paragraphs in total on page 5 of the business section. The reporting of HSBC is part of a wider problem. On 10 May last year the Telegraph ran a long feature on Cunard’s Queen Mary II liner on the news review page.

This episode looked to many like a plug for an advertiser on a page normally dedicated to serious news analysis. I again checked and certainly Telegraph competitors did not view Cunard’s liner as a major news story. Cunard is an important Telegraph advertiser. The paper’s comment on last year’s protests in Hong Kong was bizarre. One would have expected theTelegraph of all papers to have taken a keen interest and adopted a robust position. Yet (in sharp contrast to competitors like the Times)I could not find a single leader on the subject. At the start of December the Financial Times, the Times and the Guardian all wrote powerful leaders on the refusal by the Chinese government to allow a committee of British MPs into Hong Kong. The Telegraph remained silent. I can think of few subjects which anger and concern Telegraph readers more. On 15 September the Telegraph published a commentary by the Chinese ambassador, just before the lucrative China Watch supplement. The headline of the ambassador’s article was beyond parody: ‘ Let’s not allow Hong Kong to come between us ’. On 17 September there was a four-page fashion pull-out in the middle of the news run, granted more coverage than the Scottish referendum.

The Tesco false accounting story on 23 September was covered only in the business section. By contrast it was the splash, inside spread and leader in the Mail. Not that the Telegraph is short of Tesco coverage. Tesco pledging £10m to fight cancer , an inside peak at Tesco’s £35m jet and ‘ Meet the cat that has lived in Tesco for 4 years ’ were all deemed newsworthy. There are other very troubling cases, many of them set out in Private Eye, which has been a major source of information for Telegraph journalists wanting to understand what is happening on their paper. There was no avoiding the impression that something had gone awry with the Telegraph’s news judgment. At this point I wrote a long letter to Murdoch MacLennan setting out all my concerns about the newspaper, and handing in my notice. I copied this letter to the Telegraph chairman, Aidan Barclay. I received a cursory response from Mr Barclay. He wrote that he hoped I could resolve my differences with Murdoch MacLennan. I duly went to see the chief executive in mid-December. He was civil, served me tea and asked me to take off my jacket.

He said that I was a valued writer, and said that he wanted me to stay. I expressed all of my concerns about the direction of the paper. I told him that I was not leaving to join another paper. I was resigning as a matter of conscience. Mr MacLennan agreed that advertising was allowed to affect editorial, but was unapologetic, saying that “it was not as bad as all that” and adding that there was a long history of this sort of thing at the Telegraph. I have since consulted Charles Moore, the last editor of the Telegraph before the Barclays bought the paper in 2004. Mr Moore confessed that the published accounts of Hollinger Inc, then the holding company for the Telegraph, did not receive the scrutiny they deserved. But no newspaper in history has ever given an unfavourable gloss on its owner’s accounts. Beyond that, Mr Moore told me, there had been no advertising influence on the paper’s news coverage. After my meeting with Mr MacLennan I received a letter from the Telegraph saying that the paper had accepted my letter of resignation, but welcomed my offer to work out my six-month notice period.

However in mid January I was asked to meet a Telegraph executive, this time over tea at the Goring Hotel. He told me that my weekly column would be discontinued and there had been a “parting of the ways”. He stressed, however, that the Telegraph would continue to honour my contract until it ran out in May. For my part I said that I would leave quietly. I had no desire to damage the newspaper. For all its problems it continues to employ a large number of very fine writers. They have mortgages and families. They are doing a fine job in very trying circumstances. I prepared myself mentally for the alluring prospect of several months paid gardening leave. Story, what story? That was how matters stood when, on Monday of last week, BBC Panorama ran its story about HSBC and its Swiss banking arm, alleging a wide-scale tax evasion scheme, while the Guardian and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published their ‘HSBC files’. All newspapers realised at once that this was a major event. The FT splashed on it for two days in a row, while the Times and the Mail gave it solid coverage spread over several pages.

You needed a microscope to find the Telegraph coverage: nothing on Monday, six slim paragraphs at the bottom left of page two on Tuesday, seven paragraphs deep in the business pages on Wednesday. The Telegraph’s reporting only looked up when the story turned into claims that there might be questions about the tax affairs of people connected to the Labour party. After a lot of agony I have come to the conclusion that I have a duty to make all this public. There are two powerful reasons. The first concerns the future of the Telegraph under the Barclay Brothers. It might sound a pompous thing to say, but I believe the newspaper is a significant part of Britain’s civic architecture. It is the most important public voice of civilised, sceptical conservatism. Telegraph readers are intelligent, sensible, well-informed people. They buy the newspaper because they feel that they can trust it. If advertising priorities are allowed to determine editorial judgments, how can readers continue to feel this trust? The Telegraph’s recent coverage of HSBC amounts to a form of fraud on its readers. It has been placing what it perceives to be the interests of a major international bank above its duty to bring the news to Telegraph readers. There is only one word to describe this situation: terrible.

Imagine if the BBC—so often the object of Telegraph attack—had conducted itself in this way. The Telegraph would have been contemptuous. It would have insisted that heads should roll, and rightly so. This brings me to a second and even more important point that bears not just on the fate of one newspaper but on public life as a whole. A free press is essential to a healthy democracy. There is a purpose to journalism, and it is not just to entertain. It is not to pander to political power, big corporations and rich men. Newspapers have what amounts in the end to a constitutional duty to tell their readers the truth. It is not only the Telegraph that is at fault here. The past few years have seen the rise of shadowy executives who determine what truths can and what truths can’t be conveyed across the mainstream media. The criminality of News International newspapers during the phone hacking years was a particularly grotesque example of this wholly malign phenomenon. All the newspaper groups, bar the magnificent exception of the Guardian, maintained a culture of omerta around phone-hacking, even if (like the Telegraph) they had not themselves been involved.

One of the consequences of this conspiracy of silence was the appointment of Andy Coulson, who has since been jailed and now faces further charges of perjury, as director of communications in 10 Downing Street. Urgent questions to answer Last week I made another discovery. Three years ago the Telegraph investigations team—the same lot who carried out the superb MPs’ expenses investigation—received a tip off about accounts held with HSBC in Jersey. Essentially this investigation was similar to the Panorama investigation into the Swiss banking arm of HSBC. After three months research the Telegraph resolved to publish. Six articles on this subject can now be found online, between 8 and 15 November 2012, although three are not available to view. Thereafter no fresh reports appeared. Reporters were ordered to destroy all emails, reports and documents related to the HSBC investigation. I have now learnt, in a remarkable departure from normal practice, that at this stage lawyers for the Barclay brothers became closely involved. When I asked the Telegraph why the Barclay brothers were involved, it declined to comment. This was the pivotal moment. From the start of 2013 onwards stories critical of HSBC were discouraged. HSBC suspended its advertising with the Telegraph.

Its account, I have been told by an extremely well informed insider, was extremely valuable. HSBC, as one former Telegraph executive told me, is “the advertiser you literally cannot afford to offend”. HSBC today refused to comment when I asked whether the bank’s decision to stop advertising with the Telegraph was connected in any way with the paper’s investigation into the Jersey accounts. Winning back the HSBC advertising account became an urgent priority. It was eventually restored after approximately 12 months. Executives say that Murdoch MacLennan was determined not to allow any criticism of the international bank. “He would express concern about headlines even on minor stories,” says one former Telegraph journalist. “Anything that mentioned money-laundering was just banned, even though the bank was on a final warning from the US authorities. This interference was happening on an industrial scale. “An editorial operation that is clearly influenced by advertising is classic appeasement. Once a very powerful body know they can exert influence they know they can come back and threaten you. It totally changes the relationship you have with them.

You know that even if you are robust you won’t be supported and will be undermined.” When I sent detailed questions to the Telegraph this afternoon about its connections with advertisers, the paper gave the following response. “Your questions are full of inaccuracies, and we do not therefore intend to respond to them. More generally, like any other business, we never comment on individual commercial relationships, but our policy is absolutely clear. We aim to provide all our commercial partners with a range of advertising solutions, but the distinction between advertising and our award-winning editorial operation has always been fundamental to our business. We utterly refute any allegation to the contrary.” The evidence suggests otherwise, and the consequences of the Telegraph’s recent soft coverage of HSBC may have been profound. Would Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs have been much more energetic in its own recent investigations into wide-scale tax avoidance, had the Telegraph continued to hold HSBC to account after its 2012 investigation? There are great issues here. They go to the heart of our democracy, and can no longer be ignored. ______________________________ Peter Oborne is the former chief political commentator of the Telegraph and reports for Channel 4’s Dispatches and Unreported World.

He has written a number of books identifying the power structures that lurk behind political discourse, including The Triumph of the Political Class. He is a regular on BBC programmes Any Questions and Question Time and often presents Week in Westminster. He was voted Columnist of the Year at the Press Awards in 2013. facebook twitter google+ reddit email PDF DISCLAIMER: In accordance with title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. TMS has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is TMS endorsed or sponsored by the originator. “GO TO ORIGINAL” links are provided as a convenience to our readers and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions posted may not match the versions our readers view when clicking the “GO TO ORIGINAL” links. This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.

We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Why I have resigned from the Telegraph | openDemocracy Why I have resigned from the Telegraph Peter Oborne 17 February 2015 The coverage of HSBC in Britain's Telegraph is a fraud on its readers. If major newspapers allow corporations to influence their content for fear of losing advertising revenue, democracy itself is in peril. Five years ago I was invited to become the chief political commentator of the Telegraph. It was a job I was very proud to accept. The Telegraph has long been the most important conservative-leaning newspaper in Britain, admired as much for its integrity as for its superb news coverage.

When I joined the Telegraph had just broken the MPs’ expenses scandal, the most important political scoop of the 21st century. I was very conscious that I was joining a formidable tradition of political commentary. I spent my summer holiday before taking up my duties as columnist reading the essays of the great Peter Utley, edited by Charles Moore and Simon Heffer, two other masters of the art. No one has ever expressed quite as well as Utley the quiet decency and pragmatism of British conservatism. The Mail is raucous and populist, while the Times is proud to swing with the wind as the voice of the official class. The Telegraph stood in a different tradition. It is read by the nation as a whole, not just by the City and Westminster. It is confident of its own values. It has long been famous for the accuracy of its news reporting. I imagine its readers to be country solicitors, struggling small businessmen, harassed second secretaries in foreign embassies, schoolteachers, military folk, farmers—decent people with a stake in the country. My grandfather, Lt Col Tom Oborne DSO, had been a Telegraph reader. He was also a churchwarden and played a role in the Petersfield Conservative Association.

He had a special rack on the breakfast table and would read the paper carefully over his bacon and eggs, devoting special attention to the leaders. I often thought about my grandfather when I wrote my Telegraph columns. ‘You don’t know what you are fucking talking about’ Circulation was falling fast when I joined the paper in September 2010, and I suspect this panicked the owners. Waves of sackings started, and the management made it plain that it believed the future of the British press to be digital. Murdoch MacLennan, the chief executive, invited me to lunch at the Goring Hotel near Buckingham Palace, where Telegraph executives like to do their business. I urged him not to take the newspaper itself for granted, pointing out that it still had a very healthy circulation of more than half a million. I added that our readers were loyal, that the paper was still very profitable and that the owners had no right to destroy it. The sackings continued. A little while later I met Mr MacLennan by chance in the queue of mourners outside Margaret Thatcher’s funeral and once again urged him not to take Telegraph readers for granted.

He replied: “You don’t know what you are fucking talking about.” Events at the Telegraph became more and more dismaying. In January 2014 the editor, Tony Gallagher, was fired. He had been an excellent editor, well respected by staff. Mr Gallagher was replaced by an American called Jason Seiken, who took up a position called ‘Head of Content.’ In the 81 years between 1923 and 2004 the Telegraph had six editors, all of them towering figures: Arthur Watson, Colin Coote, Maurice Green, Bill Deedes, Max Hastings and Charles Moore. Since the Barclay Brothers purchased the paper 11 years ago there have been roughly six more, though it is hard to be certain since with the arrival of Mr Seiken the title of editor was abolished, then replaced by a Head of Content (Monday to Friday). There were three editors (or Heads of Content) in 2014 alone. For the last 12 months matters have got much, much worse. The foreign desk—magnificent under the leadership of David Munk and David Wastell—has been decimated. As all reporters are aware, no newspaper can operate without skilled sub-editors.

Half of these have been sacked, and the chief sub, Richard Oliver, has left. Solecisms, unthinkable until very recently, are now commonplace. Recently readers were introduced to someone called the Duke of Wessex. Prince Edward is the Earl of Wessex. There was a front page story about deer-hunting. It was actually about deer-stalking, a completely different activity. Obviously the management don’t care about nice distinctions like this. But the readers do, and the Telegraph took great care to get these things right until very recently. The arrival of Mr Seiken coincided with the arrival of the click culture. Stories seemed no longer judged by their importance, accuracy or appeal to those who actually bought the paper. The more important measure appeared to be the number of online visits. On 22 September Telegraph online ran a story about a woman with three breasts . One despairing executive told me that it was known this was false even before the story was published. I have no doubt it was published in order to generate online traffic, at which it may have succeeded. I am not saying that online traffic is unimportant, but over the long term, however, such episodes inflict incalculable damage on the reputation of the paper. Open for business?

With the collapse in standards has come a most sinister development. It has long been axiomatic in quality British journalism that the advertising department and editorial should be kept rigorously apart. There is a great deal of evidence that, at the Telegraph, this distinction has collapsed. Late last year I set to work on a story about the international banking giant HSBC. Well-known British Muslims had received letters out of the blue from HSBC informing them that their accounts had been closed. No reason was given, and it was made plain that there was no possibility of appeal. "It’s like having your water cut off," one victim told me. When I submitted it for publication on the Telegraph website, I was at first told there would be no problem. When it was not published I made enquiries. I was fobbed off with excuses, then told there was a legal problem. When I asked the legal department, the lawyers were unaware of any difficulty. When I pushed the point, an executive took me aside and said that "there is a bit of an issue" with HSBC. Eventually I gave up in despair and offered the article to openDemocracy . It can be read here . I researched the newspaper’s coverage of HSBC.

I learnt that Harry Wilson, the admirable banking correspondent of the Telegraph, had published an online story about HSBC based on a report from a Hong Kong analyst who had claimed there was a ‘black hole’ in the HSBC accounts. This story was swiftly removed from the Telegraph website, even though there were no legal problems. When I asked HSBC whether the bank had complained about Wilson's article, or played any role in the decision to remove it, the bank declined to comment. Mr Wilson’s contemporaneous tweets referring to the story can be found here . The story itself, however, is no longer available on the website, as anybody trying to follow through the link can discover. Mr Wilson rather bravely raised this issue publicly at the ‘town hall meeting’ when Jason Seiken introduced himself to staff. He has since left the paper. Then, on 4 November 2014, a number of papers reported a blow to HSBC profits as the bank set aside more than £1 billion for customer compensation and an investigation into the rigging of currency markets. This story was the city splash in the Times, Guardian and Mail, making a page lead in the Independent. I inspected the Telegraph coverage.

It generated five paragraphs in total on page 5 of the business section. The reporting of HSBC is part of a wider problem. On 10 May last year the Telegraph ran a long feature on Cunard’s Queen Mary II liner on the news review page. This episode looked to many like a plug for an advertiser on a page normally dedicated to serious news analysis. I again checked and certainly Telegraph competitors did not view Cunard’s liner as a major news story. Cunard is an important Telegraph advertiser. The paper’s comment on last year’s protests in Hong Kong was bizarre. One would have expected theTelegraph of all papers to have taken a keen interest and adopted a robust position. Yet (in sharp contrast to competitors like the Times)I could not find a single leader on the subject. At the start of December the Financial Times, the Times and the Guardian all wrote powerful leaders on the refusal by the Chinese government to allow a committee of British MPs into Hong Kong. The Telegraph remained silent. I can think of few subjects which anger and concern Telegraph readers more. On 15 September the Telegraph published a commentary by the Chinese ambassador, just before the lucrative China Watch supplement.

The headline of the ambassador’s article was beyond parody: ‘ Let’s not allow Hong Kong to come between us ’. On 17 September there was a four-page fashion pull-out in the middle of the news run, granted more coverage than the Scottish referendum. The Tesco false accounting story on 23 September was covered only in the business section. By contrast it was the splash, inside spread and leader in the Mail. Not that the Telegraph is short of Tesco coverage. Tesco pledging £10m to fight cancer , an inside peak at Tesco’s £35m jet and ‘ Meet the cat that has lived in Tesco for 4 years ’ were all deemed newsworthy. There are other very troubling cases, many of them set out in Private Eye, which has been a major source of information for Telegraph journalists wanting to understand what is happening on their paper. There was no avoiding the impression that something had gone awry with the Telegraph’s news judgment. At this point I wrote a long letter to Murdoch MacLennan setting out all my concerns about the newspaper, and handing in my notice. I copied this letter to the Telegraph chairman, Aidan Barclay. I received a cursory response from Mr Barclay.

He wrote that he hoped I could resolve my differences with Murdoch MacLennan. I duly went to see the chief executive in mid-December. He was civil, served me tea and asked me to take off my jacket. He said that I was a valued writer, and said that he wanted me to stay. I expressed all of my concerns about the direction of the paper. I told him that I was not leaving to join another paper. I was resigning as a matter of conscience. Mr MacLennan agreed that advertising was allowed to affect editorial, but was unapologetic, saying that “it was not as bad as all that” and adding that there was a long history of this sort of thing at the Telegraph. I have since consulted Charles Moore, the last editor of the Telegraph before the Barclays bought the paper in 2004. Mr Moore confessed that the published accounts of Hollinger Inc, then the holding company for the Telegraph, did not receive the scrutiny they deserved. But no newspaper in history has ever given an unfavourable gloss on its owner’s accounts. Beyond that, Mr Moore told me, there had been no advertising influence on the paper’s news coverage.

After my meeting with Mr MacLennan I received a letter from the Telegraph saying that the paper had accepted my letter of resignation, but welcomed my offer to work out my six-month notice period. However in mid January I was asked to meet a Telegraph executive, this time over tea at the Goring Hotel. He told me that my weekly column would be discontinued and there had been a "parting of the ways". He stressed, however, that the Telegraph would continue to honour my contract until it ran out in May. For my part I said that I would leave quietly. I had no desire to damage the newspaper. For all its problems it continues to employ a large number of very fine writers. They have mortgages and families. They are doing a fine job in very trying circumstances. I prepared myself mentally for the alluring prospect of several months paid gardening leave. Story, what story? That was how matters stood when, on Monday of last week, BBC Panorama ran its story about HSBC and its Swiss banking arm, alleging a wide-scale tax evasion scheme, while the Guardian and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published their 'HSBC files'. All newspapers realised at once that this was a major event.

The FT splashed on it for two days in a row, while the Times and the Mail gave it solid coverage spread over several pages. You needed a microscope to find the Telegraph coverage: nothing on Monday, six slim paragraphs at the bottom left of page two on Tuesday, seven paragraphs deep in the business pages on Wednesday. The Telegraph’s reporting only looked up when the story turned into claims that there might be questions about the tax affairs of people connected to the Labour party. After a lot of agony I have come to the conclusion that I have a duty to make all this public. There are two powerful reasons. The first concerns the future of the Telegraph under the Barclay Brothers. It might sound a pompous thing to say, but I believe the newspaper is a significant part of Britain’s civic architecture. It is the most important public voice of civilised, sceptical conservatism. Telegraph readers are intelligent, sensible, well-informed people. They buy the newspaper because they feel that they can trust it. If advertising priorities are allowed to determine editorial judgments, how can readers continue to feel this trust? The Telegraph’s recent coverage of HSBC amounts to a form of fraud on its readers.

It has been placing what it perceives to be the interests of a major international bank above its duty to bring the news to Telegraph readers. There is only one word to describe this situation: terrible. Imagine if the BBC—so often the object of Telegraph attack—had conducted itself in this way. The Telegraph would have been contemptuous. It would have insisted that heads should roll, and rightly so. This brings me to a second and even more important point that bears not just on the fate of one newspaper but on public life as a whole. A free press is essential to a healthy democracy. There is a purpose to journalism, and it is not just to entertain. It is not to pander to political power, big corporations and rich men. Newspapers have what amounts in the end to a constitutional duty to tell their readers the truth. It is not only the Telegraph that is at fault here. The past few years have seen the rise of shadowy executives who determine what truths can and what truths can’t be conveyed across the mainstream media. The criminality of News International newspapers during the phone hacking years was a particularly grotesque example of this wholly malign phenomenon.

All the newspaper groups, bar the magnificent exception of the Guardian, maintained a culture of omerta around phone-hacking, even if (like the Telegraph) they had not themselves been involved. One of the consequences of this conspiracy of silence was the appointment of Andy Coulson, who has since been jailed and now faces further charges of perjury, as director of communications in 10 Downing Street. Urgent questions to answer Last week I made another discovery. Three years ago the Telegraph investigations team—the same lot who carried out the superb MPs’ expenses investigation—received a tip off about accounts held with HSBC in Jersey. Essentially this investigation was similar to the Panorama investigation into the Swiss banking arm of HSBC. After three months research the Telegraph resolved to publish. Six articles on this subject can now be found online, between 8 and 15 November 2012, although three are not available to view. Thereafter no fresh reports appeared. Reporters were ordered to destroy all emails, reports and documents related to the HSBC investigation. I have now learnt, in a remarkable departure from normal practice, that at this stage lawyers for the Barclay brothers became closely involved.

When I asked the Telegraph why the Barclay brothers were involved, it declined to comment. This was the pivotal moment. From the start of 2013 onwards stories critical of HSBC were discouraged. HSBC suspended its advertising with the Telegraph. Its account, I have been told by an extremely well informed insider, was extremely valuable. HSBC, as one former Telegraph executive told me, is “the advertiser you literally cannot afford to offend”. HSBC today refused to comment when I asked whether the bank's decision to stop advertising with the Telegraph was connected in any way with the paper's investigation into the Jersey accounts. Winning back the HSBC advertising account became an urgent priority. It was eventually restored after approximately 12 months. Executives say that Murdoch MacLennan was determined not to allow any criticism of the international bank. “He would express concern about headlines even on minor stories,” says one former Telegraph journalist. “Anything that mentioned money-laundering was just banned, even though the bank was on a final warning from the US authorities. This interference was happening on an industrial scale. “An editorial operation that is clearly influenced by advertising is classic appeasement.

Once a very powerful body know they can exert influence they know they can come back and threaten you. It totally changes the relationship you have with them. You know that even if you are robust you won’t be supported and will be undermined.” When I sent detailed questions to the Telegraph this afternoon about its connections with advertisers, the paper gave the following response. "Your questions are full of inaccuracies, and we do not therefore intend to respond to them. More generally, like any other business, we never comment on individual commercial relationships, but our policy is absolutely clear. We aim to provide all our commercial partners with a range of advertising solutions, but the distinction between advertising and our award-winning editorial operation has always been fundamental to our business. We utterly refute any allegation to the contrary." The evidence suggests otherwise, and the consequences of the Telegraph’s recent soft coverage of HSBC may have been profound. Would Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs have been much more energetic in its own recent investigations into wide-scale tax avoidance, had the Telegraph continued to hold HSBC to account after its 2012 investigation? There are great issues here. They go to the heart of our democracy, and can no longer be ignored.

openDemocracy has launched an urgent appeal to help us keep publishing the stories others won't. Please give whatever you can here and share this widely. About the author Peter Oborne is the former chief political commentator of the Telegraph and reports for Channel 4's Dispatches and Unreported World. He has written a number of books identifying the power structures that lurk behind political discourse, including The Triumph of the Political Class. He is a regular on BBC programmes Any Questions and Question Time and often presents Week in Westminster. He was voted Columnist of the Year at the Press Awards in 2013. Related Articles

Question: Which national newspaper has been edited by Bill Deedes, Max Hastings and Charles Moore?
Answer: DAILY TELEGRAPH