Soon after I began working for Private Eye’s lawyers, the solicitor Peter Carter-Ruck, the libel lawyer who made an enemy of the Eye by bringing expensive lawsuits against them, phoned. The Eye mentions him often and deliberately misspells his name – putting an F rather than an R in Ruck. He asked if they would do this less often. The message was passed on, and the following week they simply changed the misspelling (the F replacing the C in Carter this time) and used his name twice as often.
When I tell other people I work for the Eye, they assume it is a full-time job. The editor, Ian Hislop, has appeared in the Guinness Book of Records as the most sued man in English legal history. If I were to try and make an issue of the Eye non-libellous, it would just be blank pages. My job is to help them get away with as much as they can. Once, the Eye received a letter from S.J. Berwin – a big City firm that thinks it’s very smart – following a Slicker item about Ladbrokes that quoted anonymous sources. The letter read something like: “We act for Ladbrokes. We’ve read this story, please advise us of your sources.” It was stupid. Journalists never reveal sources. So, instead of replying, we published the letter, headlined “F*** off”. We never heard another word.
When I first joined the Eye’s solicitors, now Davenport Lyons, in the 1980s, I made a point of getting involved with the magazine. I had been reading it avidly since I was a teenager. At first, I occasionally went over to the Eye’s office to see how it worked, or to give my view on a potentially tricky story. And then a few years later, I took over the job. When I found myself solely in charge, I was apprehensive. Going along to pontificate is one thing, but realising the buck would stop with me was quite another.
The two law firms I hear from most frequently are Russell Jones and Walker, which acts for the police, and Carter-Ruck & Partners. At any time I probably have about five or six complaints on the go.
But cases rarely get to court. One of the few times the Eye has been in court was with the firm Carter-Ruck in 2001. A libel case brought against the Eye by accountant Stuart Condliffe finally came to trial after 10 years. It was a fairly minor issue of libel but Carter-Ruck had built it up into a case of the worst kind of libel – and had run up around £1m ($1.78m) in fees. As we went to court, a partner at Carter-Ruck was gloating about buying himself a Ferrari when they won. They were acting on a “no-win no-fee” basis, and they lost, spectacularly – so we brought the partner a Dinky-toy Ferrari instead.
One of the most ridiculous occasions was during the trial of Robert Maxwell’s son Kevin. The attorney-general had put out a memo asking newspapers not to print anything to suggest Robert Maxwell was dishonest. The Eye put a photograph of Maxwell in the jokes section with the caption “Dishonest”. We were summoned to see the trial judge, Mr Justice Phillips, who is now the lord chief justice. So Ian, a barrister and I all bowled up in a taxi. The judge was distinctly unamused about the matter, but it turned out that the attorney-general’s office had forgotten to send the memo to Private Eye – and so there was nothing the judge could do.
The Eye might get into trouble, but I think it’s essential publications like it exist. I am astonished by the sleaziness and corruption of some of the people they expose. These people need to find their nemesis.
