The wages of sin

A few people may be a bit happier tonight. Perhaps, "happier" is not the word, perhaps schadenfreude is the word. Two former Labour MPs, one a minister, have lost their court cases; Phil Woolas, stripped of his seat for electoral hanky panky, and David Chaytor for being a fraud and a thief. Both abused their position as elected representatives. They were members of our ruling elite, and as such owed us a duty of integrity, which they failed to deliver. They are not the only ones.

But frankly, I don't worry too much about how Chaytor and Woolas are feeling tonight.
Does anyone know who Lloyd Turner was? Some people might think that the doings of our political classes do not impact upon others. Well, they do. Lloyd Turner was the Editor of the Daily Star and was responsible for blowing the whistle on Jeffrey Archer. The Daily Star, under Turner's editorship claimed that Archer was seeing a prostitute and also that they had had sex. Archer sued for and, inexplicably won, due in some part to the outrageous directions of the trial judge. The damages amounted to £500,000 and as a result of the loss, Turner was sacked as editor. At the time, nobody knew his life was going to be cut short, but he worked for two other newspapers, both of which folded. The loss of the case was shattering to Lloyd Turner and his wife, Jill:
Lloyd's career never really recovered after he and his newspaper lost their libel case 14 years ago and he was sacked," she says quietly. "Archer bounded out of the High Court, seemingly vindicated. And my husband, who knew all about Archer's lies, his inventions and his womanising, was left a broken man, with his reputation in tatters.
As we now know, the fictional life of Jeffrey Archer unravelled shortly after and he was finally imprisoned for perjury and made to pay back the damages to the Daily Star, and others, such as Private Eye, with full costs. Archer bounced back; Matthew Parris likened him to Mr Toad of Toad Hall, a sort of charming, lovable skalliwag.

Lloyed Turner was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel by 1996 and was planning to return to Fleet Street, this time, with the Daily Mail when on Thursday, September 12th, 1996, he died of a heart attack, in the arms of his wife.
When the news broke of Archer's prison sentence in July 2001, Jill Turner told a reporter who asked what she would say to Archer if she met him:
I know exactly what Lloyd would say to him if he had the chance: `Gotcha, Archer. Gotcha at last.

Gotcha Woolas. Gotcha Chaytor, Gotcha at last. But I would like to ask them, how many broken careers and shattered lives have you left in your wake?

3 comments:

Jim Baxter said...

In the meantime the fictional life of Tom Harris continues, in which our hero axes his way to triumph through the trivial concerns of the public to save MPs from an evil expenses regime, to be hailed as a hero by, well, other MPs.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8175053/Why-the-expenses-regime-is-still-broken.html

What can we say about this man's judgement, at a time when MPs have seldom been held in such low esteem, that he tries to make his reputation on this ishoo at this time? I have a suggestion: he is a fool, starkly unworthy of his office. Obviously his constituents have no problems that he should champion; they care only that MPs are duly reimbursed.

Jim said...

Woolas came out of court today and seemed to think he had been vindicated for some reason. 'The judge recognised blah blah blah... '
Chaytor will probably get a small fine.
Nadine Dorries and some diplomat thought we should have kept quiet about FIFA corruption until next week ( last nights Question Time). Oh and Nadine thinks the new independent expenses system is cruel to MPs'.
Oh and isn't the 'trusty sword of truth' Aitken guy a popular media pundit and preacher.
Same old sleaze sadly.
Sad news today about sprouts. Might be in short supply due to the global warming.
This is good though..

http://www.eyegas.com/sproutifarts/

oh and we're all freezing because the world is getting too hot. No really...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/8178162/Are-we-freezing-because-of-global-warming.html

Keep an eye out for a snowman. Last seen in a garden with a carrot nose and pound coins for eyes. Police informed...

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20101203/tuk-woman-rang-999-over-snowman-theft-a7ad41d.html

Houdini said...

Who knows how many broken lives they may have left after their tenures as dodgy MP's? Maybe far more than Archer.

One thing is for sure though; the Labour party will not suffer being tarred with the brush of guilt the way the Tories were. What about Robert, ex Labour MP, Maxwell? Labour is still dining out on the irrelevancies of Tory sleaze in the 80's but this will be conveniently forgotten.

Sometimes it just ain't fair, but a little justice is better than none.