If American talk show host Jerry Springer had stumbled into the normally-hallowed surroundings of the Jubilee room in the House of Commons on Monday he would have felt right at home.
Emotions were at boiling point, abuse was flying around like shrapnel and it appeared the entire proceedings were about to degenerate into an ugly bar room brawl.
But this was not the usual explosive Springer mixture of trailer park "victims" and desperate social inadequates being wound up to breaking point.
This was a press conference to mark the launch of a new book which claims disgraced ex-Tory MP Neil Hamilton was the victim of a conspiracy by The Guardian newspaper and Harrods' boss Mohamed al-Fayed.
Before the last election, Mr Hamilton was accused of accepting brown envelopes stuffed with cash from Mr Fayed in return for asking Commons questions on his behalf.
He came to epitomise the sleaze which wracked the last Tory administration in the run up to the poll and which contributed to its humiliating defeat.
He lost his Tatton seat to the man in the white suit, Martin Bell, and has become a pariah in his own party.
But freelance reporter Jonathan Boyd Hunt has now produced a 300 page book, Trial by Conspiracy, to back up Mr Hamilton's claim that he is innocent of any corruption.
The book claims to be "the story of how a group of Britain's most senior journalists conspired to destroy the lives of one man and his wife and helped bring down a government in the process."
And the press conference to launch the book got off to an unexceptional start.
There were claims from the platform - which included Mr Hamilton, his friend and Tory MP Gerald Howarth, Mr Hunt, and Baroness Turner - that the newspaper had falsified documents and, along with Mr Fayed, had lied to the Downey Inquiry into the sleaze allegations.
None of it was particularly new and there was a marked lack of enthusiasm amongst the gathered media.
But, as Mr Hamilton and Mr Hunt continued to make their allegations, things suddenly began to get out of hand.
First a rather excited Guardian reporter started accusing the two of libelling him, then another Guardian reporter started attacking the author over his ignorance of the newspaper's computer system.
Then yet another Guardian journalist started putting in his two pen'oth.
As the rest of the media watched on bemused, the entire press conference turned into a slanging match between the two sides - each accusing the other of any number of atrocities.
At one stage it appeared the platform was outnumbered by the Guardian journalists, by now at least four strong and apparently growing in number by the minute.
But then a group of Hamilton supporters, led by his formidable wife Christine, led a counter attack from the back of the room.
If this had been Jerry Springer, the bouncers would have been leaping to their feet, ready to haul the two sides off each other.
The transformation from serious press conference to prime-time, shock TV was almost complete.
Mr Springer would probably have titled it "they lied to destroy my life_.."
But, of course, it ended without any physical violence - and very little enlightenment.
The first half of Assinder’s report is reasonably
accurate, and, usefully, he confirms just how damaging the Guardian’s
‘cash for questions’ allegations against Neil Hamilton had been to the
Conservative Party. He also
describes faithfully J B Hunt’s claim that his book shows how the Guardian
destroyed Hamilton and his wife and in the process helped bring down John
Major’s Conservative government. He
states:
This
was a press conference to mark the launch of a new book which claims disgraced
ex-Tory MP Neil Hamilton was the victim of a conspiracy by The Guardian newspaper and Harrods' boss
Mohamed al-Fayed.
Before the last election, Mr Hamilton was accused of
accepting brown envelopes stuffed with cash from Mr Fayed in return for
asking Commons questions on his behalf.
He
came to epitomise the sleaze which wracked the last Tory administration in the run up to the poll and which contributed
to
its humiliating defeat.
He lost his Tatton seat to the man in the white suit, Martin
Bell, and has become a pariah in his own party.
But freelance reporter Jonathan Boyd Hunt has now produced a
300 page book, Trial by Conspiracy, to back up Mr Hamilton's
claim
that he is innocent of any corruption.
The book claims to be "the story of how a group of
Britain's most senior journalists conspired to destroy the lives of one man and
his wife and helped bring down a government in the
process."
However, Assinder then states:
And the press conference to
launch the book got off to an unexceptional start.
In fact the press conference began sensationally when
chairman Gerald Howarth MP read out an extract from Trial by Conspiracy
which proved that a smear article against Hunt, which the Guardian had
published that very morning, was deliberately misleading and gave an impression
that was completely contrary to the facts. Assinder
continued:
There were claims from the platform - which included Mr
Hamilton, his friend and Tory MP Gerald Howarth, Mr Hunt, and Baroness Turner - that the newspaper had falsified documents
and, along with Mr Fayed, had lied to the Downey Inquiry into the sleaze allegations.
It is telling that Assinder describes Gerald
Howarth MP as “Neil Hamilton’s friend” who was a “Tory MP”,
but that he then fails to report that Baroness Turner was a leading Labour
Peer who, having been a trade unionist all of her working life, was certainly no
friend of the Conservative Party or Neil Hamilton.
Assinder then says of Hunt’s allegations:
None
of it was particularly new and there was a marked lack of enthusiasm amongst the
gathered media.
In fact Hunt’s allegations had never been
aired by any mainstream news organisation, certainly not the national BBC News,
and there could hardly be allegations more serious than accusations that a
national newspaper’s editors and journalists had forged documents and lied in
cahoots with the owner of Harrods to pervert the course of a major parliamentary
inquiry and destroy an innocent former Minister of the Crown.
Assinder then focuses on the disruption of the
conference by the Guardian’s hard-Left comment editor, David Leigh,
after which he states:
But then a group of Hamilton supporters, led by his formidable wife
Christine, led a counter attack from the back of the room.
This is
also untrue. The ‘counter
attack’ comprised of rebuttals of Leigh's disruption which came from Hunt, Hamilton, Howarth, and Baroness Turner in equal
measure from the front of the room. If Christine Hamilton
did make any remarks at all they are not discernable on the video recording made by ITN. Assinder
concludes his misleading, censorial propaganda sheet thus:
But,
of course, it ended without any physical violence - and very little
enlightenment.
This is another direct misrepresentation, given
that the conference was highly enlightening, with several hitherto unaired
sensational facts
and allegations being made public which challenged head-on the Guardian’s
‘cash for questions’ allegations and the BBC’s uncritical reporting thereof during
the previous four years.
BACK TO: Hunt’s News Release in Section
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