Editing Andrew Neil (section)

===''The Sunday Times''===
Neil was editor of ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' from 1983 to 1994. His hiring was controversial: it was argued he was appointed by [[Rupert Murdoch]] over more experienced colleagues, such as [[Hugo Young]] and [[Brian MacArthur]].<ref>Roy Greenslade ''Press Gang: How Newspapers Make Profits From Propaganda'', London: Macmillan/Pan, 2003 [2004], p.387. Greenslade uses the word "many", but cites only Paul Foot's essay "The Slow Death of Investigative Journalism" (in Stephen Glover (ed.) ''Secrets of the Press: Journalists on Journalism'' (Allen Lane, 1999), pp. 79–89, 85, as evidence.</ref>

Neil told Murdoch before he was appointed editor that ''The Sunday Times'' was intellectually stuck in a 1960s time warp and that it needed to "shake off its [[collectivist]] mind-set to become the champion of a market-led revolution that would shake the British [[The Establishment|Establishment]] to its bones and transform the economy and society".<ref name="Neil">Andrew Neil, ''Full Disclosure'' (London: Pan, 1997), p. 32.</ref> Neil later said that although he shared some of Murdoch's right-wing views, "on many matters Rupert was well to the right of me politically. He was a [[monetarist]]. I was not. Nor did I share his [[Social conservatism|conservative social outlook]]".<ref name="Neil"/> 

In his first editorial, on 9 October 1983, Neil advised [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s government to "move to the right on industrial policy (trust-bust, deregulate, privatise wherever it produces more competition and efficiency) and centre-left in economic strategy (a few billion extra in capital spending would have little impact on interest rates or inflation but could give a lift to a shaky economic recovery)".<ref>Neil, ''Full Disclosure'', pp. 65–66.</ref>

''The Sunday Times'' strongly supported the stationing of American [[cruise missile]]s in bases in Britain after the Soviet Union installed [[RSD-10 Pioneer|SS-20s]] in Eastern Europe, and it criticised the resurgent [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]].<ref>Neil, ''Full Disclosure'', pp. 67–69, 75.</ref> Neil also wrote editorials supporting the [[United States invasion of Grenada]] because it would restore democracy there, despite opposition from Hugo Young. Neil replied to Young that he wanted the editorial stance of ''The Sunday Times'' to be "neo-Keynesian in economic policy, radical right in industrial policy, liberal on social matters and European and [[Atlanticist]] on foreign policy".<ref>Neil, ''Full Disclosure'', pp. 70–71.</ref> 

In Neil's first year as the paper's editor, ''The Sunday Times'' had revealed the date of the deployment of cruise missiles, exposed how [[Mark Thatcher]] had channelled the gains from his consultancy business into a bank account and reported on [[Robert Mugabe]]'s atrocities in [[Matabeleland]].<ref>Neil, ''Full Disclosure'', pp. 79–80.</ref> Neil also printed extracts from [[Germaine Greer]]'s ''Sex and Destiny'' and from [[Francis Pym]]'s anti-Thatcher autobiography, as well as a study of the "Patels of Britain", a celebration of the success of [[British Asian|Britain's Asian]] community.<ref>Neil, ''Full Disclosure'', p. 80.</ref>

Neil regards the newspaper's revelation of details of [[nuclear weapons and Israel|Israel's nuclear weapons programme]] in 1986, by using photographs and testimony from former Israeli nuclear technician [[Mordechai Vanunu]], as his greatest scoop as an editor.<ref name="bbc-20040420">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3640613.stm |title=Vanunu: Israel's nuclear telltale |work=BBC News |date=20 April 2004 |access-date=17 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170908192717/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3640613.stm |archive-date=8 September 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> During his editorship, the newspaper lost a libel case over claims that it had made concerning a witness, [[Carmen Proetta]], who was interviewed after her appearance in the ''[[Death on the Rock]]'' documentary on the [[Operation Flavius|Gibraltar shootings]]. One of ''The Sunday Times'' journalists involved, Rosie Waterhouse, resigned not long afterwards.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bonner|first1=Paul|last2=Aston|first2=Lesley|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DR5_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA75|title=Independent Television in Britain: ITV and IBA 1981–92: The Old Relationship Changes|location=Basingstoke & London|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=1998|page=75|isbn=978-0-230-37324-2|access-date=9 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909190852/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DR5_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA75&lpg=PA75|archive-date=9 September 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Page|first=Bruce|title=The Murdoch Archipelago|location=London|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=2011|pages=299–300}}</ref>

On 20 July 1986, ''The Sunday Times'' printed a front-page article (titled 'Queen dismayed by "uncaring" Thatcher') alleging that the Queen believed that [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s policies were "uncaring, confrontational and socially divisive".<ref>John Campbell, ''Margaret Thatcher, Volume Two: The Iron Lady'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 2003), p. 467.</ref><ref>Charles Moore, ''Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography. Volume Two: Everything She Wants'' (London: Allen Lane, 2015), p. 575.</ref><ref>Neil, ''Full Disclosure'', p. 243.</ref> The main source of information was the Queen's press secretary, [[Michael Shea (diplomat)|Michael Shea]].<ref name="Moore">Moore, ''Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography. Volume Two'', p. 576.</ref> When Buckingham Palace issued a statement rebutting the story, Neil was so angry at what he considered to be the Palace's double-dealing that he refused to print the statement in later editions of ''The Sunday Times''.<ref name="Moore"/>

In 1987, the Labour-controlled [[Strathclyde]] Regional Authority wanted to close down Neil's old school, Paisley Grammar School. After finding the secretary of state for Scotland, [[Malcolm Rifkind]], indifferent to the school's future, Neil contacted Margaret Thatcher's policy adviser, [[Brian Griffiths, Baron Griffiths of Fforestfach|Brian Griffiths]], to try and save the school. When Griffiths informed Thatcher of Strathclyde's plan to close it she issued a new regulation that gave the Scottish secretary the power to save schools where 80 per cent of the parents were opposed to the local authority's closure plan, thereby saving Paisley Grammar.<ref>Neil, ''Full Disclosure'', pp. 296–299.</ref><ref>[[Charles Moore (journalist)|Charles Moore]] claims that it was [[Michael Forsyth, Baron Forsyth of Drumlean|Michael Forsyth]] who alerted Griffiths. He adds that the ''Sunday Times'' under Neil "made much of the running with the story". ''Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography. Volume Three: Herself Alone'' (London: Allen Lane, 2019), p. 69 + n. †.</ref>

While at ''The Sunday Times'' in 1988, Neil met the former [[Femina Miss India|Miss India]], [[Pamella Bordes]], in a nightclub, an inappropriate place for someone with Neil's job according to [[Peregrine Worsthorne]].<ref name="Greenspan">{{cite news|last=Greenspan|first=Edward|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=19900129&id=QQckAAAAIBAJ&pg=1458,6358153&hl=en|title=Sin, sex, news editors fill London front pages<!--|work=Toronto Globe and Mail-->|work=Ocala Star-Banner|page=43|date=29 January 1990|access-date=11 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311233535/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=19900129&id=QQckAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DwcEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1458,6358153&hl=en|archive-date=11 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> The ''[[News of the World]]'' suggested Bordes was a [[call girl]].<ref name="Greenslade">{{cite book|last=Greenslade|first=Roy|title=Press Gang: How Newspapers Make Profits From Propaganda|publisher=Pan Macmillan|location=London, Basingstoke and Oxford|year=2004|pages=503–5}}</ref> <!-- Not knighted until 1991. -->Worsthorne argued in an editorial article "Playboys as Editors" in March 1989 for ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]'' that Neil was not fit to edit a serious Sunday newspaper. Worsthorne effectively accused Neil of knowing that Bordes was a prostitute.<ref name="Anderson">{{cite news|last=Heller Anderson|first=Susan|title=Chronicle|work=The New York Times|date=31 January 1990}}</ref> He apparently did not know about Bordes,<ref name="Greenslade" /> which the ''Telegraph'' had accepted by the time the libel case came to [[High Court of Justice]] in January 1990,<ref name="Greenspan" /> but the paper still defended their coverage as [[fair comment]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19900127&id=fxM1AAAAIBAJ&pg=4231,4578307&hl=en|title=Libel case Journalist Taken Back to His Schooldays: Court Told of Afternoon on the Art Room Sofa|work=<!-- Not "The Herald until 1992. -->The Glasgow Herald|page=7|date=27 January 1990|access-date=11 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311233530/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19900127&id=fxM1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=zaULAAAAIBAJ&pg=4231,4578307&hl=en|archive-date=11 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Neil won both the case and £1,000 in damages<ref name="Summerskill">Ben Summerskill [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/jul/28/sundaytimes.comment "Paper tiger"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161221085721/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/jul/28/sundaytimes.comment |date=21 December 2016 }} ''The Observer'', 28 July 2002</ref> plus costs.

In a July 1988 editorial ("Morals for the majority") Neil said that in Britain there were emerging pockets of social decay and unsocial behaviour: "a social rot...has gone deeper than the industrial decay of the 1960s and 1970s".<ref>Neil, ''Full Disclosure'', p. 474.</ref> Having been impressed with [[Charles Murray (political scientist)|Charles Murray]]'s study of the American welfare state, ''[[Losing Ground (book)|Losing Ground]]'', Neil invited Murray to Britain in 1989 to study Britain's emerging [[underclass]].<ref>Neil, ''Full Disclosure'', pp. 473–474.</ref> ''The Sunday Times Magazine'' of 26 November 1989 was largely devoted to Murray's report, which found that the British underclass consisted of people existing on welfare, the [[black economy]] and crime, with illegitimacy being the single most reliable predictor.<ref>Neil, ''Full Disclosure'', pp. 475–476.</ref> The accompanying editorial said Britain was in the midst of a "social tragedy of Dickensian proportions", with an underclass "characterized by drugs, casual violence, petty crime, illegitimate children, homelessness, work avoidance and contempt for conventional values".<ref>Neil, ''Full Disclosure'', p. 476.</ref>

Under Neil's editorship, ''The Sunday Times'' opposed the [[Poll tax (Great Britain)|poll tax]].<ref>Sarah Curtis (ed.), ''The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt: Volume Two'' (London: Pan, 1999), p. 247.</ref> In his memoirs, Neil said that his opposition to the poll tax crystallised when he discovered that his cleaner would be paying more poll tax than himself at a time when his income tax had just been reduced to 40% from 60%.<ref>Neil, ''Full Disclosure'', p. 302.</ref><ref>Campbell, ''Margaret Thatcher, Volume Two'', p. 562, n.</ref> During the [[1990 Conservative Party leadership election]], ''The Sunday Times'' was the only Murdoch-owned newspaper to support [[Michael Heseltine]] against Thatcher.<ref name="Campbell">Campbell, ''Margaret Thatcher, Volume Two'', p. 729.</ref> Neil blamed Thatcher for high inflation, "misplaced chauvinism" over Europe, and the poll tax, concluding that she had become an "electoral liability" and must therefore be replaced by Heseltine.<ref name="Campbell" /><ref>Sarah Curtis (ed.), ''The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt. Volume Three'' (London: Pan, 2000), p. 149.</ref>

In an editorial of January 1988 ("Modernize the monarchy"), Neil advocated the abolition of both the preference for males in the law of succession and of the exclusion of Catholics from the throne.<ref>Neil, ''Full Disclosure'', p. 275.</ref> Subsequent editorials of ''The Sunday Times'' called for the Queen to pay income tax and advocated a scaled-down monarchy that would not be class-based but which would be "an institution with close links to all classes. That meant clearing out the old-school courtiers...and creating a court which was far more representative of the multi-racial meritocracy that Britain was becoming".<ref>Neil, ''Full Disclosure'', p. 276.</ref> In an editorial of February 1991 Neil criticised some minor members of the Royal Family for their behaviour while the country was at war in the [[Gulf War|Gulf]].<ref>Neil, ''Full Disclosure'', pp. 274–275.</ref> In 1992 Neil obtained for ''The Sunday Times'' the serialisation rights for [[Andrew Morton (writer)|Andrew Morton]]'s book ''Diana: Her True Story'', which revealed the breakdown of [[Princess Diana]]'s marriage as well as her bulimia and her suicide attempts.<ref>Neil, ''Full Disclosure'', pp. 263–264.</ref>

In 1992 Neil was criticised by anti-Nazi groups<ref name="Ind1" /> and historians like [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]]<ref name="Ind2">Peter Pringle and David Lister [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/hitler-apologist-does-deal-for-goebbels-war-diaries-sunday-times-contract-with-david-irving-over-rediscovered-nazi-material-alarms-scholars-1530789.html "Hitler apologist does deal for Goebbels war diaries: 'Sunday Times' contract with David Irving over rediscovered Nazi material alarms scholars"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714220912/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/hitler-apologist-does-deal-for-goebbels-war-diaries-sunday-times-contract-with-david-irving-over-rediscovered-nazi-material-alarms-scholars-1530789.html |date=14 July 2015 }} ''The Independent'' 3 July 1992</ref> for employing the [[Holocaust denier]] [[David Irving]] to translate the diaries of [[Joseph Goebbels]].<ref name="Ind1">Rosie Waterhouse, et al [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/irving-back-to-antinazi-fury-1531352.html "Irving back to anti-Nazi fury"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714215830/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/irving-back-to-antinazi-fury-1531352.html |date=14 July 2015 }} ''The Independent on Sunday'', 5 July 1992</ref>