My father came from a working class family in London. He was a cockney. His Mum (my grandmother) was Irish and my Granddad was a cockney meat porter in Smithfield market. My Grandmother was very austere and my Granddad like a knees up. Somehow they got along.
My Dad was highly intelligent and hard working. He taught himself after having to leave school at fourteen in order to earn money for the family. He had a place at Grammar School but his parents said they could not afford the uniform so he had to leave.
He taught himself to type and worked for Reuters news agency. Then he moved into Fleet street and worked for the Newspapers. He worked his way up to be manager of a big office of telephone reporters for the Evening Standard. He was brilliant at it. But management did not recognise his talents or reward him because he was not one of them.
He told me not to believe anything in the newspapers – particularly the gutter press. He said they were owned by the rich, they distorted, lied and fabricated stories to suit their owners.
My Dad did not play the game. He did not come from a Public School, did not have the right accent, was not in the Rotary Club or Masons. They treated him like scum. When he died they replaced him with someone doing exactly the same job on three times the salary.
The Express, Mail, Telegraph and Sun are pure tripe in my eyes. They are blatant propagandists and deliberately indoctrinate and incite. I don’t believe anything that’s in them.