Neville Accuses 'Amiable Buffoon'

More than two decades ago, Neville Thurlbeck and I were colleagues on the Today newspaper. He was a news reporter and I was a political correspondent. He left for the News of the World and I went to the Daily Express...
We didn't go in for colourful prose much on Today. But Neville has gone technicolour in his article for the journalists' trade mag, UK Press Gazette, in which he breaks his silence on the News of he World hacking scandal.
"Wor Neville", as we used to call him on Today, writes of a "bloody Jacobean revenge tragedy" and "this vanquished leading lady". He's referring there to his former employer, the News of the World, which closed in July.
He lays into Tom Crone and Colin Myler, the paper's former legal manager and editor, and backs James Murdoch and Rebekkah Brooks, claiming they were victims of, not guilty of, a cover-up.
He also points the finger at some un-named News of the World executives, whom he describes in colourful terms, and accuses Tom Watson, to whom he passed on his allegations, of pursuing a political agenda against the Murdochs.
Crone and Myler ignored his evidence of wrongdoing by others, he writes, and he was prevented from showing his "dossier" to Rebekkah Brooks.
"I do not wish to embarrass the the executive who warned me away from Rebekkah's door, for he is still in harness at News International and I regard him as nothing more sinister than an amiable buffoon," he writes.
"A Polonius-type figure in this drama. In short, a 'yes man' with a file perpetually tucked beneath his arm."
Who could that "amiable buffoon" be. My ex-News of the World colleague Sophy Ridge has a hunch, But we'll spare his blushes here.
He continues: "I wrote to Myler that the hacking of Gordon Taylor's phone and the blackmail letters had long been known to be the work of a certain executive who I shall not name here for legal reasons."
A certain executive? After following this "public drama", as Neville calls it, from the outset, I think I have a hunch about who that might be.
And he warns he ex-bosses: "News International will hear more of this from me later."
I don't doubt that!
Some of Neville's most colourful prose is about his meeting with Tom Watson.
"A coroprate disaster for News International ameliorated only by the fact that a barnstorming Tom Watson had managed by this point to reach such a crescendo of implausible Victorian melodrama as to make Brian Blessed seem like Clement Freud sucking on a mogadon," he writes.
Brian Blessed? Clement Freud? The mind boggles!
"I had given a heap of information to Watson showing how Murdoch had been kept in the dark," he continues. "But I was under no illusion that we both had different agendas and I told him so."
So what was Watson's agenda, then?
Neville writes: "My evidence did not fit the pre-ordained frame of his argument. 'I'm old Labour so Murdoch is a lying, capitalist bastard. Right, I've ticked that box'.
Well, I talked to Tom on the evening of James Murdoch's appearance at the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee last week and his account of meeting Neville is a little different.
After reading Neville's UK Press Gazette article, Tom said "To be fair to Mr Thurlbeck, it is true to say that he did tell me that he rasied his concerns with senior managers in July 2009."
But then we come to the crunch paragraphs in the Thurlbeck article, where he gives his verdict on who he believes is telling the truth about hacking.
"Do I believe James Murdoch when he says he was never informed of the 'transcript for Neville' email?" he writes.
"I do."
That couldn't be clearer, then.
He goes on: "There was a pattern of witholding vital information from James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks.
"James Murdoch should have the benefit of the doubt.
"It is a matter of great personal regret that I failed to walk into Rebekah Brooks' office. I was naive to assume she and James Murdoch had been fully appraised."
And his motives in all this? Well, he ends by declaring: "I have chosen not to take the offer of potential immunity from prosecution."
So will John Whittingdale's committee want to call Neville after reading this account?
Somehow I doubt it. Whittingdale is keen to wrap up the inquiry, though some MPs on the committee - including Tom Watson - believe there's a case for recalling Crone and Myler.
That case is perhaps stronger now Neville Thurlbeck has broken his silence.
And if Neville were called as a witness, we could look forward to some colourful testimony!