I’m very sad that this is going to detract from the Conservative party support and credibility.
This, along with the John Major revelations(and a possibility of court action to recover costs when ‘The Spectator’ alleged he had an affair and lost the resultant court case expensively) cannot be helping them at all.
I do not support the Conservative party at all and I’m pretty much opposed to most of what they claim to stand for, even if they don’t actually adhere to the moral standards they advocate for others, the problem for me is that without effective opposition, our current Labour administration is not being scrutinised and questions robustly or effectively enough.
This is not good for democracy.
When you actually look at his offence, Archer’s lying in court and fabrications from others under his instruction amount to stealing on a grand scale.
He must have known that if he won his case that he would recieve substantial damages.
His sentence was very mild when you consider that he stole £500k using lies and deception.(plus £700k in court costs)
The charges against him, perjury and perverting the course of justice can carry jasil terms of anything up to life imprisonment, I’ve seen petty shop robbers get that for pathetic amount of valuables, drug dealers three times Archers term for just a dozen wraps, fraudsters can and do get 8 years or more, and his lying under oath in order to obtain wealth certainly merited more than four years.
I think that something that does annoy me is that his scribblings appear in a newspaper that moralises, and considers itself the gaurdian of the national scruples.Here is a newspaper that took the stance that criminals should be imprisoned for increasingly long periods, the prison works as a deterrant, that even the poorest have no justification for crime(how much less so in Geoffrey Archers case?) and after all that it then buys and publishes manuscripts in contradiction of prison rules and from a convicted liar and cheat, all to increase circulation, ie profit.
I dislike the chap intensely. I was on holiday in Prague in 1998 when his unfortunate fall from grace began (with his withdrawal from the London mayoral race). My how I wept.
Pah, Crusoe - a pathetically transparent attempt at showing off by namedropping fashionable holiday locations, with absolutely no relevance to the OP.
Hell you don’t see me mentioning my current location (a private yacht in an exclusive marina in the med) as I write this, do you. Show some dignity man!
Prague? Fashionable? Nah. Cheap. And cold. And touristy. I only mentioned it as it was the one moment on holiday when I saw a TV, and that lovely little story popped up. Brilliant.
On hindsight, it does look odd that I mentioned it. I think I need more coffee.
Let me start by saying that I am no fan of Archer at all (who is?!).
But - there is no way - no way at all, that the Prison Service were not aware that he was writing about his experiences and intending to publish. Everything written in prison and sent to the outside world (such as an editor) is scrutinised and censored appropriately. If other people’s names are mentioned, they are blacked out. This happens to all prisoners, but would especially be the case for a ‘celebrity’ inmate, surely?
So, all I’m saying is that the story’s broken, the Prison Service is getting all uptight about it - but they must have known at some level that this was on the cards anyway.
Ooh good point - I’d temporarily forgotten about the day release bit. Maybe he wasn’t even working - he was writing…perish the thought he’d be so dishonest!!?
Mangetout you are my hero - the Pit is the perfect place for Lord High n Mighty. It scares me that someone (although we can probably include Mrs.A in on this as well) can feel completely and utterly impervious to all of society’s rules. At first I just thought he was a coward and a cheat with the libel thing etc but this latest episode in prison and the release of his memoirs just takes him to a new level.
That said, Steve Wright you’re spot on - nothing’s going to change him - he probably feels completely victimised by all this special treament (or was that Mrs.Archer’s words)
I notice, from today’s papers, that one of the first effects of Archer’s new publications has been to scare the crap out of Angie Peppiatt (the former PA who told the courts about his faked diary entries) by describing how a fellow convict offered to have her killed.
Nice touch, Jeffrey. See what I mean about there being a nasty edge to him?
When you wierd-ass limeys call this guy a “right wanker” does that mean he wanks correctly, or wanks with his right hand? Is there such a thing as a “left wanker”?
