Dirty Des does a Big Ron

Stream of abuse by Express owner provokes walkout

Lisa O'Carroll, Nicholas Watt and Matt Wells
Friday April 23, 2004
The Guardian

Richard Desmond, the proprietor of the Daily Express, launched an extraordinary tirade against the Germans yesterday when he accused them all of being Nazis as he goosestepped around a boardroom to the astonishment of fellow newspaper executives.

In a performance more akin to Basil Fawlty than one of the most powerful figures in the British media, Mr Desmond began a high-level business meeting with his counterparts from the Daily Telegraph by hurling a string of abuse at them.

The Telegraph bosses were so outraged by Mr Desmond's outburst, which is understood to have lasted several minutes, they walked out of the meeting in disgust. As they left, Mr Desmond told Express executives to sing Deutschland über Alles, according to witnesses.

This is hardly the sort of publicity that will be welcomed by Michael Howard, the Tory leader, who began yesterday celebrating the Express's decision to once again back the Conservative party under the headline: Enough is enough, Mr Blair.

Tory central office issued a terse statement last night insisting that the diatribe had nothing to do with them. A spokesman said: "We don't get involved in private disagreements."

The extraordinary scenes, apparently prompted by a bid for the Telegraph by the German media group Axel Springer, took place at a meeting about the Westferry printing works in east London, which the Express and the Telegraph run jointly.

Mr Desmond, who has attempted to position himself as a respectable media owner by divesting himself of his pornography titles, called the Telegraph chief executive Jeremy Deedes a "miserable little piece of shit".

People present at the meeting said Mr Desmond - who dropped out of the race to buy the Telegraph after balking at the asking price - had at one point strutted up and down the room holding his fingers to his lips and giving stiff-armed salutes in emulation of the scene enacted by John Cleese in the TV sitcom Fawlty Towers.

Mr Deedes told MediaGuardian.co.uk yesterday: "It was the most grotesque outburst of a mix of slander and racism that I have ever been subjected to. If it had been in a public place he would have been arrested."

The Express directors began the meeting by greeting the arrival of Mr Deedes and the Telegraph finance director Niamh O'Donnell-Keenan with a chorus of "guten morgen" and "sehr gut".

Mr Deedes replied by congratulating Mr Desmond on "seeing the light", a reference to the Express's decision to switch its allegiance to the Tories.

Following exchanges about Conrad Black, the Telegraph's outgoing owner who is battling allegations of improper business conduct, conversation reverted to the German theme.

In a mock German accent, Mr Desmond asked if the Telegraph bosses were looking forward to being run by Nazis. "That's not very helpful," Mr Deedes said, pointing out that Axel Springer had a commitment to the state of Israel as part of its stated publishing philosophy.

Mr Desmond said: "They're all Nazis." Mr Deedes replied: "That is thoroughly offensive. Could you please sit down so we can start the meeting?"

Mr Desmond replied "Don't you tell me to sit down, you miserable little piece of shit" and then launched into what witnesses described as "a stream of foul-mouthed abuse, both personal and general".

Mr Desmond added: "After three years dealing with a bunch of crooks I'm starting to enjoy this. You sat down with that fucking fat crook and did nothing." This was an apparent reference to Lord Black. Various other expletives were hurled at the Telegraph directors as the rant unfolded.

When Mr Deedes expressed further dismay, Mr Desmond said: "Do you want to come outside and sort it out, then?"

The Telegraph executives decided to abandon the meeting. At this point the Express directors - managing director Martin Ellice, finance director Rob Sanderson and publishing manager Chris Haslum - were told to sing Deutschland über Alles.

It is understood the Telegraph will refuse to reconvene the meeting unless there are third parties present.

Mr Howard, the son of Romanian immigrants and whose grandmother died in a Nazi concentration camp, needs no reminding of the sensitivity of mockery involving the Third Reich.

One well placed Tory said that the party was transfixed by Mr Desmond's remarks, first reported on MediaGuardian.co.uk yesterday. "We are reading them with great interest," the Tory said

Labour MP Gisela Stuart, a German-born former minister who has faced Nazi taunts during election campaigns, said: "If this is the new kind of friend Michael Howard has found, I say good luck to him. I would invite Richard Desmond to stop reading Biggles and join the 21st century."

Frankfurt-based Commerzbank, which bankrolled Mr Desmond's £125m acquisition of the Express group in 2000, responded coolly. "I hear it from Britain and from other countries, we have to live with this," a spokesman said.

A spokesman for Mr Desmond declined to comment.