Free Piers Morgan by Emily Herbert Page B

there to guide them as they did so.
    ‘I never had particularly strong feelings [about politics] either way,’ he told Campaign . ‘This time I do – I do feel this Government has let down the country. One of thereasons I came to the Mirror when I did was the impending election. We hadn’t had the Daily Mirror supporting a Labour Government for a very long time and I think it will have a very positive effect on sales.’
    Indeed, he lost no time in giving his latest newspaper a makeover. He started to pursue a far more serious news agenda than previously, and hired a slew of new writers, including Jo Brand, Victor Lewis-Smith and Tony Parsons, who, at the time of writing, still has his own column. But he also trusted his instincts, which meant a huge focus on the National Lottery and, of course, the royals. Diana, in particular, could make the front pages just by changing her outfit and was still one of the most potent selling weapons any paper has ever had at its disposal. And that Panorama interview simply made the whole story more gripping still. Recently, Diana had been cornered in the street by some paparazzi who goaded her so much that she finally broke down in tears – pictures that the Mirror ran, and for which they were heavily criticised.
    Meanwhile, Piers was having none of it. ‘Some people are sick and tired of reading about them [the royals], but a lot of people are still fascinated,’ he told the Guardian . ‘The broadsheets have been running reams on it too, because it’s a constitutional issue. In the case of Princess Di, it would be pretty hard for her to expect too much privacy, given that she went on television to spill the beans about her private life. I’m sure she weighed up the significance of that, and realised that her continual protestations of privacy would have a hollow ring.
    ‘Everyone got worked up about that video showing the paparazzi behaving badly. I could never have condoned that behaviour but nor am I going to join the ranks of newspaper critics. The photographers were caught by surprise when Diana began to run and they ran after her. I firmly believe that her breaking down in the street had nothing to do with that – that’s why we took the decision to publish the picture of her crying. I felt it was indicative of her state of mind and it was a pretty powerful image.’
    Of course, just eighteen months later, Princess Diana was to die after the car in which she was travelling with her then boyfriend Dodi Fayed was forced to escape a paparazzi in hot pursuit, but no one yet realised quite how much she was having to suffer from the rogue element.
    It had been a controversial decision, though: over at the Sun , the pictures did not appear in the paper, and its editor pointed out that Diana should really have some form of protection whenever she went out. Piers remained as pragmatic as ever. ‘We’re all beginning to ask whether there’s royal overkill but the circulation figures suggest otherwise,’ he declared.
    He was determined to maintain his credentials as a serious editor, too. The British Government had recently announced a knife amnesty, as a result of which 40,000 weapons had been handed in. Piers decided the Mirror should support the campaign and produced a front page with a picture of a man’s head with a knife sticking out of it.
    ‘I felt it was the most powerful image to back the campaign,’ he explained. ‘We were given the picture by this man and encouraged by him to use it. The idea that you could have a knife through the back of your head and survive was astonishing. Sales were pretty good on that day. We had some strong reactions and I published them in a letters special.’
    Other antics at the time included branding the then Home Office minister Ann Widdecombe ‘Doris Karloff’ – a nickname that stuck for years.
    Piers’ new-style Mirror was certainly making an impact, something gracefully conceded by his biggest rival. Stuart Higgins was