 London, Thursday, April 22, 2004 Desmond
taunts Telegraph in
'Nazi' tirade Desmond:
branded Telegraph chief executive Jeremy Deedes
a 'miserable piece of shit' and said Germans
were 'all Nazis' by Chris Tryhorn, Lisa
O'Carroll and Owen Gibson EXPRESS owner Richard
Desmond today launched an extraordinary tirade
against Telegraph bosses at a meeting of their
joint venture print works, hurling a string of
abuse and goosestepping around a boardroom in
mockery of a German newspaper group's bid for the
paper.  David
Irving comments: I NOTE that the
manifestly lovable Mr Richard
Desmond is also listed
as one of the UK's richest Jews.
 This arriviste
has made his money by peddling a stable of
pornographic magazines containing the
utmost filth that British law, alas,
allows. Poor Telegraph! How are the
mighty fallen! |
In scenes that will shock the Conservative party
he has just pledged to support, Mr Desmond branded
the Telegraph chief executive, Jeremy
Deedes, a "miserable little piece of shit" and
said Germans were "all Nazis".The Telegraph executives were so outraged
by Mr Desmond's four-letter outburst that they
walked out of the meeting in disgust. As they left
the meeting of the jointly owned West Ferry
printing company, Mr Desmond told other
Express executives to sing "Deutschland
über Alles" and made Nazi-style "Sieg Heil"
salutes, according to witnesses. 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 famous
goosestepping scene in TV sitcom Fawlty Towers. The outburst will also
come as a shock to the Frankfurt-based bank
Commerzbank, which bankrolled Mr Desmond's
acquisition of the Express titles more
than three years ago. Mr Deedes said: "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." According to witnesses the outburst went on for
three or four minutes. 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 today to switch its allegiance to the
Tories. Following exchanges about Conrad Black,
the Telegraph's outgoing owner who is battling
allegations of pocketing unauthorised executive
payments, conversation reverted to the German
theme. In a faux-German accent, Mr Desmond asked if the
Telegraph bosses - who also included
managing director Hugo Drayton and printing
director Bill Ellerd-Styles - were looking
forward to being run by Nazis. "That's not very helpful," Mr Deedes said,
pointing out that Axel Springer - the German
newspaper group currently bidding to buy the
Telegraph titles - had a commitment to the
state of Israel as part of its publishing
philosophy. When 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?" "Don't you tell me to sit down, you miserable
little piece of shit," Mr Desmond said, before he
launched what witnesses described as "a stream of
foul-mouthed abuse, both personal and general". "After three years dealing with a bunch of
crooks I'm starting to enjoy this," Mr Desmond
said, adding, "You sat down with that f*cking fat
crook and did nothing," in an apparent reference to
Lord Black. He also called the Telegraph directors
"f*cking c*nts" and "f*cking wankers" among other
names in an expletive-ridden tirade. When Mr Deedes said he didn't think the
discussion - a monthly meeting of West Ferry's
finance committee - was going to be productive, Mr
Desmond paused before launching a fresh
assault. It was then he mimicked the Basil Fawlty walk,
only for Mr Deedes to argue that it was
unacceptable to refer to people as Nazis. "Do you want to come
outside and sort it out, then?" Mr Desmond
sneered, before the Telegraph executives
decided to abandon the meeting, scheduled to
start at 9am. 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. The two publishers co-own the printing works and
have been at loggerheads ever since Mr Desmond
acquired the Express in November 2000. Henceforth the Telegraph will confine its
attendance to the wider board meetings that also
involve other publishers who use the plant. A spokesman for Mr Desmond declined to
comment. Mr Desmond's mention of the Nazis today is not
the first time he has shown an interest in the
Third Reich. The Express boss has repeatedly
criticised the support shown to Hitler in
the 1930s by the Daily Mail, the paper he
has said represents "everything I hate". Last year he raised the hackles of Daily
Mail owner Viscount Rothermere by
wrongly accusing his grandfather of supporting
Hitler's anti-Semitism. Even today, as the Daily Express
announced its support for the Conservatives, the
paper mentioned Hitler, saying only the German
dictator could have dreamed of the monster Europe
has become in the 21st century.
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