Where’s Ware?

Where’s Ware? John Ware is one of the leading British TV journalists of our age. He has worked for World in Action and Panorama and is held in very high regard by his colleagues. Having produced a number of documentaries on the war in Northern Ireland he is now seen as an expert on the area by the BBC and it is said that nothing gets broadcast about Northern Ireland by the BBC which has hasn’t been cleared by Ware and/or Peter Taylor.(1)

What follows arose through conversations between Simon Matthews and I during which we discovered we both had concerns about John Ware. He had written articles or produced TV documentaries about subjects of which we both had some knowledge which we knew were wrong, but for which he had never had to apologise or make a public correction. In the first section I return to the Colin Wallace saga. In the second Simon Matthews discusses two Ware programmes on local government in London.

Robin Ramsay

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Ware on Wallace

I became aware of John Ware when he joined the side of the sceptics about Colin Wallace during the great Wallace-Wright-Wilson plots events of 1987. Ware had been one of the many journalists who went to interview Colin Wallace at his home in Arundel that year. Rather than attempt to investigate the truth of Wallace’s allegations about events in Northern Ireland, Ware concentrated on Wallace’s biography. Although he broadcast nothing on Wallace, he wrote a piece about Wallace and ‘Spycatcher’ Peter Wright for The Listener (6 August 1987). In that he wrote of ‘demythologising Wallace’ and described him as ‘Walter Mitty’.(2) Later that year he played a minor role in The Independent’s attack on him on 2 September. His contribution to the Independent smear tried to show that ‘Walter Mitty’ Wallace had exaggerated his claims to have been a parachutist and the organiser of a display parachuting team run by the British Army. (And thus his other claims about intelligence operations in Northern Ireland should not be taken seriously…..)

In 1990, in a piece called ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ in the Spectator (24 March 1990) Ware returned to Wallace and parachuting, reiterating his 1987 claims that Wallace had either lied or exaggerated his role, and chastised ‘a growing number of uncritical and unsceptical MPs and journalists, and even the Press Council itself’ who believed his accounts.(3)

In Ware’s two pieces on Wallace and parachuting he quoted various people who had been involved in parachuting displays in Northern Ireland who said that they had never seen Wallace jump. This was Ware’s theme: Wallace, the Walter Mitty figure, exaggerating his role. Both of Ware’s articles on Wallace produced detailed rebuttals from Wallace himself. Not published was a long – far too long for publication – letter from me to the Spectator on 27 March 1990. Here are two sections from that.

Here [Wallace and parachuting] the story is much more complicated than Ware would have us believe. I was working on the Wallace story, as a researcher to Channel 4 News’ Robert Parker, at ITN during 1987. We photocopied various sections from Wallace’s scrapbooks, including bits of ephemera from his parachuting days: letters, membership cards, photographs etc. This was of very minor interest until an allegation wafted into the office, via a telephone call from one of Wallace’s former colleagues to another journalist, that ‘Wallace never jumped out of a plane’ – i.e. the parachuting story was a fraud. This mattered little: we had photocopies of letters from (a) a Major Boyd, of the Community Relations Branch, Army HQ, dated 19 April 1974, describing Wallace as ‘team leader’ of the ‘Parachute Team’; (b) from Major Edward Gardner of the 3rd Battalion at the Parachute Regiment to the British Parachuting Association, in which Wallace was described as ‘the man chiefly responsible for promoting parachuting among servicemen….. himself a keen and fairly experienced parachutist with about 300 jumps’; and we had a news cutting from the Belfast Telegraph of 18 March 1973 of Wallace with a caption which read ‘Captain Colin Wallace, one of a team of parachutists who jumped in with birthday greetings…’

The whisper down the phone was dismissed by us as disinformation, a smear. I had been expecting something of the sort, though had not thought of the parachuting aspect as the likely area. (There were others that summer, one of which duly appeared in The Independent.) Indeed, in view of the material we had which refuted the allegation, it seemed peculiarly inept. However, just to make sure, and encouraged by Wallace, I tried to confirm, from the British Parachuting Association (BPA), the sport’s regulatory body, that Wallace did indeed possess the ‘D’ license he claimed.(4) It was here that things got interesting, for the BPA could not trace it: the number Wallace gave for his ‘D’ license was, according to BPA records, the ‘D’ license of somebody else. The BPA, in June 1987, could not find a ‘D’ license for J. C. Wallace.

In light of the evidence we had that Wallace had been a jumper, had lead the parachute team, and the fact that Wallace had encouraged us to check it all out with whatever sources we could find, I concluded that the disappearing ‘D’ license and the phone call to our office were connected. In other words, a whisper from one of Wallace’s former colleagues that Wallace’s parachuting was a fake, would prove of little disinformation value if, on investigation, documentary evidence to refute it was immediately forthcoming. I concluded that the British state was engaged in an operation to discredit Wallace and had chosen the parachuting aspect as one of its target areas. I was thus not surprised when, some 3 months later, John Ware appeared in The Independent arguing that Wallace’s parachuting exploits were more or less a fraud. Or, more accurately, I was not surprised that the story had appeared, but was surprised that someone of Ware’s standing would put his name to it, and a newspaper of The Independent’s seriousness had published it.

My mid-1987 conclusion that there was an operation running to discredit Wallace via the parachuting activities was confirmed in 1989 when Paul Foot published his account of investigating the parachuting story. He, too, could not find the ‘D’ license at the BPA, but did find a duplicate copy of the ‘missing’ ‘D’ license in the records of the International Parachute Association. The British state, in my opinion, had removed one copy but missed the duplicate…..

Finally, it is illuminating to compare the MOD-inspired accounts of Wallace which appeared in 1981, just after his conviction for manslaughter, with those which appeared in 1987. In the Daily Telegraph (21 March 1981) Kenneth Clarke described Wallace as, inter alia,

‘a free-fall parachute enthusiast…….the person who headed the Army’s “dirty tricks” department in Northern Ireland….toured overseas with the British skydiving team and took fourth place in the novice section at a competition in America.'(5)

In 1981 everything that has been denied about Wallace by the British state and its mouthpieces in the government since he came out of prison in 1986, was freely handed out to Clarke (and others, e.g. in the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror – including the ‘Walter Mitty’ theme). The ‘line’ has been changed. At Wallace’s trial, in the effort to get him convicted of the murder of Jonathan Lewis via a ‘karate blow’ to the base of his nose, Wallace was portrayed as a dangerous killer/macho man.

I believe that in 1987 the British state was running a disinformation exercise against Wallace (nice irony, the biter bit) in which John Ware (and David McKittrick) were ensnared. It would be of some service to us all if John Ware would direct his undoubted talents to investigating that disinformation campaign, and the wider issue of the relations between Whitehall and sections of the British press highlighted by episodes such as the smearing of Ms Carmen Proetta after the Gibraltar killings, rather than this obsessive and futile effort to prove to that world that black is white.’

Ten years and a month later, on 20 April this year, I had the following e-mail exchange with John Ware.

Dear John Ware,
More than a decade ago we had an exchange of views about Colin Wallace published in Tribune. I was going through those old files the other day and realised there were two questions I should have asked you then, the answers to which I would appreciate now.

1. Is it true, as Private Eye claimed, that while in Northern Ireland you had been deceived by Wallace?
2. How did it arise that out of all the aspects of Wallace’s biography that you chose parachuting to research in detail?

Dear Robin, I’m not inclined to engage in a debate with you about Colin Wallace, not because I don’t still believe he ingeniously plays fast and loose with facts but because my memory of such exchanges that we had suggested to me that you had a closed mind on this issue.

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Ware on Brent

The classic ‘loony left’ stories of the 1980s revolved around education: local councils were being taken over by ‘extremists’; children were stopped from singing traditional nursery rhymes; there were ‘thought police in the classroom’ etc. This was the territory explored by John Ware in ‘Brent Schools — Hard Left Rules’, broadcast by Panorama in March 1987, in the run up to the June ’87 general election.

Ware spent many months researching his subject. And what a
gift Brent council was to both the media and the Tories in ’86/’87! The local ‘Broad Left’ was making gains: Reg Freeson MP had been ousted and Ken Livingstone selected to replace him; a majority had been won for Labour at the ’86 council elections;(8) and a black woman, Merle Amory, had been elected council leader. On the debit side? A hard Tory opposition locally — including Rhodes Boyson MP — and a catastrophic tactical error, very early on, the attempts made to discipline a head teacher with an exemplary record (the McGoldrick case) leading to huge numbers of journalists and TV crews camping out (literally) on the steps of the Town Hall waiting for action.

Not very much of Ware’s documentary, though, actually reflects this. Although Brent council gave him full access to its material, little of this was broadcast. Instead we get a lot of huffing and puffing about ‘Trotskyists’. This came, though, from an elderly Communist Party member, rather than anyone in mainstream politics. Ware says, ‘…. ten years ago, black parents warned that schools were failing their children….’ (i.e. in 1977 Brent schools, run by the council, were failing black pupils). Five minutes later, having established the ‘extremists take over the Town Hall’ line, he is grimly intoning, ‘One by one, the councillors whose faces didn’t fit were deselected….’ (i.e. some older Labour councillors — who had, presumably, been in power in ’77, when the council was ‘failing’ black children – were not readopted at local selection meetings). It was all rather contradictory.

The programme produced complaints and the B.B.C. admitted to one councillor who complained:

‘….some senior programme-makers shared your reservations, feeling that the programme, although containing good elements, did not give some Councillors the opportunity fully to present their case….'(9) In an article in the Spectator defending the programme, Ware wrote, ‘Council officials are always present to see that the letter of “The Little Red Book” is observed’ – without explaining what the ‘little red book’ was.(10)

The fall out from ‘Brent Schools — Hard Left Rules’ was dramatic. The Tories won the ’87 election, Rhodes Boyson was reelected with an increased majority, and Ken Livingstone nearly lost Brent East. Merle Amory quit politics. Brent council started a long trek toward and through being ‘hung’ — which really was far more chaotic than anything that had existed previously. Accolades were heaped on John Ware. The Royal Television Society elected him an Honorary Fellow and gave him his second Current Affairs Home Award for his work on Brent.(11) Within days he was trying to debunk the claims of Colin Wallace.(12)

Ware on Hackney

In May 1995 Ware rode into action again against Labour-run local government in London, fronting a documentary ‘A Black and White Story’, about Hackney council sacking its Director of Housing, Bernard Crofton. Crofton had been dismissed for continued discrimination and harassment (on racial grounds) of the council’s most senior black employee, Sam Yeboah. Ware’s programme, though, banged on about Crofton exposing a huge West African corruption ring against which Hackney would take no action. Again it was all terribly confusing and contradictory. Re:’corruption’, Ware admitted, ‘….Hackney continues to tackle this problem….’; and he finally settled for a lame and unsubstantiated, ‘In Hackney, the pendulum of political correctness has swung too far….’

It was a great programme – considering that Ware apparently carried out no independent research before fronting it.(13) Hackney had, for instance, disciplined and sacked more black staff than any other comparable borough. How then could ‘the pendulum of political correctness have swung too far’? Instead Ware recycled Crofton’s claims, including, laughably, that the Commission for Racial Equality had ‘given approval’ for Crofton to ‘seize the personnel files of all recent employees’!

Ware’s effect in Hackney? Similar to that in Brent — Labour ousted and the continuing chaos of a ‘hung’ council. This time, though, there was a comeback. Yeboah took Crofton to an Industrial Tribunal. It was the longest case of its type in British legal history.(14) Crofton lost. Yeboah won record damages. Yeboah then sued the BBC because of Ware’s programme. The BBC immediately settled, paying Yeboah substantial damages.

Of late Blair and some of his team have been making anxious noises about Labour not getting a good press from the UK media. Up until 1992, of course, Labour had a whole package of reforms and changes contemplated for the press and broadcasting — based on the view that whilst we must have a free press, it should be operate within the same framework as other comparable countries, it should not be owned by a few tycoons, it should be accountable to and regulated by a public body (rather than self regulating) …. and that the laws of libel should be rejigged. Then came New Labour, the wooing of the tabloids and the deals with Murdoch. There are currently no proposals from Labour to alter the workings of the UK media. Maybe Downing Street and Millbank should look back at Labour’s own history in government (particularly Wilson and Callaghan, let alone MacDonald and the ‘Zinoviev Letter’!) and the role of the press during this – including one Colin Wallace – for a clue as to how to move forward and deal with our press and TV — and its many John Wares — in a balanced fashion.

Notes

1. In 1993 Ware and Peter Taylor were asked to read a script for a proposed TV drama-documentary on the Wallace affair. They gave it the thumbs down and it was cancelled. See ‘BBC film on rogue MI5 man scrapped’, The Observer 12 December 1993, which stated, ‘Both [Ware and Taylor] are known to have reservations about Wallace’s claims of an alleged MI5 cover-up of child abuse at the Kincora boys’ home in Belfast and details of the intelligence operation, Clockwork Orange.’
2. That Wallace was a ‘Walter Mitty’ figure was one of the lines put out by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) during Wallace’s trial in 1981 for murder.
   A piece in Private Eye 10 June 1987, presumably by Paul Foot, said, ‘Panorama reporter John Ware argued strongly that Wallace should not be believed. As one of the reporters in Northern Ireland in the 1970s Ware had himself been hoodwinked by Wallace.’ I asked Ware about this in en e-mail but he declined to answer. See below.
3. By this time The Press Council had found in Wallace’s favour over The Independent smear. See Guardian and Independent 9 March 1990.
4. Parachuting is controlled by the BPA, jumpers logging each jump with them. As the jumpers gets more proficient their license changes. ‘D’ is advanced level.
5. And a great deal else besides, in almost a complete page devoted to Wallace.
6. The crushing judgement was Derbyshire County Council vs Times Newspapers (1993). Private companies and multinationals can, of course, sue for libel — see John Vidal’s McLibel for a good account of the longest trial of its type in UK legal history.
7. The Times 22 October 1999 carried an article saying that Thatcher herself supervised this, especially with regard to the GLC.
8. Labour had its best ever local election results in Brent in 1986, winning 43 out of 66 seats on the council. It seems reasonable to assume this was seen as a threat by the Tories.
9. I.e there were reasonable arguments that could have been put that were neither sought nor broadcast. Letter from the BBC to Councillor Snow 12 May 1987.
10. The Spectator 2 April 1987.
11. His first was for a programme on Gerry Adams at the time of the ’83 general election.
12. See Paul Foot, Who Framed Colin Wallace, pp.377-9 and 381-4. Foot also remarks on Ware’s tendency to carry out lengthy preliminary research.
13. Information from the chief press officer of Hackney Council at the time to the author.
14. Anyone who doubts the credibility of this account should note that Yeboah (whose case was funded by the CRE) was represented by the same barrister who handled part of the Stephen Lawrence enquiry.