The Press
By RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL AT the end of last week the newspapers reported the elections to the Presi- dency of the Oxford and
Mr. Lysaght is also well connected and has an interesting family history. He is descended from James Lysaght, a supporter of the Jacobite cause, hence the new President's christian name. James's brother Nicholas commanded a troop of cavalry in. King William's army at the battle of the Boyne and was the father of the first Baron Lisle. Mr. Lysaght, whose home is just outside Dublin. is the first Irish President of the Cambridge Union for many years; his father is the Chief Medical• Commissioner for Ireland.
The trouble is that while Mr. Lysaght is tolerably well connected he does not have any handle to his name to furnish any snob-appeal
to the readers of the popular press. As for the readers of Sir William Haley's fivepenny Times, they are still in ignorance of this matter, unless, of course, they have the enterprise and money to buy another newspaper.
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Of course, those people with handles to their name who invite press publicity have only them- selves to blame if they get it. On the front page of the Sunday Express and the Sunday Telegraph there was a picture of Princess Margaretha of Sweden canoodling with her fiance, Mr. John Ambler. The Sunday Mirror showed three close- ups of the young couple's entwined hands. It is surprising that two such well brought up people did not conduct themselves with more decorum in public. They can now hardly raise any objec- tion if press photographers and TV cameras go with them on their honeymoon.
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It was agreeable to watch the exciting race for the Cheltenham Gold Cup on television from my hospital bed: it was agreeable too to back the winner. There were a number of good reports in the Sunday newspapers of the race. But by fan the best was that in the Sunday Telegraph by John Lawrence. He, it will be remembered, wrote that fine account of a Grand National as seen from the saddle of the horse which came second. The Sunday Telegraph is fortunate to have the services of an amateur rider who is such a fine professional 'journalist.
The Sunday Telegraph has also been following up the lead given by Mr. Ian Aitken in Saturday's Daily Express 'in investigating reports of unrest at the BBC. and of anxiety about the lack of authority exercised by the higher echelons of the Corporation. The paper's enterprise perhaps reflects the keenness of its editor, Mr. Donald McLachlan: he is one of the three journalists who are members of the BBC's General Advisory Council.
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Far and away the best account of what Mr. Harold Wilson did or did not say, and how the dispute about it arose, appeared as an unsigned piece in the Sunday Times. It was decisive: after reading it, there was nothing left to speculation. From the article's careful and sceptical style I judge it to be the work of Clive Irving, the Sun- day Times's new managing editor.
FOOTNOTE: Last summer a freelance photo- grapher named Bryn Campbell wrote an article in a magazine called Camera which said : 'The Observer probably publishes more fine photo- graphs than the rest of the national newspapers put together.' The Friday before last an adver- tisement for the Observer in several newspapers carried this quotation. A month ago Mr. Bryn Campbell became the picture editor of the Observer.
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