Down, Jenkins
THE PRESS BILL GRUNDY
I remember once being driven through London by Mr Clive Jenkins in his open-topped sports car, prior to drinking lunch-time champagne in a well-known wine shop. On another occa- sion I took tea with him at his former head- quarters in Homerton High Street. certainly the oldest trade union offices in the world and probably the only one to be scheduled as a Historic Monument. We drank the elegant in- fusion from the thinnest of china in a room clad in linenfold panelling. and gazed at the mulberry tree in the courtyard. planted, so they tell me, by Sir John Sutton to celebrate the" defeat of the Armada. And finally. I once had Mr Jenkins's house pointed out to me by a peer of the realm as we sailed along the Regent's Canal in a motorised punt steered by his lordship.
I tell you these tales. which is strictly true/ Merely by way of convincing you/How very greatly. since Clive was made--Things 'as altered in the union trade. And I also tell you them to show you how well in I am with Clive, cariad bath. I will tell you something else. Unlike most of his fellow unionists, I am fond of Mr Jenkins. 1 have good reason to be. As one who has slept man and boy through most of Lord Collison's interminable drones at the TUC, nothing refreshes my spirits, more than the sight of Mr Jenkins striding to the rostrum, papers organised, hair shining, glasses glittering, brain brilliant, and his whole feline demeanour suggesting that the cat has not only consumed the cream but is now about to collar the canary.
I was therefore intrigued when I read in the 'Miscellany' column of the Guardian that Mr Jenkins was to replace Mr George Gale as the Mirror's regular columnist. 'Miscellany' was, as usual, slightly wrong. They, corrected themselves a day or two later, telling us that Mr Jenkins was, in fact, to do a weekly column to balance Mr Woodrow Wyatt (there's one of the labours of Hercules for you).
But now, alas, as we all know, Mr Jenkins is not to write a weekly column. His fellow trade unionists, the members of the Nur chapel at the Mirror, won't let him. Their reasons, in so far as they have any, are that Mr Jenkins is not a member of the NW. Simple, you say. Let Mr Jenkins join the NUJ. Silly old you. The NW won't let him. Their reasons, in so far as they have any, are that Mr Jenkins isn't a journalist.
He isn't, isn't he? He has to my- certain knowledge written five books and has another two on the way. He has written a regular column for Tribune, and has contributed to almost any paper you can name. For years he has edited his union's journal, and appears to write most of it as well. His output of words per week would therefore pUt most members of the NUJ to shame.
But Mr Jenkins is not a bona-fide journalist, say the devout members of the Mirror chapel. He will therefore not write his weekly column. The fact that Mr Jenkins can put the point of view of the Ntm on such issues as In Place of Strife far better than most NUJ men matters not at all. It is a matter of principle, says the union. But, as the Mirror's editor, Mr L. A. .Lee Howard, pointed out, 'there is another im-
• portant principle' involved—the editor's free- dom to select the material which goes into the paper from the best available sources.'
Mr L. A. Lee Howard is surely right. He was backed up by the Times on Tuesday morning; in a leader which said: 'The refusal of members of the National Union of Journalists . . . to handle the column written by Mr Clive Jenkins, the colourful and loqua- cious'—they can say that again—grade union leader, is defending the position of journalists in only the narrowest sense. It is not . . . an extension of journalistic independence but a limitation of the right to publish.'
I can only agree with Mr Rees-Mogg. Journalism has undoubtedly benefited times without number from the contributions of what the NUJ would call `non-journalists.' For the NUJ to black Mr Jenkins's copy is 'narrow- 'minded in the extreme. No NW member is being put out of work by Mr Jenkins, simply because no NW member could do what Mr Jenkins can do, if only because they are not Mr Jenkins. It is Mr Jenkins as trade union activist the Mirror is hiring, Mr Jenkins as leader of the anti-White Paper brigade, Mr Jenkins as Mr Jenkins. And no member of the NUJ can be as successful at being Mr Jen- kins as Mr Jenkins is.
So what the NUJ should do no is clear. Either stop blacking Mr Jenkins's column or let him join the union. He is, of courseerready to do so. With characteristic humility, 'eyes downcast and hands clasped meekly in front of him, Mr Jenkins remarked, 'If it is now found that I am eligible to join the National Union of Journalists I shall be glad to do so if the chaps would like that.'
But suppose the chaps don't like it? What then? Do not despair. All is not lost. I have found a way out for Mr Jenkins. If he looks at page 424 of the SPECTATOR for 28 March he will see there a display advertisement in- serted by the Society of Graphical and Allied. Trades. As I read it, it says quite clearly that: Mr Jenkins could join that union if he wishes to do so. And if he did, would the NW still black his copy? And if they did, would a dis- pute break out between SOGAT and the Nut? And if it did, in view of his success in settling the BOAC dispute, would they call in Mr Clive Jenkins as mediator? I'd dearly love to see it.
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