inbox


now – that’s so pre-Referendum – but surely someone knows the position. The Foreign Office said the figures


were a Treasury matter. The Treasury ignored my request for a week until I copied in my MP. So, next time Chris gets a grilling, he


can point out that even officialdom doesn’t have official figures. I haven’t given up on it, though,


because I don’t want to retrain as an estate agent. John Phillips Life member Buxton


Newspaper journalists need to read their rivals I was astonished to see the complaint from your former Independent correspondent that reporters were actually expected to read other papers to know what was going on. Reading the rivals is surely one of the fundamental parts of a journalist’s job. Charles Lawrence London


Exaro may be gone but we want its work to carry on You reported on Exaro’s closure. With just five full-time equivalent journalists, the award-winning Exaro showed in our five years just how effective investigative journalism could be. However, it did not succeed


commercially. Exaro exposed the widespread


practice of senior civil servants working “off payroll”, enabling them to avoid tax. We teamed up with BBC2’s Newsnight on a series of stories that triggered an immediate Whitehall-wide review, and an order from the then chancellor to stamp out the practice. Exaro, working with Channel 4 News,


also exposed the secret recording in which Rupert Murdoch admitted to knowing that his newspaper journalists were bribing public officials. Exaro became best known for


revealing evidence of how MPs and other prominent men sexually abused children, and how police were persistently blocked from investigating them. Our reporting sparked a series of


police investigations – some overseen by the Independent Police Complaints Commission – and the setting up of the overarching inquiry into child sex abuse. However, those who are in positions of power are attempting to undermine


this critically important inquiry. Nonetheless, I – along with at least some of Exaro’s former team members – are determined that our success in holding power to account will continue in a new form. Mark Watts Former editor-in-Chief, Exaro


Hire a female columnist with commercial nous Am I the only journalist reader to have responded to Michelle Perry’s comment in the August/September issue about the industry practising what it preaches regarding women business columnists? Her comments about “unconscious bias” when it comes to recruiting female business commentators were spot on. It made me wonder: when are we going to see a columnist with commercial nous in The Journalist? It felt especially timely after reading


Raymond Snoddy’s piece about how print advertising amplifies a media campaign. What an opportunity for female journalists, for newspapers and magazines – and for the NUJ to put its money where its mouth is and lead the way on closing the gender pay gap! Who better than 45+ women (an age at which women journalists are routinely discarded) to cheer on the million plus female entrepreneurs Britain needs to get the economy innovating and growing again. Philippa Crawford Scarborough


Take notice of those of us working in books I feel like a stepchild in the union that I love and dedicate myself to being not mistreated but deprived of attention. I’m a member of Book Branch, which


seems to be an invisible entity among the union’s sectors. I joined the then Magazine and Book Branch in 1969, was a founder member of the Book Branch in 1975 and have served non- stop on the branch committee to this day – in my ninth decade of life. Yet I don’t see myself and my active


colleagues reflected in anything that is produced by the union’s head office, The Journalist or quoted speakers. I wonder, dear editor, if your appeal to “busy working journalists” is even meant to include members in book publishing. Please notice us! The branch is vocal at delegate


meetings, responds to requests for special action from Headland House, and keeps going against the current challenge of complacency. Hello, comrades!


Mitzi Bales Book branch


We always welcome ideas and contributions. If anyone feels there is something of interest that we are missing, then please flag up those stories and events that we are not aware of. Christine Buckley Editor


Bring back Chief Sub and the grammar debates Once upon a time The Journalist had a regular column that discussed aspects of the correct usage of our language. Hands up if you remember it. Keep them up if you benefited from it – my hand is still in the air. Language is of course a living thing.


New words are constantly being born. When I began my career in 1947, the correct way to spell today was to-day. For many years alright had to be written as two words. There were, and still are, all manner of problem words and phrases. The difference between disinterested and uninterested, may and might, who and whom. Can you correctly centre around


rather than centre upon? When should sex or gender be the appropriate word and when “less than” rather than “fewer than” should be used. Hanged or hung? “Try and” or “try to”. The list goes on. As far as I can remember, your


columnist did not merely lecture, s/he debated with readers some of whom insisted on pursuing something a teacher had told them years ago. It was a useful feature. Can we have it back, please? Peter Williams Life Member


There are no plans for Chief Sub to return although, if there is enough demand for items on grammar, I will consider running something. Christine Buckley


The words on monitoring managed to go missing I realise you are reporting the latest cuts to hit benighted BBC Monitoring but did you really have join BBC management in cutting the words of


our stalwart FoC Stuart Seaman? “The world is an increasingly difficult


place and we need to not only know what is happening but also make ...“ is how the quote and the piece end. I looked everywhere for “cont p94” but, alas, no.


I happen to know Stuart is a fine baker and a tea connoisseur, but I’m sure he did not say “make tea and cakes”. Can we please have the full article in


your next issue. Arash Dabestani Ex-FoC, BBC Monitoring, Caversham


Sorry about that, it was an accident that Stuart was cut off in his prime. The missing words were: “sense of it as well”. Christine Buckley


Should we pay volunteers from NUJ branch funds? The struggling freelance is these days grateful for any event or training that offers the prospect of generating extra income. The problem I have with an event planned by London Freelance Branch is the way its members have been asked to underwrite costs and pay loss of earnings to the organisers. The July meeting of London Freelance


Branch was asked to underwrite the cost of the next freelance salon to a maximum of £2,050, though it was stressed there would be a charge to attend and it was not envisaged all the money would be spent. Within the £2,050 costings was


£700 that would be paid to branch committee members who would be paid £50 a day for loss of earnings for their time spent preparing and organising the salon. The proposal was carried.


But I find the plan to pay for loss of earnings worrying, partly because a motion to pay branch members loss of earnings had been withdrawn at an earlier meeting in the year and the proposer had promised to set out his case in the Freelance. Should branch funds be used to pay


committee members who are elected as volunteers? If the committee is to embark on paid work (I know it is only £50 a day, but it could reach £700 in total), shouldn’t there be a system for distributing the work that is open to scrutiny? Geraldine Hackett London Freelance branch


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