Allan Prosser, editor of The Northern Echo from 1982 until 1989, tells of the nationally important Darlington by-election of 1983 and reveals the secret of the terrible twatting that did for ‘The White Fox of Weardale’.

IN ATTACKING the Devil, his polymathic history of 130 years of The Northern Echo, Chris Lloyd posed the question 'why'?

Why was a small market town on the border of County Durham and Yorkshire able to sustain such an influential newspaper for more than a century?

Why did the newspaper survive?

Why was it able to be more than the sum of its parts?

The Northern Echo: Allan Prosser, editor of The Northern Echo, 1982-89, editing the paper from WT Stead's chairAllan Prosser, editor of The Northern Echo, 1982-89, editing the paper from WT Stead's chair

For the newspaper’s 150th anniversary, Chris Lloyd asked former editors, such as myself, for their recollections of Priestgate.

I had two spells here – seven years as editor in the 1980s – and two, much less happy, years as managing director when I discovered we were playing with a marked deck of cards. But more of that later in a story which is today being told publicly for the first time.

The commission is timely because this week, at the start of 2020, I retire, if anyone can ever be said to retire, from full-time journalism after 50 years. My last job was as editor of the Irish Examiner, a six-day national morning newspaper in the Republic of Ireland.

From the fine city of Cork it is the only Irish morning based outside Dublin. From that perspective alone it reminds me of The Northern Echo in that its views, copy tasting and judgements can be an important balance to the sense of entitlement which sometimes runs through a metropolitan elite. For London read Dublin.

The Northern Echo: Allan Prosser interviewed for the Make It In Business TV programme in 1984Allan Prosser interviewed for the Make It In Business TV programme in 1984

Like The Northern Echo it has a history of financial struggle, particularly since the end of the Celtic Tiger in 2009-10. And like The Northern Echo, it was sold to another publisher and now appears to be fighting back to re-establish its position and reputation. In the traditions of The Northern Echo, it is also in the vanguard of technological change.

Cork is the only place I have lived professionally for longer than I spent in the North of England – 16 years against nine. And barely a day goes by without memories crowding in from here, driven by one event or another.

Just three weeks ago, following the death of the influential Hamsterley naturalist David Bellamy, a regular subject of our columns in the 1980s, I remembered a running feature which had gained traction with our readers. Its focus was an extremely rare 'white' fox which had been adopted for study by Bellamy and other scientists. The den was a strictly guarded secret. Regular reports were issued, via The Northern Echo, to an eager world. We awaited the first photoshoot. We recognised 'The White Fox of Weardale' for what it was – a popular story with readers which (from our perspective) was both cost-effective (ie cheap) to cover and which could help reinforce our eco-credentials.

Then a terrible thing happened. The 'White Fox of Weardale' disappeared. Speculation mounted over successive days. Had the animal been kidnapped for a rare breeds collector, a kind of vulpine Ernst Stavro Blofeld? A fresh array of headlines swam before our eyes

Then one evening a senior newsdesk member sidled into the office, looking uncomfortable and shifting his weight from foot to foot.

“You know our white fox?” he said.

I nodded enthusiastically.

“I think one of our newspaper delivery drivers killed it. He told me that he had ‘twatted’ something fitting its description on the road from Stanhope. Should we do a story?”

There are times when the world is not ready for the truth, and here was an opportunity to pass a life lesson on to someone who was clearly destined for the editorship.

“I am sorry, I didn’t hear what you said,” I answered.

Good reporters are persistent: “Should we do a story saying that The Northern Echo killed The White Fox of Weardale?”

Time to move on. “I am sorry, I didn’t catch that either. And now I have a meeting with the Lord Lieutenant.”

I am glad that the burden can now be shared.

The Northern Echo: MARCHING ON DARLINGTON: The Shildon protest in Tubwell Row, with High Row behind, on March 13, 1983. Derek Foster MP leads the way with, on his right, the Labour candidate in the forthcoming Darlington by-election, Ossie O'Brien.MARCHING ON DARLINGTON: The Shildon protest in Tubwell Row, with High Row behind, on March 13, 1983. Derek Foster MP leads the way with, on his right, the Labour candidate in the forthcoming Darlington by-election, Ossie O'Brien.

I thought of Priestgate again on December 13 when news of a profound Labour defeat in the General Election emerged. My mind went back more than 36 years to March 24, 1983.

Michael Foot led Labour, which had been heavily beaten just a month earlier in an unpleasant campaign in Bermondsey where they fielded hard left and gay candidate Peter Tatchell. Tatchell lost the seat to Simon Hughes of the Liberal Democrats in the biggest ever by-election swing in English history (minus 37.5 per cent).

Darlington’s long-time sitting Tribunite MP, Ted Fletcher, died in the second week of February and the poll was seen as a vote of confidence in the Labour leadership and a test for the newly-emergent Social Democrat Party.

Labour fielded Oswald 'Ossie' O’Brien, a genial, decent and hard-working local party member with impressive credentials in the field of education. Against him stood young Tory thruster and career politician Michael (now Sir Michael) Fallon.

The Northern Echo: The 1983 Darlington by-election featured Michael Fallon (Con), Tony Cook (SDP) and Ossie O'Brien (Lab)The 1983 Darlington by-election featured Michael Fallon (Con), Tony Cook (SDP) and Ossie O'Brien (Lab)

The Evening Despatch banged the drum vigorously for Ossie.

The Northern Echo took the view that a hard-left Labour General Election campaign fronted by a pliant Michael Foot would be a disaster for the country and the region. Darlington was an opportunity to sound the tocsin in favour of change.

And so it proved.

The SDP vote collapsed in Darlington. Ossie O’Brien won (becoming one of the shortest-serving MPs ever). Michael Foot presided over an election manifesto famously described as the “longest suicide note in history” and the Conservatives gained an overall majority of 144 in May 1983, a power base which would lead to the destructive clash with the miners less than one year later.

The Northern Echo: Allan Prosser, editor of The Northern Echo, 1982-89 Allan Prosser, editor of The Northern Echo, 1982-89

All was recalled when I saw Boris Johnson cavorting in Sedgefield recently, beneficiary of another maladroit campaign by out-of-touch London-centric strategists. It was Marx (Karl, not Groucho) who said: “History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.”

I thought of Darlington also with the death last month of Sir Frank Barlow, one-time boss of Westminster Press which owned The Northern Echo before it moved to Newsquest and subsequently its parent American company, Gannett.

Barlow had been in charge of WP during the acrimonious closed shop strike at Darlington in 1977 before moving to Pearson and the Financial Times and overseeing its restructuring during the 1980s and early 1990s. He signed off on my appointment both as editor of The Northern Echo in 1982 and my return as managing director at York and Darlington in 1993.

It became clear that the group and its newspapers were being hurriedly, too hurriedly, fattened for sale during 1994 and I had little appetite for the negative impact I believed this would have on readers, staff and circulation. It became clear that it would be best to leave, which I did.

But that is not the end of this account.

A group of us approached venture capitalists who thought Westminster Press (and The Northern Echo) was an interesting proposition and we put together a concert party to bid for it. Perhaps this was in the tradition of Charles Starmer’s 1902 corporate rescue package, but with a less happy ending.

I attended all the meetings, including the final negotiating session in 1996, but stayed in the shadows and the anterooms.

Long story short is that we raised £303m to buy the group while the Newsquest bid was £305m. We could have bid more (Pearson’s original price tag was £350m) but our information was that 'non-institutional purchasers' would have to pay a premium. And we baulked at that.

I don’t think this story has been told until today. Whether we would we have been better or worse owners I cannot say. I think we would have done things differently.

The future now looks tough. The world has been changed by the influence and avarice of global tech companies whose impact can be seen in the decline of the high street, the old mainstream media and in the democratic process. Social media has produced a clamorous, hysterical and often unpleasant public discourse.

The Northern Echo: Former Bishop of Durham, David Jenkins reflects on the Miners' Strike, 25 years onFormer Bishop of Durham, David Jenkins reflects on the Miners' Strike, 25 years on

My period in Darlington coincided with the ministry of the often-misunderstood David Jenkins as Bishop of Durham and I recall him teasing me during a debate once by saying that “all technology is the Devil’s work.”

I used to scoff at that. Now I am not so sure. It may be that there is more than one way of “attacking the Devil.”

I hope The Northern Echo will be able to celebrate a 175th anniversary. The question Chris Lloyd might be posing within ten years will be not 'why' but 'how'?