Prison union leader Colin Moses tells Farah Damji: 'New Labour sold me out'

Colin Moses

The New Statesman's guest-hiring of (not quite) socialite-socialist Jemima Khan has sparked quite a fashion in serious periodical-land.

Tribune - the leftie mag I thought had expired yonks ago - has importuned another (not quite) socialite-socialist (ret'd) to take over where the marketing budget left off. Step forward Farah Damji whose work occupies the centre pages of the latest issue - an interview with the outgoing National Chairman of the Prison Officers' Association (POA), Colin Moses; described as the 'only the second black UK Trade Union leader.'

Moses is a vitriolic critic of the government's plan to turn our jails into privately run cash cows. But it is New Labour that comes in for his most caustic criticism: he blames the party for birthing the 'punishment for profit' policy. And in opposition, Labour still shows no interest in listening to the little people of the prison service, he claims.

'Sadiq Khan, [Labour's] Shadow Justice Minister, does not take on board the views of the working man on the front line,' Damji paraphrases. '[Moses] voted for Ed Miliband but dismisses his New Labour inner circle; and says the party in opposition is suffering from an identity crisis.'

Moses feels 'sold out by New Labour, who fully supported every court action against the POA regarding the lawfulness of their members to strike.' Ironically, 'he enjoys a better relationship with the ConDems - “They are good to me," he says. "I have set out my stall and we know where we stand.” John McDonald is cited as an example of an honest player.'

Farah Damji

Damji continues: 'It’s not only Tony Blair and John Reid who come under fire for selling out the public sector, [Moses] similarly storms at Jack Straw and John Prescott for opening 11 private prisons and reneging on election promises to the POA, a naturally conservative union, of allowing free strikes whilst wooing them for the Labour vote in 1997.'

Still, it's not all good news for the Tories. David Cameron is dismissed for lacking 'gravitas'.

From May, Moses will have more time to spend on his memoirs. And I understand Farah Damji, whose own prison experiences could be invaluable as a form of method-writing, will be his co-author.

Sadly, Moses' interview is not online. But here's Tribune's link anyway.

Jon Snow gets married ... to Precious!

It's not my normal practice to comment on newspaper diary stories. But rules are meant to be broken. So I offer my congratulations to C4 news anchor Jon Snow on his marriage, as reported by Richard Kay in the Mail today. His wife is called Precious, a name that may ring alarm bells in some. But fear not. This one is Dr Precious Lunga, 35, a Cambridge scholar 27 years his junior.

Those with a memory (long or short) will recall that another Precious once claimed to be part of Mr Snow's life. Alas, this proved not to be the case.

Still, perhaps we'll learn more when this gets published on August 2. Or perhaps not.

Precious Williams' movie ... and a white male lover ...

Madame Arcati has obtained more information on the entrancing Precious Williams' Nollywood movie. I learn it's based on an idea a lot of the Nigerian elders hold - that if a Nigerian woman gives her heart to a white English man he will ultimately disown and disgrace her. I hope that this thought does not resonate too much with a certain news broadcaster ...

Apparently, this is how Precious' elders back in her mother's village in Nigeria feel, sadly. The movie is about a British-born half-Nigerian woman who is very career-minded. The elders in Nigeria summon her back, supposedly to recite a story to her which will enable her to write a best-selling book. When the woman arrives in Nigeria though, she finds her elders have a wholly different agenda: they are disgusted at how Westernised she has become and want to prise her away from her independent lifestyle in Europe and to coax her into an arranged marriage with a 75-year-old local Chief.

I understand everyone becomes very hysterical and the costumes are very loud and fabulous. It sounds a wonderful movie-in-progress - and I suspect it's a touch biopic-cy.

Precious Williams goes to ... Nollywood

Such is Madame Arcati's prescience that I sometimes frighten myself. A little while ago I foresaw for the talented, truthful and beautiful writer Precious Williams a career in movies. Now a spy in Nigeria gets in touch to tell me that Precious is about to make it big in ... Nollywood!

Yes, Nollywood. What do you mean that's a typo? Nollywood is the Nigerian version of Hollywood or Bollywood. She will play the lead role in a Nigerian movie that she's writing at the moment. Precious and her producers can be assured that the moment they have something to show, it will be the star feature on Arcati's new Video Entertainment service which presently can be found in the top left hand corner of this site (I regret putting up Madonna's Hey You - what a load of crap).

I still foresee a Precious Williams biopic. Her horoscopic chart is an essay of life's strange twists and turns, and one that touches celebrity in lots of different ways - perfect for an incident-rich movie. But first, Nigeria!

Independent on Sunday: Arcati plots

From The Spectator in the Independent on Sunday for today:

"When the 'Mail on Sunday' ran an erroneous story alleging an affair between Channel 4 News's Jon Snow and writer Precious Williams, Madame Arcati, the mysterious media and celebrity blog, became a hotbed for gossip. Until, that is, Snow's lawyers called time on the allegations. Now comes news that somebody has been trying to unmask Mme Arcati. She writes: "I know one newspaper at least which paid an intermediary to obtain a blogger's identity by illegal means, and I know that this person is probing Arcati."She also reports that AOL told her of attempts to access her email with the wrong password. We accept the denial by the 'MoS' of any involvement. So speculation must turn to other media groups."

Precious Williams: A Berlin encounter

A man enters a Berlin bar; he espies a beautiful woman called Precious Williams ... and decides to try his luck, for Queen and Madame Arcati ...

(The author of this piece - Kishan - has now left a comment)

Thought you might be interested to know that I bumped into none other than Precious Williams at the weekend, in a charming little vodka bar [in Berlin] where they claim to serve 42 flavous of vodka.

Of course I grilled her about Jon Snow and her newfound infamy.

Did you make it up? I asked. Did the Mail on Sunday make it all up? Is Jon Snow making stuff up?

Precious rolled her eyes at me and said: "Are you sure you don't have anything a little more interesting to talk about?"

I said: "I'm just curious, that's all. Can I buy you a drink?"

She said: No.

Later she actually bought me a drink. Some sort of Cosmo made with freshly blended imported Russian berries that she raved about.

I talked to her for about three-quarters of an hour. My motivation in hanging around was two-fold: I wanted to find out what really happened (if anything) between her and Snow and to be frank I also wanted to see if I could pull her.

I found her quite hot in real life and quite fancied her: a lot prettier than the pictures of her in the paper. Perhaps most importantly, she was wearing a skirt (or dress) so short that at one point I briefly saw her knickers (they were purple). Two very long caramel brown legs were displayed to their full advantage. I don't know about Jon Snow, but I wouldn't kick that out of bed.

All I could get out of her on the Jon Snow business was the following:

"I fucking despair of the fucking state of British newspapers. Don't they have anything meaningful to write about?"

We talked about all the non-important stories the papers print these days.

She said, "I spent nearly ten years poking my nose in other people's private lives and writing about it. Even when a PR banned me from asking an interviewee questions about his sex life, I'd still ask, because my editors made me. I was involved in a tabloid interview once with Max Beesley where we promised him copy approval and then totally reneged on our contract. What goes around comes around for sure. I'm seeing that."

I asked her if she'd ever had an affair with an A-list celebrity as opposed to the rather C-list Snow.

"Yes," she said. "But my mouth is zipped about it."

I asked: Was it with somebody you interviewed?

"It was. I used to have his poster on my wall when I was a teenager. He's a rapper. That's all you're getting from me."

I asked: Is it true you have a book deal for a memoir about you and Snow?

She quipped, "Were you sent to talk to me by the Mail on Sunday or something?"

I asked: Are you familiar with Madame Arcati?

"Oh my God!" she screamed. "You're not Madame Arcati are you? Prove you're not her!"

She looked genuinely afraid.

"If you are Arcati," she said (she pronounced it Arr-Catty. Is that correct pronunciation?), "please, please stop writing about me. I'm just an ordinary person trying to mind my own business."

Sadly despite our fairly lengthy and at times flirty chat, I couldn't get Precious to fuck me or even give me her phone number. Possibly because she was in the company of a handsome but menacing-looking Russian chap who said very little but made it clear with his facial expressions that he'd break my legs if I didn't back off.

However, Precious did buy me the aforementioned fancy drink which cost 9 euros.

"Even if you are Madame Arcati", she said as she left the bar, "I hope you have a really nice time in Berlin."

Arcati is pronounced "Ah-car-tee

Time Out: 'Madame Arcati is our website of the week'

An anonymous person informs me that Time Out magazine has paid tribute to Madame Arcati with its "website of the week" accolade, in terms that meet with my approval ... I reprint on trust ...

"Madame Arcati (named after the eccentric medium in Noel Coward's 'Blithe Spirit') calls herself a 'showbiz and media clairvoyante'. The tone of her notably - some might say revealingly - witty and well-written blog recalls pop gossip newsletter Popbitch, but the thrust of her revelations is generally literary. She was first with the news of the sobbing and wine-throwing that ensued when Indie hack John Walsh made the fatal error of inviting both his long-term partner and his mistress to the launch of his first novel.

"An attentive observer of the baffling Jon Snow/Precious Williams non-affair, she currently has her knife stuck into Diana's latest biographer, Tina Brown: 'She has a reputation for a modish, magpie use of shiny word-finds, as if the employment of the latest now-word or phrase shifts her into the symphonic moment ... ' Me-oww!"

Precious & Jon Part Deux: Use your brains, people

Arising from the febrile and many comments from the first Precious & Jon:

Interesting how people don't read carefully ... poor saps.

At no stage have I claimed that Precious Williams has made up her relationship with Jon Snow.

What I said is that she has to date failed to prove it. Whether she proves it is another question. Anyone can claim to be an "MoS insider" - welcome to Hoaxers' Paradise.

And as for Mr Curious ... read Mr Spurious.

Now, carry on with the show ...

Precious & Jon: I give up (for now)

Some of you doubtless will be relieved to learn that I have given up on Precious Williams (for now).

Attempts to find any tangible evidence for her claim that she had a relationship with Jon Snow have come to nothing. Emails have passed between us, some of my questions have been ignored, and now she tells me that she can’t trust anyone to report her words accurately. This is a very odd thing to say when one considers that she’s a highly experienced and gifted journalist – one would think she has a voice of her own. And Arcati made itself available to her if actual evidence - as opposed to fervent claims - was furnished.

Recently someone made another claim to me: that Precious Williams and Jon Snow met at a London hotel last week. Some details were outlined, but no tangible evidence was sent. My presumption was (and is) that this was yet another hoax. I emailed Precious with the question: Did you meet with Snow at a London hotel last week? In her reply she ignored the question and simply stated that she had been in London last week and attended a number of meetings before returning to Germany where she currently lives. She did not mention Snow. Why would she reply in this fashion? Why not simply deny it if she had not met him?

I then emailed Jon Snow and asked him: Did you meet with Precious Williams at a London hotel last week? He replied by email: “Madame, so far as I am able to tell, I have never met her and had no awareness of her existence, I think that has been made clear in the reporting thus far and has been accepted by the MOS, best wishes, JS”.

I am probably not alone in thinking this a very oddly worded response, and its meaning lies in an implication. He is not aware of her existence (so presumably he could not have met her in a hotel last week); his formula “so far as I can tell” carries another implication: that his unawareness of her existence is contingent on an ability to tell. I don’t know why he didn’t just say categorically: “I did not meet this woman at a London hotel last week”.

However, his response is in effect a denial and one that must be accepted in the absence of supporting evidence. Jon Snow "does not know a lady called Precious Williams", as his lawyer has asserted.

Now, back to Precious. Yesterday I asked by email again whether she had met Snow at the London hotel. In one of her replies she stated that she did not know what I was talking about and asked me to explain. This in itself was a curious response - could she have forgotten so soon this business of the hotel? So I asked the question again. This time she told me that she could not trust anyone to report her accurately.

I shall not speculate on Precious’ state of mind, her credibility or motives in this bizarre saga except to say that she assured me that she had evidence of this relationship, that a broadsheet was examining it – and I’ve heard nothing since. And that’s where we are.

In the absence of this evidence one must tender sympathy to Jon Snow - and for other reasons, to Precious Williams.

Other Snow/Williams postings - read all about it!

Independent on Sunday note on Arcati/Williams/Snow

The Independent on Sunday's Spectator column for June 17 records the following on Precious Williams, Jon Snow and Madame Arcati:

"JON SNOW'S lawyers are keeping busy. Fresh from winning an outright retraction from The Mail on Sunday over erroneous claims of a relationship with Precious Williams, Snow has turned to cyberspace. Madame Arcati, self-styled media clairvoyant, has received a letter asking her to remove two "defamatory" articles from her blog. Matters won't have been helped by Ms Williams channelling her side of the story through Mme Arcati. Over at the MoS, more obfuscation over who was to blame. One name conspicuously absent is that of Peter Wright. Even in Monday's Media Guardian feature on Snow, the MoS editor did not make an appearance. MoS Kremlinologists are wondering who spoke to The Guardian."

The story continues ... a report of a meeting last week in a London hotel reaches my ears involving certain individuals not unconnected to the saga ... I refuse to say more for the moment. The truth will out.

Precious Williams and 'vicious rumours'

Someone called "Simon Kelner's Nemesis" - Kelner is the bunny-eating editor of the Independent [click here] - has sent two items on Precious Williams:

1
There has been some talk here (generated by Nick Pyke no doubt) of the Sindy "declining to renew Williams's contract" back when she worked for them. All bullshit. I worked with Williams in 2000 and I know for a fact that she left the Sindy of her own volition before her contract was even up for renewal. I'm sure a call to Sindy HR would confirm this.

Although I enjoyed working with Williams I actually encouraged her to leave, because she was being treated like shit at the paper. I am one of a handful of ex-Sindy staff (of course the Sindy no longer really has staff, we're all exes) who have recently heard from Williams out of the blue asking precisely what Nick Pyke's problem is and how long he has been spreading stories about her. At first I thought she was being paranoid but now I am seeing where she was coming from with her questions. Williams has always seemed a very nice girl, if slightly wild on the drugs and dress sense front. Have always considered her quite fetching to look at.

2
I've asked around, because I am curious. Williams has (according to cuts and general gossip) written for the FT, the Telegraph, the Times, Sunday Times, the Express, the Mail on Sunday, the Mirror, the Sunday Mirror, the Guardian, the Indie, the Sindy, the Big Issue and "most women's magazines".

I couldn't find a single account of anyone trying to sue any of those publications over features written by Williams. I heard of a complaint where an interview[ee] didn't like what had been written about him and complained that Williams "had seemed such a sweet girl". I heard of another complaint from a celebrity who claimed Williams had embellished his quotes but then promptly withdrew his complaint when he remembered that the interview had been taped. Nothing else concrete. Weird how rumours spread, isn't it?

This reminds me of the vicious, hateful things I've heard said about the black 3Am girl, Eva Simpson. Although there are rumours flowing that Simpson is talentless, an air-head, embellishes stories and so on, in reality she is a hard-working, talented and unassuming lass. So's Williams in my experience.

Jon Snow threatens legal action against Arcati

Jon Snow's legal reps have written to Arcati demanding the removal of two "defamatory" items on this blog which arose from a report in the Mail on Sunday about his relationship with writer Precious Williams. Snow's solicitors claim he had no relationship with her - in fact they say that Snow does not know "any lady called Precious Williams." Snow's principal concern is to "protect his reputation".

As a gesture of good faith I have taken down the contentious articles they complain of but I shall continue to delve into this matter which makes little sense from beginning to end.

Precious Williams writes to Donald Trelford ...

Precious Williams has emailed to say the letter below is a hoax, but it does reflect her anger at Trelford's Independent piece. I'll keep this posting up for now; plainly mischief is afoot. Precious has written a substantial letter to me but I shall not put it up until or unless she gives me the go-ahead ...

Yet more astounding comments on the Jon Snow/Precious Williams fandango - some more credible than others it must be said. One in particular appears to be a letter from Precious Williams to Donald Trelford who wrote a plainly misrepresentative piece yesterday in the Indie (not the Guardian). Now, if this letter is a hoax, perhaps Precious could email me privately ...

donald.trelford@independent.co.uk
Subject: Indpendent article
Date: Jun 11, 2007 10:37 AM

Dear Mr Trelford

I was astounded by your piece in today's Guardian [it was in the Independent! - ed]. How ironic that a story purporting to be about the ways in which the Mail on Sunday got a story so wrong could itself be so incredibly wrong!

I spoke to Phil Hall this morning and he is adamant that you have taken everything he said out of context. Phil Hall is not and has never been my agent. How could you possibly write a balanced account without even attempting to contact me and ask for my account of events? You have presented "facts" about me that you have made no effort to confront me with. At best this is shoddy journalism but I think it goes further. I consider it libel and in not bothering to even confront me prior to publishing the piece, you appear to have had a very clear agenda.

Precious Williams

The next comment is plainly a hoax, but Donald Trelford is invited to email me privately if he wishes to say anything ...

Don Trelford said... I'm big enough to admit that I got yesterday's story in the Indy wrong. I was misled by several MoS sources, and Phil Hall kept changing his story.

Yeah, right ... and finally for now, an anon comment: it would be helpful to know where or to whom Hall's comments were made ...

Phil Hall is claiming that he never was Williams's agent and that they have a mutual friend in common and he was giving free advice only to Williams. According to Hall, Trelford has grossly misrepresented him and the embarrassment Hall talks about is embarrassment at how the MoS has acted only. Hall also allegedly commented that he's pissed off because Snow will likely not invite him onto Channel Four news again in the foreseeable future. Hall's claiming he did not broker a deal for Williams and that there in fact was no deal at all and that Williams sounded dangerously un-clued up in her phone conversation with him.....

Precious Williams makes a statement

Statement to Madame Arcati by Precious Williams

I can confirm that I am pursuing a defamation claim against the Mail on Sunday.

I can also confirm that the Mail on Sunday approached me regarding this story, and not vice versa. The paper approached me following tip-offs which their news editor claims he received from reliable sources. A reporter from the paper arrived out of the blue at my home in Berlin several days before the first of the articles ran. I did not agree to do an interview. The paper ran a story on me on 20th May regardless. No money exchanged hands.

The Mail on Sunday was forced to issue an apology to Jon Snow because the paper could not prove that Snow "smoked and inhaled" cannabis, as was claimed.

I am not a member of staff at the Mail on Sunday, nor have I ever been. The Mail on Sunday has published around 35 of my articles over the years, mainly lengthy interviews with celebrities. Legal action has never been brought against the paper by any of the subjects I have interviewed and the Mail on Sunday has never had to publish a retraction as a result of anything I have produced for them.

I am neither seeking publicity. While the Mail on Sunday is correct in saying that I have written a memoir, the book is about my childhood, does not feature Jon Snow and is not published until next year.