If my loyal followers have had only half the pleasure in reading it as I have had in writing it, then I will consider that a very great success indeed. I really can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed the privilege of being an ECHO columnist all these years – I started in November 1993 but it feels like yesterday.
Whilst I chose to pursue a legal path for my long and happy career, I have had a lifelong interest in journalism. It was something I was seriously thinking of devoting my life to, but my father had other ideas! I’m happy, though, to be able to reflect that I got there in the end – although I didn’t actually make my debut as an ECHO columnist until I was 68 years old. But, as somebody once said: “Je ne regrette rien”.
Ten years after I was given my ECHO column, I was kindly granted the freedom of the city – pretty impressive accolades, I think, for a Birkonian, who spent the first three years of his life “over the water”. Just as I was a radical lawyer, I like to think I was a radical columnist. I do know there will be several prominent figures in the city – and some who are not as prominent as they might like to think – who will be glad to see the back of me. If that is indeed the case, I would like to think it means I did my job well! I hate injustice, and I also hate pomposity and pretension – and hopefully I’ve pleased the vast majority of readers by pricking a few of the bubbles blown by the pompous and pretentious these past 20 years and more.
Newspapers like the ECHO are vital in holding public bodies and public officials to account and must never shirk from highlighting their failings. As I have said before, my wife, Shirley, has been fond of telling me my column was all about mischief. But I have always disagreed, telling her it’s only PARTLY about mischief – I did also hope to inform and amuse readers! You hear a lot when you keep your ear close to the ground – and some of it, sadly, I wasn’t able to put in the paper for legal reasons. But, be assured of this – it would have made your hair curl.
Liverpool is a small city – it sometimes has the feel of a village – and news and gossip travel fast. Much of it, thanks to my loyal band of contacts, made its way to me – and then into the pages of the ECHO. I always got enormous pleasure from crafting my weekly words and then seeing them in print. Minutes after publication, my phone would often be red hot – with the callers ranging from readers I had delighted to targets I had derided. Please don’t misunderstand – I wrote with the best of intentions. If I held people up to account – or event ridicule – it was because, I felt, it was justly deserved. There was never malice aforethought. Life is too short to hold grudges and indulge in petty squabbling, but, if a high-ranking individual abused his or her position in some way, it was only right he or she should be taken to task. There are many I have dismissed in print, but let’s not dwell on them here. They have had their day.
Some readers may have seen me as someone who was only interested in knocking people of their perches. That was not true – and, indeed, I was always happy to praise those who are more than worthy of their exalted positions, while I have always championed Liverpudlians in general. They are in a class of their own – good humoured, friendly, helpful and endearing in so many ways.
Quite simply, I have always loved Liverpool and its people. There is no city like it and there are no people like Liverpool people. I can only hope that I have given a great many of them something of value during my many years as an ECHO columnist, whether that be amusement, information, food for thought… or plain old mischief! I would like to think they will miss my weekly column – I know I will most definitely miss writing for them.
I’ve had a ball – thank you so much for reading.