In praise of Paul Dacre

Eamon de Valera used to say that if he wanted to know the true feelings of the people of Ireland he needed only to look into his own heart. You could say the same about Paul Dacre, shortly to step down as editor of the Daily Mail. When it comes to the sentiments of Middle England, or at least quite a bit of it, he knows what it loves and fears because those are his own sentiments. He doesn’t second guess his readers; he is properly authentic.

I knew him from his brief, two year stint at the Evening Standard, and he was the best editor I have ever worked for, and I say as much even though I got my only ever written warning from him (deservedly). He knew exactly what he wanted and he was clear about how to get it. And he had both a sense of humour and a sense of self-preservation – while he would never have described himself as an intellectual, he was wary of being bamboozled by those who professed to be.